Battlefield Labs Leaks 🚨

Oh, but I have played them all, and a lot. I first started noticing the downfall and my enjoyment level waning with BF3, but still played it quite a bit. Then the same with BF4, but played a little less than BF3 because of the changes causing more waning interest. So much so that I only played some stress tests of BFOne and BF5, as I could tell via gameplay vids on YT they were doing more and more of the things I didn't like. I got BF2042 thinking I could tolerate the game and enjoy it, but it's just not my style, so played very little. The franchise just does a considerable number of things I don't like, want, or need ever since after BC2. 

I really don't like body awareness stuff, as player movement and collision boxes suffer a lot as a result - yet that's been a thing since BF3. With each BF iteration, it finds itself necessary to look bigger, badder, flashier, bigger teams, bigger booms, more map clutter, more realistic to the nth degree in every way, shape, and form, more ways to light you up on a mini-map and in viewport, getting rid of a true Hardcore mode... which doesn't appeal to me, personally. It looks cool, but I miss the vibe of BC2. I'm not even a fan of seeing avatars of your squad pre-match. Where's the rest of the team? Feels limiting, isolating, and a little forced to me.

In the Labs trailer, they said they essentially want to make BF6 bigger and badder than anything ever before. Obviously, BF6 has potential, and is probably undergoing constant change. They've asked the testers for feedback. I just hope there are more than one or two players testing who also thing BC2 was the pinnacle of BF :) And hopefully EA will be willing to scrap (or consider scrapping) complete systems, ideas, or implementations that have already been made in favor of making the game more aligned with BC2 *if* enough players ask for that, or if it seems that feature creep is taking over the game. Maybe my narrow window of personal likes and dislikes rooted in BC2 is too fringe at this point, given two decades of "more, more, more" in BF. 

I sort of wish the BF master reset button could be pushed to get back to BC2 state, and a few things added or enhanced from that state. Newer BFs sometimes feel like a big flashy game that prioritize slick visuals, lighting, effects, and perceived slick movement over gameplay. I'd like very tight and responsive player movement... not clunky movement and parkour slides and vaults that take control away from you for a few moments so animations can play out or as your collision box hits a wall behind you when lying prone or what not. I prefer more limited and focused player options over sprawling choices. Despite all the BF "evolutions", we still can't lean left and right around corners with Q and E keys, I'm pretty sure? I think that should have been added long before Mirror's Edge-inspired player awareness, parkour slides, and vaults... and before adding 'prone' position (which is still broken). IMO, it should be a no-brainer to add leaning. As a fan of the games Thief 1 and 2 which has leaning, I've wanted leaning in BF since playing BC2, my first foray into the series. Leaning feels so natural in T1/T2, and without it in BF, it feels rigid having to have to move your entire body to peek around corners