- by Ken "Chaobo" Serra
- Posted on September 30, 2011 @ 3:34 PST
Alright let me start by saying Battlefield 3 is still in its beta phase and anything said in this article isn’t smacking around the final product of the game. I couldn’t get this up earlier simply because the servers were buggy, crashing, and constantly not allowing people to connect. Which was expected, because you got a highly-anticipated game combined with every one coming home from work or school wanting to play it, that’s fine. But once I finally did get on, I can’t say the experience was all that great either, at least not what I had in mind.
The game at the moment has one mode called “Rush” where two teams will enter into a sort of “turf war” battle where one team needs to secure bomb points in order to expand the map into the next area. The map available to players is called “Operation Metro”, a three part map where players will get to fight in a big park, a subway, and the plaza. The map is huge. The park is a one big turf war and it’s pretty fun. Then you enter the subway and teams that aren’t coordinated suffer. A lot. Defense has such a perfect place to defend… which is the end of the subway. Just fire when ready pretty much. Then you enter the plaza, and offense seems to have the advantage here. There are two buildings with windows all around for snipers to hide in, which are relatively compact and not too hard to get by. Map design wasn’t bad for the title itself. But, it brings back the whole Modern Warfare 2 “feel” to it, where you can be shot from everywhere and then brings back a terrible version of Modern Warfare’s linear-style of map where the enemy is in front of you and ready to kill you.
The graphics are pretty good. DICE put in a lot of effort in giving a certain “fluidity” to the actions of their characters. The audio was also done quite well. I was using surround sound headsets and the sound was rather immersive. Yea, that’s all I have to say about that.
I thought this game was supposed to be the epic “more true-to-life” action shooter out there. Can’t say that’s true. Yes it’s a video game, I understand, but one who claims it’ll smoke its competition in terms of “realism”? I was able to take the tricks learned in Call of Duty and put them on steroids. I was virtually unkillable when “drop-shotting” and jump-shotting. On top of that, sprinting is unlimited, no matter what I’m carrying. Weight? Who cares. I guess that makes sense for this type of game otherwise getting around the larger maps wouldn’t be fun. Also, I’m still unsure whether gravity is still a factor in gun engagement, because I was counter-sniping with my M4 on semi-auto from quite the distance.
So now let’s talk about the cover-fire/suppression system where applying bullets into an area “suppresses” your opponent. Love it, that’s a great idea and a brilliant concept… except I can’t count how many times I was “spawn-suppressed”. My teammates were taking fire at spawn so I would often take the blunt of the pressure when I got in. Spawning-in into distortion sucks. It was like playing airsoft after being spun around for 5 minutes before the game started.
On top of the “spawn-pressuring” there was also… spawn-killing *gasp*. There were times I was immediately killed by sniper fire at my spawn. The spawning needs a few tweaks. You’d think companies, especially DICE would’ve learned from other games like Bad Company 2 and heck, Medal of Honor while they’re at it where spawn killings and turf wars are king. Can just slap any of those two titles onto the box and put “now with better graphics!” and I would never know the game was new. The good thing is I could counter everything the game had to offer, which is excellent because that shows balance in the multiplayer mechanics. It’s just spawning needs a bit more reworking. It seems it’s fixed, it never really changes. There were moments I was killed so fast, any form of reaction time was useless, despite my fast aim in most shooters and there were other moments where I spawn in and get a kill within one second.
Again in this game, there are plenty of snipers. Sniping is obviously countered by also sniping, or flanking, but because of that very logic, there was a heavy abundance of snipers. I would often join games were I was the only player planting bombs, dodging tons of sniper fire a long the way.
The game needs teamwork. Actually, it pretty much requires it. In order for you to succeed, you need to coordinate or push really hard. I have tried playing the “one man army” planting bombs, defusing them, and playing heavy objective, but it just wasn’t enough for one person to try and be everywhere at once. This might be troubling for people wanting to come home from work to do a quick match without some friends.
