Battlefield 4 now lets you form squads with your friends before joining a match

By Will Fulton Published May 6, 2014

Battlefield 4 developer DICE have finally added a feature to allay the anxieties of lonely soldiers: the ability to form up as a squad with your friends before joining a public game. The feature, here called “Squad Join Beta,” was a popular element of Battlefield 3 and has been one of the most requested features in Bf4 since its 2013 launch. Up to five players can join a squad before deploying together into a multiplayer match, with a guarantee that they will stick together across rounds.

Squad Join Beta is currently only available in the base game maps for Conquest, Team Deathmatch, Obliteration, Rush, and Domination game modes, but DICE plans to support it for other maps and modes in future iterations. It’s currently available under the Multiplayer menu for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

Will Fulton

Former Staff Writer, Gaming

Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

Topics

QuickCharge: This Week in EV

Gaming

Phantom Blade Zero makes me think Sony might have a point about going all digital

Physical games still matter, but when the disc isn't a complete copy of the game, the argument for keeping it becomes harder to make.

I'm a big supporter of physical games. There's something satisfying about owning a disc, lending it to a friend, or grabbing a bargain without waiting for a digital storefront to approve the price. But Phantom Blade Zero has me questioning one of the biggest arguments in the physical-versus-digital debate. The game's digital version launches on October 29, 2026, while its physical PS5 editions, including Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate versions, won't arrive until 2027.

And there's another wrinkle: the digital version reportedly needs up to 134GB of storage, raising questions about how much of the game can actually fit on a standard Blu-ray disc. A standard PS5 Ultra HD Blu-ray disc maxes out at 100GB, so Phantom Blade Zero may need to ship across multiple discs or require players to download additional data to finish installing it. Either way, the idea of popping in a disc and having the complete game ready to play gets a little murkier.

Gaming

Nintendo Switch 2 jailbreak breakthrough shows what AI can do, but it’s not a one-click hack

The software-only exploit works on the latest firmware, but it's tethered and still has significant limitations.

The Nintendo Switch 2 has reportedly been jailbroken, and AI helped crack the code. Developer Sammy Hajhamid, aka pepsipu, used OpenAI's Codex to help exploit the console, even modding Mario Kart World with the likes of Peter Griffin and Hatsune Miku. But before anyone celebrates an unlocked Nintendo playground, there's a catch: the exploit is tethered, not a full-blown custom firmware jailbreak.

AI helped crack the Switch 2, but it wasn't a one-click job

Gaming

Xbox Cloud Gaming gets a standalone pay-as-you-go option

The service starts at $3.99 for 10 hours, and unused playtime won’t expire until you use it up.

Microsoft may already be putting pieces of its rumored Game Pass overhaul into place. A recent report claimed that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is planning a major rethink of the subscription service that could let players pay separately for features such as cloud gaming, multiplayer, and console-only games. Xbox has now started testing a pay-as-you-go version of Cloud Gaming that does not require a Game Pass subscription.

Xbox Cloud Gaming now has an hourly price