Discussing an Open Beta
August 21, 2025
The above photo represents myself in October.
Before I start this particular blogpost, some updates on the last one. YouTube did indeed roll out their BigBro AI monitor onto the world, but as far as we can tell, its "age estimates" are only in effect for accounts created during the current year. In other words, the shitstorm that this feature will conjur hasn't hit yet, but it will soon. Give it a while.
Regarding the payment processors, there's both good news and bad news. Since the bad news is harder to swallow, I'll get that out of the way first; i.e. PayPal has now been pulled from Steam in multiple countries.
It's still available in the United States, AKA the only country that actually matters, but there are multiple millions of others who are shit out of luck. According to GabeN, this was due to "certain content on Steam", not dissimilar to the Mastercard problems.
However, here's a bit of good news: In a recent statement by Kadokawa, one of the largest media conglomorates in the entirety of Japan, they apparently directly called out strangleholds by payment processors as the reason for their declining revenue. That might not seem as big of a deal initially, but to put this into a language we can understand, this is the company that not only owns Niconico, but also 70% of From Software. If a company with this amount of power refuses to sugarcoat things, we could potentially see some interesting developments coming forward. (In case you need to know, Mastercard and Visa payments are still A-OK on sites like OnlyFans and Roblox, muahaha)
One final update, since this might also be important in the near future. Keep an eye on any artists you might be supporting on Patreon specifically. On Twitter, I've witnessed many artists (especially western artists) have their accounts permanently deleted without prior notice and with vague reasoning. As far as I know, this is happening en masse. That's multiple years of work and literally thousands worth of support gone in an instant. What is the vague reasoning in question? For artists willing to share the emails, it's apparently violation of ToS regarding "obscene material". Material they didn't care about until payment processors started their prude campaign. So much for protecting the children! Any artists reading this, be careful out there.
That's it for updates. What is today's topic?!
If you hadn't seen the advertisements, you've definitely seen the viral clip of some cheater shooting a rock, which for whatever reason caused a shitstorm of kaiju scale. The "Oopsay" Incident of 2025. But I'm not talking about that specifically, at least not yet. Let's discuss Battlefield 6.
I still get goosebumps thinking about 2042. The grotesque visions of floating parachutes, retarded AI bots, hovercrafts soaring through the stars, and more terrifying things fit for a horror film. From what I can understand, now that EA actually decided to think (maybe) for once and hire competant leaders, one Vince Zampella is now spearheading the next Battlefield entry, and the rest of the franchise going forward from what I can tell.
I've seen what the fans asked for on the subreddit. "Grit", "return to form", "BF3/4 vibes", and other cryptic demands like that. Things BF1 was praised for, for example. After putting about 25 hours into the beta and reaching rank 20, I can say with confidence that...
*drumroll* Battlefield...is potentially back.
Anyone who thinks the same I do probably understands why. The combat is quick and fast-paced, team play is far more important than in 2042, destruction actually exists again after four years, etc. There are obviously things to be fixed (I think a medic being able to bring back an entire squad in about 2 seconds is kind of ridiculous), but is that not why we have beta tests? Unlike 2042, there is an actual, feasible vision here, and direction that doesn't feel like a whole bunch of technobabble and back-of-the-box features all blended together and then thrown at the wall.
I guess I have to address the nagging elephant in the room: map sizes. Good god, what a shit show. In fact, let me try to address the many doomer complaints I've seen floating around the Battlefield subreddit and on other corners of the web. Ermagerd, it feels too much like Call of Duty! Why are the maps so small? Why do I move so fast?! Why the fuck am I able to dodge and roll?
Let us first discuss map sizes. In short, they really are not as bad as you think they are.
According to many, the maps are not only small, but "poorly designed". Although what we've seen in the beta can be a bit chokey at times, it really is not the claustrophobic hell that fans seem to be accusing them as. Literally everything 2042 was criticized for has been rectified: the maps are smaller, there's plenty of cover, pathways to points are very clear and distinct, the maps are artisctically distinct, et cetera. I was there for 2042's launch; the maps were, in no uncertain terms, COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY EMPTY. You want your large maps? There you go, go play 2042! Battlefield 3, the game all fans drool over, has a map called Seine Crossing. This map is almost the exact same size as another in BF6, Seige of Cairo, yet the latter gets all the anger. Curious!
