Ohhhhh yeah baby! The big thing to look at is how much change there was on the development end from BF2 to BF3. So in that process they in a way lost a lot of the skills that they had. Since BF4 is real, I almost see BF3 as somewhat of a trial, a way for them to learn what worked and what didn't work. What people liked, and what people didn't like. What keeps people playing. There's so much that hopefully they have learned from this game that they will be able to take into BF4.
Especially if it's on a similar engine, that's another big thing that had and affect on BF3, they basically were trying an engine that's almost completely new. Sure they had BF:BC2 which had the first version of Frostbite, but Frostbite
2 was a huge change from what I have heard. It's like going from CS to CS:S almost from what I have read. Now this may not be as true as I believe but I seem to remember reading that it was almost like building a whole new engine from the ground up. But maybe someone else can fill us in on that? Either way, it's not like CoD where they take the same engine and just add new maps and weapons, that actually had to do a lot more in the way of bug testing, and tons of patches to fix issues. I mean there was a patch what once a month since BF3 came out, some closer than others, and several major patches that changed a lot of things to try to balance the game better and fix bugs.
I'm sure BF4 must be a long way out at least late 2014 or early 2015, I mean I really can't see it being much sooner than that. That's if they use the same or a very similar engine, otherwise I would guess off into the late 2015 to early 2016... I'm just estimating based on the fact that they will still be releasing DLC packs for BF3 into 2013. But if it is on a similar engine maybe just tweaked and upgraded then it's just a matter of redoing the classes, finding what worked and didn't work. Redoing the maps based on what was popular and what people weren't fans of. Hopefully they do more with night maps like in BF2:Special Forces, I think the layout of Tehran Highway is what really killed it for a lot of people rather than the fact that it's dark. I'm hoping night maps come as soon as Armoured Kill, if we are lucky. Then it's just a matter of finding a bunch of fun new vehicles to fly and drive and making sure they are as balanced as can be, and víola you have a beautiful game.
I mean in a way it really feels like BF3 was a test of not only the engine, but the player base. Hopefully this means that they are taking the ideas of the people and already working on incorporating them into BF4, which, if so, would mean that BF4 could be one of the best FPS games of all time.
-JL
P.S. PLEASE!!! Dice, let Snipers have Claymores or at least C4 so that we aren't useless against pretty much every vehicle in the game, and we won't have to worry quite so much about those buggers who make it past the front line!
