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'Battlefield' Has Never Been Historically Accurate, That's Why It's Fun

Nothing says “realistic respect and honor” like rocket-jumping a boat over a building and bazooka-ing a jet in midair

Battlefield V developer DICE released the game’s first trailer to the world Wednesday, revealing that the shooter is set during World War II and will include playable women characters. Women are also on a lot of the marketing material. This made some people angry.

As The Verge pointed out Battlefield V fans who failed history are mad that the game has women in it because they think it's not historically accurate. With these angry gamers in mind, I’ve dug up 10 clips from the Battlefield series that highlight its respect for men at war and its dedication to historical accuracy.

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The US Marine Corp pioneered new and innovative ways of war during the American invasion of Grenada in the early 1980s. The most impressive has to be the boat rocket jump. The technique allowed fighting forces to skip over entire landmasses as it moved around the Caribbean.

Teamwork is one of the true joys of Battlefield. In this clip, clever players used explosives to launch a tank into the air, as US Marine Corps training manuals instructed soldiers to do during World War II. The puny jets of the enemy were no match for the firepower of the flying tank.

The only thing better than teamwork in modern war is ejecting from a jet, headshotting an enemy with a pistol, then landing back in your jet to continue the slaughter. Just like IRL.

Revolvers are pretty sweet, but you know what’s better? Fly-by knifing. This is about as accurate and respectful as it gets.

As any soldier who’s gone through basic training knows, should a soldier lose their knife, they may use a defibrillator to incapacitate the enemy while jumping out of a moving jet.

Here we have footage of the famous undercarriage technique, first mastered by American troops during Operation Desert Storm. The dexterous pilot is able to spin their jet on its head, climb onto the upended belly of the machine, bazooka a pursuing enemy, then crawl back into the cockpit with no problems.

Tank commanders who can't pay a toll are unceremoniously flipped on their asses. Is this gif crafted from Battlefield 4 or CNN footage? It’s hard to tell.

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DICE famously went the extra mile to make the World War I shooter Battlefield 1 as historically accurate as possible. One of its most jarring discoveries was that of the cavalerie lance-flammes, an informal brigade of French MEN who fired flamethrowers from horseback.

Just as impressive are the specially trained German pilots who dominated the skies by ramming into enemy planes and dragging them to the ground. It’s how German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen got his start.

One of the best parts of Battlefield is its destructible terrain and environments. A well-placed grenade can take down a wall and collapse a room on your enemies. Turkish cloth is of course impenetrable, however.

As you can see, the Battlefield series has always respected the men of war by providing hyper-realistic combat and physics.

But seriously, folks. Some people are mad that there’s a woman in Battlefield V, a game set during World War II. They’re idiots and ignorant of history. More than 800,000 women served in the Russian military alone and the US Air Force trained women pilots during the war.

More importantly, the ridiculous clips above are why people remember and love the Battlefield games. It's a great game because it allows people to play in so many different and creative ways, not because it accurately portrays how shells eject from an M1 Garand rifle.