I was really hoping for something cool. Mind you, I didn’t get to abuse any vehicles in the BETA but all the hype I had built into this game is gone. It’s one of those games where I will have fun and enjoy it with some friends but never touch it again after awhile. I really want to say good things about it because it’s a beta, but who am I kidding? Anyways, Battlefield 3 launches on October 25th, 2011 and on my opinion, won’t be early enough to beat out Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Battlefield 3
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Just wanted to mention that having buggy servers in 2011 is a symptom that something is wrong with the architecture of the title, especially from a team who has been running online multiplayer games for nigh on ten years. There have been a ton of betas out that had no server issues -- RIFT for one, and TOR for another. The fact that EA can't take the time to create a solid framework with which to run the game tells me that there are going to be other major issues with the title.
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Do to how horrid the game turned out to be. I have decided not to buy it. The game is 30 frames per second. while Modern warfare 3 is 60 frames per second. One of my friends game me the medal of honor game to try out the beta. Hoping that the beta was good, I felt like I was playing Medal of Honor all over again. It has no vehicles, I fall into the ground through the barriers of the game. The shots do not register but the worst part is team mates flashing the flashlight in your face. The game is too slow pace. Too turf war. All I ever die from are snipers. Modern Warfare 3 will be better. Fact, Modern warfare 3 is faster pace. Fact, Call of duty's shots register. Fact, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is not broken. Battle field 3 is a slow pace clunky unfinished first person shooter. The big 3 in my opinion does not include battlefield 3. The big 3 are Gears of War 3, Modern Warfare 3 and even though i am not a fan of it; drum roll... Skyrim. Battlefield is probably just going to be a pretty game with a campain you play through once. Oh yeah, also it takes an eternity to rank up, this is a first person shooter not an MMORPG. You have to rank up tanks helicopter and your weapons in that class. Russians use AK47 and Americans use M16. And you play each side once per match, meaning that you can only rank up the weapon you want once every 2 matches. This is a horrible idea for a game!!!!! Outragous
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ITS ABOUT BATTLEFIELD which is just as bad as medal of honor ^
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The reason why that's one big paragraph is because of Ohan's undying hatred towards the hideous atrocity that is Battlefield...3. DICE could have, should have made a better game, at least since their ultimate goal was to take down dynamic titan, Call of Duty.. And the fact that they made poor, innocent Ohan write that clunk of text that hurts my very eyes, allows them to deserve the right to be beat by a giant wet noodle and have super hot tiramisu pudding poured onto their souls.
So yea.. that's what I will write in reponse to Ohan.
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Oh yeah, did I mention the game is not user friendly at all. No mute botton and also if you die, you have to spawn back at your base and sprint like a mile down to the subway. and die again sprint another mile to the objective.
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Ok I have not had the chance to play but I've heard how realistic this game is suppose to be when compared to other first person shooters. given that it is a beta and that in all likely hood you had horrid teammates that allowed the spawn suppression; how realistic was the actual game play? Such as did getting shot in the face lead to death no matter what the caliber of the weapon, or the fact that some bullets just don't have the capabilities to reach out and touch someone at 300+ yards, yes Im referring to the very unrealistic ballistics and damage of the COD franchise were someone can take a .50 caliber bullet to the chest and SURVIVE. or getting killed by a handgun from across the map. This isn't meant to slander the COD franchise in any way just hoping there is an alternative to those who would like to see more realism in the a FPS.
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Never considered Skyrim an FPS, but thinking on it now, that puts a whole new spin on the wooden movement of the character. He's searching for his missing submachine gun, and when he gets it will finally be able to use this wooden stance to his advantage.
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Well big 3 games not big 3 fps. skyrim is one of the biggest everyones looking forward to. lol
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IS THERE NO BATTLEFIELD FANBOYS TO ARGUE WITH HERE!!!!??? haha
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Less yelling, more discussion please. Save the capslock for WoW Trade Chat.
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Also, please remember that for the MW3 contest you need to register in the official rules post to be eligible -- by posting the appropriate statement, which you can find in the post itself if you read very, very carefully.
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Well I enjoy playing the beta(by myself). I don't encounter many problems( Fragnot) with it besides the servers. i do agree that the beta shouldn't be like this since the game is coming out in less then a month. I think the only reason i enjoy this is because i have nothing else to play.
