The lights are on
Ever since party systems have been part of multiplayer games, players have been able to easily find and group with their friends prior to play. This feature is something that was present in Battlefield 3, but is currently absent from Battlefield 4.
Unfortunately, DICE has no plans to add pre-game squad functions. “We have a new feature in Battlefield 4 where a new squad is created when a friend joins your game,” a representative stated on Facebook. “You can toggle this option on or off by going into the options menu. We're not offering the old squad join feature because we didn’t feel that the feature in Battlefield 3 was on par with the quality that we wanted to offer our players. We have no plans to add it in the future.”
Once the game is stabilized this week, we’ll be able to more thoroughly test the new squad functions. Stay tuned, as DICE has told players to expect a patch this week that will drastically improve game performance on PlayStation 4.
[Source: Battlefield on Facebook via MP1st]
Our TakeI’m skeptical about this new approach to squad creation. Dating all the way back to Halo 2 on the Xbox, party systems have made it easy for friends to group. More importantly, this feature ensures that players stay together between matches. Removing the ability to create your own squads seems like folly, but I’m willing to give it a try once the PlayStation 4 version stabilizes. Right now, too many crashes to the PlayStation menu have put this one on the shelf.