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Battlefield

Battlefield 6’s Movement Changes Are “Not Drastic,” Says Dev

by admin August 23, 2025

If you’ve been using the jump button a little too often in the Battlefield 6 beta, then you’re going to notice some changes upon launch. DICE has announced that there’s now a penalty for making consecutive jumps that lowers the jump height. Momentum carried from a slide into a jump has also been tweaked to reduce its speed. Nevertheless, Battlefield 6 principal game designer Florian “DRUNKKZ3” Le Bihan wants players to know that the movement changes “are not drastic.”

“Movement is also getting more responsive in general in places that have felt a bit clunky before. so there is a lot more that is getting quality improvements [and] polish in this same area,” wrote Le Bihan on X. “Adding diminishing returns to jumping is what we’re actually doing, an initial slide or an initial jumps will not be affected. We’re still trying to retain depth to movement with some skill curve to it, just making sure it doesn’t become insane.”

The Battlefield 6 devs also recently defended the changes to Rush mode in the beta, including smaller lobbies of 24 players for 12v12 matches. According to the programing team, Rush mode doesn’t work as well with more than 24 players at a time.

Another upcoming change change before for launch is the nerfing of the M87A1 shotgun, which was overpowered in the beta. Now, the shotgun will “[require] more pellets to secure a kill.”

According EA, the recent play test was the biggest beta in Battlefield’s history in terms of players. Research firm Oppenheimer estimated that the beta reached more than 20 million people.

Battlefield 6 launches on October 10 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.

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August 23, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Bunnyhop elsewhere, streamers: EA are making Battlefield 6 more strategic, less run-and-gun following the beta

by admin August 23, 2025

The Battlefield 6 beta is officially a Thing That Happened, and now comes the terrible ordeal of Learning From The Experience. Here is what developers DICE, Criterion, Motive and Ripple Effect have learned from the experience: you are all playing the game far too much like Call Of Duty. Goodness me, it’s like 2007 never ended.

Doing headshots in midair? That’s an updatin’. Doing a parkour while carrying a light machinegun? That’s an updatin’. Bunny-hopping with prejudice? You’d best believe that’s an updatin’. Never mind that those multiplayer reveal montages emphasised footloose quickdraw almost as much as they incited a murderous contempt for helicopters. It’s time to play Battlefield the way Battlefield should be played: lying in a hole praying that one of your team-mates spawns on you before a tank rolls over your head.

This, at least, is my addled Friday afternoon summary of EA’s just-announced post-beta plans, via Mecha-Hitler.com. Let’s squeeze into our thinking caps and break it all down.

Firstly, the developers are doing a “general pass on recoil and tap-fire characteristics across all weapons”, to make them feel more unique, especially in terms of range. They’re also making changes to encourage more controlled tap and burst-firing. In particular, the M87A1 shotgun has been defanged, and they’re “investigating the Time-to-Kill and Time-to-Death experiences”, with news of changes to follow.

As for movement, they want it to feel more “balanced and traditional” in the final version of Battlefield 6. There will be less carry-over of momentum and particularly horizontal speed from a slide to a jump. Jump height will also be lowered during consecutive jumps, and you’ll be less accurate while jumping or sliding.

“These changes are designed to make sliding and jumping more situational, so they are no longer ideal options for engaging in gunfights, and will contribute to a gameplay pace that rewards skillful movement without becoming too fast or unpredictable,” the devs comment. You won’t get as much acceleration when opening a parachute, either, “for more controlled aerial movement”. I hate being in control of my aerial movement. In practice, it just makes it easier for people on the ground to shoot me.

The game’s smaller maps are being tweaked to stop naughty people getting onto rooftops and venturing out of bounds. “This gameplay is not intended for these maps, and the upcoming ladder for the Assault class is also not designed to access these areas,” the devs sternly explain. Bad ladder! Down!

They’ll be testing two more maps in Battlefield Labs before release, a remake of Battlefield 3’s Operation Firestorm and another map set in Mirak Valley, both of which offer “the full complement of vehicles” and “a more vast combat space”. Vaster, EA, vaster! How am I supposed to trust you to fine-tune parachute physics when you can’t even optimise your sentences. Yes, I realise I have just held up a red cape to all the amateur copyeditors in the comments.

Modes? Well, they’ve found that Rush gets a bit smeary when there are too many players involved. Apparently, “when a player tries to arm the M-COM while more than 20 opponents are defending, the intended gameplay becomes less tangible”, presumably because the attacking player’s head and torso also become less tangible. As such, they’re lowering the player count for Rush “to improve the flow of combat and restore the tactical, methodical experience that defines the mode”.

Anticipating pushback on this front, the post points out that people can mess with the count as they please when playing Rush via the Portal editor. Breakthrough, meanwhile, will receive “map-by-map balance adjustments towards our goal of 50/50 win ratio for both Attackers and Defenders”.

In general, EA are taking an ad hoc approach to player counts based on the individual map and mode. “For example, at launch, some Breakthrough layouts will support 48 players, while others will have 64,” the post comments. “It’s the one of many factors we adjust to create the right balance and feel for each scenario. In Breakthrough higher player counts work well on open, dynamic maps, while smaller player-groups offer a more focused experience on denser maps.” They’ve found that “8v8 provides a solid starting point for small-scale, fast-paced modes like Team Death Match, Squad Death Match, Domination, and [King of the Hill]”. Again, you can jimmy the workings in Portal if you wish.

