Fleshy men repelling rockets; bullets dissolving on contact with oxygen; grenades bouncing off patches of thin air. These are just some of the unexplained phenomena that have been confusing Battlefield 4 players.
In a game that began life riddled with bugs, their cause has been left undiscovered. But Youtuber Jack Frags might have just uncovered the culprit – the newly-named ‘Death Shield’ bug.
Once a player is downed in Battlefield 4, their teammates usually enjoy a short grace period in which they can revive them using a defibrillator.
As Mr Frags’ video demonstrates, it turns out that downed soldier will also continue to block projectiles – bullets, grenades, even tank shells – fired through the space above their body.
The invisible hitbox takes up the dimensions of an upright man, and disappears once the player is killed outright. But on frequently narrow maps like Operation Locker or Battlefield 3 hangover Operation Metro, the bug’s effects have disrupted play enough to merit its discovery.
DICE QA lead Jaqub Ajmal told followers that the developers were “looking into” a solution for the bug. Is this an issue you can cross-reference with your own experiences, or was it buried beneath a litany of other Battlefield 4 bugs?