EA has teased what’s coming in Season 4 of Battlefield 2042 and confirmed that a Season 5 is also on the way, though the latter won’t feature a specialist.Season 4 is set to launch in early 2023, according to a new blog posted on EA’s website. The season will bring with it a new recon Specialist and Battle Pass, fresh hardware, re-worked environments, and new maps, one of which will heavily reference Battlefield 4.Developer DICE has promised the Season 4 map will be a “smaller, shorter, and linear” close-quarters affair, which sounds like a change of pace from the sprawling environments on offer at the moment.Battlefield 2042 Season 3 ScreenshotsSeason 5 will offer a similar amount of content to previous seasons – with the introduction of another map, new hardware, and a new Battle Pass – but no new Specialists.Previous games will also be an inspiration, as Season 5 will “lean into previous games and how they can show up in the world of 2042”. The map will be a “forgotten battleground” from the Battlefield 4 era, albeit altered by the narrative events that led up to the 2042 setting. This map will apparently be overgrown with vegetation and “encourage a combination of vehicular and infantry combat”.DICE admitted it understood the negative feedback relating to the combat environments offered at Battlefield 2042’s launch and has been steadily improving many of the game’s early maps.This trend is set to continue in Season 3: Escalation, with the reworking of the Manifest and Breakaway maps alongside the new Spearhead environment, which will see players fight over two high tech weapon manufacturing facilities in the Swedish wilderness.Manifest is set for re-release in December as part of Update 3.1, which will offer improved visibility, cover, and sightlines over the previous version of the map. HQ flags have also been shifted “closer to the action”.Breakaway is also set to be reworked in a later 3.2 update, in which the vast oil rig structure will be moved closer to the centre of the map to provide a more “focused play-space”. An improved version of the Discarded map meanwhile will be re-launched during Season 4, while the overhaul of Hourglass has yet to be given a release window.IGN gave Battlefield 2042 a 7/10 when it launched almost one year ago, in which we celebrated the game’s strategic Hazard Zone game mode and Portal options, but lamented elements of the chaotic 128 player matches of its all out warfare modes.Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
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