Some final bits: open and closed weapon playlists will continue to be available in Battlefield 6, “and we are looking for ways to keep them easily accessible”. I’m not sure why that would be difficult? They’re also trying to fix matchmaking so that you won’t have too much difficulty finding games in which to complete the Challenge of capturing sectors in Breakthrough or Rush.

Expect some of these improvements to materialise in forthcoming Battlefield Labs playtests. The game launches on 10th October. Our hardware editor James attended a preview event recently and came away with the verdict that it “looks like a Battlefield game”, thereby demonstrating the granular insight that got him promoted to CPU Wrangler First Class.

Even more granularistically, James noted that “there are also reasons to be optimistic that this is a series getting itself back on track, from its renewed emphasis on breaking shit to the replacement of show-off specialists with that old unspoken rule of ‘Stick with your squad or perish.'” Did you play the beta? How did you find it?

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August 23, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

By surrendering to an ‘open weapons’ default, Battlefield 6 is giving up the most special thing about Battlefield

by admin August 23, 2025

Almost a week removed from the Battlefield 6 beta, I wouldn’t blame you for being tired of hearing about weapons being open or closed.

On its face, the debate appears moot as Battlefield Studios keeps saying it will support both rulesets in BF6 regardless of their popularity. New players coming over from Call of Duty think divorcing class choice from weapon choice feels normal and natural, many longtime fans feel strongly about keeping weapons locked to classes, and some have even been converted to open weapons after trying it these past two weekends. No matter your preference, Battlefield 6 will accommodate you, and everyone will be happy.

I don’t want to leave it at that. Options are nice, but let’s be honest: we’re talking about two polar opposite design philosophies vying for influence over Battlefield 6’s current and future direction. BF Studios cannot realistically expect to support both as if they’re equally important. In fact, the studios are already subtly picking sides: The beta demonstrated that open weapons is the default Battlefield 6 experience, and closed weapons is just a secondary option pushed to the back.

That would be a huge mistake. I’m not here to argue that Battlefield 6 is unfun with open weapons, but I do submit that it doesn’t really feel like Battlefield.

Class-locked weapons are half of what gave classes an identity in the earlier games—they don’t just inform what you’re good at, but what you’re bad at. Tailoring the entirety of a kit to its role provides a fundamentally interesting set of constraints, and to throw that away is to give up on what makes Battlefield special.

(Image credit: EA)

It didn’t work in BF2042 either

We saw this happen in Battlefield 2042. At launch, DICE went thermonuclear on the class system, blowing up the concept of classes and divvying up their duties among “specialists” with unique gadgets and overlapping equipment. Their gadgets suggested a specialty, like Falck’s medic pistol, but DICE wanted to get away from the pesky shackles of defined kit. Any specialist could use any gun or secondary gadget.

It was a madhouse: Assaults could heal their team while shooting rockets, engineers could resupply their own Stinger missiles, recons had every tactical advantage with none of the risk, and nobody had to rely on each other for anything. The butchered roles were so unpopular that DICE eventually recanted on its “play your way” vision and reintroduced class-specific gadgets.

It was better, but the problem was only half solved: weapons remained open to all classes, and that created the half-hearted class system that persisted into Battlefield 6.

(Image credit: EA)

The assault rifle “problem”

During a Q&A with press at a Battlefield 6 reveal event in July, DICE’s Johan Andersson and David Sirland suggested that open weapons solves an “assault rifle problem” that existed in past Battlefields. Their metrics showed that people tend to pick classes based on weapons, so the class with the most versatile and easy-to-use weapons (Assaults with assault rifles) became the most popular.

Classes are not meant to be equally popular in Battlefield.

The perceived imbalance created the impression that teams “never have enough medics” because everybody wants ARs and grenade launchers, not the LMGs and med bags of the Bad Company games. In an attempt to lean into the assault rifle’s popularity, Battlefield 3 and 4 gave medics exclusive access to assault rifles, ensuring that the most popular class would also serve an important support role.

It worked, but not without consequence: merging two important roles left a utility vacuum for the dedicated Support class (with its LMG and ammo box) that made it weak and unused. The problem with the “assault rifle problem” is that it was never truly a problem. The assault rifle is the most popular type of gun because the Assault class is supposed to be the most popular class.

Balanced imbalance

Classes are not meant to be equally popular in Battlefield. Assaults were originally conceived as the frontline of the team—your basic rifleman grunt—with other classes serving specialized roles with situational kits. Weapon assignments have changed hands a lot over the years, but balancing classes through gun choice has been a constant. In Bad Company 2, for instance, the engineer’s power to fight tanks was checked by their limited range with SMGs.

Battlefield 6 is hurtling toward the most boring version of itself.

Anecdotally, this balanced imbalance worked wonders in the Battlefield 6 beta’s closed weapons playlist. Across 25 hours of matches, I noticed a plurality of Assaults (though the class was also popular for shotgun reasons), a decent number of medics and engineers, and even fewer snipers.

(Image credit: EA)

A comfortable spread of roles has positive knock-on effects: fewer scope glints on hills to worry about, fewer RPG barrages the moment you enter a tank, and an increased importance that teams protect their medics and stick together. It feels like Battlefield as it was meant to be.

