• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Is the current state of BF 2042 a sign that EA should finally ditch Frostbite for good?

MaKTaiL

Member
Frostbite does not have a good track record and there have been reports from former EA devs that completely despise the engine saying it's a mess to work with. Games like Anthem, Dragon Age Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda failed mostly because devs spent too much time trying to understand Frostbite and find workarounds to make it work somewhat decently (albeit unsuccessfully).

BF 2042 currently has too many bugs that should not have been present this late into development and I honestly don't see them fixing it fast enough for launch date. You could argue that they are using an older build which is most of the time a complete lie to mask the mess of development. Anthem devs said the same thing for the beta build one month before release and we all know what happened after. What are your thoughts on this?

TL.DR.: Not even Dice devs know how to make Frostbite work, just ditch it already EA. Imagine how gorgeous an Unreal 5 BF would look with Lumen.
 
Last edited:

MiguelItUp

Member
I think Frostbite is more than okay TBH. I mean, it always has been a beautiful looking engine. Performs well too, just depends on how it's handled per project.

If anything, the build that they used for Open Beta wasn't a good build. Multiple devs have come out saying that so many of those issues in the build have already been fixed since. I've even seen some saying they probably should've used a different build, lol.

Considering 2042's development was done over quarantine, I think it's more than fine. Sure there will be some bumpy roads, maybe even some more than usual. But it will be even better after release, I'm sure.
 
Last edited:

JoeBudden

Member
BF1 and BFV performed well (after multiple fixes) with Frostbite. The Battlefront games all looked and performed well too.

The problem here comes down to poor project management. They need another year of development. Not just for fixing bugs, but to reevaluate a lot of these dumbass ideas.
 
Last edited:

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I feel like no one has seen a battlefield beta before launch. The shit is always broken...

...should we accept it, no fucking way and we should all be cautious but jeezus every single battlefield has had fucked up bugs before launch and in the launch days for yeeeears.

It's not acceptable and shouldn't be written off, but it's not like 2042 is an exception.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Cant wait to test out NHL 22 10 hour trial. First time using Frostbite. Going by videos, it does seem to look and move a bit different. That reminds me, I think it's downloadable now. Going to check.
 

R6Rider

Gold Member
Frostbite isn't the issue. Many of the bugs and issues are because DICE likes to take what they improved in previous games and start over for whatever fucking reason.

They have the perfect flight feel/system in BF4.
They have great movement and character control in BFV.
They already had a good UI layout in multiple titles in the series.
Even minor things like the ribbons/medals and the test range in 4.

It's like they do so much extra work for no reason. I'm really enjoying the beta overall, but so many things didn't have to be an issue.
 
Last edited:

MiguelItUp

Member
I feel like no one has seen a battlefield beta before launch. The shit is always broken...

...should we accept it, no fucking way and we should all be cautious but jeezus every single battlefield has had fucked up bugs before launch and in the launch days for yeeeears.

It's not acceptable and shouldn't be written off, but it's not like 2042 is an exception.
100%...

Much like all betas and tests, its the job of the players to report bugs, pinpoint issues, and inform the devs a great deal. So that the final product hopefully has those issues fixed come launch.

Regardless, yes, bugs exist. Coming from a project that was developed over quarantine forcing them to mix up how they work together, I can't say I'm surprised.
 

Stuart360

Member
I was watching someone play the PC version on max settings and i was thinking to myself 'man Frostbite is really starting to show its age'. However we also have to remember the game is a cross gen game.

Having said that, Battlefield 4 was also a cross gen game but looked fantastic on PS4 and XB1, while the 360/PS3 versions looked awful.

2142 certainly doesnt have the same wow effect Battlefield 4 did at the time.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effects/Anthem's issues lay solely with E.A.'s head honcho's trying to consolidate their licensing fees. It's like they took a Ferrari and told the devs to make a dump truck out of it. It wasn't designed to do what those games were trying to achieve. It has less to do with the tech having problems, and more in trying to make the tech do things it wasn't designed to do in the first place.

EVERY single Battlefield game since BF3's launch has had launch issues. It's expected at this point. They'll be fixed. They always are. I'd wager that BF3/4's launch issues will retrospectively be analyzed as more sever than anything that 2042 will have.
 

HTK

Banned
Maybe 2042 doesn't have the wow effect because now it's supporting 128 players on biggest maps in the franchise history.

Frostbite is fine and the game will be fine as well. I'm not too concerned about it honestly. This game already looks better to me than Vanguard with it's 6v6 shitty color scheme maps.
 

