Battlefield 4 can take the Call of Duty crown

By now you've no doubt seen the debut trailer for the upcoming Battlefield 4. It features lots of shooting, swearing, explosions and other stuff you would expect from a war game published by EA. The 17-minute look at gameplay should have done just about enough to satisfy even the most ardent of Battlefield fans, for now at least. However one thing stuck in my mind during the big reveal: Surely this is the game that can displace Call of Duty from the top of the first-person shooter lists?

While Call of Duty is the omnipotent force in the games industry, there are signs that the brand is starting to decline slightly. Sales of the latest title, Black Ops 2, were slower than that of Modern Warfare 3 the previous year, and there is generally less of an interest from hardcore gamers when a new Call of Duty is inevitably released. Battlefield 4 has the opportunity to capture the attention of players that are frustrated by a lack of innovation from both Infinity Ward and Treyarch when it comes to making new games, and here are some of the reasons why.

Frostbite 3

DICE got to show off their impressive new Frostbite 3 technology, which looks to improve on the already good-looking Frostbite 2 engine. Those explosive environments will look even better this time around, with DICE saying that we'll see different types of destruction from previous games. It's not just the environments either, the facial animations on characters are really superb and the way the members of your squad run and duck into cover seems even more realistic.

Strategic gameplay

We also got a glimpse of how you'll be able to command your squad to attack different targets. The trailer shows the player telling his team to focus fire on a specific set of foes, before moving round the battlefield and taking them by surprise from a different position. Later on we also saw that helicopters can take commands as well, reigning down gunfire upon adversaries. This will add a whole new layer of strategy to Battlefield, as players test out different ways to attack.

Better storytelling

Games like Battlefield and Call of Duty are usually all about the multiplayer, with some less than stellar campaigns over the years. Battlefield 4 could change all that though, as we follow the story of Recker and Tombstone Squad, which includes The Wire's Michael K. Williams lending his voice to character Irish. The campaign is set to be a lot more immersive this time around, and it certainly doesn't have to go far to put Call of Duty's efforts to shame.

Vehicles

Battlefield has always shined when giving you different vehicles to play around in across huge environments and this looks to be no different. Sea and air vehicles were teased in the build up to the big reveal, and while the gameplay trailer only gave us a quick look at steering a dinghy at sea we can expect to see a lot more of this type of thing in future. A level set in the middle of the sea, as you struggle to keep up with an ocean liner in the wind and the rain? Sounds good to us!