So...
It'd be nice to have WWII come back. Or Vietnam, although WWII offers more variety of settings. You know, being a WORLD war and all...
I never played 2142, so I can't comment on that, but I heard it was pretty inventive.
You ask me, the absolute pinnacle of the series over the last 10-15 years was Bad Company 2. Great single player game, AWESOME multiplayer with huge destructive capabilities, and then BF3 basically just threw all of that out the window. I still remember my first Destruction 2.0 kill in that game, firing a Carl Gustov into a bunker and watching the whole thing collapse on four enemies and an MCOM. The game had flaws, but it also had some of the best maps I've played (as did Bad Company 1, for that matter).
As for unlocks...
...fuck 'em.
Seriously, if your game has to rely on meta-game aspects like unlocks to keep people playing, maybe the game itself just isn't that good. I'm not interested in playing Skinner Box 3000 anymore. I don't have the time to devote to MP anymore to deal with learning the maps AND having to unlock stuff just so that I can be on a level playing field in terms of gear as the other players. I'm fine being beaten by someone who just knows the terrain better. I'm fine being beaten by someone whose reflexes are just better. I'm not fine being beaten by someone who is given an advantage purely because they've sat their ass in a chair and played long enough to unlock this or that weapon.
Failing that, at least give me the option to pay for this stuff because I have a fucking job and that's how old farts like me level the playing field with the kiddies who can play these games like it's their job. But really, just get rid of unlocks. If I want to grind to advance, it's gonna be at the gym where I can actually gain real world benefits.
I played BF3. I liked it, up through Armored Fist, but I got fed up with several aspects. First, EA/DICE has a shitty record of providing support for their games. Balance-killing bugs linger on interminably (USAS+12g frags+IRNV anyone? Underslung M26 Dart on a G3, anyone?), and EA/DICE doesn't do shit about it. I gather that BF2 still has the red tag bug. "
They also tend to have really doofy priorities as far as releasing new content. My recollection of the first DLC for BF3 was that it was all close quarters run-n-gun deathmatch bullshit. Really stupid stuff. Give me objective-based gameplay, or GTFO.
And they tend to design maps and game modes that, in my opinion, are simply really poorly thought out. If you're losing, they very often are designed to KEEP you losing. In-game mechanics can play out this way, too, such as ineffective autobalance, lack of team scramble at the end of a round, etc. And they've never been able to make a game where plane/heli rape wasn't a problem if they were available, although BFBC2 did the best with this by minimizing how bad it could get. Really, DICE has just always been pretty much shit at balancing, in my experience.
I played the Battlefront demo and was severely underwhelmed. The game was gorgeous and sounded amazing, but otherwise was pretty meh in terms of actual gameplay. Guns lacked any punch. Walker Assault was the only one worth playing and, at least during the demo, was severely unbalanced in favor of the Empire. Stuff like that has just really soured me on the franchise as a whole.
Could they turn it around? Sure. There's always a chance. I mean, there's always gonna be a market for the alternative to Call of Duty which, I gather, is basically the same game that it's been for the last umpteen gajillion years with nothing new to recommend it. But WILL they turn it around? That I don't know. A WWII setting would help, but as Battlefront proved, setting alone won't give you good gameplay.