Is the Battlefield franchise losing touch with what made it successful?
Source
To be fair, I have never been a huge fan of the Battlefield games. I just recognize their significance for many friends and gamers as a whole. From what I know, Battlefield has been loved for its gritty, squadbased realism in a more approachable format than ARMA. Contrast this with the whimsicality of CoD or Halo and you will bee why BF is still around today. Having seen the trailer, I'm getting a bad feeling about the game's direction.
For those who have seen the trailer, you will notice most of my criticisms.
Place
If is wasn't for my unhealthy ability to recognize small arms of WW2, I wouldn't have been able to tell this was supposed to be a WW2 game. The location of the trailer could have been just about anywhere. All they would have had to do was to change up the guns you see people carrying, and you could make anew trailer for a new era. It was so uninspired, especially to fans of realism.
Pace
WW2 was fought with bolt action rifles as the mainline weapons. The combat was slow and brutal. This game does a poor job of staying true to the original pacing. Sure I expect the game to be faster than real combat because it needs to be modified to be game worthy, but this was a Rambo or Delta Force movie thrown kicking and screaming into the 1940's, not a game built with the realistic pacing in mind at all.
Visuals
The high contrast visuals, lush foliage, screen effects, lens flare, and flashy animations are not what Battlefield is all about.
(well maybe the lens flare is)
Battlefield has always been spartan with its application of effects and animations. This reminded me more of Ubisoft's Farcry series than the most recently Battlefield set only 30 years prior historically.
Sum it up
I think the game is losing what has made it successful for years, and the consumer response has been very 50/50 about the material as seen thus far. I am expecting lackluster performance for this entry into the franchise.