Electronic Arts’ DICE studio has delayed Battlefield V‘s Overture chapter in the Tides of War series due to the discovery of a bug.
The Overture update was due to arrive today. It adds new multiplayer and single-player content for those who bought the game, which debuted on November 20.
[Update: 12/4/2018 at 4:16 p.m.: DICE tweeted that the update will come on the morning of December 5].
But DICE tweeted about the delay. It’s another stumble in a tough launch for the studio, which had to delay the original launch date of October 19 to avoid being squeezed in the sandwich of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (October 12) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (October 26).
That followed outbursts from dissatisfied fans who were unhappy with the game since its first reveal event. Some players hated the female characters, while others thought the trailer was underwhelming.
https://twitter.com/Battlefield/status/1069708134426533890
The update is a weighty one because it includes a new single-player War Story, dubbed The Last Tiger. That story is one of four War Stories in Battlefield V, and it depicts a German Tiger I tank crew in the latter stage of the war.
I reviewed the full game and felt like it wasn’t finished. But it has been growing on me, as I’ve enjoyed the immersiveness of the huge multiplayer battles on maps in the Netherlands and North Africa.
Overture will be coming with Panzerstorm, a new multiplayer map with a huge field for tank battles. The battle is set in the historical location of Hannut in Belgium in early 1940. As many as 17 tanks can battle at the same time. Air support will be a critical factor in stopping those tanks. Overture also has cosmetic options for vehicles, allowing players to add nose art to airplanes, as well as two arcade modes dubbed Shooting Trial and Driving Trial, where you can test drive weapons and vehicles on the Hamada map.
The single-player mission will feature a crew with a seasoned commander with a mix of veterans and new recruits as the “German war machine is crumbling,” said DICE creative director Lars Gustavsson in an interview with GamesBeat.
That story came from a focus on the intimidating legend of the Tiger I tank, said Eric Holmes, single-player design director at DICE, in an interview with GamesBeat.
“It was a powerful icon for representation of the German forces,” Holmes said. “It can generate a lot of gameplay because it can take on a lot of opponents. The challenge was how to tell a story that is authentic to the values of War Stories and is driven from the German perspective — but also isn’t apologetic, isn’t propaganda, and is truth to the people who served.”
He said that Das Boot, the movie about a German submarine crew in World War II, was a touchstone to inspire the game designers in creating The Last Tiger.