Battlefield 4 - RAT-A-TAT-TAT

Fancied some modern warfare so I reinstalled Battlefield 4. Despite the last-gen geometry, DICE's game still presents as pretty nifty thanks to the blaring, exaggerated lighting effects and the all-encompassing clacks and cracks of frustrated conflict. Unfortunately official servers are a thing of the distant past, leaving server trawlers at the mercy of cranky admin looking to orchestrate fish-in-the-barrel spawns for their greedy pals.

Battlefield V - FIFTEEN SCHILLINGS

Bought Battlefield V in a recent sale. Although it delivers the standard Battlefield weight and momentum, it's surprising how incomplete the game feels. The problems I'm routinely encountering are the kind of things you might excuse at launch - missing stats, bugged-out results screens, halted unlock progress - but not now, seven months after release. Still, no other first-person shooter gives you the sense that you're a lumbering mass struggling with their weapon (in this case a STEN sub-machine gun). That you have to fight against the controls and aiming profile somewhat is half the appeal - it gives the game a terrifying sense of reality.

Battlefield V - NACHTHEXEN

Battlefield V's reveal is an unbroken gawp at the kind of chaos players can hurl themselves into when the game releases in October. Developers DICE have jettisoned any sense of narrative storytelling for their pitch, electing to build their advert around the sequel's refresh focused gameplay systems instead. Naturally, a sizeable band of people (men) with absolutely nothing better to do have taken it upon themselves to cry foul at the inclusion of female combatants. Apparently it's just not on having women in historical war games. Facts be damned eh? Considering my Call of Duty: World War II avatar has been a brown-haired lady since launch, I'm hoping that I've inadvertently wound up a few of the bores who stick with the square-head male default.

Battlefield 1 - ARMS TRADE

Jackfrags talks us through some guns he thinks EA might want to sell to us in the near future.

E3 2016 - Battlefield 1

Jackfrags and Matimi0 with some Battlefield 1 gameplay. Put all notions of a miserable trench war out of your head, this is The Great War on an adrenaline drip. Tommies and Fritz tearing around France, blasting holes in each other with sexed up identity weaponry. Interestingly, both embedded players have gravitated towards the Assault Class and its not-actually-anachronistic Bergmann MP18, a German submachine gun that was issued in the final stages of the First World War and went on to be banned under The Treaty of Versailles.

E3 2016 - Titanfall 2

Finally liberated from an Xbox only exclusivity deal, Respawn Entertainment's mech-murder sim looks set to launch with traverse-everything gameplay, free forever DLC, and a campaign mode with somebody their best Peter Cullen / Optimus Prime impression. Quite why EA have elected to release Titanfall 2 the week between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare though remains a mystery.

Star Wars Battlefront - MELT

Star Wars Battlefront is out and picking up umpteen thinkpieces about whether or not its miserly map count represents good value for money. Economic concerns aside, Battlefront has already proven its worth, in my eyes at least, by allowing TheSandyRavage yet another platform to endlessly wreck the unprepared online gamer.

Star Wars Battlefront - BIG ROCK

Star Wars Battlefront looks set to be one of the all-time greatest virtual playsets. Can't afford to buy hundreds of Kenner figures? Even if you can, do you lack the imagination to dream up a compelling confrontation scenario? Let EA DICE do all the work for you!

If Battlefield YouTuber jackfrags is to be believed the third-person camera option, which best replicates the visual experience of playing with your favourite toy, grants a significant advantage. First-person aiming and zooming roots you to the spot, while third-person allows you to strafe from side-to-side, frustrating your opponents as you pour on the damage.

E3 2015 - HOTH

Star Wars Battlefront has got to be the easiest sell in the world. If DICE doing Battlefield with a space opera skin wasn't exciting enough, then you've got John Williams' rousing marching standards and Ben Burtt's indelible sound effects elevating the entire package into the fucking atmosphere. Good to see Luke firmly back in his black, ten-thousand-times-cooler-than-sweaty-old-robes Jedi outfit too.

Battlefield: Hardline - GET RAVAGED

TheSandyRavage getting stuck into Battlefield: Hardline. As ever, Ravage is able to move and brutalise at speeds so fast it looks like his opponents are broadcasting from a different hemisphere. Ouch on them! While the lethal cops and robbers premise still reads as incredibly tin eared, at least this game looks like it has routes. Remember those Call of Duty?

Battlefield Hardline - FREEBIE

Jackfrags with some largely positive thoughts on Battlefield Hardline's latest beta test. Just put in a quick hour myself and, to echo Jack's video impressions, the default MP5 wrecks in close quarters. Played the Conquest map, running laps in and around a gutted motel hosing down the opposition. Ambush hip-fire will always be fun. Hardline's open beta is available from today until the 8th.

Battlefield 4 - CHEAP

Jackfrags and pals talks us through all the tactics and situations keeping them screeching expletives at their screens in Battlefield 4. For opportunist types, this video should serve as some instantaneous counterprogramming - you can learn all the sleazy tricks to keep you irritating. I've jumped back on Battlefield 4 a little bit recently, partly because I daftly forked out for the season pass and want to get a semblance of my money's worth, but primarily because Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is precisely zero fun to play.

