Ugh, this is going to blind the masses on how WWI really was, I am not going to say that I was there to know, but I have read plently of history and accounts to know. But this is EA we are talking about, they will make it all run & gun 'super fast paced' style of game.
A good example is how many assault and semi-automatic firearms they have in this game, like the Mondragon (Mexican) semi-automatic and the Cei Rigotti.
From my understanding, less than one hundred were made, and one hundred is being generous.
Then we have the Mondragon, this rifle was Mexican, Germany aquired very, very limited amounts as trials but were never adopted.
From what I have seen in trailers, I am not convinced at all with what they are trying to replicate. I have only seen bolt-action rifles used with scopes as "Sniper's", but even then, scopes were a rarity in both world wars.
The rest of it is shoulder firing thirteen kilogram Benet-Mercie machinesguns and Lewis guns.
Also seeing the MP-18 and the Burton makes me shake my head. The Burton's actual usage is questionable and the MP-18 being in service for a matter of months only in the hands of the elite trench-raiders.
Then onto the Standschuetze Hellriegel 1915, this is a unique piece, very, very little information even exists on it, of all the sources I can find, it only existed in prototype stages and was a crew served weapons requiring gunner and assistant gunner.
We also have the Barretta m1918, this was another rarity, being used by the Italians. The Winchester M1907, from what I gather, less than 3000 were in service.
Down to the Remington model 8, this piece had a small magazine (5), was very heavy towards the front and suffered hard recoil from it's Long Recoil action. It was also said to suffer reliability and overheating when in prolonged usage, say, in a combat situation.
This list could go on for much longer than you'd probably want to read, and for me to stay focused on.
But I think EA making this game is going to ruin the chance of another developer making a WWI game, if you look at Red Orchestra 2, this is a masterpiece produced by Tripwire. This game combines fun BUT remaining as realistic as possible, an example of a 32 player team, around 28 of those players are using Bolt-Action rifles, no flashy scopes or anything, a rifle and a bayonette and a grenades, that is your gear. Riflemen are very powerful in the right hands, a single torso shot resulting in almost certain death, except in exceptional circumstances. The other few classes would be a single assault trooper, two semi-automatic riflemen, a marksman, one-two machinegunners, four squad leaders and the team leader.
As you could probably tell, this is a much more realistic system, both sides (Axis and Allies, Eastern Front, Soviets vs Germany) have their own weapon systems helping for asymetric warfare.
The main factor with a game this realistic, is that it drives off those who want a Call of Duty or Battlefield Run &/or Gun style game, which keeps the community limited to the 'Hardcore' realism players.
But I digress, I don't hold high hopes for this game, it's just going to be the same old game, in a layer of polish, over a layer of polish, but once again more polish.
From what I have assembled, EA and Dice have gone to
Significant effort just to find as many automatic and semiautomatic weapons as possible, even to find ones that were not even produced yet, to ones that served in minute numbes, to ones that never served at all.
But this is their game, and they are allowed to blind the masses how they please.
