A Look Inside the Battlefield 4 CTE







Company: EA

Author: Sean Ridgeley

Editor: Sean Ridgeley

Date: August 20th, 2014

Introduction, setup, requirements

Battlefield 4 developer DICE has never had a reputation for polished releases, and this iteration did nothing to change that. But the team worked hard post-launch launch year to bring the game into a fairly respectable state, and within months the backlash died down some, though it was well-known fans weren't happy, as there was still a lot of work to be done for the game to be all it could be.

Around this time, after fans suggesting it for ages, DICE formed the Community Test Environment (CTE), an initiative whereby dedicated fans could suggest and test out changes to the game before they go public. Essentially, it's an ever-ongoing beta. DICE, already strapped for resources, put its new sister studio DICE Los Angeles to work on the CTE. Series fans have been clamoring for more direct communication and better patching since at least Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and based on the work DICE LA has been doing, it seems like fans have finally got it.

As of now, a dizzying 23 patches have been released through the CTE, some changes from which have made it into the public game (the biggest of which are networking improvements). Since then, many more major changes have been made, which will make it into a large public patch in September. Feature changes are now locked in (just polishing left to go, and possibly minor changes), so I logged into the CTE and played for a few days to give you an inside look at what's coming.

Test Setup

OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit

Processor: Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz (Stock)

Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB DDR3-1600

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 3.5" 7200RPM / OCZ Agility 3 6Gb/s (Cache)

Video Card: Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 4GB (Stock)

Driver: Catalyst 14.6 RC

Resolution: 1920x1080

Input: Logitech G400 mouse @ 1900dpi, Leopold Tenkeyless Linear Touch Mechanical Keyboard

System Requirements