DryvBy

Member
Maybe 2042 doesn't have the wow effect because now it's supporting 128 players on biggest maps in the franchise history.

Frostbite is fine and the game will be fine as well. I'm not too concerned about it honestly. This game already looks better to me than Vanguard with it's 6v6 shitty color scheme maps.

Hell Let Loose has an even bigger map and is made with a lot less resources. I'm skipping over BF again it looks like.
 

HTK

Banned
Hell Let Loose has an even bigger map and is made with a lot less resources. I'm skipping over BF again it looks like.
That's fine, I always advocate for players to play what they like. I don't do too many smaller titles since they always lack overall polish and feel.
 

DryvBy

Member
That's fine, I always advocate for players to play what they like. I don't do too many smaller titles since they always lack overall polish and feel.
I'm the same way. I'm a BIG BF fan (even back when it was Codename Eagle before EA lol). But after playing a smaller title, I'm just amazed HLL looks good and feels as good as it does compared to this.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
I was watching someone play the PC version on max settings and i was thinking to myself 'man Frostbite is really starting to show its age'. However we also have to remember the game is a cross gen game.

Having said that, Battlefield 4 was also a cross gen game but looked fantastic on PS4 and XB1, while the 360/PS3 versions looked awful.

2142 certainly doesnt have the same wow effect Battlefield 4 did at the time.
Totally agreed.

As cross gen fades out, I'd like to think we'll see prettier engine improvements across the board.
 

HTK

Banned
I've played the Halo beta, Vanguard beta, and hopefully tomorrow the BF2042 beta. I hope by Sunday I'll know for sure who's getting my money. My biggest concern with 2042 is that the maps might be too big for 128 players.
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
Frostbite does not have a good track record and there have been reports from former EA devs that completely despise the engine saying it's a mess to work with. Games like Anthem, Dragon Age Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda failed mostly because devs spent too much time trying to understand Frostbite and find workarounds to make it work somewhat decently (albeit unsuccessfully).

BF 2042 currently has too many bugs that should not have been present this late into development and I honestly don't see them fixing it fast enough for launch date. You could argue that they are using an older build which is most of the time a complete lie to mask the mess of development. Anthem devs said the same thing for the beta build one month before release and we all know what happened after. What are your thoughts on this?

TL.DR.: Not even Dice devs know how to make Frostbite work, just ditch it already EA. Imagine how gorgeous an Unreal 5 BF would look with Lumen.

How in the hell did DA:I fail because of Frostbite? Same for MA:A. Anthem failed, but it sure as hell wasn't because of the game engine.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
I've played the Halo beta, Vanguard beta, and hopefully tomorrow the BF2042 beta. I hope by Sunday I'll know for sure who's getting my money. My biggest concern with 2042 is that the maps might be too big for 128 players.
So my recommendation to you is to spawn on squad members and captured points under fire if you're wanting to get where the action is. The HUD, like other BF games, does a good job of letting you know where the action is.

I personally haven't had an issue with the map size and player count, it's actually really awesome in a lot of scenarios IMO. But if you prefer smaller environments and/or constant action, don't put yourself in a position where you have to travel a great distance.

If you're not new to the BF series, then you'll be fine.
 

HTK

Banned
So my recommendation to you is to spawn on squad members and captured points under fire if you're wanting to get where the action is. The HUD, like other BF games, does a good job of letting you know where the action is.

I personally haven't had an issue with the map size and player count, it's actually really awesome in a lot of scenarios IMO. But if you prefer smaller environments and/or constant action, don't put yourself in a position where you have to travel a great distance.

If you're not new to the BF series, then you'll be fine.
Oh yeah for sure. My most played game on PlayStation 4 was Battlefield 4 so I'm used to getting into action ahhahahaha I'm glad the scale hasn't hindered that part of BF where the action still happens on the objectives.
 

elliot5

Member
This is such a brain dead armchair dev take. Did you notice anything similar between Anthem, Mass Effect and Dragon Age? All Bioware. That's more of a failure in the studio and EA for not letting them use the tools they needed to succeed.

Frostbite has worked out fine for need for speed, sports games, star wars, Plants vs Zombies and others.

The state of BF2042 has less to do with the engine and more to do with the circumstances of a new game developed primarily remotely on a grander scale than before and across more platforms than before. Even then it's not that terrible..

The knee jerk reaction to blame faults on "engines" is one of the dumbest criticisms I read on the internet.
 