Open weapons, for all its freedom of choice, turns your perfectly tuned gun into the star of the show, leaving classes themselves as an afterthought. The game theory behind a complete kit gets outshouted by the reliable hum of the M433 Assault Rifle with Compensated Muzzle Brake, 16.5″ Barrel, Ribbed Vertical Foregrip, Full Metal Jacket Ammunition, 30-round Fast Mag, and OSA-7 1.00x Dot Sight.

No matter what gadgets are in your pocket, nothing informs your playstyle more than the gun in your hands, and if 18 years of Call of Duty create-a-class are any indication, then Battlefield 6 is hurtling toward the most boring version of itself.

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August 23, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Battlefield 6 is making some big changes from the beta to address slide/jump spam, weapon recoil, those playlist options

by admin August 22, 2025

The Battlefield 6 beta is well and truly behind us. By EA’s own admission, it had the most players in Battlefield history, for a beta or otherwise. There’s clearly significant interest in the game, but the beta also garnered a lot of criticism.

Following the beta’s conclusion, the developer promised that it would come back with an update on all the hottest topics coming out of the beta, and how it plans to address each concern. That day is now here.

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Battlefield Studios shared a response to a few key areas of feedback from the Battlefield 6 beta in a new blog post. The writeup addresses weapon mechanics, movement, modes, player counts, playlist options, and the variety of maps.

Starting off with weapons, the developer said recoil is getting a pass to make tap-firing and burst-firing more rewarding. The full game will also better represent the range characteristics for each weapon, which likely refers to how SMGs were unreasonably more accurate at range compared to ARs.

Of course, the ever-annoying M87A1 shotgun was touched upon in the post. At launch, getting a kill will require more pellets. While Battlefield Studios does touch on discrepancies between time-to-kill and time-to-death in some situations in the post, the issue remains under investigation.

Recon was the least popular class in the beta. | Image credit: Battlefield Studios, EA.

While movement in the beta was generally praised, some players attempted to push its limits in ways that try to resemble Call of Duty’s. In response, the full game will reduce horizontal momentum carried from a slide into a jump. Consecutive jumps are also being penalised with a lower height for each one. The inaccuracy gained by firing while jumping or sliding is also being increased. Finally, parachutes now have lower initial acceleration.

Map exploits are next on the list. You may have seen instances of players reaching out-of-bound spots (mainly rooftops) during the beta, and the developer is working on making them impossible in the final game.

Of course, the other complaint about maps is just how small they were, effectively making them all practically play the same. The blog post stresses that there’s going to be more variety at launch, but it also confirms that upcoming Battlefield Labs tests will feature Mirak Valley, and Operation Firestorm – two larger maps that will be available at launch.

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One of the most discussed modes in the beta has been Rush, and the post clarifies the developer’s intent with its implementation in Battlefield 6. The beta featured 12v12 matches that some said were too small, though mainly because of the map design.

While the post doesn’t touch specifically on the map sizes for Rush, it does confirm that it’s going to continue to be a mode with a (relatively) small player count, leaving Breakthrough to deliver that large Rush-ish experience.

One of the most interesting (and welcome) parts of the post is a discussion on the studio’s philosophy when it comes to player counts per mode/map. Battlefield Studios said that maps and modes are each designed to fit different player counts, which inevitably means these numbers are going to vary.

In essence, player counts aren’t set in stone, and instead vary based on what works for each situation. The blog post gives the example of Breakthrough, a mode that will be available on maps with 48 players, and others with the full 64.

Not hiding this time. | Image credit: Battlefield Studios, EA.

Another controversial topic from the beta has been the availability (and visibility) of playlists. The developer reiterates that Open and Closed Weapon playlists will continue to be options at launch, and that it’s “looking for ways” to make those options easily accessible.

The last takeaway from the post is that some of these changes – including the aforementioned larger maps – will be part of the next Labs sessions, which is exciting for those who have access to that.

For everyone else, Battlefield 6 will be available on October 10 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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August 22, 2025 0 comments

Battlefield 6 gun fight with someone being revived

Product Reviews

To the dismay of sweaty ‘movement kids,’ Battlefield 6 is nerfing Call of Duty sliding and jumping to maintain a ‘traditional Battlefield experience’

by admin August 21, 2025

Duck, dive, and dodge: Following feedback from the Battlefield 6 beta that its movement was too squirrely and unpredictable, Battlefield Studios is planning significant changes for the full release.

The announcement came in an “Open Beta Debrief” blog published on Battlefield’s official social channels, which, in addition to movement, touched on hot topics like map size, Rush, and weapon balance. While the takeaway from most of those topics could be summed up as “we’re looking into it” or “wait and see,” movement is one area that already has significant changes in progress.

“Movement mechanics have been adjusted to create a more balanced and traditional Battlefield experience. Momentum, especially horizontal speed, carried from a slide into a jump has been reduced. There is now a greater penalty for consecutive jumps, which lowers jump height when jumps are spammed,” the blog reads.

That momentum change is likely more of a bug fix than a change in direction, as players figured out early on in the BF6 beta that you could consistently pull off ridiculous super jumps by exploiting small bursts of speed from jumping and sliding.

