I think the public and social media outlets will tear this game apart depending on how controversial the single player campaign will be. Honestly in the multiplayer the characters still look like soldiers... it's just now there's a big fat pig police badge on the vehicles for the cops. It will probably come out just because it's such a big title for EA.

Although, I wonder what will be the future of Battlefield with the release of Battlefront? I guess it depends on how Hardline does, but I feel like Battlefront will probably be EA's new poster child at E3 much like how Titanfall was in 2013, except now that it's a Dice game, would production be more focused on Battlefront rather than Battlefield? If that's the case, then I see more reason for the Battlefield series to take a break while the Star Wars hype dies down.

People have been playing cops vs robbers for years now, this is just that but in video game mode. It's not cops vs protesters.

1. Will it come out: yes
2. Should it come out: yes, as much as any game "should" come out

Battlefield 4 will continue to thrive past the game's release. They are even talking about more DLC for the game, though I really am bummed to hear that Battlefield 5 will probably be out in 2016...I was hoping for a bit of an extension between 4 and 5.

How about we judge this game after it came out?

That makes a lot more sense. Although unless all of the ad material is very deliberate in showing the cops on the "Be" side and robbers on the "Break" side, like maybe a campaign with 2 different ads (one focusing exclusively on the cops "being" the law, the other on robbers breaking the law) or whatever, that tag line is too easy to misread as a "fuck your civil rights, I'm the police!" thing.

Count me among those not seeing the problem here. I mean, yeah, it's unfortunately timed and all, but it's not exactly the devs fault that some ugly shit went down in the realm of law enforcement of late. Nor is it their obligation to pull a game and eat a huge loss because it did. I always got the sense this game was going for more of a Heat vibe than say, The Shield anyway. EA needs to be delicate with the storyline for sure, but I don't think it's at all fair to hold this game to a different standard than games that have featured identical themes like GTA, Payday, etc. And it's not like this is some huge change from Battlefield's typical military vs. terrorists theme if you think about it, either. If people are going to get all up in arms about this, they better exact the same criticism at Rainbow Six: Siege and just about every other FPS, which are almost all basically a version of this same concept in differing forms.

People will jump on this, though. As mentioned, the Polygon review will likely be priceless. There are people literally salivating at the prospect of "exposing" whatever "insensitive" or "racist" things they can find within this game. Not because they actually care about whatever harm might possibly come from a freaking video game being sort-of in poor taste thematically due entirely to external factors in the "current social climate" that were/are 100% out of EA's control, but because getting indignant about the game will make for clickbait articles which will enable the authors to portray/fancy themselves as heroic beacons of progressive light amidst the ignorant, prejudicial darkness. And these commentaries will be little more than incendiary bullshit furthering adversarial mindsets which take us further away from a idyllic world where people prefer amity to enmity and this shit isn't an issue.

Cops are allowed to kill anyone they want and not even go to trial in this country so why shouldn't there be a game where that's the whole point?

Yeah! Its ok to slaughter hundreds and hundreds of cops in video games, but its not ok for it to be the other way round!

Anyhoo, I think the single player looks cool. You may all now commence crucifying me.

Wow, for a situation that is an over reaction or overblown, people sure do care to give their two cents. I don't think I have ever posted a question that got so many comments so fast.

Only time will tell I guess, but I still think it will be a costly mistake for EA and its development partners.

All shooters should be cancelled because somewhere in the world people got shot yesterday (and today, and more people will probably get shot tomorrow, and the day after that too!) and it would be tone deaf to put out a video game promoting gun violence. And because I am offended and others might be offended and we can't have people being offended now can we?

The same obviously goes for games about stabbing or punching. Did you know my friend got punched in the face and broke his jaw? He had to undergo surgery and couldn't eat solid food for weeks. And now developers think it's okay to put out games promoting punching people in the face? Yeah, I don't think so, pal. Also I'm allergic to cats, so from now on there will be no more cats in games. That includes big cats like tigers and leopards and such. Yes, I'm looking at you, Far Cry 4. Ubisoft might as well cease development of the next Far Cry because I'm sorry but this shit just doesn't fly any more.

That's a little different than when police officers are killing unarmed people and not even going to trial for it. A little different than a feline allergy if you ask me. There's definitely going to be over reactions but its like you're denying any legitimacy to any concerns.

@spraynardtatum: What other art or stories involving police officers cannot be told publicly due to the media all-a-sudden paying attention to police brutality and overreach? This is not a flippant question. If the media now paying attention to police means we can no longer tell stories in which police officers are seen to perform violent acts, even when logically justified, where is the line drawn? Can we tell stories where police are seen as heroic? Can we tell stories where police are seen as villainous? Can we tell stories that are morally ambiguous?

Do you believe there is clear danger in allowing people to tell stories about police in violent confrontation?

