James Lynch 
The third item on the EA menu was Battlefield V, and what the future holds for the brutal WW2 shooter. The first new map on show is Marita, named after the operation surrounding the battle for Greece, which finds itself on a sloping mountain ridge with a small allied controlled town. Control of the main road is key to winning the day, with tanks and aircraft less effective than infantry in the steep environment. It releases in July.
The second moves the fight to North Africa, Al-Sandan. Vehicles are much more important here, and makes use of large distances and team play. It’s very much a true sandbox, adapted from Under No Flag, offering a classically large battlefield map with tight internal spaces. It’s all about making use of contrasting gameplay styles in this one, which will be available on day one of Chapter four.
Even more maps have been promised for further down the line, including one set in Provence, France, but most information was held back on these for now. What we do know is that these will be smaller maps with a heavy focus on industry combat, marking a move away from the more traditional, sprawling conquest-type battles.
There will also be rank icons to mark people’s mastery level, alongside unique dog tags and a special reward at milestone ranks (every 50 levels). These arrive in August and will be followed shortly afterwards, in September, by private games on hosted servers.
We were also shown Operation Underground, the final map from the new lot. This looks interesting, and perhaps more Call of Duty like than most Battlefield stalwarts will be familiar (or perhaps comfortable) with. Seemingly set in London’s famous tube network, it allows a multi-levelled map with opportunities abound for flanking by infantry. This will be released somewhere between Chapter Four and Five, in October.
Chapter 5 takes the war deep into the pacific, the rainforests of Asia providing the backdrop for the war between the USA and Japan. Iwo Jima will make an appearance in this one, as players take part in the American invasion which, by it’s nature, has brought about the advent of amphibious units. This, to be fair to the developers, does look cool.
Fans of the game may be disappointed at the lack of content, other than maps where we might have been over-saturated as an audience. Although this wasn’t really addressed, it seems the focus has shifted to altering the meta through map types, rather than a ton of new modes or characters.
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