BF Studios is also targeting accuracy while jumping and sliding. Series veterans argued throughout the beta that there wasn’t enough of an accuracy penalty for shooting while sliding into a room or jumping around corners—hallmark tools of Call of Duty “movement kids”—and developers agree.

NEW INSANE BATTLEFIELD 6 MOVEMENT TECH, THESE OLD HEADS CAN’T KEEP UP pic.twitter.com/s9zducTNJn August 7, 2025

“Firing while jumping or sliding will result in increased inaccuracy,” the post continues. “These changes are designed to make sliding and jumping more situational, so they are no longer ideal options for engaging in gunfights, and will contribute to a gameplay pace that rewards skillful movement without becoming too fast or unpredictable.”

Whether or not you liked BF6’s squirrelly beta movement, it was undeniably chaotic. A top-upvoted post on the Battlefield subreddit highlights an extreme case of someone constantly chaining jumps and slides to ice skate across the map while maintaining perfect accuracy.

How much freedom of movement is considered overboard depends on the series’ roots, but even FPSes known for speed struggle to satisfy everyone. In 2023, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 cranked up the bunnyhopping and slide-canceling just a year after Modern Warfare 2 deliberately slowed things down, to the delight of many and horror of CoD traditionalists. As I wrote in 2023:

This movement should not be possible in BF6 DICE. Needs to be addressed from r/Battlefield

“Players who use these slippery moves will tell you it raises Call of Duty’s skill ceiling, and they’re technically right. FPSes have a long tradition of adopting community-developed movement techniques until they’re unofficial canon, and CoD is no different, except that I find this example of it extremely annoying… A lobby full of jumping beans distorts the horizontal, boots-on-the-ground rhythm of CoD into discount Apex Legends. It also, as I really must emphasize, looks very stupid.”

It’s nice to see BF Studios getting ahead of important mechanical details like this. We’re still two months from launch day, but it turns out there will be another round of Battlefield Labs testing before then. The next Labs test will finally introduce us to BF6’s two biggest maps at launch: Mirak Valley and Operation Firestorm.

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August 21, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Battlefield 6 Devs Will Nerf Jumping, Sliding, And The Shotgun

by admin August 21, 2025

The recent Battlefield 6 open beta was a massive success for EA and Battlefield Studios, amassing over half a million concurrent players on Steam. But some players weren’t happy about how fast and jumpy movement could be in the online FPS, and others felt the shotgun was too powerful. Now EA has announced that hopping around with a shotty won’t be as effective in the full game.

On August 21, EA and Battlefield Studios published a lengthy community update on Twitter going over what was learned from the beta and what will be changed when the full game launches in October. The big news for many will be that, yes, the devs working on BF6 saw some of those wild videos of players hopping, sliding, and diving around in matches like it’s a modern Call of Duty game and have plans to nerf how fast you slide and how often you can jump.

“Movement mechanics have been adjusted to create a more balanced and traditional Battlefield experience,” said EA in the community update post. “Momentum, especially horizontal speed, carried from a slide into a jump has been reduced. There is now a greater penalty for consecutive jumps, which lowers jump height when jumps are spammed. Firing while jumping or sliding will result in increased inaccuracy.”

According to the devs, the idea behind these changes is to make jumping and sliding “more situational” and less useful during gunfights, with EA adding that it wants to reward “skillful movement” but doesn’t want gameplay to become “too fast or unpredictable.”

The shotgun in Battlefield 6 is being nerfed

Another complaint out of the Battlefield 6 open beta was that the shotgun carried by assault class players was too powerful. As someone who loved using the shotgun, I disagree entirely and think people need to shut up. But the data does show that the shotgun was very effective at killing people. Maybe too effective? EA thinks so and is nerfing it a bit, explaining: “The M87A1 shotgun now requires more pellets to secure a kill.” So it will still be good up close, but won’t be the powerhouse at medium range like it was in the beta.

©EA

Other weapon tweaks include a “general pass on recoil” and tap-firing across all weapons. EA wants to emphasize each gun’s “unique feel” and make sure weapons have more varied effective ranges. “We’ve also made changes to encourage more controlled tap-firing and burst-firing, rewarding precision and weapon mastery,” said the team.

And EA is “investigating the Time-to-Kill and Time-to-Death experiences” in BF6, but doesn’t have any “definitive” plans yet. Personally, I think people were being weird about time-to-kill in BF6‘s beta, as it is about the same as it was in BF4. But I do agree that sometimes you’d die instantly, and it felt like only one shot. I assume this is down to some network issues that need to be fixed.

Player counts, Rush changes, and more

Elsewhere in the community update, Battlefield Studios talked more about player counts and how they work in BF6. The devs say the number of players in a match isn’t strictly dictated by the mode, but the scale of the map. For example, at launch, some Breakthrough maps will support 48 players, while others will support 64 players. It’s an interesting strategy that lets the devs use every map for every mode, even if it means upping or lowering the maximum number of players that can get in on the action.

EA also talked about Rush and how the more players you add to the mode, the harder it becomes for one side to win. So, based on player feedback from the beta, EA is lowering the default number of players in Rush in the full game in October to give attackers a better chance of winning. Hopefully, the studio also changes where players spawn and how close the objectives are in Rush to help make matches more fun and less of a slog.

