With the release of Battlefield V and Call of Duty Black Ops 4 inching ever closer, it’s time to take a closer look at this year’s hook. Video games, much like pop music, is a hit driven industry. Wildly popular trends start with a single smash hit then a mad rush to try and improve upon the winning formula. There was an era in which it felt every second game had some sort of Zombies in it. Shortly before that an era of WW2 shooters and most recently, it’s battle royale.
With two blockbuster shooters due to land soon, Black Ops 4 and Battlefield V are all aboard the PUGB train. Love it or hate it, with battle royale being a big part of both upcoming games, lets see how they compare.
What is Battle Royale Exactly?
The term was initially made popular by a film of the same name from the year 2000. 9th graders were left on a deserted island with nothing more than a map, food and various weapons. Of course the last one left standing could leave the island, but break the rules and your explosive collar goes BOOM.
Sound familiar? Hunger Games? Running Man? The Condemned? Well it wasn’t a new concept. Films and books had covered it before in some form or fashion but it was this time the name stuck.
Strip out the food and explosive collars, replace 9th graders with a blend of bland random characters and what do you get? Well, the biggest game of the last year, Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (aka PUBG).
So in a nut-shell, Battle Royale in a game is just some form of last man standing survival. Typically with some form of ever shrinking map to keep up the intensity.
Blackout Vs Firestorm
Blackout is what the Call of Duty team are calling their PUBG copy while Battlefield is calling theirs Firestorm. While the two share a lot with their formula, there’s also a lot to split them. Lets take a look at some of the key differences;
The Setting
Blackout is set in a near future Black Ops universe with (yep, you guessed it!) AI controlled zombies. On the other hand Firestorm is of course set during WW2. The name comes from the ring of fire slowly creeping in from the edges of the map.
Player Count
Firestorm is currently set to feature 16 teams of 4 players each to reach a total of up to 64 players. Blackout is launching at 80 and developers haven’t ruled out adjusting that number up or down.
The Release Date
Blackout is set to hit October 12th with a beta going live on the 14th of September. Meanwhile Firestorm’s beta kicked off today and runs through to the 11th with the full game set for November 20th.
The Hardware Requirements
At this stage we only know the BETA hardware requirements and they are of course subject to change before release.
Battlefield V Recommended Requirements
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10
- Processor : Intel Core i7 4790 / i5 8500 or Better
- Memory: 16GB RAM
- Graphics card : Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 3GB or better
- Available Disk Space : 50GB
Call of Duty Black Ops 4 Recommended Requirements
- OS: Windows 10 64 Bit
- CPU: Intel Core i7 4770k / i5 8500 or Better
- RAM: 12GB RAM
- HDD: 25GB HD space
- Video: GTX 1060 6GB or better
Keep in mind these ‘Recommended‘ settings are typically to allow for medium graphics presets at 1080p, don’t expect set the game to ultra and rock it at 4K if you only meet the requirements above.
While we don’t have any proper benchmark results of the final game yet, we would suspect at max graphics presets you will need a pretty beefy GPU to keep up. Not to mention Battlefield’s ray tracing implementation exclusive to the new range of RTX GPUs due at the of the month.
Is your gaming PC ready?
In the meantime, if you’re thinking your old gaming rig might need an upgrade to get the most of out either of these gorgeous games, you know what to do. Head on over to our custom gaming PC store page and configure your next dream gaming PC today. Build, tested & delivered to your door so your ready to join the fight on release day.
Of course as always, you know for a fact that the PC version of the game will be the definitive. With the best graphics and mouse / keyboard controls the old consoles will be a far cry from the PC versions glory. There are plenty more details yet to be released so stayed tuned for updates if you’re at all interested in either of these two games.