When i TRY to play with a friend it is a whole different story. I cant even find a game and if we do then we are on opposite teams. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this game promote teamwork so I'm sure that you should be allowed to play with friends.
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Yea it does. It promotes A LOT of teamwork. But no matter how much TEAMWORK I dump into the game... defense always wins!!! Bahhhh. Defense should have a slightly more delayed respawn. or at the very least, the timer on the planted bombs should remain where it was when defused.
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Personally, I enjoyed the beta, other than the innumerable glitches and kinks that I'm sure will be worked out by the time the full game is released (hence the name "beta.") When the game is in beta form you have to take everything with a grain of salt. Focus on the core gameplay itself and try to imagine what it would be like if it were perfected. Now I'm not a Battlefield fanboy, but I did enjoy the beta and I think it'll be a game worth renting (emphasis on the "renting" part.) I think once the full game is released I'll have a decent and enjoyable time filler to tide me over until the release of Modern Warfare 3. I do admit that the beta has a whole lot wrong with it, but looking at the core gameplay I see a pretty fun game.
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Not in 2011 you don't. It's not alpha testing anymore, and on top of being a BETA, it's a BETA with less than a months release on the actual game. We did our podcast and had a discussion on "too little too late". There are plenty of games released on a bad note and EVENTUALLY made into some amazing game, but you know what? It's too late, everyone already left. Look at what Gears of War 2 did to epic's amazing fanbase... what amazing fanbase?
It's not that i'm hating too much on it, but why buy a game that's GOING to be great when I can buy a game ALREADY great, out of the box. Again, it will be a rental for me, and I had BF3 reserved since E3 of 2010. Still not as bad as my reservation for Ghost Recon which I did in Feb of 2010? lol
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I do agree that is has a LOT more glitches and problems than most BETA's but I still enjoyed it. That may be because I didn't have super high expectations but still.
I'm not comparing Battlefield to any other games, it's nowhere near the top of my list for this year's releases. I just think people are being a little bit too hard on it is all. In my opinion it will be an enjoyable rent.
The only Ghost Recon I ever played for a decent amount of time was Chaos Theory, which I mistakenly bought the strategy guide for when I "misread" the posting title on ebay, haha
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lol that's win. It's not quite as bad as buying an "Xbox 360 box"... yes it was just the box lol.
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haha, you bought just the box? how much did it cost? and yeah, I was a little disappointed when I got it in the mail, lol.
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lol not I but a friend did. He said he got it for quite the deal so I'm unsure on the price... but nonetheless it arrived and it was a box wrapped in Manila paper lol. We laughed really hard and he actually wasn't upset so I'm sure it didn't cost a fortune.
But the moral of the story is... Ebay is amazing buuuut... do read the FULL description xD
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haha, that's classic :) I don't know about him, but I felt pretty stupid when I opened that strategy guide...
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I never opened the thing, lol
I'm not much for strategy guides
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Battlefield 3 is probably going to be good but the beta was just garbage. Thats it.
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Ok I know I'm jumping in literally months after this thread was started but I feel like I had to :)
I'm a huge, huge fan of Battlefield 3. Granted, the best platform to play this on is PC, by far. PC supports higher frames per second, the maps are larger, and it supports epic 32 vs 32 battles.
We're in June now and I can safely say any issues from way back in the beta have been addressed. This game runs and performs perfect on my system.
This game is much more enjoyable than the Call of Duty series for me personally because of how epic in scope the battles are and because on two words: Assault Class.
Playing as an Assault class let's me heal my allies and rez them in combat. There is nothing more satisfying then seeing your comrades bodies laying all around you and you're frantically going to each one of them and rezzing them so they can continue the fight. Not only do you rack up some serious points from that but it's an awesome change of pace from just run and gun tactics you see in games like CoD, which I also love by the way.
The Rush and Conquest modes are a blast to play. Objective based matches are much more fun, and rewarding to play than Team Deathmatch which is the #1 game mode in CoD.
I hope people went back and gave this game a shot. I've actually been playing quite a bit since Battlefield Premium was announced. If you can get yourself into a good group where people work together and play the objective (and NOT just KD ratio) you will absoultely love this game.
Hit me up on Origin if anyone wants to play! TheOnlyJuan1976
