FPS Games Are In A Strange Place Right Now

First-person multiplayer shooters are in a strange place right now, it’s time to talk about recent changes to Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Fortnite.

By
Aaron Sampson
and
David Ahmadi
on April 8, 2022 at 5:00PM PDT

Multiplayer shooters are in a strange place right now. We’ve seen some fascinating recent successes, as well as failures. There are games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019 and Warzone that succeeded and then shot themselves in the foot. There are developers who didn’t listen to the community and saw their games fail hard, like with Battlefield 2042. And there are games that might seem like they’ve gone on longer than their concepts should allow, but still have new ideas to offer, like Fortnite.

This video deals with how Call of Duty could finally KO Battlefield with its larger maps and modes. We’ll dig into Vanguard’s new Arms Race mode and how it succeeds in many places that Battlefield’s 128-player Conquest mode failed. We’ll also talk about what’s still holding Call of Duty back. After that, we’ll dive into what changes Battlefield 2042 is finally starting to deliver through developer DICE’s core feedback initiative, and whether there’s hope for the game’s future. Finally, we’ll check in on Fortnite’s permanent no-build mode called Zero Build and how the Battle Royale still manages to stay fresh, largely by borrowing ideas from other games. Fortnite continues to be an evolving game that gives players a lot to do outside of chasing that win.

Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone Pacific are out now on all major platforms, with the next Modern Warfare expected to release at the end of this year. Battlefield 2042’s Season One has been delayed till Summer. Fortnite’s Zero Build mode is out now.