Battlefield 6 (BF6) - Winter Charms and the Little Things

Rocking around the Battlefield Christmas Tree sporting the winter tree charm and the Freedom sticker. Yeah, it's true. For me, the little things really are what gives life a kick in the right direction.

There are those who complain about the unlocks and free gifts available in Battlefield 6 and I don't really understand where they are coming from. What do these people truly want? What do they expect? Do they want a free t-shirt or maybe a brand new car? How about a cookie and some milk? I suppose maybe I don't know what motivates people, but I think these things are a fun addition to the game.

In any case, keep the charms and stickers coming! I dig 'em.

Take care and have fun out there! --Pilchuck

#BF6 #Battlefield6 #Battlefield

Battlefield 6 (BF6) - The Winter Offensive Final Unlock

Say hello to my little friend the Nomad CX-12 climbing axe!

Today's rounds of Battlefield 6 were extremely enjoyable. I did not run into any crashes, disconnects, or visual glitches. Everything ran smoothly and the all of the players seemed to be acting in PTFO mode. It was truly enjoyable. 

And, finally, I was able to unlock the much desired climbing axe that was the final unlock of the Winter Offensive event. It took a lot of grinding to get there, especially considering the problems that were encountered after the event content and it's related patches were released. Things appear to have settled down now and today was a great day for playing. 

Thanks go out to the Battlefield developers for whatever fixes they have applied to both the client and server software. Since there didn't appear to be a download for today, I can only assume that maybe some backend server work has been completed. It is also possible that things just lined up nicely and there were no updates over the past 24 hours. I don't know and probably do not need to know. The good news is that I had a great time playing today. 

Take care and have fun out there!
--Pilchuck

Battlefield 6 (BF6) - Hotfix 1.1.3.1 Bugs Still Crawling

There are definitely some wicked bugs crawling around in the Battlefield 6 code base. Prior to Hotfix 1.1.3.1, I did not experience the frame stuttering that many other players had reported. After that hotfix was applied, I now get some stuttering for a brief time just after a respawn. 

A handful of other new problems have struck my experience since the Battlefield team applied this hotfix on top of the 1.1.3.0 patch/update. For instance, the Recon class has hands that are invisible. You can see them partially if you wear the right gloves. There is also a glitch during the respawn screen when playing Gauntlet where the Squad "Place" list shows multiple entries for the same squads. It appears to be an overlay issue where the list is displayed on top of another attempt to display the list. See the photos for an examples. 

I should note here that I had the Battlefield built-in FPS overlay active. You can see this in the image to the right. Another player on X mentioned that his experience improved after turning off performance overlays like those from Battlefield, Steam, and Afterburner. I have yet to give that a try and will report back at a later time.

The real showstopper, however, is that 2 out of 3 of the matches of Gauntlet that I tried to play today ended up crashing. The system kicked me all the way back to the Steam application. First, the Battlefield interface lagged. Then it then froze. And finally, it terminated my instance with extreme prejudice. This experience renders the game unplayable.

Update: Not sure if it is just a coincidence, but I turned off Battlefield's built-in performance overlay and no longer experienced crashes nor any dropped connections. Was able to play 4 or 5 Gauntlet matches followed by at least a few regular multiplayer games.

This recent set of impactful problems really disappoints me as a long time Battlefield player. I don't know what is going on within the organization but something needs to change. The team, and I DO include management in this, needs to look toward the concept of "Continuous Improvement" and not just shipping something that they think will work. I do not want to condemn anyone because I know that developing complex software is difficult. But, something needs to change. 

I will commend the team on their transparency and openness regarding the problems that players are earnestly reporting. It must be difficult for the team to face this situation. Nobody wants things to be in this current state. We all just want to enjoy the fruits, so to speak. 

Here's to a better future for the franchise. I truly hope the current problems can be remedied soon. I really like Battlefield 6 otherwise. When everything works, it is a great game. I thoroughly enjoyed playing multiplayer for hours and hours before these latest patches/updates introduced the current instability. 

As always, take care and have fun out there.
--Pilchuck