DINOSAUR ALERT: Battlefield 3 Aftermath's 'Epicenter'
Well, this is a bit unexpected. Not the fact that more Battlefield 3 maps are on the way. Those will apparently be hewn from the Earth and flung at the microtransaction-loving masses until the end of time. But this new look at BF3: Aftermath's earthquake-pancaked Epicenter map is oddly serene. Usually, these things are all about the shooty shooty bang bang and Inception BRRRRRRRRRZTs, but this one? It's different. Maybe one day, this one will go out into the world and make something of itself.
Now I really want someone to make a Fallout game in Frostbite 2. Or at least something like Fallout, so I could just explore a place like this without having my profound meditations on a long lost world constantly interrupted by war. For now, though, this explanation of the map from level artist Pontus Ryman actually sounds pretty promising. For example, he says:
"Another element that I personally feel strongly for is exploration - A city that gets hit by an earthquake creates a different landscape that opens up for a lot of exploration. A broken pipe in the ground becomes something you can crawl through; a rift in the street becomes a protective trench; and a pile of rubble becomes a makeshift staircase that takes you to the next level inside a building."
It does look like quite a map. Pretty large, but also somewhat confined - and with plenty of massive chunks of debris to spice things up. There'll also be "heavily modified" vehicles for use on the smoking rubble, so it'll be interesting to see how all of these different factors co-mingle.
Most importantly, though, there will apparently be dinosaurs somewhere in Aftermath. My guess? It's a story prelude to Battlefield 4: Prehistoric Postmodern Warfare. And by "guess," I mean "greatest wish in my most precious heart of hearts."