Battlefield 4: China Rising Had Content Cut Before Release

[Steven Bogos]

Battlefield 4: China Rising Had Content Cut Before Release

A reddit user has found several sound files that point to cut China Rising Levolution events.

A reddit user by the name of "Dirtyfatfingers" [http://www.reddit.com/r/battlefield_4/comments/1uvlf4/china_rising_was_supposed_to_have_levolution/] has been digging through Battlefield 4's sound files, and unearthed a wealth of cut content from the recently released China Rising DLC pack. Namely, the expansion was supposed to have Levolution events, but were cut at some point in development.

Specifically, Dirtyfatfingers says that Altai Range was supposed to have a snowstorm that would intermittently hit the map, Silkroad was to have a sandstorm, and Guilin Peaks was to have heavy fog roll in. He also discovered that players were supposed to be able to freely switch between commander and infantry without having to leave and rejoin the server.

Battlefield 4 fans were somewhat perplexed the first time they played China Rising's maps, to find that large-scale Levolution events, which were present in some shape or form in every vanilla Battlefield 4 map, were no-where to be found. This seemed somewhat strange, considering the feature, which allowed players to substantially alter the way certain maps play with events such as a skyscraper collapsing or a dam bursting, was one of the game's most-hyped features [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxaOS4JTydM].

EA previously stated that it has halted work on all Battlefield 4 DLC [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130245-EA-Halts-Work-on-Battlefield-4-DLC] until the game's more glaring bugs and glitches have been stomped out. However, they made this announcement the day after China Rising was released, which means the decision to cut Levolution events from the DLC was made earlier in development.

Source: reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/battlefield_4/comments/1uvlf4/china_rising_was_supposed_to_have_levolution/]



Permalink

 

[Xariat]

You know what? good. Snowstorm, sandstorm, and fog sounds absolutely horrible, and I would not want it anyway. currently the worst levolution event is by far the skyscraper in shanghai simply because of all the dust it creates, it's fucking awful to play after the skyscraper falls.

 

[silverbullet1989]

So id expect Battlefield 4 china rising DLC levolution DLC coming soon?

 

[Denamic]

So id expect Battlefield 4 china rising DLC levolution DLC coming soon?

It's bet on that, or that EA whipped out the DLC so fast they had to cut the levolution just to make the deadline. Pump out map packs while the iron's still hot with no regards to quality or dignity!

 

[Hawk eye1466]

So Battlefield 4 continues it's slide into mediocrity?

Good to know I'll continue to avoid it ever since I tried the beta and realized it was just trying to mimic CoD, which is a shame but EA will hold a shotgun to the developers until they do things their way.

 

[tehroc]

So id expect Battlefield 4 china rising DLC levolution DLC coming soon?

They don't have time for that. EA has a strict schedule of DLC they have to produce.

 

[Barbas]

You know, it's a strange thing: sometimes, when you expect the worst from someone with a poor track record and they deliver exactly as predicted...it feels really good.

I'll just be enjoying an incredibly smug coffee over here, then...

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

I get the DLC was a rush job, but even the cut content seems to be a bit lacking, the Levolutions for all 3 maps were basically the same: Reduced Visibility..
Still, Credit to DICE, I get they were racing against the clock to reach EA's shipping date, just hope they don't end up like Bullfrog for this whole mess.

 

[Alexander Kirby]

Well maybe they thought they could rip off their players by not bothering to do a proper 'levolution' thing and going for the significantly cheaper option of 'let's just lower the draw distance every few minutes'. Them they found out it wasn't really fun to play and didn't have time to do anything about it because EA were pushing for a release. That's my theory anyway. Either way there's nothing lost from this; fog and snowstorms sound pretty lame anyway.

 

[silverbullet1989]

So id expect Battlefield 4 china rising DLC levolution DLC coming soon?

They don't have time for that. EA has a strict schedule of DLC they have to produce.

But but but money. EA / Dice clearly have no dignity left. Battlefield 5 will be riddled with micro-transactions on top of the full retail price + premium. After all that has happened with this "failfield 4", and they will still fucking wonder why they were voted worse company in america for a 3rd year running.

 

[Jaximus Decimus]

So glad I decided not to drop $100+ for this. I was so close to preordering with the season pass and everything. The issues with this game just keep piling up and they're ripping off their customers on top of it.

This is why pre-paying for DLC, and really games in general, is a practice gamers need to rethink. What motivation is there for a developer to produce quality content if they've already got your money?

 

[martyrdrebel27]

This is exciting news, as I see it being the next necessary evil in the death of modern shooters. Although, hr levolution thing sounds like it had real promise as The Next Step. Of course, leave it to EA to actually make a significant contribution and then shit all over it by forcing a DLC pack out into the wild before actually finishing it. Again, EA, you have proven to be the enemy of gamers. I will personally destroy you if you attempt to monetize and microtransact the shit outta Battlefront 3. That may be the one game that if done right, would potentially get me to buy EA products again.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Currently the worst levolution event is by far the skyscraper in shanghai simply because of all the dust it creates, it's fucking awful to play after the skyscraper falls.

