Battlefield 4 Teases With Graphic Gameplay

Seventeen minutes of gameplay footage has given fans a taste of Battlefield 4, with the graphical goalposts being shifted again.

A PC or next-gen console may be needed to show off the graphical glitz

Battlefield fans have been given an extended preview of the next game in the first-person shooter franchise.

Publisher Electronic Arts unveiled 17 minutes of gameplay footage from Battlefield 4 at an event coinciding with the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
It also released still images from the game.

The vehicle's sinking and one man's trapped - what to do next?

The footage, called Fishing In Baku, began with a squad of four US soldiers trapped underwater in a sinking vehicle, with one infantryman offering to sacrifice himself to save his comrades.
The gameplay then flashed back to their firefight with Russian militants in the wind-swept city of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

The game world is decidedly more open this time round

Their mission began in an abandoned school and ended in a crumbling construction site.
The graphics on display - which were running on PC - were even more photorealistic than previous games in the popular military shooter series.

Man down - but surely he won't be left behind?

"It really represents what's possible with a next-generation experience," said EA Labels president Frank Gibeau.
For the title's single-player campaign, Swedish developer Dice appears to have focused more on open environments, allowing players tactical freedom and giving them more ways to command their squadmates.

A seaborne extraction is a great way to escape from your enemies

These elements were a part of the multiplayer experience found in 2011's Battlefield 3.
"Integrating multiplayer features into the single-player experience was a big step for us," said Battlefield 4 executive producer Patrick Bach.

The Battlefield games always feature a variety of vehicles

"We looked at how and why you play multiplayer, what's important to you and your friends, and weave that into single player with that tight squad feeling, and also have that be part of the narrative."
The game will be available later this year for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

It is unclear whether this woman is a US soldier

It may also be released for Sony and Microsoft's respective eighth-generation consoles, but that was not confirmed by Electronic Arts.
EA was equally coy about whether Battlefield 4 had been influenced by the Pentagon's decision earlier this year to lift its long-standing ban on women serving in combat roles.
At the end of the gameplay video, a teaser trailer briefly showed what appeared to be a female soldier interacting with the protagonist.
"We like to look at what's happening topically and in culture," said Gibeau. "It inspires us, and we add it to our story."

(Editing by Papi)