There's no way it won't come out. They put too much money into it. And sure, it has every right to exist. Will it be a good game? Too early to tell. Is it poor timing? Perhaps. However, I also feel we can't really judge how morally questionable the game is, considering it isn't even out. Context is everything.

It will come out. Should it come out? Sure. The game does not encourage violence against innocent civilians. Yes, it does sort of glorify the extreme militarization of the police, but again, it's a game. I suppose some would worry that it normalizes the image of police officers dressed as soldiers (which is pretty weird - your Police are so geared up compared to almost everywhere else), but honestly, it's still just a game.

Police are a terrible bunch of lads. The tagline is fucking awful. The horrific situation in America. But I've never really had much interest in Battlefield games tbh, so I was never going to buy this anyway.

Who said anything about it not being able to be told publicly? I specifically said that it should be released. They can tell their story and I'm going to be extremely skeptical of it. I can't imagine it's going to be as nuanced as it needs to be in order to not be terrible. Battlefield stories are as cookie cutter as they come. I don't think the Dead Space team will have enough control to make it any better.

Let them release it, but I'm not going to deny that the first thing I think about when I see this game is Ferguson and that leaves a huge stain on my impression of it. The idea of a militarized police force is about as frightening as they come to me. The term hardline in relation to the police is also something I have massive problems with.

I have a boat load of issues with this game. That doesn't mean I don't want people to be able to tell their stories. That means I have a boat load of issues with it.

@spraynardtatum: Well, I am at least glad to hear you aren't aiming to be a half-cocked censor. I do disagree with you one two levels;

I find the events and context of Ferguson and the events and context depicted in Hardline to be so wildly dissimilar as to defy those kind of comparisons. It was one of the biggest problems I had with Chris Plante's article; to find connections between Ferguson's police and Hardline's police necessarily implies connections between the empowered and violent Hardline criminals and the protestors and townspeople of Ferguson. I don't buy in. This game has more in common with the North Hollywood Shootout than the events of Ferguson, but nobody has an attention span that goes beyond 9 months.

Even though I am also quite critical of the militarization of domestic law enforcement both in America and in my home country, I would also disagree that the raison d'être for the events of Ferguson can be laid upon a militarized police force. Michael Brown did not get shot because of excessive police militarization. Authoritarian abuses of protestors, journalists and anyone who dared talk back were not caused by excessive militarization (though militarization certainly makes those abuses easier to get away with in the moment). I would argue that Ferguson can be laid on the altars of inequality, classism and institutionalized racism, with a side-order of authoritarianism and media censorship. Hardline does not touch on these topics AFAIK. It seems inappropriate to hold it responsible for persistent wealth inequality.

@brodehouse: This is why I think of Ferguson:

@spraynardtatum: Concerns of what? That the police force in an action video game might not be a good representation of what real-world police should be like? But that's a good thing. Why would I play a game about being a real-life cop? I don't want play a game about eating donuts and making kids pour out their beer. I want to blow up buildings and shoot dudes in the head. If anything the cops in the game should be more powerful and ruthless than they currently are. I want to be a cop with a tank and a jetpack and napalm. I want to be a cop with an exoskeleton that gives me the power to rip the criminals' limbs off. I want to be a cop who crack one-liners like "you have the right to remain dead" as he smashes skulls in or strangles people to death with his bare hands.

Not me. I don't want to play as a cop at all.

@spraynardtatum: Would you be okay with groups of police stalking the streets, weapons-drawn, if the weapons were more emblematic of police equipment in the 1990s? Or is the problem that police are treating citizens like potenial criminals and escalating force inappropriately? Is it the equipment or the behavior that we consider threatening?

I understand you're making an instructive point, but when really drilled down on, it amounts to "Hardline cops and Ferguson cops have modern equipment". That equipment is not unique to Ferguson; associating that moden equipment with Ferguson only reveals the nature of recency bias. That's not to make any judgments on the ethics or necessity of police having that equipment, but to cast aspersions on artists for including modern police equipment in the modern police game due to instances of authoritarian or even criminal abuse by some thuggish officers seems erroneous... and reducing Ferguson to merely the militarization seems lacking in nuance.

I don't think you're wrong to have those concerns or feelings, they do you credit, but I don't know if "Battlefield: Ferguson" is a very lucid depiction of either Hardline or Ferguson.

@brodehouse: It'll never be a one to one comparison. Hardline isn't about Ferguson. But its showing up at a time where it might as well be.

As to the question about if it is the equipment or the behavior that we should consider threatening, the answer is that we should consider both threatening. And as one escalates it makes the other that much more dangerous.

