I’ve been playing the Battlefield series since the original game, Battlefield 1942. Any long-time Battlefield player will tell you what makes the series great are the random moments where something happens that you didn’t know was possible. But in Battlefield 3, one map let you re-create that moment every match.
So you’re playing Battlefield 3. Your current goal is to capture a helipad, so you keep fighting your way down the mountain, getting sniped, planting bombs, over and over. Eventually you manage to take control of the helipad and run forward to your next objective, only to see it’s a tiny speck at the base of the mountain. Well this is Battlefield, so without hesitation, you and your team sprint off the edge of the cliff and parachute down, ready to keep fighting.
During the marketing of Battlefield 4, DICE spent a lot of time talking about their new “levolution” feature, which allows you to create those “Only in Battlefield” moments by doing things like destroying a dam and flooding the level. Now, I’m not saying those features aren’t fun, they definitely are. But those moments have always existed in the Battlefield series, long before levolution. Playing Rush mode on Damavand Peak in BF3 is not only a perfect example of these moments, it’s also been my go-to example of why this series is so much fun.
What makes Damavand Peak special (in Rush mode) is that the second pair of objectives are on top of a 500-meter-high cliffside helipad. When those objectives are taken, the attackers clean up the remaining defenders and move as far forward as possible — to the helipad. It takes a minute or two for the map boundaries to change, so the result is a large group of players all standing on the helipad waiting for the game to announce that they can continue to the next objectives. The moment those new objectives pop up, the entire team jumps off that helipad and a swarm of parachutes rain down on the waiting enemies. This video from Meatwagon22 shows it in action, and Shibby2142 takes it to the logical extreme, with all 64 players jumping off at the same time.
There are many moments during the course of playing Battlefieldthat can be far more exciting than this, but this map guaranteed an “only in Battlefield” moment every single match. The series has plenty of other big explosions, collapsing buildings, and the like, but nothing has ensured that feeling of being part of a huge team quite like this map.
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10 responses to “One Map Ensured A ‘Battlefield Moment’ Every Match”
Calls ‘random moments’ Battlefield moments. Then claims a map lets you do it every time. No longer random. Sadface.
BITTER FACTION, AWAAAAAY! This is a joke, by the way. I have nothing but love for Battlefield. And fondest of memories for Battlefield 1942 demo days.
Man, 1942 in a netcafe in the 00s was the bomb. Dark, dingy, dozens of players, all in the same room, playing on the netcafe’s custom server, gunfire filling the place as everyone had their speaker volume up way too high.
One of my most satisfying moments in gaming ever was flying around in Battlefield, and seeing that there was a really large number of troops pinned down by a tank.
It was a little damaged, but they clearly didn’t have the weaponry to take it out – they’d probably got that far on grenades, and were just huddling behind their sparse cover trying to stay out of range of its explosions.
Flying low, I strafe the thing, only metres from the ground. It was the most gratifying thing ever to hear that tank explode behind me, and on a dozen gamers’ screens over by one of the walls and hear them all actually cheer out loud. A dozen gamers cheering out loud makes a fair noise.
I looped back around by the windmill to do a victory fly-over and barrel-roll in front of the men to another round of cheers before heading off to go hunt for more targets.
Ahhh, Battlefield.
Shit yeah man. I had a similar moment in BF2 but I was the infantry on the ground.
Was on Gulf of Oman, we’re were stuck between the A and B flags, the two on the left (looking from the US carrier) on the beach. Was a bunch of infantry and an enemy tank pinning us down. We were lying down behind the dunes, and the shadow of our attack chopper came flying over. Smashed the tank and rallied us and we charged, pushed through the infantry and onto A flag.
Was easily the most memorable moment in any battlefield I’ve played, including the 800 hours I’ve put into BF3. I think the fact I played BF2 on pc and the 64player player count allowed events likes this to happen. I’ve been on xbox for BF3 an I’ve had great times and moments but god damn, I’m very excited for BF4 on Xbox One.
I used to play BF1942 in a LAN place too. Oh man, so much fun. I tried to get into it online but it just wasn’t the same 🙁
I was in high school when 1942 came out, we stuck it on every computer in the lab at school and would play at every chance we got! That and CS 1.6 are my fondest school memories!
Not quite every single match, if your team fails to detonate the first objectives theres no base jumping.
Just saying
To think I thought battlefield was about capturing points, in large open battlefields, with a large amount of players and various kits/vehicles to choose from.
How wrong of me, it’s all about jumping off a cliff.
That’s not even close to what the article was suggesting.
What I’m trying to say is the scripted “awe inspiring moments” are only impressive the first few times.
We’re not coming back again and again after 200+hrs to see the antenna fall at the end of every round in Caspian border, or to skydive off the cliff in Damavand peak for the 15th time in one round.
What’s scripted doesn’t come close to the experiences and stories players have gained from the many hours and years they’ve spent fighting alongside each other across the battlefield.
Wut?
It’s about the Lulz and the WTF’s that you experience together working as a team.. It’s about the hunting of snipers on Noob hill (numerous maps). Its about blowing up EOD bots with your own C4 so they fly across the whole map. Its about playing the objective with your squad whilst the rest of your team is playing wookie somewhere on a freakin tower/building/hill watching you rack up all the points and wondering why your squad is raging at them. It’s watching that jet explode because that explosive xbow bolt actually… WTF OMG AWESOME… hit (true story) .
It’s about Jumping off Damavand Peak and stinger/igla’ing the enemy chopper and then killing defenders with a random thrown grenade whilst capturing the flag.
Welcome to Battlefield… version 1 (1942) 2, 2.5 (Bad Company), 3.. or 4 It’s what YOU make of it… or you can just go and play a smelly fish
The best thing was C4 jumping in BF2. They need to bring that back in BF4!
4:08 just reminded me of all the times I played lemmings and forgot to set a blocker