Last edited:

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Different game modes have different tempos and pace for Battlefield, you can shoot people with guns in either game engine. Frostbite is linked to Bad Company 2 and Battlefront and those games released without bugs.
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
Frostbite does not have a good track record and there have been reports from former EA devs that completely despise the engine saying it's a mess to work with. Games like Anthem, Dragon Age Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda failed mostly because devs spent too much time trying to understand Frostbite and find workarounds to make it work somewhat decently (albeit unsuccessfully).

BF 2042 currently has too many bugs that should not have been present this late into development and I honestly don't see them fixing it fast enough for launch date. You could argue that they are using an older build which is most of the time a complete lie to mask the mess of development. Anthem devs said the same thing for the beta build one month before release and we all know what happened after. What are your thoughts on this?

TL.DR.: Not even Dice devs know how to make Frostbite work, just ditch it already EA. Imagine how gorgeous an Unreal 5 BF would look with Lumen.
Game is GORGEOUS and if I'm not mistaken this BETA is a few months old.

69Qo88W.jpg
 
What? Have you seen EA battlefront I & II?? Those games look awesome. Need for speed? Frostbite is a looker!. I don't know what is going on with 2042...
Function and form are two very different things. If you can’t make a game that functions properly out the gate, it doesn’t matter what the game looks like.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
For all the stuff going on in 2042 what else do you want? It's like some of you almost don't design these games and have to make concessions to meet your vision.

It's very good in visuals and of course, has some glitches but otherwise fun.
 
While the game is buggy as hell, no other game or engine has been able to pull off the kind of physics based madness as what I just experienced. When the tornado, rain, wind, lightning kicks up with 128 players and all the requisite explosions and gunfire it feels like a true next gen experience. Also, they got it running at 60 fps and close to native 4k on console.

As long as they can fix most of the bugs I don't see how any other engine could do what they've done. Unreal 5 is the only one that could surpass it probably.
 
Last edited:

DonF

Member
Function and form are two very different things. If you can’t make a game that functions properly out the gate, it doesn’t matter what the game looks like.
Battlefront I and II had little to no problems at launch. It's super weird, but besides some balance issues, those games were perfect day one. It's like other DICE developed both.
 

Solarstrike

Member
Not at all. Playing the Beta atm and it's stunning. So many things the engine can handle on the screen at once, is incredible. The only thing I'm concerned about is the wonky physics; four-wheeled vehicles sliding all over the place, character bodies floating while seated in aerial assets. Grappling hook needs to be longer, choppers faster, more character edit options. Other than those things3, very happy to finally wtry the game out. Having an absolute blast playing it along with my bro ultrazilla ultrazilla and cannot wait to play the other maps and modes. Haven't had this much fun playing a game in a long time. Game is going to break records in sales. Bring on the giant mechs!
 

EDMIX

Member
Frostbite does not have a good track record and there have been reports from former EA devs that completely despise the engine saying it's a mess to work with. Games like Anthem, Dragon Age Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda failed mostly because devs spent too much time trying to understand Frostbite and find workarounds to make it work somewhat decently (albeit unsuccessfully).

BF 2042 currently has too many bugs that should not have been present this late into development and I honestly don't see them fixing it fast enough for launch date. You could argue that they are using an older build which is most of the time a complete lie to mask the mess of development. Anthem devs said the same thing for the beta build one month before release and we all know what happened after. What are your thoughts on this?

TL.DR.: Not even Dice devs know how to make Frostbite work, just ditch it already EA. Imagine how gorgeous an Unreal 5 BF would look with Lumen.

no
 

Horatius

Member
you're conflating a couple of things there op, the reasons the games you listed failed was because the engine was solely envisioned as a fps/battlefield machine. they had to hack it to shit and waste years of labour to get basic third person shit to work in it at all

it's very very good at being an fps engine though

the real problem is just that dice suck ass now, that's not the engine's fault
 
Last edited:
Idk why you all QQuing about all this. This thread was clearly made with 0 self research/education and is purely based on assumptions. It was told to us before that the beta build is MONTHS old. Learn to research please before you make yourself look like a complete misinformed fool and lie to people please. Thanks.
 

Kerotan

Member
BF1 and BFV performed well (after multiple fixes) with Frostbite. The Battlefront games all looked and performed well too.

The problem here comes down to poor project management. They need another year of development. Not just for fixing bugs, but to reevaluate a lot of these dumbass ideas.
It would also help having no last gen versions.
 

jakinov

Member
Frostbite does not have a good track record and there have been reports from former EA devs that completely despise the engine saying it's a mess to work with. Games like Anthem, Dragon Age Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda failed mostly because devs spent too much time trying to understand Frostbite and find workarounds to make it work somewhat decently (albeit unsuccessfully).

