Napoleon once said „"a soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon". Well, that goes doubly so for gamers, who will chase absolutely meaningless achievements in games till no end. Why, even our own editor is slave to this madness! The game devs are aware of this and they understand that the more time is spent chasing achievements, the more time is spent playing their product, the fonder will be their memories.

And while achievements enforce long term loyalty, there are steps to get you hooked in place even in match, and Battlefield 4 didn't abandon these practices. Ribbons are the most basic things you can earn in match. Make a few kills with a certain gun – ribbon! Capture a few flags – again, a ribbon! Fart in the general direction of the enemy a few times – again, a ribbon! And fifty ribbons give you a medal, and medal... gives you bragging rights? New right-side dog tags (right side shows achievement, left – country and identity)? Nothing much, really, even if they are really pretty to look at. There all still ranks (also known as "levels" in less pretentious games) and service starts that mean that you like doing this one thing in particular and, in case of game mode starts, means that you either don't suck at it (after all, you get them for winning matches and, say, interacting with the bomb in Obliteration) or have sunk too much time in it to be still considered sane.

And even more directly on the battlefield, you have various fiddling around with the score system. Now you get points not only for capturing flags (or planting bombs), but also for the capture attempt, even if it was unsuccessful. Engineers can also enjoy "VEHICLE HIT" messages that also tell them if they hit the new vulnerable top area. Also adding to the fray are the "KILL ASSISTS COUNTS AS KILL", mostly for the times where an enemy you almost killed flees with a few HP, only to get killed by a n00b randomly shooting at trees. Now you both get a kill marker!

The new squad upgrade system helps to enforce cooperation in squads – which is unfortunate, since squads are most usually random and full of people who don't want to cooperate. Still, manage to do enough squad stuff and you'll get various bonuses... which you'll use with a squad wipe. Always pays to have a character who upon receiving "Last Man In Squad" message will go to ground and await your respawn.

Lastly come the Battlepacks. Unlocked at certain ranks, they mostly provide camo and cosmetic accessories. For example, Green Laser (from a Battlepack) is not superior in any way to Red Laser (from just playing the game). And as you play the game, and increase in rank, so does the rank of Battlepack increase, eventually even netting you gold ones.

So, are you ready to score some points?