Gamers are diving into the second week of the Battlefield 6 public beta, exploring the latest installment in this popular gaming series. A technical deep-dive of the beta’s initial weekend, conducted by Digital Foundry, reveals a largely positive initial assessment.
It’s worth noting that the open beta isn’t without its imperfections. Digital Foundry highlighted a few early issues, specifically concerning environmental destruction. Some minor graphical anomalies exist, such as floating debris seemingly disconnected from the surrounding environment. The game’s destructible buildings appear to rely on pre-set damage states rather than dynamically calculated breaking points. However, the current system still represents progress compared to previous titles like Battlefield 2049 and Battlefield 5.
Digital Foundry observed the best visual fidelity on PC when using the SSGI setting, which created more realistic lighting effects. They suggested this feature should be considered for the PlayStation 5 Pro. As expected, the PS5 Pro outperformed the standard PS5, although the performance difference was less dramatic compared to the gap between the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S. The Series S visibly struggled to render the same level of detail as the Series X in a direct comparison.
Despite being a beta version, Digital Foundry believes Battlefield 6 is “very shippable in its current form,” praising its high level of mechanical refinement. However, they also noted the potential benefits of ray tracing enhancements and felt that the game, at this stage, lacks the groundbreaking innovation of some past entries in the franchise.
Player feedback indicates that the 12v12 player count in Rush mode feels restricted for some. This issue might be addressed by the larger maps planned for the full game. Notably, the Battlefield 6 beta has already exceeded peak concurrent player counts for both Call of Duty and previous Battlefield titles on Steam. The current Battlefield 6 open beta concludes on August 17th.