Earlier this month, Battlefield 2042 started its first live-service event. Things went about as well as many expected, with the event disabled just hours after launch due to major bugs. This game, however, is the phoenix of the FPS world, constantly being consumed by hellfire just to respawn with a new update or patch. Tomorrow, Update 2.2 for Season 2: Master of Arms will be released at 8:00 UTC, and those still playing the game will be happy to see some bug fixes and improvements, a newly reworked map, and three new Vault weapons.
The Orbital map has seen some major changes in the overall atmosphere. Two of the previous flags, Checkpoint and Radar, have been transformed into HQ’s, and both are placed in such a way that there are a number or viable flags in proximity. This will cut down on traversal time and lead to much better combat. A new flag has also been added on top of the ridge between the Launch Site and the Cryogenic Plant. Orbital now features three distinct areas–a military area, a war-torn area, and a natural area.
The Radar Station will now have a much stronger military presence, as will the Crawlerway. While the Launch Pad has been reinforced as an operational base, it has recieved a slight visual overhaul.
Update 2.2 introduces Persistent Servers to Battlefield 2042 as well, meaning that a Server will remain visible within the Server Browser even without active players.
Three new Vault weapons have been added: the ACW-R from Battlefield 3, the AKS-74u from Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3, and the MP412 REX, also from Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3.
Some general changes included in the patch notes are listed below. The full list of patch notes along with plenty of images can be found on the game’s official website here.
General
- The in-game Blocked Players list now updates in realtime when Blocking or Unblocking a user from the same platform
- The Squad VOIP UI is no longer visible on the Home Menu when starting the game
- When joining a Portal Featured Experience, the map location icon is now displayed on the loading screen in the bottom-left corner of the screen
- Resolved an issue that could display the same Welcome Screen multiple times when booting the game
- When joining a friend in Conquest in All-Out Warfare, the bottom left corner of the loading screen now correctly states US/RU instead of No-Pat Conquest
- Some PC menu buttons and screens have been updated to no longer show “(F) Change Settings” if pressing that button would have no effect
- Red background lights should no longer clip through player models in the Home Screen
- PS5 – The Activity menu on PlayStation 5 now correctly show the actual in-game activity, instead of always stating Conquest
- The “5 Kills and Assists as” Assignment to unlock a cosmetic for Crawford and Lis now track Assists correctly
- The “Hellbent” Player Card Tag now tracks Season 2 missions correctly. This fix should be retroactive
- The name of Crawfords Mounted Vulcan in the Mastery criteria has been corrected. Turret Assists now also progress it
- Fixed an issue with the Statistics page not correctly tracking damage dealt with Season 2 weapons
- Unobtainable Seasonal badges for expired Seasons are no longer present in the Upcoming rewards screen
- Fixed an issue with Battle Rass rank ups being missed when a player ranks up too quickly
- Added the ability to equip Player Card Backgrounds from the Battle Pass screens
- Fixed an issue with the Battle Pass Mastery Badge tracking slowly. The badge should now track correctly when progress is made
- Fixed an issue where the XP bar travels backwards in the XP summary screen
Battlefield 2042 was first released on November 19, 2021. The title is currently available to play on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. In September, the 2.1 Update brought a massive number of bug fixes and improvements to the title. Sadly, no matter what maps are reworked or what weapons are added, we can’t help but have the feeling that 2042 won’t be able to keep up with the shifting FPS landscape.