After a wait that felt far too long, the Battlefield 2042 open beta is finally here. YouTube and Twitch channels are filled with streams of players giving the title a try, with feedback for the gameplay itself generally positive. Thankfully, players seem to (generally) be following the rules recently unveiled in the Battlefield Community Charter, demanding player respect and good behavior. That is unless you count the A.I.-controlled bots, who seem to have developed a particular kink for shooting players who are already dead. Sure, you won’t get any dead-er, but this is just bad form. As you’d expect, the bots weren’t programmed this way, and bugs are to be expected in any beta release.
This isn’t the only issue to be reported on the first day of the beta’s release. A wide number of players are criticizing the build for its numerous crashes and glitches, with issues spreading to next-gen consoles as well. PlayStation 5 players have reported repeated frame drops, weird flashing lights, and a massive amount of lag, with these problems only exacerbated by more players joining the game. Some players went so far as to call the beta ‘unplayable,’ and are criticizing the developers for releasing something without enough polish. Given that Battlefield 2042 is only a month away, it’s easy to see people’s concerns, but we can only hope that the finished product won’t inherit any of these problems. Given that the beta is a few months old by this point, it’s possible that these issues have already been addressed in the final version.
Battlefield 2042, the seventeenth installment in the series, will be released in full on November 19, 2021, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. EA is offering free next-gen upgrades for those who purchase the digital standard edition of the game for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
