Following Crytek’s and Epic’s statements about their next-generation game engines, Electronic Arts decided to step in and talk about DICE’s Frostbite 2. In an interview with Gamasutra, EA Games’ label executive, Patrick Soderlund, said that Frostbite 2.0 is built for next-generation hardware and that the PC version of Battlefield 3 was just a small treat of Frostbite 2.0’s capabilities.
As Patrick said:
“It doesn’t mean that what you see in Battlefield 3 is the end state. That’s the beginning; that’s where we start and then we go forward. But we have a tech base that makes me feel really confident in how we’re positioned for what’s going to come in the future.”
Patrick has also commented on why some EA studios decided to use DICE’s engine on their games, and especially on Medal of Honor. According to him, EA did not put any pressure on the development teams. Instead, the studios thought that Frostbite 2.0 would be appropriate for their games.
Truth be told, Frostbite 2.0 is a better engine – than UE 3 – and MOH would definitely benefit from that switch. However, that does not explain why EA decided to use Frostbite 2.0 on Need For Speed: The Run, especially since that game did not take advantage of DICE’s engine. Not only that, but the game had a ridiculous FPS lock (that was removed via a patch), and did not support Windows XP – thanks to Frostbite 2.0. If the studio behind it cared about its fans and the game itself, it would be using a different game engine. That, or they’d be taking advantage of Frostbite 2.0 in order to justify that requirement.
Let’s see now how MOH: Warfighter turns out. From the initial gameplay footages, it looks like a mix between COD and Battlefield. Graphics wise, the PC version looks great with high-resolution textures. Console versions won’t obviously look as good as the version that was showcased at E3. However – and despite Patrick’s claims – we don’t consider the PC version of Battlefield 3 (or MOH: Warfighter) to be a next-generation title
Will Frostbite 2.0 be able to compete against CryEngine 3, Unreal Engine 4 or Square Enix’s next-generation engine? We certainly hope so!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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