Oh, and for players who are part of BF Labs, you’ll get a chance to test out some of the bigger maps coming to BF6 at launch, including the remake of BF3‘s beloved Operation Firestorm. EA confirmed that these two maps will “include the full complement of vehicles…along with a more vast combat space.” So you can stop yelling at EA and Battlefield 6 devs about bigger maps. They’ve told you before and now have explained again: Bigger maps will be in the full game. Relax, okay?

Battlefield 6 launches on October 10 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

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August 21, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

As Battlefield 6 commits to ‘keeping it grounded’ with skins, Call of Duty director makes an unconvincing promise to ‘calibrate’ cosmetics in Black Ops 7

by admin August 19, 2025

We’re set for another Call of Duty vs. Battlefield face-off this year, and it’s already been fascinating to watch how these two military shooters present themselves. When it comes to one of the most incendiary topics in multiplayer games at the moment, the rising prevalence of goofy Fortnite-style skins, Call of Duty has become the poster child of ugliness run amok.

The growing exhaustion over incongruent cosmetics that erode Call of Duty’s art style is what prompted Battlefield Studios’ stance on skins in Battlefield 6: “It has to be grounded. That is what BF3 and BF4 was—it was all soldiers, on the ground. It’s going to be like this. I don’t think it needs Nicki Minaj. Let’s keep it real, keep it grounded.”

Time will tell if Battlefield 6 actually sticks to that mission statement—the allure of tacky crap might be irresistible when enough players are eager to buy them—but it’s telling that, given the same opportunity to renew its stance on cosmetics, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 developers were decidedly wishy-washy about the whole thing.

“We have thought about this, and I think if you look at us, we’re always looking at community feedback”, Treyarch associate creative director Miles Leslie told IGN in an interview ahead of today’s Blops 7 reveals.

“We always try to make sure that we are trying to touch the widest audience. I’ve had the pleasure of working on Call of Duty now for almost 20 years, and we’re constantly looking at ways to push into different audiences and fans, and that’s what you saw with that; there are fans that really love it. Obviously, there are fans who those may not be their favorite. We’re going to try to calibrate that as we move forward, and we take that feedback seriously. But again, we are trying to make sure that all fans feel represented in the game and figuring out that tight balance is something we’re paying attention to.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Direct – YouTube

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It’s the usual marketing-approved gobbledygook that almost sounds like something meaningful was said, but wasn’t: Activision has heard the complaints, is taking them “seriously,” and will “calibrate” going forward.

What sort of calibration it has in mind is open to interpretation, and non-specific enough that Blops 7 can still comfortably cash in on collaborations with cartoons, ’80s action heroes, and Amazon Originals without going against its stated stance.

My read on it is that, while Call of Duty’s full-bodied embrace of goofy skins probably isn’t loved by many of the developers actually creating the art that gets slopped over by the Store tab, the backlash is not a particularly pressing concern for Activision at large. There are two sides to this, after all—lots of people enjoy uglifying their operators (to the tune of $20 per bundle).

There’s another wrinkle to Blops 7’s “calibrated” cosmetic plan: Starting with Season 1 of Blops 7, all weapons and cosmetics from Black Ops 6 will carry forward, inviting a tidal wave of fashion nightmares introduced over the previous 12 months to the new game.

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August 19, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Last Chance to Play Battlefield 6 Open Beta is This Weekend

by admin August 19, 2025

EA’s DICE studio has blown the lid off the multiplayer for its upcoming military shooter Battlefield 6 and held a beta to give players a taste of the game and generate feedback. Battlefield 6’s first public beta was available to everyone, but after an early release and two weekends of play, it has officially ended.

The Battlefield 6 open beta was the first chance for players to experience the game’s multiplayer before its full release on Oct. 10. Those with early access got a couple extra days to play and both of the open beta weekends were a rousing success, finally ending in the early hours of Monday, Aug. 18 (1 a.m. PT, to be precise).

Fans could visit Battlefield’s website to get info about the open beta, which required linking your EA account to your platform account. PC players also had to configure their system to Secure Boot as well (see below).

The beta was playable on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S.

When did the Battlefield 6 beta end? What were the dates and times?

The Battlefield 6 open beta ran through August 18 at 1am PT.

Aug. 7-8: Early access.
Aug. 9-10: First open beta weekend available to all.
Aug. 14-17: Second open beta weekend available to all, starting at 1 a.m. PT on Aug. 14 and closing Aug. 18 at 1 a.m. PT.

How to access the Battlefield 6 open beta

As this was an open beta, getting access was pretty easy. Players could simply download the Battlefield 6 beta client from their preferred platform, including the PS5, Xbox Series X and S, Steam, Epic Games Store or the EA app.

Preloading the Battlefield 6 beta started on Aug. 4. Doing a preload meant you’d be able to jump on the beta as soon as it was available instead of waiting for it to download on the day of access.

Battlefield 6 open beta download links

Here are the BF6 Beta download links for each platform:

Battlefield 6 beta maps

EA revealed the rotation of maps for the Battlefield 6 open beta weekends.

The maps for the upcoming Battlefield 6 open beta.

