Battlefield 4 vs. Call of Duty: Ghosts

There's no doubt about it: Fall of 2013 is going to be a very exciting time for gamers! Not only are there two next gen consoles expected to be available, but the flagship shooter franchise for each console will be going head to head.

This isn't to say that each game will not be available on the other console, but as we have seen with previous releases of games and the extra Downloadable Content (DLC) for them, the Battlefield series has favoured the Playstation 3 just as much as the Call of Duty series has played favourites with the XBox 360 console.

While Battlefield 4 has been announced to be released in late October of this year, and announced to be available on the Playstation 4, it looked to put them in the early lead in this battle of the consoles/FPSs. Then, when Call of Duty: Ghosts was pre-revealed in late April, just prior to the official announcement on May 1, with the specifics to release more details on May 21 (the same day that the next XBox, or XBox 720 is to be announced by Microsoft), it looked like there may be some even footing to be found!

So far, we don't have a lot of information to go on, except that there appears to be a story set in the near present in which the story is more focused on a small group of players. The baseline is to make a story that is very much about the humanity of the cast, where war is simply the background to what happens.

It is said to be a dramatic and tense story with war obviously a part of it, but the story is not about the war, specifically. How they will pull this off will be interesting to see.

As for the multiplayer part of Battlefield 4, there is very little known. No official announcements on the numbers of players, the types of classes, or the vehicles that will be available. However, the teaser videos on the website show "PREPARE FOR BATTLE ON LAND", "PREPARE FOR BATTLE IN THE AIR" and "PREPARE FOR BATTLE AT SEA". While the first two are not uncommon for the Battlefield series, the last one seems to point at a new mode of combat for the game. There have been dinghy's that can transport you from a carrier to land in some of the game modes, and even amphibious APCs, but this suggests something more than just getting from point A to B, and perhaps some actual battles at sea!

Of course, the only other thing we know right now is that the new Frostbite 3 engine will power the game, with some improved visual effects, and the inclusion of "Destruction 4.0" which will enhance the destruction effects of the engine (the ability to destroy objects, buildings, etc., that are part of the battlefield).

I wish I had something useful to put in here, but at this point, the teaser video simply points to the fact that masks are used to hide, to show what they stand for and to instill fear in their enemies. It shows various warriors wearing different styles of masks, or warpaint, and then shows someone pulling down a mask over his face (a balaclava with the white skull face shown on the teaser site) with the words: "There are those who wear masks to protect themselves and there are those who wear masks to protect us all."

So, based on this, we are going to be in a story in which an anti-terrorist unit is the focus, I would guess. This would put us in similar roles as the protagonists of Black Ops, Black Ops 2, or even Modern Warfare's Task Force 141 (a multinational Special Operations team). There are inferences that the characters will be all new (possibly with the exception of Simon "Ghost" Riley, if he turns out to be part of the story, which some believe).

Beyond this, there is believed to be a new gaming engine to be used for CoD: Ghosts, though - yet again - we have no details on what the engine is, or how it improves on the previous iterations of the IW engine that have been used for the Call of Duty franchise for a while, now. I will continue to dig and investigate, and as I get more information, I will be sure to post what I find.

Have any intel? Hit my comments section and let us know what you know!

Cheers!

-- Slyde