Battlefield 4 - RETURNS POLICY

As jackfrags and AnderzEl discuss here, Battlefield 4 is so infuriating because it's two or three latency patches away from being absolutely fantastic. Within BF4 is a hypothetical experience that me, and everyone I know who plays it, are desperately trying to conjure up. BF4 should be an infantry shooter with a rapid tickrate and actionable feedback. Sadly, this experience is not available. It's been just over four months since release and either the in-game search option is broken or the amount of servers has been drastically reduced; DICE are rattling through the DLC at pace, and EA are gearing up to promote their new FPS property Titanfall. At this stage it's looking increasingly likely that BF4 is going to stay broken.

Titanfall - BASIC PREP

With Call of Duty: Ghosts firmly in his rear-view mirror, XboxAhoy looks set to fill his time with Titanfall. His first video is a basic primer on game flow in this multiplayer only title. I'm not sure if Mr Ahoy intends to focus solely on Titanfall's weapons, or if he intends to branch out and cover the game's various systems and mechanics. This video would seem to suggest the latter.

Titanfall - LOCK ON

At first glance Titanfall's Smart Pistol MK5 looks like the biggest wind-up imaginable. A silenced sidearm that locks on for rapid headshots - Black Ops 2's target finder cheat sight taken to another, aimbot like level. Stick around for the full skinny though and you'll see that the automated shooting is only really useful for breezing through AI controlled grunts. Try and cheese human players and you'll waste time acquiring multiple lock-ons and doing marginal damage. Makes you wonder about how Titanfall is considering balance. With all these disposable bots racing around begging to be killed, are Respawn pitching for a Sandy Ravage experience for every player?

Battlefield 4 101 - Carbines

TheRussianBadger is back, this time taking us through the pros and cons of Battlefield 4's carbines. Based on Badger's teachings looks like I'll have to give the ACE 21 a bit more of a go. I've barely touched it. I have spent quite a lot of time with its stablemate, the ACE 52 CQB, after looting a silenced model and going on a tear when I ran dry with my primary on Dawnbreaker. Turns out that's the more obstinate of the two Galil short rifles?

Titanfall - TITAN READY

With the embargo lifted, beta footage of Titanfall has begun cascading onto YouTube. Predictably enough it looks fun on wheels - infantry shooting for the Call of Duty twitch crowd, and shielded walking tanks for Halo heads. In action, this simultaneous manoeuvre warfare looks like Mirror's Edge with a jet pack by way of an arcade informed, mech suited rebrand of Shadow of the Colossus. Even at this stage, Titanfall looks rapid and responsive, recognisably the next step from the studio who gave us Marathon Lightweight Commando streak stabbers.

What's interesting about the hype surrounding the game's release is that it's not just Microsoft betting the farm on Respawn Entertainment's online shooter. The YouTube crowd that made their names posting killstreaks in the dozens are all over the game, already treating it like The Next Big Thing. With Call of Duty: Ghosts dead in the water, and Battlefield 4 buggy and bordering on sedentary who can blame them?

Battlefield 4 101 - Assault Rifles

TheRussianBadger takes us through his thoughts on Battlefield 4's assault rifles, offering pointers and loadout suggestions. I wouldn't expect the depth of an XboxAhoy (who recently skipped through his Call of Duty: Ghosts guides in record time), but find here a few solid tips on how to file down each rifle's eccentricities. I don't know about you but I find myself gravitating back to the assault rifles with alarming regularity. The carbines and shotguns are fun for close quarters, but I find the DMRs, even with the buff, are hobbled by spotty hit-detection. My current rifle of choice is the SCAR-H which has just enough muscle to make up for the bullets that decide to evaporate en route to the enemy.

Battlefield 4 - AFTER ACTION REPORT

Jackfrags talks us through the latest patch for Battlefield 4. It can't be much fun to work at DICE at the moment. No matter what they fix, something else breaks. I don't think I've ever played such a batty online game, particularly one with dedicated servers. How can the hit detection be so lopsided? One minute it's a luxurious daka daka experience with every bullet ending up where you directed them, the next you're hightailing it after a receding target hitting nothing but thin air.

Call of Duty: Ghosts / Battlefield 4 - THE DEVIL'S EYES

Are people still playing Ghosts? I don't know anyone. Even the YouTube commentators I'm subscribed to, whose livelihoods depends on Call of Duty hype, can't seem to muster up much enthusiasm. Having spent a few days slogging through the apparently unpatchable Battlefield 4 (Dice's latest 'fix' has introduced at least as many problems as it's solved) I've started to miss Ghosts' comparatively fine-tuned latency.

BF4 currently has serious problems giving accurate damage reports. Unload on an enemy and they'll frequently turn around like nothing's happened and one-shot you. Irritation is multiplied when your still standing foe is then listed as having zero health on your death screen. It's a shame that Infinity Ward have finally made some in-roads solving the problems that have plagued the last few entries, only to find everyone's moving on. Still, it's good to see Scrapyard back.