For the first weekend of Aug. 9-10, the maps were:

Liberation Peak: A large, mountainous desert with broad slopes and military forts, as well as ground and aerial vehicles.
Siege of Cairo: An urban battlefield in the heart of Egypt with tight buildings, wide boulevards and ground vehicles.
Iberian Offensive: A cluster of village buildings for tight squad combat while holding street squares for objectives.

The second weekend of Aug. 14-17 included the first weekend maps, plus:

Empire State: A close-quarters NYC map with fierce fighting in alleyways and room-to-room firefights in buildings under construction.

Battlefield 6 beta game modes

Just like with the maps, each weekend also featured certain game modes.

The modes for the first weekend were:

Conquest
Closed Weapons Conquest
Domination
King of the Hill
Breakthrough

Then on the second weekend of the beta, the previous modes were included along with:

Rush
Squad Deathmatch
Attack & Defend playlist (Breakthrough, Rush)
Close Quarters playlist (Domination, King of the Hill, Squad Deathmatch)
All-Out Warfare playlist (Conquest, Breakthrough, Rush)
Closed Weapons All-Out Warfare playlist (Conquest, Breakthrough)

PC-specific notice for Battlefield 6 beta

A special note if you haven’t played a Battlefield game on PC recently: Studio DICE and EA recently started requiring players to set their computers to Secure Boot when playing Battlefield games to combat cheaters, and Battlefield 6 is no different. To even play the open beta, you needed to delve into your BIOS and switch your PC to Secure Boot. Check EA’s guide for help.

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August 19, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

18th August video games round-up: Battlefield 6 beta sadness, Shenmue 3, and a Nintendo Direct for Kirby

by admin August 19, 2025

Update: That was the world of video games today on 18th August. A full transcript of everything that occurred today is available below if you wish to digest it all at your leisure.

It’s 18th August, and we’re back with another daily live report. We’ll be running down all the day’s news and events, checking in with what you are up to, and providing some hopefully entertaining commentary on the world of video games.

Today we’ve got some great articles going live on the site, but we’ll also discuss Gamescom, which takes place this week, and look at the games releasing in September that you’ve got your eyes on.

Our live coverage of this event has finished.

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Comments

08:09 am
UTC

Morning everyone! I hope you’ll join us today as we look ahead to Gamescom, round up the day’s news and events, and think about the games we’re all looking forward to in September.

Tom Orry

08:15 am
UTC

Kane & Lynch 2 – remembering the most miserable game of all time

If you’re looking for something to read on a quiet Monday morning, and you missed what we published over the weekend, here’s a round-up:

Tom Orry

08:31 am
UTC

Tony Hawk on his life and his video games

Image credit: TonyHawk.com

Has a video games series had a bigger impact on people than the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series? Talk to anyone who was playing video games and growing up in the late 90s/early 00s and I bet most of them have fond memories of those early games.

Tom Orry

08:33 am
UTC

rmx87 says: It’s the 18th Tom! Morning!MarcusJ says: Flip your desk calendar over, Tom!

Looking forward to this week’s EG. Should be some good stuff.

Well done you two! Test passed. You both win a day of live reporting. Congratulations!

Tom Orry

09:00 am
UTC

New Pokémon Legends: Z-A trailer shows off Link Battles

If you are keen for every single morsel of Pokémon Legends: Z-A info, as some of the team at Eurogame are, then this new trailer and info released over the weekend will be of interest. This latest game update focuses on the game’s Link Battles.

Watch on YouTube

Tom Orry

09:16 am
UTC

Gamescom ONL, time to get hyped via a trailer?

We reserve the right not to get hyped about Gamescom ONL, the show taking place tomorrow evening (7pm BST in the UK), but that hasn’t stopped Geoff putting out a trailer designed to do just that.

Watch on YouTube

Tom Orry

09:50 am
UTC

2much says: Presumably _this_ is the night we’re gonna see the Bloodborne remaster

Thanks for this, 2much. I needed a good laugh this morning. ONL is tomorrow night, and I will be gobsmacked if anything near this level of game reveal is there.

Tom Orry

10:00 am
UTC

Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War is one of the greatest strategy games of all time

Image credit: Relic Entertainment

Chris is well into Space Marines and that, and he has a special place in his heart for the Dawn of War series. The original game was a little tricky to get running nicely on modern hardware, but the newly released Definitive Edition fixes all that and comes with a bunch of new refinements and tweaks.

To quote Chris, verbatim, from a definitely real conversation I had with him about Dawn of War: “It’s orksome.” What more do you need to be told?

Tom Orry

10:15 am
UTC

On the subject of games people are looking forward to in September (and end of August, if you want):

Danzig85 says: I’ve got my eye on Metal Gear this month and Hell Is Us next month. Plenty to finish before then though.

So many games, so little time.

Both potentially great games. We’ve got a MGS3 Delta review coming later this week, and Hell is Us has impressed at preview.

Tom Orry

11:02 am
UTC

These games are set to leave Xbox Game Pass at the end of August

Image credit: Sabotage / Eurogamer.

Xbox has revealed which games are leaving Xbox Game Pass at the end of August. A few good ones in this list.

Borderlands 3 Ultimate Edition
Sea of Stars
Paw Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay
This War of Mine: Final Cut
Ben 10: Power Trip

Tom Orry

11:39 am
UTC

chesterBox says: PS Store added a discount called “Gamescom 2025” and there’s Bloodborne… that must mean something, right? Right?! 😀

(99% it does not mean anything)

Don’t do this to yourself, Chester. It’ll just bring pain.

