The vast maps of Battlefield while, is a great selling point, in practice, it is too cumbersome. The 128 people limit is not enough for the size of these maps and sometimes spawn points can be far away resulting in your character walking, or driving if you are lucky to find a vehicle, for miles before getting into the thick of it. Once there, however, some of the battles and the chaos makes you feel like you are on a real battlefield with bullets flying everywhere as fighter jets and helicopters attack from above. It is thrilling until the point where you inevitably get killed, and you have to traverse again for miles to get back to the combat zone. Sometimes you can spawn closer to the action, but when you can’t, it can be very annoying to play.

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Even the warrior classes don’t have much meaning because everyone can heal, repair and supply depending on the load out. This, in turn, had an impact on strategy and the whole game is just an unorganised mess. You can’t effectively communicate with your team and the whole thing ends up going from one territory to the next, especially in all-out warfare.

Hazard zone, on the other hand, is a little more interesting. You are part of a four-person squad and the object is to recover data units from various locations on the map. There is a maximum of 32 players on the map. Each person can carry a maximum of three data drives. You can load out to carry more at the beginning of the game if you have credits. The drives then have to be taken to an extraction point. All players on the map receive the coordinates for extraction and usually, there is a lot of combat at these points. You also get one life in the game, though your teammates can get you respawned under certain conditions. Overall, Hazard zone is a lot of fun to play. If you have a squad of friends, coordination is a lot easier and more fun. 

The weather element that was also touted in the game is a little bit of a letdown. Instead of dramatically changing the tide of the battle, it is little more than an inconvenience. I think Just Cause used the weather thing a lot more effectively than this game. 

Since I played this game on an Xbox series S, I was restricted to a controller and that is not adequate for a game that requires quick reflexes. The game currently doesn’t support a keyboard and mouse on consoles. There is a petition out asking EA to support keyboard mouse for Battlefield 2042 so hopefully, it will happen in the future.

Battlefield 2042 is large scale, chaotic and it feels like you are in the midst of war. The scale also means there is little to no strategy at play here. To push the boundaries of scale Battlefield has sacrificed some of its core strengths. Even with so many players, the maps seem empty and lifeless till you reach the action. Playing on a console is also not advised, at least till there is no keyboard mouse support. The scale and the chaos require the player to have faster reflexes which are just not possible with a controller. I would wait for the game to reach a lower price to pick it up for a wholesome experience.

Qualcomm announces new flagship processor

Qualcomm has announced a brand new processor for the next generation of flagship phones to come over the next year. The company has also changed their naming convention, moving away from the triple number naming convention for something more practical. The new chip is called Snapdragon 8 Gen1. Qualcomm promises better performance, camera tech, AI, security and 5G connectivity with the new chip. Snapdragon 8 will offer a performance boost of 20 per cent while being 30 per cent more power-efficient than the previous generation. 

Twitter bans sharing images without consent

Twitter launched new rules stating that private images of individuals may not be used without their consent. According to the new rules, people who are not public figures can ask Twitter to take down images or videos of themselves if it was posted without their consent. However, this rule will not apply to public figures or individuals when the tweet text is shared in public interest. Twitter has already prohibited the publication of private information such as a person’s phone number or address. The new rules come days after Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO and appointed Parag Agarwal as his successor. 

Nothing’s earbuds now in black

Nothing has launched its Ear 1 in black colour. Previously, they were only available in white. The features of the new variant are identical to the Ear 1 White and will sell alongside the original colour. The price will be the same at R6,999. The black variant will go on sale on December 13. The company also announced that it will now accept cryptocurrency as payment in select countries; India is not on that list.