The ‘Battlefield 6' Open Beta Is Over, Here's When Weekend 2 Starts And What To Expect

Forbes

11 hours ago

The first weekend of the Battlefield 6 open beta has come and gone. I played quite a bit, and I can honestly say this is the most fun I've had with this franchise since Battlefield 1. It feels like an updated version of Battlefield 3, with modern movement and controls. It plays a bit faster, though not at the frenetic pace of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 and its omnimovement system.
I've enjoyed most of what I've played in the beta, though I find the menus to be quite horrible and confusing to navigate. I don't understand why we need tiles in all the games these days. Games are better when the menu is simple, where different modes and destinations are clearly labeled and easy to find and click on. Call Of Duty has had terrible menus over the past few games and Battlefield seems hellbent on upstaging them with an even worse, even more confounding menus.
I've also experienced at least one really frustrating bug. In the middle of several matches, my gun and arms simply disappear. I can no longer see the weapon I'm carrying. Aiming-down-sights removes all crosshairs, which makes accuracy significantly more challenging. It's impossible to see when you've reloaded and you have to check the bottom right-hand corner of the screen to make sure you have the right gun or item equipped. Other than that, the game has run pretty well other than some party-related snafus, like trying to leave to the menu but some players in the party remain in the previous match end-screen.
In Weekend 1, we got to play on three different maps across five different modes: The massive Conquest mode, the stage-based Breakthrough mode, Domination, King Of The Hill and Closed Conquest, which limits guns by class. I enjoyed all three maps, but the Liberation Peak one showed up far less often in rotation, so mostly the maps I played on were dense, urban maps with a pretty similar aesthetic.
Gunplay was quite good, thankfully, and once I'd warmed up to the game (having not played much Battlefield in years) and shaken some of my Call Of Duty habits, I was having a blast and doing quite well. I love the variety between classes and all the guns feel really solid so far. I also love the new 'drag and revive' mechanic, which is such a small but fun little change. I've noticed the prone system now mimics Black Ops 6's prone mechanic, allowing players to roll over from their stomach onto their back rather than just move side to side or in circles on the ground.
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All told, I'm really excited for the full release on October, 10th and Beta Weekend #2. Here's what you need to know about the second beta weekend.
Thankfully, we don't have long to wait for the next beta weekend. Here's when it runs:
Open Beta Weekend 2 – Thursday, August 14th - Monday, August 18th
I earned all the first weekend's freebies and rewards (which you can't actually use until the game launches) and there are a few more to earn next weekend:
In Weekend 1 we got to play the maps Siege Of Cairo, Liberation Peak and Iberian Offensive. In Weekend 2 we go to America in Empire State, which takes place on the streets of Brooklyn, NY.
On top of the modes we've played so far, we get Rush and Deathmatch, though it's possible they'll surprise us with bonus maps and modes as well. In Rush, a team of attackers and defenders battle for control of a series of Military Communication systems. Attackers plant explosives at each point, while defenders try to diffuse. It's not more like Demolition in Call Of Duty than Search and Destroy, though neither is as close to those modes as Domination is to, well, Domination and King of the Hill is to Hardpoint.
Expect to see some tuning between betas, including possible changes to classes and class abilities, though it's more likely that the bulk of fixes and updates will take place after the second beta weekend in the lead-up to launch (and plenty more after launch).
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