But… what if?

Tom Orry

11:44 am
UTC

A delve into the Eurogamer archive

Image credit: Valve

My brain can’t always go back far enough to bring out the real classics, but this superb article from Simon Parkin popped into my head this morning, so I’m sharing it with you all now.

At 6am on 7th May 2004, Axel Gembe awoke in the small German town of Schönau im Schwarzwald to find his bed surrounded by police officers. Automatic weapons were pointing at his head and the words, “Get out of bed. Do not touch the keyboard,” were ringing in his ears.

Get this read if you haven’t already, or maybe read it again.

Tom Orry

12:22 pm
UTC

Euro Truck Simulator 2 PS5 and Xbox versions spotted

Cult hit Euro Truck Simulator 2 is seemingly coming to PS5 and Xbox consoles. The news comes via PSN and Xbox store listings for the game, which is yet to be officially announced for the two consoles.

Tom Orry

13:17 pm
UTC

Surprise! Shenmue 3 is back

Image credit: Ys Net

Shenmue 3 is coming back for a second bite at success with the Enhanced Edition. This reworked and improved version of the original release will be available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series consoles, and Nintendo (presumably Switch 2). A full reveal is coming at Gamescom this week.

Tom Orry

13:21 pm
UTC

Kirby Air Riders Direct tomorrow

Tune in tomorrow Tuesday, August 19th at 2pm UK time for a livestreamed Kirby Air Riders Direct featuring about 45 minutes of information about the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 game.

Boom! 45 minutes of Kirby tomorrow? What a treat.

Kirby Air Riders Direct is airing tomorrow at 2pm BST in the UK.

Tom Orry

13:42 pm
UTC

45 minutes of Kirby Air Riders? I love a bit of Kirby as much as the next fan of alien entities that take on the abilities of the objects they consume, but that’s a long time to spend on one game. I’m excited to see what Nintendo has cooked up, though.

Tom Orry

13:47 pm
UTC

Endling – Extinction dev reveals its next game

Image credit: Herobeat

Developer Herobeat has announced its next game, Rewilders: The Lost Spring, which has been inspired by the works of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli films.

Tom Orry

13:54 pm
UTC

Any Shenmue fans in the comments today? I won’t pretend I’m a big fan. I played the original game on the Dreamcast and simply couldn’t get into it. And that is as a huge Sega fan who had grown up as a Sega kid. Just wasn’t for me.

Tom Orry

14:23 pm
UTC

The Battlefield 6 party continues in… Battlefield 2042

Connor has been on the blower to moan about how sad he is that the Battlefield 6 beta has finished. “Don’t worry,” I said in reply, cutting through his tears. “You can just play Battlefield 2042 and earn some stuff to use in Battlefield 6.”

He turned to me (not that I could see as we were on a phone call, not a video call), and he said: “Tom, you are so wise. I will play Battlefield 2042 as I am the exact target audience for this type of marketing campaign. I’ll also write up my thoughts on such an event in a story to publish on Eurogamer.net.”

Thanks, Connor. Here is that story:

Tom Orry

14:46 pm
UTC

Today’s Blast from the Past: Flights, Co-op Tomb Raiding, and more

Image credit: Xbox / Microsoft

Another day presents another opportunity for us to look back at gaming history. Here’s some milestone anniversaries for today, 18th August:

Microsoft Flight Simulator’s grand reboot leads the pack of gaming anniversaries today – the reimagining of the franchise first released five years ago. I recieved the coveted Eurogamer Essential, back when that was the parlance – and it sits alongside Animal Crossing as a perfect game for the then all-consuming pandemic, allowing a sort of digital tourism at a time when we were all trapped inside. It’s a shame that the much more content-rich 2024 edition has run into various troubles, but hopefully that team can eventually recapture the spirit of the 2020 edition over time.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is fifteen years old today. A cool, well-reviewed spin-off of the franchise inspired by the likes of Diablo and Gauntlet, it first launched for Xbox 360’s Live Arcade and then made its way to PS3, PC, and even mobile. It brings to mind that era when downloadables were always smaller, bite-sized games, which led to interesting spin-offs of big-name brands like this – something we now don’t see as often. A shame.
And here’s a trio of further recent anniversaries: Rogue Legacy 2, Mortal Shell, and Spiritfarer all hit on this day in 2020 – the same day as Flight Simulator! There was clearly something in the water on this day five years ago. I’m also now just realizing I can’t write “on that day five years ago”, or a variation thereof, without hearing this.

Alex Donaldson

15:04 pm
UTC

I actually really liked Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, not that I can remember a single thing about it – although I think you had to push a large ball around at one point?

Tom Orry

15:15 pm
UTC

Crazyreyn says: “Any Shenmue fans in the comments today?” hello

Here he is! The Shenmue fan has logged on.

Tom Orry

15:38 pm
UTC

Sword of the Sea review

Image credit: Giant Squid / Eurogamer

Liked this one quite a bit folks.

