Battlefield V finally gets its battle royale mode Firestorm on March 25. Much of the previously leaked tutorial video has been confirmed, including the player count of 64 and options to play Solo, Duos, and Squads. Firestorm is part of Trial by Fire, the third free DLC chapter for the shooter on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.<doc-sep>Battlefield 5 has received a big new update to add Firestorm, overhaul plane combat, and bring a host of fixes. Today’s Battlefield 5 update is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Size varies by platform, but you’re looking at a 7-10GB download. There does appear to be an issue on PC where the game is downloading 28GB instead, but it’s not yet clear if this is a widespread problem or a download hiccup. The biggest addition in today’s update is Firestorm, the game’s battle royale mode. Firestorm won’t be playable until Monday, March 25, however. What you will make use of today are a couple of welcome tweaks to air combat in Battlefield 5. In an effort to raise the skill ceiling, and make dogfights more exciting, DICE has a made a few changes to the plane physics model. The short version is that pilots will now have to pay more attention to gravity, stalling, and speed. Today’s update also improves the quality of Nvidia’s DLSS on PC for 1440p, and 4K. Beyond that, you can look forward to many bug fixes across soldier combat, as well as vehicles. We’ve included all changes below. Watch on YouTube Air combat overhaul Wings and ailerons Flap Scaling has been tweaked to give less manoeuvrability at speeds under 200 kmh. Drag Coefficient is now less extreme at 90-degree angles to remove “floatiness” at low speed. Going slow will now more heavily impact your ability to manoeuvre your plane. Elevator and rudder Drag Coefficients for elevators and rudders have been separated out and tweaked to get a more physical stalling behaviour as in nose down faster when stalling. Elevator lift curves are tweaked for giving optimal turns above 180 kmh. This gives you a more realistic stalling behaviour and allow good pilots to use this behaviour in making more advanced manoeuvres. Airplane body and gravity Drag over velocity tweaked per plane to max out at cruising speeds. This means that planes will retain energy for longer and not slow down as fast. Gravity will affect planes more when climbing. Combined with drag changes, this makes it more viable to trade altitude for speed. You will find that decreasing only throttle will no longer affect your speed as quickly. If you really want to slow down, make sure to use gravity to your advantage. With reduced drag in general, you will also find that diving allows you to gain speed faster than before. Vehicle fixes The player is no longer clipping with the machine gun on the M3 halftrack when viewed from a third person perspective. The throwing grenade animation will now properly play when throwing grenades while in the passenger seat of vehicles that support it. Players can now fire the rocket launchers while in the passenger seat of a vehicle that supports it. Players should no longer get crushed when exiting the Universal Carrier at steep angles on hills / uneven terrain. Fixed some visual issues that would occur when using the Field Drab paint job for the Valentine Archer tank. The Valentine Archer tank now properly shows that it’s using APDS rounds instead of MG rounds in the user interface. It is now possible to repair the Valentine Archer tank’s engine once it gets damaged. Fixed a bug which could trigger the enter vehicle animation when a player pressed the exit vehicle interaction button too many times. Player are now ejected out of towables should they end up in deep water. Airplanes will no longer collide with medical pouches and crates, which could cause accidents. Fixed a bug which would cause players to trigger tank sights while in a Universal Carrier. Players can no longer damage the PAK-40 with small melee weapons such as knives. Fixed an issue where players could be immune to damage during a small window of the animation when moving between in-vehicle and the top gunner seat. Players will now die if they exit a plane at the moment it gets destroyed, previously in some cases you would survive exiting while the plane just had started to explode. Fixed an exploit related to the resupply stations for vehicles. The “Camera Roll” option now works with the Blenheim planes. Fixed an exploit that enables players to use tanks during the “waiting for players” phase. New damage curves have been implemented for all large and medium bombs. These curves now give more predictable damage levels depending on proximity to a target. This change affects both armor and infantry targets. Additionally, some direct hit damage present on some bombs has been moved to the explosion damage in order to achieve better damage consistency. The 75mm and 6 pounder cannons on airplanes have had their explosive damage reduced to approximately equal the effectiveness of the BK37 Stuka cannons in damage