Battlefield 2042 is a game that’s in dire need of some updates. The good news is this morning DICE announced some that are coming over the next few months. The bad news is that they’re not exactly going to set the world on fire.
The first one drops tomorrow, and simply brings some fixes to the game (which, it should be pointed out, is in much better shape now than it was at launch). The next one arrives in “mid to late February,” and brings something fans have been asking for since launch: a proper scoreboard.
Right now, players can see some stats at a glance, though others aren’t shown until the end of a match. Even then, most of those are grouped into the performance of your squad as a whole, not your individual kills/hacks/spots compared against the rest of the server. This was likely part of an Overwatch-style de-emphasising of K:D ratio, in favour of encouraging teamwork. But Battlefield veterans have been so unhappy with its absence that I guess the team figured, shit, we better put it back in.
DICE shared this work-in-progress image of what the scoreboard might end up looking like:
It...works? It’s weird though, that after caving in and implementing this, it still doesn’t have everything you’d expect. Where are vehicle kills, for example? They’re something that’s super important to anyone spending most of their time driving or flying? And why is everyone shown in one big list instead of being broken up into teams and factions?
Also coming are “Matchmaking Preferences in All-Out Warfare and All Platform VOIP,” though worryingly these are both just “still in our radar,” suggesting they’re a while away from being implemented.
This is all fine and welcome, but it’s also stuff that fans would have expected from the game at launch. It’s disappointing that a game so badly in need of some genuine updates—like new maps, new weapons and new specialists—is still having to play catch-up to a botched launch. One new map has been announced, but given the timeframes announced here, it doesn’t look like it’ll be arriving anytime soon either.
In case you missed it, here’s my review of the game, which discusses loads of huge issues, but also the 128-player battles that absolutely kick ass.