It’s the latest from Giant Squid, the developer behind Abzu and The Pathless, with creative director Matt Nava having also worked heavily on Journey as art director back in the day. He teams up again with renowned game composer Austin Wintory here. It’s a game that mixes a bit of light Zelda-ing with serene platforming, ludicrously pretty views and a sense of movement, mindfulness and flow that’s right up there with very best of ’em. Big fat five stars from me.

Chris Tapsell

15:44 pm
UTC

Mortal Kombat movie is 30 years old today

As the clock ticks ever closer to 5pm in the UK and I can see the fajitas I’m about to cook for my dinner drift into view, now is the perfect time to remember the original Mortal Kombat movie which turns 30 today. I know this film has gained a large following in the years since its release, but I never liked it that much. That said, it probably captured the video games better than the recent movie did. You can’t say anything negative about this music, though, which is superb.

Watch on YouTube

Tom Orry

16:03 pm
UTC

That’s your lot for today. Big day tomorrow, everyone, so don’t stay up too late tonight. Chances are there’ll be at least one good game shown during Gamescom ONL, which kicks off at 7pm BST tomorrow – although there is supposedly also a bit of a pre-show before that.

Thanks for joining us today. See you all tomorrow.

Tom Orry

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August 19, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Battlefield 6’s Open Weapon System Is Good

by admin August 18, 2025

When I first heard about EA and Battlefield Studios’ plan to implement an open weapon system in the upcoming Battlefield 6, I scoffed! And playing the game in Los Angeles for an event last month didn’t sell me on it, either; I still worried it would make classes feel less unique. Now, after playing the open beta for nearly 20 hours, I’m here to say: I was wrong.

Let’s back up for a moment and explain, briefly, open and closed weapon class systems in Battlefield. (I promise this won’t be too boring.) Basically, for nearly as long as the franchise has been around, classes were locked to certain weapons. Recon, for example, had to use a sniper rifle. Over time, developers at Dice tweaked this and added “neutral” weapons that could be picked by multiple classes, or they spread specific types of weapons across a few classes. Battlefield 2042 threw a lot of this out the window when it launched without classes and let players essentially build custom heroes who could use any gadget or gun. It then added classes back in when people got angry. Anyway, Battlefield 6 is trying to find a happy balance between 2042‘s total, unbalanced openness and the classic closed weapon system of the past games. And I think, despite being nervous about the change and all the debate raging online among players on both sides, Battlefield Studios has mostly nailed it.

In Battlefield 6, any class can use any weapon. So you can spawn in as a recon soldier, but instead of a sniper rifle, you could bring an SMG. Engineers, traditionally a class that uses SMGs, can rock snipers and LMGs. At first, this seemed like a bad idea to me. I worried that players would just pick the class with the best abilities and pick the best assault rifle, and you’d lose all the uniqueness that comes from BF’s old-school class system. And in some smaller, more combat-focused modes, this is indeed the case. But in bigger, more Battlefield-y modes, like Conquest and Rush, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how things have worked out.

In my hours with the beta, I found that in many matches players were spread all around the four classes. In some past games (looking at you, Battlefield 3), people would pick whatever class had the best assault rifle, and that was that. During a Q&A with the devs last month in LA, they talked about this and said that the open weapon system was partly designed to combat this. The idea is that now people will pick classes based on what the team needs and their unique abilities and tools, rather than the weapons they can and can’t use.

And yeah, that’s exactly what I saw happening in many BF6 open beta matches. If the enemy team, for example, brought in a bunch of vehicles or tanks, I’d see players swap to engineers to use that class’s RPG to take all those machines out. Likewise, I saw players and friends swap to the support class to help hold a point and revive people, or swap to recon to help pin down a target. It seems now that weapons can be freely equipped on any class, people are far more open to playing different classes and helping out the team. Sure, maybe some of these players have just equipped the same assault rifle on all of the classes, but if it helps my team stop a tank from destroying us, I’m fine with it. That’s a much better scenario than in past BF games, where a whole team might be assault soldiers and you’d be unable to get ammo resupplies or fight back against helis.

Battlefield 6 also rewards players for choosing a weapon that is more aligned with their class. Recon soldiers get a ton of exclusive sniper perks that make it almost silly to use a sniper rifle on any other class. But you can do it, if that makes you happy. And this is where I’d suggest some tweaks.

I think rewarding players who pick class-specific weapons is a smart idea, but I almost feel like the devs could do more to make sure picking an assault rifle on every class isn’t an easy option. Perhaps class-specific weapon punishments could work? An assault class soldier picking a sniper rifle might mean they don’t get the recon benefits, and perhaps they also reload the big rifles more slowly. Or an engineer picking an assault rifle has more kick and can’t carry as much ammo for it. These tweaks would reward people playing classes more traditionally, could be overcome with skill or teamwork, and would still allow for the weapon freedom the devs want in BF6.

But even if Battlefield 6 devs don’t steal my totally-awesome-and-perfect idea, I think the open weapon system is a good change. It lets players enjoy all the classes without forcing them to play with specific guns. This leads to matches in which all the classes are used, and that leads to more enjoyable Battlefield action. And that’s what I’m looking for. Sure, maybe it means that I’ll be killed a lot by a few popular assault rifles, but it might also mean that there will be more medics running around who can heal me. That would be nice. And don’t worry; if you hate the open weapon system, EA is going to offer playlists and modes that feature locked weapons, too. Everyone wins.

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August 18, 2025 0 comments