I'm of the opposite opinion, visibility modifiers are fantastic and I never think the dust cloud from Shanghai is either big or dense enough. The sand storm in Gulf of Oman really changes the way the map plays and makes it much better than the BF3 version, air power and tanks become reliant on infantry providing proper spotting for them lest a stinger or Jihad jeep come out of nowhere, similarly knives and suppressors suddenly come out as staying off the mini map becomes critical. Unfortunately you need a Xbone to play it at the moment so I've only played a couple of hours on it.

That kind of rapid changing of the map and power hierarchy I like a lot more than some of the 'proper' levelution events that just make a building fall over or move a train along the map, it's instant variety.

As for what's happened, well EA are cheap, shortsighted and obsessed with beating Call of Duty if only in their heads, so this sounds about right.

 

[SecondPrize]

That's innovative, instead of cutting game content to sell as DLC they've cut DLC content to... uh, I guess make up for the delay they imposed on DLC in order to fix their launch? Or was that delay supposed to take place after this first one released? I forget.
On a personal note, this is the first time I've ever encountered the 'word' Levolution and I hate it. I think I may hate it more than webisode, which I really hate. Please join the fight to kill this monstrosity of a word in its crib before it can mature.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

I don't think EA realises just how badly the pressure they're placing on DICE is affecting the quality of their work. BF4 needed a few months more development, as clearly shown by the bug ridden mess that was released. Now they have to cut content from the DLC as well? EA, WAKE THE FUCK UP, YOU ARE KILLING A VERY BIG AND POWERFUL FRANCHISE WITH YOUR OWN SHORT SIGHTEDNESS. The customers, the people that PAY YOU are dissatisfied with the game because of your insistence on sticking to release dates, forcing an unfinished and inferior product onto the marker. Delaying releases will piss people off, but what you are doing now is so much worse.

 

[Therumancer]

I hate to defend EA, but it DOES occur to me since even in this discussion there seems to be some that have the Levolution events, that perhaps it was a conscious choice on the part of EA to cut these so there would be BF4 maps without those events for those who prefer to play without them. Assuming of course there isn't simply a toggle for them to begin with (I don't play BF4 so I have no idea).

It will also be interesting to see if this spawns any new creepypastas or really fringe conspiracy theories.

 

[VonBrewskie]

Friggin' BF4. I have over 200 hours in. I love the game. There are many, many problems with it. It's much improved since launch, but jeez man. The hits just keep on coming for this game. I already said it to my clan: no more EA games for me. I've already paid for BF4 so I'm getting my use out of it. Getting my money's worth. But shoot man. I feel very, very stupid for buying the game and Premium pack. Lesson learned. Thanks for making the stupid tax relatively cheap this time around EA. Not buying your games will save me much more over the years and I can use those funds for Steam sales!

 

[bjj hero]

Im enjoying battle field. China rising was a freebee and Ive not bought premium. I wont be buying any further DLC though. I just find season passes to be a terrible, terrible idea. I nearly bought COD instead last year because of the season pass... Until I found Activision were doingit too.

Pumping out DLC to a tight time line (Dont they have a calendar up somewhere of the releases? Was always going to result in this sort of stuff.

 

[rasputin0009]

There was videos of the China Rising Levolutions posted by beta players on YouTube, so it's not that much of a surprise to me. The fog in Guilin Peaks would've been really nice. Would've added some more depth to an already amazing map. The Silkroad sandstorm would've been really cool for vehicle combat, but it'd probably piss off a lot of snipers. Silkroad does play a lot like a 1942 map as itself, so I'm not sure if the sandstorm would ruin the nostalgia feel. Anyways, I'm not totally upset that they didn't include something extra in a DLC, since there's more to be upset with the game as a whole still not functioning as well as it should. Netcode is still an ugly beast and there's been little to nothing in the balancing department. But the China Rising maps do play extremely well on specific modes, and they really don't feel like they're missing anything too big. Levolution always adds positively to the maps, but they're neither game-breaking or game-making.

You know what? good. Snowstorm, sandstorm, and fog sounds absolutely horrible, and I would not want it anyway. currently the worst levolution event is by far the skyscraper in shanghai simply because of all the dust it creates, it's fucking awful to play after the skyscraper falls.

I find the dust makes a huge impact on how the map plays out. It makes snipers less effective, and the rooftops less desirable. The fallen skyscraper and the changing capture points is usually enough for one dominating team to lose their foothold. It's one of the better Levolutions anyways. Granted, the map does look really ugly and boring afterwards.