STACK NZ Oct #78

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speeds just don't fit that brief. We asked Berlin where the studio sits in terms of delivering historical realism and entertaining content. “It’s important to mention that we don’t want to be the History Channel; this is an entertainment product first and foremost that is set and draws inspiration from WW1. The weapons, vehicles, locations and armies are authentic to the era, but of course we have taken some liberties with the setting in favour of gameplay." We mention that pilots during the First World War were not issued parachutes (it was believed that if the pilots had a means to escape, they wouldn’t be as committed to the fight). In the beta, players can bail out of the planes and descend to continue the fight. Admittedly we are being a little picky here, but we’re keen to understand how they prioritise fun over fact. “This has been something we’ve been working with throughout the entire project and we’ve tried to stay as true as we can to the era without compromising fun gameplay,” Berlin counters. “It’s our interpretation of WW1 within a battlefield wrapping, seen through a modern lens. “It’s never been our intention to push historical accuracy at the cost of fun gameplay, and the tank movement speed and parachutes for pilots are good examples where we think

1. Despite the belief that soldiers spent years in the trenches, the Allied forces would rotate infantrymen so they would only spend around ten days a month in the trenches with only around three or four on the frontline. 2. The weapon of destruction that immediately springs to mind with the Great War is the machine gun. However, the greatest number of casualties was caused by artillery fire. 3. While the common perception was that life in the trenches was more perilous, nine out of ten soldiers survived the war. Conversely, in 1915, Allied pilots had a life expectancy rate of just 11 days. WW1 Misconceptions

• Battlefield 1 is out Oct 21

game that fits into the rock-paper-scissor dynamic, a dynamic and destructible world that changes as the players' actions take effect on the landscapes and structures, and of course the promise of all out warfare, which includes air, land and sea battles. “It also expands on the original formula with the almost otherworldly weaponry and vehicles, together with horses and a focus on hand-to-hand combat.” Working within a theme unfamiliar to the studio would’ve required an inordinate amount of research to become knowledgeable of the period, the uniforms and weapons – which differed greatly between the years 1914 to 1918 - and of course the vehicles. WW1 began with antiquated tactics more accustomed to those employed at the Battle of Waterloo a hundred years prior, and concluded with combat strategies and

altering these aspects enforces the fun within our game, while still staying within range of authenticity for the era.” There is no doubt that

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methodologies that influenced how the next World War would be fought 20 years later. “Huge amounts of research has gone into Battlefield 1 including what type of weapons and vehicles were used,” outlines Berlin. “We visited museums to see and feel the actual weapons ourselves, and we also visited

It's been a mantra from day one that we want to touch and show the more untold stories of WW1

Battlefield 1 is entertaining. From what we played at E3 in June to the beta, this is probably the game we’re most looking forward to playing

in 2016, and we still haven't sampled the campaign levels. Berlin says the studio thoroughly

the actual locations where the real battles took place and gathered photo references from these locations to be able to depict the landscapes, villages, forts and cities properly. “We also read many personal testimonies from soldiers at the front sending letters back home; in these letters you can see how soldiers did not even believe the stories about the new machines of war. We really wanted to depict this feeling in the game; how small a soldier would feel when standing in front of these completely new machines of war, and how they altered and changed how war was waged.” But these machines were very much of their time; slow, lumbering tanks prone to breaking down, so there's a fine line in authentically replicating the arms and vehicles of the era and producing something that is entertaining and in line with what is expected from a shooter in 2016. Anyone who spent time with the beta in August would’ve noticed weapon and vehicle speeds more attuned with that of Word War 2. But the developer is in the business of entertainment and slow-loading bolt action rifles and slow vehicle

enjoyed its work on the game. “The width that the setting offers put us in

a really good position to choose the types of locations that perhaps are not the most commonly mentioned when talking about the Great War. “Being able to depict the Italian alps, the deserts of Arabia, the city streets of Amiens and the deep forest of Argonne has been a true eye opener for myself in terms of how global this conflict actually was. “It’s been a mantra from day one that we want to touch and show the more untold stories of WW1, and visiting and portraying these locations in the game

does just that. I think Battlefield 1 offers a more diverse palate of scenery than previous titles. “Never before have we had this many different biomes present in a Battlefield game at

launch. A big take-away from these past years is the strength of these diverse biomes, and how the nature of these locations pushes gameplay to be different in each and every map we deliver in the game.”

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