Battlefield 2042 has tornados, wingsuits, hovercrafts and more and it looks utterly wild

The first next-gen Battlefield also has sandstorms, ziplines, rockets and much more

With E3 2021 well and truly underway, we're starting to get a clearer picture of the real heavy hitters this year and what we can start to expect from the first real batch of next-gen and third-party titles. One of the big names that returned along with the conference this year is Battlefield and it looks bigger and better than ever. Battlefield 2042 is the first in the series to be set in the future, though fortunately, it's the relatively near future, so we don't have to worry about anything too daft a la CoD: Advanced Warfare. They dropped a scintillating cinematic reveal trailer last week but now we have a first real look at the first next-gen entry in the franchise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WomAGoEh-Ss&t=2s As you can see, the scope is next-level (as if it wasn't already) not just in terms of map sizes - which have always been the largest of any in the FPS genre - but in terms of the massive, all-out multiscale online warfare. As always, there's a healthy selection of weapons and vehicles, as well new gameplay additions such as wingsuits, ziplines, Fultons 'sky-hook' extractions and payload delvieries—even a game event set on a space rocket launchpad! 'Levelution' (the game's map-changing mechanic) also seems to have, well, levelled up, as beyond the series' signature destructible environments, the face of entire matches will be changed by extreme weather events like tornados and sandstorms. You know, just to add a bit more madness to a game already packed with plenty of craziness. We saw early iterations of this to some extent in the last game, Battlefield V, as DICE introduced 'Firestorm': their answer to battle royal format when it was well and truly booming. However, the mode never quite going or got the attention it needed, nor did it even seemed packaged right - more just something they rushed out to try and keep up with the competition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynXX95gTkBE Speaking of which, the team have doubled back in that respect as the developers have announced that not only will there be no battle royale mode this time around, but that there will be no campaign either! The lattermost is gutting news for many, no doubt (myself included) as there have been some great stories down the years - especially as they pivoted to the anthology-like 'War Stories' in the previous two games. However, hopefully, the absence of a single-player and an extraneous sequel to Firestorm means we can expect a better multiplayer than ever. DICE has said that this should be a freeing direction, on the other hand, as well as reassuring players that "2042 is not a game without narrative". Design director, Daniel Berlin, told Eurogamer:

"You still have a narrative-driven world, that's something that you will see through the eyes of the specialists that we're introducing. As we go through the live service, and the seasons, we'll introduce new specialists, and you'll see how the world evolves through the eyes of the specialists that we have."

The Swedish studio said that although there are no plans to add in either of these modes, the multiplayer experience will have more depth than ever, as well as teasing "other experiences within the game that [they] can't talk about which we are super excited for." - and now so are we. The trailer ends with "Prepare for more July 22, 2021." Did you say more?... So, it may be a somewhat new setting for the franchise it's still Battlefield as we know it, just bigger and hopefully better than ever. Roll on release day on October 22nd!