Battlefield 6 multiplayer reveal live coverage—what’s coming in the ‘most ambitious’ Battlefield yet

Is that Limp Bizkit I hear in this trailer?

It is. It is Limp Bizkit I hear. Looks strong though: As seen in the leaked footage, a lot like the Battlefield 3/4 era.

As usual, EA’s emphasizing environmental destruction, though I haven’t heard the word “Levolution” once yet, which is a shame.

The old class system returns

We already knew this, but EA isn’t going to try Battlefield 2042’s Specialists again. It’s just regular old classes: Recon, Assault, Engineer, and Support.

After a bit of outcry, we’re also going to get a playlist with the old class weapon restrictions.

Battlefield 6 Combat, Classes & Destruction – YouTube

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There will be nine maps at launch

And one of them will be a remake of Battlefield 3’s Operation Firestorm. A pretty good one as I recall!

We got some basic details about some of the others: Gibraltar will be a close-quarters map, Egypt is “all about infantry and land vehicles,” Tajikistan is big and mountainous, and Brooklyn is described as a mix of close-quarters and large-scale combat.

Battlefield Portal is back and bigger (woo)

I wasn’t sure whether EA would bother bringing back Battlefield 2042’s Portal custom game mode. It let players run their own pseudo-dedicated servers with their preferred settings and rules modifiers, and offered legacy maps and weapons from previous Battlefields to draw from.

Not only is Portal making a return in Battlefield 6, it’s now looking more like Halo’s Forge mode, with the ability to add objects to maps and do more advanced scripting. I’m excited about this. Portal was a great idea, but Battlefield 2042’s poor reception overshadowed it. I think it could really shine on this second go-around.

Morgan’s got more details on Battlefield Portal for us here.

Battlefield 6 Maps, Modes & Portal – YouTube

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Battlefield 6 will be out on October 10, beta starts soon

The Battlefield 6 release date is October 10, and as predicted, it’ll be $70. No $80 games for EA, at least yet.

New Call of Dutys (it’s Black Ops 7 this year) usually release in November, and it’s a confident move to go nearly head-to-head rather than launching in, say February of next year.

The Battlefield 6 public beta begins next week. Here’s when:

• August 7-8 (Battlefield Labs members only)
• August 9-10 (everyone)
• August 14-17 (everyone)

Looks like the rumored battle royale mode is real

But all we saw was a tease that recalls Battlefield 5’s Firestorm mode, where the circle is a wall of fire. It’s coming to Battlefield Labs.

A playlist with class weapon restrictions will make it into the launch version

Battlefield fans who prefer the old ways were peeved when EA announced that, although it wasn’t going to try the BF2046 character shooter thing again, it was still going to let each class use whatever guns it wants: Engineers with sniper rifles, scouts with machineguns. (Blasphemy!)

After a bit of internet shouting, EA relented and said that it’d include a playlist in the Battlefield 6 beta with old fashioned class weapon restrictions. Our expectation was that if the playlist were popular in the beta, it’d make it into the full game, but we’ve now heard that both styles of Battlefield will make it into the launch regardless of how the beta goes.

“It’s not like this is a test where whatever you play more we will [choose]. No, we will support both,” DICE lead producer David Sirland told PC Gamer’s Morgan Park on the scene in LA.

Battlefield 6 is sticking with 64-player lobbies

128-player lobbies were one of Battlefield 2042’s big bullet point features, but players didn’t vibe with the larger Conquest maps, and DICE pretty quickly began to emphasize classic 64-player playlists. I personally liked getting lost in multi-front 128-player battles, but it’s true that the chaos was hard to make much sense of, and could lead to some long jogs across wide-open spaces. Battlefield 6 will launch with the standard 64-player lobbies.

Sounds like we could see more throwback maps

One of the launch maps is Operation Firestorm, a remake of a Battlefield 3 favorite. Morgan asked DICE producer Jeremy Chubb if this is the only throwback map coming to BF6: “It’s the only map we’ve talked about,” he said, which isn’t a no. If Operation Firestorm is received positively, it seems likely that DICE will go in for more remakes.

Our hands-on impressions

I just heard from Morgan, who’s down in LA at the reveal event, that you can now hang off of tanks to hitch a ride. That little detail has honestly got me as excited as all the big announcements, like the return of Portal. It’s the little things. (I wish you could still stand on the wings of flying planes like in Battlefield 1942, though.)

Here are Morgan’s hands-on impressions from his time with Battlefield 6 this week. His early verdict: Battlefield’s back, baby.

Here are the Battlefield 6 system requirements

Via the Battlefield 6 Steam page, we’ve now got the recommended system specs, which seem pretty reasonable at a glance.

Minimum:

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10
• Processor: Intel Core i5-8400, AMD Ryzen 5 2600
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia RTX 2060, AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT 6GB
• DirectX: Version 12
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 55 GB available space
• Sound Card: No Recommendation
• VR Support: Not Supported

Recommended:

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 11
• Processor: Intel Core i7-10700, AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia RTX 3060Ti, AMD Radeon RX 6700-XT
• DirectX: Version 12
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 80 GB available space
• Sound Card: No Recommendation
• VR Support: Not Supported

Some related good news: The Steam version won’t make you launch the EA app.

Thank god, Battlefield 6 will still let you vaporize infantrymen with an AA cannon

News writer Lincoln Carpenter here. As EA’s BF6 multiplayer showcase has moved on to lengthy gameplay sessions with streamers and content creators, I’ve been on the lookout for proof of how well Battlefield Studios is representing canonical Battlefield experiences. And I’m pleased to confirm that BF6 will let you engage in the profound rudeness of using an anti-air vehicle to mulch enemy infantrymen with autocannon fire, as tradition demands.

Sure, you can probably use it for all the helicopters and stuff. But come on. It works so good on guys.

Folks, the shotguns look good

I have a simple grading rubric for shooters, which goes as follows:

Does it have a satisfying shotgun?

• If yes: Your shooter is acceptable and you’ve passed
• If no: You have failed the prompt

Luckily, that doesn’t seem to be an issue in Battlefield 6. Once EA sent its bloodthirstry throng of war-crazed streamers into a round of Squad Deathmatch, you could watch in real time as they gradually realized the game’s shotguns—at least in this pre-beta incarnation—are magnificent. It became an age of buckshot apex predators. I approve.