per second. With a substantial number of additional bombs available to these planes the high damage output of the cannons was simply over-performing. The trail effects for rockets have been substantially improved to help in tracking the rockets both for the shooter and for victims. The maximum explosive radius of the GR21 rockets has been slightly reduced to better balance them against RP-3 Rockets. The GR21 only needs to fire two rockets to get maximum damage, and the lethal killing range of these weapons was more effective than balanced. The small bombs equipped on the BF-109 G2 can now be dropped together to allow both bombs to land closer to their target. This should enhance their effectiveness against infantry and make them a good choice against the GR21 rockets for that tree. The 4000 lb. Blockbuster bomb has had a significant reduction in blast damage, but retains in impressive blast range. Additionally, the large bomb has significant drag, making it slower to reach the ground when dropped. This bomb is an area weapon designed to devastate a large amount of structures, vehicles, and infantry. For balance purposes it’s important it reliably damages a large number of targets over a large area without outright killing all of the targets. The 250 lb.<doc-sep>So there I am, dropping from a plane at terminal velocity, hands clenched as the icy ground screams towards my face, and it’s just another case of so far, so battle royale. We’ve all been through this so many times that if any of us ever did have to parachute into a warzone we’d probably start scrolling through Twitter on the way down. It’s ruined skydiving for a generation. So what does Battlefield V’s new battle royale mode, Firestorm, do about it? Well, nothing when it comes to the all-too-familiar drop, but otherwise quite a lot. That’s the reason it’s taken this long to launch – four months and 16 days since Battlefield V’s November release date, to be precise. Developer Criterion wanted to get it right, and from a purely technical point, it has. Firestorm is a marvel. We’ve got 64 players here, all fighting across the biggest map in Battlefield V history – Halovy is ten times the size of previous title holder Hamada – without much of a compromise to visual quality. In fact, the environmental destruction is actually better than anything I’ve seen before from Battlefield V. “We had to play with some of the values, technically,” Criterion producer Arthur Rohard tells us. “To present it simply, we moved the destruction meter up a bit. There’s a fragile element to buildings.” That’s putting it lightly. Take my first encounter. I climb a loft and spot a squad of four from the window. Turns out they spotted me first and spray shots at the window. I go prone and keep my sights on the stairs. The next thing I know, the front of the house is gone and my ears are ringing. Seconds later, another rocket chomps through what remains of the roof, causing the floor to give way and plunging me down to the ground. The collateral damage here is unlike any other battle royale game. The ring of fire that slowly encloses the battleground is also tremendously realised. Carving through wooden houses and leaving charred panels in its wake, the 50ft-high flaming wall is a looming fixture on the horizon – there’s little chance of forgetting to flee when the zone starts shrinking. one thing we do differently is the stories being told through the world Arthur Rohard As well as supreme destruction and gorgeous graphics, Firestorm finds a way to bring over two more elements the series is known for: teamwork and vehicles. These converge in ‘vehicle breakouts’. Here, two players team up to turn handles and open a pair of metal doors. Inside is a rare vehicle – a tank, for example. The risk is that it takes about 20 seconds to open, and there’s an alarm going off the whole time to alert other players. Conquest mode makes a cameo, too. Come across a supply point and you can secure it for higher quality loot. Or, if you’re crafty, wait just outside of the zone for others to capture it, then gun them down. Indeed, as you’d expect from Battlefield, there’s an emphasis on teamwork. You can issue waypoints and highlight hostiles with a ping system, and revive teammates when they’re shot down. Criterion will patch in solo play further down the line. There’ll be new vehicles and customisation options too, and Rohart even hints at a persistent story: “I would say that one thing we do differently is the stories being told through the world. As you explore you will see things changing. There’s a story that’s going to unfold over time.” This all makes Firestorm an effective stab at a crowded genre. Ten-hut! Play the best war games on PC, now soldier! With its immense destruction, teamplay focus, and optional objectives, Firestorm is battle royale done right. It’s unlikely to set the genre alight given the steep competition and asking price, but Criterion has successfully hammered Battlefield V into an enticing battle royale shape while introducing some refreshing new ideas.