BF 2042 currently has too many bugs that should not have been present this late into development and I honestly don't see them fixing it fast enough for launch date. You could argue that they are using an older build which is most of the time a complete lie to mask the mess of development. Anthem devs said the same thing for the beta build one month before release and we all know what happened after. What are your thoughts on this?

TL.DR.: Not even Dice devs know how to make Frostbite work, just ditch it already EA. Imagine how gorgeous an Unreal 5 BF would look with Lumen.
The reports were that the engine was not made to make games other than games like Battlefield which is obvious because it was built to make Battlefield games and then used for other types of games. It was not built to be a general purpose engine to be used by other people for anything they can think of. Unreal Engine is designed to be licensed out and has not only community support but entire teams that are there to make things easier and support their users.

There's supposed to be a lot of bugs late in development. They also have a lot of man power and a month is decent amount of time especially with the existing of day one patches. The number of bugs don't matter as much as the complexity of the bugs. And more importantly how likely they are to occur. It's also normal to leave bugs tracked in a backlog especially if they are really obscure edge cases.
 

AGRacing

Gold Member
Frostbite does not have a good track record and there have been reports from former EA devs that completely despise the engine saying it's a mess to work with. Games like Anthem, Dragon Age Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda failed ....
Dragon Age : Inquisition failed? Didn't it sell great and win multiple GOTY awards ? I sure liked it.
 

KyoZz

Tag, you're it.
Game is GORGEOUS and if I'm not mistaken this BETA is a few months old.

69Qo88W.jpg
Frostbite looks amazing, like with any engine results will depend on the people using it. The frostbite engine has resulted in some of the best looking games ever made. Battlefront i & II are gorgeous and run on a potato.
qnugqCj.jpg
y6fv0OO.jpg
This, let's wait and see how it perform on release with proper driver on PC and latest build. Frosbite is one of the few engine that look incredible and perform very well 99% of the time.
 

matty3092

Member
I love how people in here are like "but but it's a months old build" why would u take that at face value? Every battlefield since atleast 4 has had some major issues at launch what makes u think this time will be different?
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I love how people in here are like "but but it's a months old build" why would u take that at face value? Every battlefield since atleast 4 has had some major issues at launch what makes u think this time will be different?
Not entirely true. BF4 shipped broken but BF1 was relatively bug free. BFV shipped with tons of issues but thats because it only had a two year dev cycle.

BF 2042 will undoubtedly have issues at launch even with a three year dev cycle. it is shipping on like ten platforms.

Dragon Age : Inquisition failed? Didn't it sell great and win multiple GOTY awards ? I sure liked it.
Correct. Dragon Age Inquisition won the most GOTY awards in 2014 including the VGAs. It also sold really well.
 
Last edited:

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Frostbite isn't the issue. Many of the bugs and issues are because DICE likes to take what they improved in previous games and start over for whatever fucking reason.

They have the perfect flight feel/system in BF4.
They have great movement and character control in BFV.
They already had a good UI layout in multiple titles in the series.
Even minor things like the ribbons/medals and the test range in 4.

It's like they do so much extra work for no reason. I'm really enjoying the beta overall, but so many things didn't have to be an issue.
This. It took them six months to fix the medic issues in BF1 and all those quality of life changes and additions were gone from BFV the day it launched. I also dont see them in this game. When i die, there is nothing telling me if medics are around. Medics cant tag me and tell me to wait. There are no indicators telling me that a medic is closing in. All of those things were added in BF1 post launch. All missing.

DICE along with many other studios out there are just really bad at management. Thats why most games take 5-7 years to make nowadays.

Frostbite does not have a good track record and there have been reports from former EA devs that completely despise the engine saying it's a mess to work with. Games like Anthem, Dragon Age Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda failed mostly because devs spent too much time trying to understand Frostbite and find workarounds to make it work somewhat decently (albeit unsuccessfully).

BF 2042 currently has too many bugs that should not have been present this late into development and I honestly don't see them fixing it fast enough for launch date. You could argue that they are using an older build which is most of the time a complete lie to mask the mess of development. Anthem devs said the same thing for the beta build one month before release and we all know what happened after. What are your thoughts on this?

TL.DR.: Not even Dice devs know how to make Frostbite work, just ditch it already EA. Imagine how gorgeous an Unreal 5 BF would look with Lumen.
I think they should ditch frostbite for good, but I dont think frostbite is the issue here. The bugs would be there in any game on any engine. it just means the game isnt even closed to being shipped despite like 5 EA studios helping them make this game.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom