‘Battlefield 4′ Lets Players Test Drive Vehicles Before Hopping into Multiplayer

If only one reason was needed to start salivating over next-generation gaming,Battlefield 4 just might be it. Featuring multiplayer games with up to 64 players on a map at 60fps, with maps built on the new Frostbite 3 engine and the ability to compete with other players on either a local or a global scale using the Battlelog, DICE is bringing a lot to the modern military FPS table, and pretty much all of it looks tasty.

Players who enjoyed taking command of vehicles in Battlefield 3, whether airborne jets and helicopters or more down-to-earth equipment like APCs and tanks, jumping straight into the vehicles available in Battlefield 4 will probably come quite easily. For those who haven’t played other games in the series, or have avoided vehicle combat so far, the prospect of taking command of a vehicle mid-combat might feel like something to shy away from.

This is where some good news comes in. For players who aren’t yet feeling too confident about the vehicles in Battlefield 4 and who want to take them out for a test drive before getting into a situation where their teammates’ lives depend on good driving or flying, DICE is offering a solution. In a community Q&A session hosted by IGN, creative director Lars Gustavsson was asked if there would be a tutorial or training for players who found the prospect of flying helicopters or jets daunting. Gustavsson replied:

“We’ve definitely heard that people are afraid of getting in there [and using vehicles like helicopters] and that’s not our intent, so what we’ve done is, we’ve added a test range, which allows you to try out all the hardware ahead of time so that if you want to learn to fly a helicopter you can get in there and you can find the settings that work best for you. And then start doing some stunt flights just to feel safe before you go out and get the responsibility of a bunch of other people sitting in your helicopter, so I truly hope that this will help people feel more safe about trying out the whole battlefield.”

Battlefield 4 will boast a system called Levolution in its multiplayer maps, allowing players to change and affect the environment in real time. Knowing this, it’s clear that strategic use of the vehicles available in-game could mean the difference between a win and a loss. If you expect a Grand Theft Auto-style environment where any civilian cars can be grabbed and driven as well, though, don’t get your hopes up; DICE also confirmed in this Q&A that only military vehicles will be available.

That’s not to say that you can’t get a pimped-out ride in Battlefield 4 of course. Thanks to the newly-available vehicle customization, players can deck out their jet, helicopter, tank or jeep with team insignias or just general designs like racing stripes as a kind of war paint for our heavy metal friends.

The vehicle test range does sound like an appealing way to get comfortable jumping in and out of the driver’s seat (or pilot seat) of the vehicles in Battlefield 4, and hopefully there will be plenty of interesting stuff to blow up or steer around in this training ground to make learning all the more fun. Tell us if you can’t wait to take the Battlefield 4 vehicles for a spin, or if you prefer to have your feet on the ground and a gun in your hand, in the comments.