Battlefield Hardline Open Beta Dates Announced

If you were hoping for some concrete evidence about when the Battlefield Hardline beta would get underway, it's now been certified by Visceral Games: Battlefield Hardline's open beta will take place between February 3rd and February 8th, next week.

The notice comes courtesy of a tweet sent sent out by the official Visceral Games Twitter account, where they dropped the information within the confines of 140 characters. You can check out the tweet below.

The beta has been building up in anticipation and excitement from within the gaming community after many fans of the Battlefield series had time to let the original alpha test fade from their palate.

Back in the summer of 2014 things didn't turn out so great when the original pre-release test took place and gamers found themselves less than enthused with the product. The game was sped up to be as fast as Call of Duty but spaced out to play like Battlefield. The other problem is that tactics and teamwork seemed to go out the window as all-out chaos reigned supreme.

Visceral Games had half-a-year to iron things out, pace the gameplay properly and fix up some of the major complaints that gamers had when they play tested the game beforehand. Complaints about guns, vehicles and maps were all on the table, so Visceral will have to make a lot of changes to appease the core audience.

Right now the game's biggest problem is that it seems like it has an identity problem, which might spawn from the fact that a lot of gamers felt as if Hardline was just a cheap Battlefield 4 DLC pack extended to the price of $60. Visceral is now in a position where they will have to ensure that there's enough content to justify the price tag, and that the game has enough variance from Battlefield 4 to warrant it as a standalone product.

The beta will feature one of the game's least-showcased mode, Hotwire. This mode is equivalent to the armored car missions or car delivery missions in APB: Reloaded, where players are required to steal various vehicles and get them to a specific destination before they get destroyed. In Battlefield Hardline criminals will attempt to steal various marked cars and get to them to a specific destination before the cops apprehend them. This mode could be intense depending on how well the physics and mechanics work out – if the cars are borderline invincible or it's too arcadey, then I can easily see this mode turning off a lot of gamers.

The beta will also sport the typical Conquest mode that Battlefield is known for. This mode and the Hotwire mode will be available on the two maps, Dust Bowl and Downtown. You can learn more about the maps and modes right here.

I'm a little torn on Hardline because there are some really interesting features present and I think the single-player mode could be a real nice change of pace from what we're used to in the series, but another part of me is terribly leery because of how Call of Dutified the multiplayer looks.

I guess we'll find out how much of Battlefield's identity is retained in Hardline when the beta goes live on February 3rd next week.