Battlefield 4 has 3.7 million active players worldwide, and many of them still remember the epic matches from Battlefield 2.
That is why EA revealed that a free-of-charge DLC, titled Legacy Operations, will come out in 2015 and gamers will get a lot from it. One of the main attractions of the DLC is the Dragon Valley map, a revamped variant of the Battlefield 2 arena of the same name.
"Battlefield 2 featured a poor draw distance (how far you can see in the game world) by today's standards, and the original map was built around those limitations," developer DICE says.
The developer goes on to explain that the problem was handled in a couple of ways. One solution was to increase the verticality of the terrain, so that it resembles a real river valley from China. This allowed for more terrain occlusion over big distances, which is mostly apparent when the gameplay happens on the central island.
Another trick that DICE used to bypass the viewing distance issues was to separate the air battles from the terrestrial ones. A cloud layer breaks eye contact between the airborne dog fights and land battles, and increases the overall coolness of Battlefield 4.
DICE also stated that the destructible (and repairable) bridges will be kept for players to use in their tactical choices.
Xbox 360 and PS3 owners get the short end of the stick this time. Because of the size and complexity of the redesigned map, only Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles can run it. However, DICE claims that older consoles will still get support and content that their users can enjoy. Battlefield 4 Legacy Operations will also come to the PC.
Gamers can now choose the Conquest mode in the first-person shooter. The gameplay variant features a lot of flags (far more than any of the previous Battlefield 4 maps) and delivers the vehicles to the fighting teams in a slightly imbalanced way reminiscent of the Conquest Assault gameplay. For trigger-happy players, a Rush mode will surely get that adrenaline pumping.
The zero-cost DLC Battlefield 4 Legacy Operations is scheduled for release during the winter break. This means that the DLC will arrive simultaneously with the game's holiday update.
Until then, check out some wicked examples of gameplay on the old-but-new map below.
