Months after release, there are still issues with DICE’s Battlefield 4. I think it’s fair to say that the game is no longer “Betafield 4” label-worthy, but alas, problems still persist, and among the most game-breaking and notable would be server performance and rubber-banding issues. DICE is aware of the problems, and once again, promises to take measures in this regard. In a recent Battlefield Blog post, the DICE team has shed some light on known issues and how it’s planning to address them.
“We wanted to provide a quick update on the issues with Battlefield 4 “rubber-banding” some players on certain platforms experienced during matches with 64-players. Looking into this further, we’re unhappy with our server performance, so we’ll be upgrading the hardware as soon as possible, investing more to deliver a better experience.”
Server-upgrades definitely sound like a good first step, and at least it’s nice to see DICE acknowledging issues such as these. Lag and performance issues in Battlefield 4 have been mostly evident in large-scaled battles, with multiple things blowing up consecutively. These problems aren’t platform-exclusive, and all players of Battlefield 4 have encountered them at some point. Increasing server performance might be a good first step, but it’s likely DICE will have to do a lot more to ensure a smooth and lag-free experience.
There’s no estimation on when this promise update would be landing. It’s likely to be weeks or months away still. Upgrading servers, especially for a game of Battlefield 4’s magnitude, is no small feat. DICE detailed that “As soon as we know the exact timetable, we’ll let you know the ETA. Reducing lag for these players is absolutely a TOP priority for us to solve and we expect to have the solution very soon.”, which indicates that most game-breaking bugs have been dealt with and the focus now lies solely on performance increases and stability.
What are your thoughts? Has Battlefield 4 evolved considerably since the shaky launch? Are you still encountering issues with bugs, lag and performance?