A few additional thoughts:

Let's keep things in perspective. The majority of cops are not racist, trigger-happy assholes. However, good, honest cops don't make national news for their everyday actions because for some fucked up reason, people only get interested in terrible shit like Ferguson and don't care about heroic/virtuous things police do to keep the country a safer place. It's an unenviable, largely thankless job. I know the popular sentiment is "fuck da police" right now, but that is NOT a healthy attitude. Sure, there are bad apples, just like in any profession, but that doesn't spoil the lot. That's like getting mad at your local banker when some slimy Wall Street pricks do something unethical. It's missing the mark. And frankly, I'd contend that a perspective that the police are out to get people is incredibly dangerous because it inherently reduces people's accountability for their own actions. In other words, criminals being able to somewhat justify their crimes in their own minds because they think the police are after them anyway is a scary thought, just as cops feeling justified shooting first and asking questions later is scary.

It's a two-way street, and it often sadly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in certain areas. Still, it depends on how you look at it. Let's consider the very nature of a high-crime area. Is that due to a bunch of corrupt cops profiling people and overenforcing laws, or is it due to a citizenry that doesn't respect or obey the laws? It's a chicken or egg situation, and adversarial attitudes from both sides serve to perpetuate the gulf between them. Tensions rise and escalation occurs. That's how a Ferguson happens, and it's often difficult to discern who's really to blame because the reality is that it's often both sides at fault. If cops are viewing every citizen as a hardened criminal and citizens don't feel obligated to follow the laws because they don't respect law enforcement, it's easy to see how that lit match in a gunpowder factory can go bad in a hurry. Especially when both sides validate their viewpoints as such.

I can honestly put myself in both sets of shoes. If I were a cop in a rough area, and the vast majority of citizens I dealt with had lengthy rap sheets and an attitude of "fuck you, pig", I can understand how that leads one to become excessively wary and vigilant, and perhaps eventually prejudicial and quick-triggered. And if I were a citizen who repeatedly dealt with cops who viewed me as a criminal regardless of who I was or what I was doing, I can understand how that leads one to feel marginalized and to distrust the law on the whole, perhaps to the point of losing any qualms about breaking the law. In areas where these attitudes are common, there is no real solution except for everyone to keep cooler heads and trust that the other side will treat them better than their life experiences have suggested they will. That's sadly a pretty tall order, but it can be done.

The good news is, that dire scenario is not representative of all or even most areas of America. (As an aside, I'm really sick of hearing a bunch of haughty bullshit from other countries as if racism, inequity, corruption, etc. are just "American" problems, especially given that many of these same countries systemically impede the very possibility of ever becoming half as culturally/ethnically/socioeconomically diverse as America is. Moving on.) Situations like Ferguson are thankfully rare, but they do happen. And when they do, it should be used as a learning opportunity for how we can do better, not as a reason for a bunch of assholes on both sides to rationalize their hatred. Moreover, to expect something as trivial as a video game (which is, at best, tangentially related to the issue at hand) to not even be released because it might be deemed offensive by virtue of simply being scheduled for release with unfortunate timing is fucking ridiculous. As is the notion that shutting this game down would do anything for anyone in terms of addressing this real-world issue.

You're totally right, let's just make it another brown person shooter simulator.

At least that way no one will be offended.

The issue of racially motivated police violence has nothing to do with police violence against heavily armed criminals.

That's a fantastic point. I feel like Battlefield and CoD last generation with their modern settings were pretty freaking atrocious in that regard. I was a dumb kid that didn't realize the implications of the images in those games until later. I think it was Kumail Nanjiani's podcast where I started to grasp how fucked up that shit was.

Good Honest Cops don't say anything about the bad cops, do nothing to ferret them out, actively protect them, and would benefit from the same corruption if they ever made a mistake (IE: Mistaking a cellphone for a gun).

And when they do speak up this happens: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Schoolcraft or http://thefreethoughtproject.com/good-cop-dead-rat-car-testifying-officers/

I don't think riots over some thug getting killed by police should be cause for questioning if a game about police vs. criminals should be released or not.

It's just a video game, never the less, the holier than thou types will enjoy ripping the game apart. Polygon.

Put this on a protest sign! Civil disobedience should be this civil.

I think the timing of this release sucks. Blaming EA for the timing and calling them tone deaf is silly. They obviously began work on this game a couple years ago. There's no way they could have known how the social climate surrounding police militarization would be today. Is delaying the game even further a good idea? That's hard to know since the public perception could either improve or worsen depending on any number of factors.

I will say that EA needs to be very careful about how they market this game. A poorly worded answer during an interview could easily sink this game with the way things are. If I was them I would not be putting any developers in an interview setting pre-release. They need to create very targeted commercials that put the focus on the fact that the criminals in this game are awful people and that the cops are not above the law. If that isn't how the story was written they need to either change it or position the story as a commentary on how society is and not how it should be.

As a battlefield fan I have literally no interest in this. That's not to say that I'd never have an interest in a small scale cop themed battlefield game but this looks like ass.

This is America. I am full agreement the game should come out. What it depicts and the reception it gets for that should be the consequences.

I can certainly start with no one is forcing any one to buy it.