Every Battlefield entry has its own offshoot subreddit. Have you been to the 2042 subreddit? There is revisionist history being passed around as we speak. One of the top posts as of me writing this is a poster insisting that "BF2042 actually wasn't that bad this whole time". I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it was. It still is. The game is essentially a turd that's been showered in gold and glitter. I suppose this is the cycle for Battlefield, still in full swing.
What cycle am I referring to? I'll get to that later.
Next, the gameplay. I've been playing Call of Duty literally since I was a babbling toddler, same with Battlefield. No sweetheart, BF6 does not play like COD, and anyone who's actually played both would understand that. I can also assure you that "slowness" and "strategy" didn't really exist in Battlefield as much as you think they did and you're essentially making things up. The extent of strategy in a Battlefield game would be coordinating with your squad to help take out a vehicle together, or to PTFO.
I think the most infuriating post was one regarding the map Empire State, with almost 10k upvotes. The NYC one. About the actual post itself, OP hardly gave a reason as to why the map was actually terrible, but the real meat is in the comments. Here's a brief compiliation of the top ones, with usernames omitted.
"Feels like a COD map honestly , fits right in with open weapon classes lol , the old school BF feeling is gone now "
"3/4 of the modes are either 1:1 COD modes or very close to what you'd play in COD, all the beta maps are COD maps but somehow some people will still say this has nothing close to being COD and is the true Battlefield DNA. I don't get it. The game has changed towards targeting a bigger audience, we're no longer the target audience. It's fine, we should just not play it then."
"It’s fucking horrible. Can we all stop the cope at this point. It’s clear the game is heavily focused towards infantry, more so than any battlefield in the last 15 years."
"Everything we've seen so far is just cod like.. It doesn't have its own identity.. let alone anything akin to bf3/4/1/5."
"Same for me. Quit after 30min and wont buy this game. Played mostly Insugency Sandstorm in the last few days and BF6 is on steroids in comparison. Unplayable. It's just run and gun."
I think that last comment is the worst one. Why in the fuck, on gods green earth, are you even comparing Insurgency to Battlefield in the first place? How would you feel if I compared Terraria to Minecraft?
You know what these people typically consider the gold standard for Battlefield? BF3. Let it be known that in the beta for that game, one of the main maps you could play was the meat grinder that is Operation Metro. There was also an entire DLC for that game dedicated solely to CQC and was only available for modes like team deathmatch. But y'know, that's obviously the "true" Battlefield experience, unlike this shlocky COD clone meant for fidget-spinner faggots that scroll TikTok all day!
This is where the cycle I mentioned comes in. I've seen the GameFAQs threads from 14 years ago, and I noticed something kind of amusing. Back then, fans of old also noticed that the maps in BF3 were smaller than, say, what 1942 or BF2 had to offer. Not only that, but the movement was faster, snappier, more responsive. Guess what BF3 was dismissed as? Bullshit that catered to COD fans. Really, you can go look yourself.
I genuinely would like to know who told people that Battlefield was some slow, grounded military simulator. It's not. Battlefield is an arcade shooter. If you wanted grounded military simulation, please go play Arma. Additionally, I don't think it would be an ideal experience to have every single Battlefield play the same as as the last one, and DICE thinks so too. That's probably the main reason for open weapons, which in my opinion, aren't really as horrible in practice as they are on paper. Luckily for us, there are even solutions to these problems if one is still unconvinced. Would you like to play something witht the "vibes" of Battlefield 3? Go play some Battlefield 3. Not a fan of open weapons? Give the closed weapons playlists a shot. Would you like a server browser?! Use the one that's built into Portal!
Well, we'll have to see how that last one plays out. I'm not clairvoyant.
And for the love of god, please don't play Delta Force. I know Battlefield fans might be needlessly angry, and I know it looks like Battlefield, but Delta Force is pay-to-win Chinese spyware that is difficult to get rid of once you install it. It also has operators, like 2042. Huehuehue.
I think that's all I have to say. If you agree with me, cool. If you don't, I care quite little. Nevertheless, I'll probably be seeing you both in October anyway.
I have to go to work soon, so that's where I'll leave it. This is Radioquarium, signing off. Good night, and see you on the battlefield.