<doc-sep>Battlefield 5 is getting the long-awaited arrival of its battle royale mode Firestorm next week, and DICE has released a new trailer (above) along with a ton of details on the mode. The 64-player mode has some recognizable battle royale elements, but with a distinct Battlefield flavor. As detailed in a series of extensive blog posts from DICE, a ring of fire around the map slowly closes in and destroys all in its path. The map is called Halvoy, and DICE boasts that it's ten times bigger than Battlefield 5's largest map, Hamada. In addition to the standard battle royale scrounging for resources and survival, you'll also be aiming to secure Re-supply Points and Vehicle Lockups. Some of those lockups will contain combat vehicles like choppers and tanks, which are very powerful but can be brought down with anti-vehicle weaponry. The mode will launch with 17 vehicles, which could be a major point of differentiation between Firestorm and competing battle royale games. You'll also be able to call in reinforcements like artillery strikes or supply drops. And as a Battlefield game, the buildings are destructible, letting you smoke out enemies hiding in houses as long as you have the weaponry to do some demolition. Firestorm will have some pieces of gear and vehicles exclusive to it. Those include various sizes of Backpacks, healing syrettes for squadmates, armor vests, prototype helicopters, sports cars, and even a tractor. Firestorm will launch as a free update on March 25, and is said to lay the groundwork for the next numbered story chapter, Trial By Fire. Battlefield 5 launched last year, but DICE gave word shortly before launch that Firestorm would not be ready until March 2019. That put it behind both Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, which launched its own battle royale mode alongside the game, and the surprise contender Apex Legends.<doc-sep>
It's pretty safe to say that Battlefield 5 performed below expectations, even though its reviews were mostly positive. With physical sales in launch week down more than half on Battlefield 1, it seemed like fans were tiring of the churn and many of them were deserting the series for the greener pastures of the ever expanding battle royale genre. Even I, a seasoned Battlefield player who has enjoyed every other game in the series, decided to skip this one after finding it underwhelming at a Gamescom preview event. However, after going hands on with Firestorm, Battlefield 5's take on the battle royale genre, I don't mind admitting that I'll be picking up a copy specifically to play that mode. Firestorm lives in the space between PUBG and Call of Duty: Blackout. There's a sense of realism and tension there that war-sim fans will appreciate, but occasionally the action can ramp up in such a way that it starts to leans towards the arcadey-end of the spectrum. This means anyone who's turned off by the cartoony antics of Fortnite or the intense speed of Apex Legends will feel right at home in Firestorm, but thanks to the ease of its loot system, casual players should also be able to pick up the game with relative ease. The most impressive thing about this take on battle royale is the ferocious wall of flames that Firestorm is named after. The power of the firestorm is incredible and watching it tear everything in its path to shreds as it advances across the map is as visually impressive as it is utterly terrifying. Honestly, the standard forcefields you have to avoid in other battle royale games seem comically tame when compared to the destructive power of the firestorm. As you'll be able to see in the video above, being inside of the firestorm is like running through the gates of hell, or being at ground zero during an apocalyptic event. Alongside being able to watch what the firestorm is capable of, the video is full of awesome Firestorm moments and in it I talk about 21 things that you need to know about the game; tips which will hopefully help you hit the ground running when the game launches next week. If you'd rather watch some Battlefield 5 Firestorm gameplay that doesn't feature me nattering away over the top of it however, you can check out a full Firestorm match in the video below. This footage follows me from the beginning moments in the aircraft hanger lobby, right through to a triumphant victory on a tiny island surrounded by an intimidating wall of fire. You can get a snippet of almost every core moment from a Firestorm match in this video, from furious looting and erratic driving through to some tense moments of squad-on-squad combat and of course, loads of lovely destruction. As it stands, I can't wait to play more Firestorm when it launches on March 25th. I do wonder if it will be enough to lure players back to the battlefield though, especially considering it's not launching as a free-to-play service like Apex Legends or Fortnite. Only time will tell, I guess, but if you're a fan of the battle royale genre and already own the game I'd heartily recommend dropping in and giving it a go.