[Multiplat] Battlefield 3

[RenegadeRocks]

And I was expecting th SP to be worthless, but surprisingly, I am loving it ! Its refreshingly different and lets u win if u play well and punishes you if u lose concentration for a second.
I am skipping all cutscenes though, don't feel like watching them at all. Not because they are bad or anything, i just skipped them all, even the first one, but enjoying the gameplay.

Played an MP match in Caspian Border and boy was it fun ! It was awesome ! Nothing beats BF in MP !

 

[nintenho]

Would it be so bad if they made the jets invincible for the first 5 seconds the pilot is in them? It's really stupid that a single enemy jet/tank can take out all your vehicles before you can get in them.

Also, I'm not sure if it was mentioned or not but WTF is up with the totally overdone lens flare and bloom/overexposure/whatever-its-called when exiting a building? It's detrimental to gameplay because you're totally blind for a second or so upon exiting a building - just long enough for the camper in the bushes across the street to mow you down. It's almost like DICE said "Oh, we've got this new annoying graphical "feature" that has already been totally overdone in other games, so we should rub the players' faces in it!" And lens flare with your naked eye? Really?

I think it works well exactly for the reason you mentioned. You should (for tactical reasons anyways) peek out the window/door before running outside because any snipers in bushes won't be noticeable even once your "eyes" adjust to the light, not unless they're like 50 feet from the door.. The game really rewards players who spot and scout around.

 

[Rangers]

Wow ! BF3 campaign looks freaking amazing on the ps3 ! The textures are so crisp and the lighting so damn fabulous !!!!! I was so worried that it won't look good enou and my monies will feel wasted, but damn this is so impressive !

Yes, it is one of the best looking console games out there along with the usual suspects, Killzone 3, Uncharted 3, Crysis 2, maybe Gears 3.

I wont say it just blows my mind though. Sadly I think this gen is past the point of being capable of that. Looks very nice though.

MW3 what 30 mins I have played of it, looks pretty dated in comparison in some ways, such as the flat lighting. Particularly when shooting down those Hinds between skyscrapers, the building textures are simply insulting in MW3.

I used to think the COD games looked pretty darn good, so BF has raised the bar.

 

[nintenho]

The most impressive thing about the Call of Duty games was the lighting and 60 fps, obviously BF3 doesn't have to worry about the 60 fps.

 

[NRP]

I think it works well exactly for the reason you mentioned. You should (for tactical reasons anyways) peek out the window/door before running outside because any snipers in bushes won't be noticeable even once your "eyes" adjust to the light, not unless they're like 50 feet from the door.. The game really rewards players who spot and scout around.

Nah, it's just another lame "Hey! Look what we can do!" visual effect. Just like the lens flare/spots in your field of vision when you look toward the sun with your naked eye. It makes sense if you're looking through an optic, but not with your naked eye.

I seriously question the motive here. The effect looks crappy and detracts from the core gameplay.

 

[nintenho]

Nah, it's just another lame "Hey! Look what we can do!" visual effect. Just like the lens flare/spots in your field of vision when you look toward the sun with your naked eye. It makes sense if you're looking through an optic, but not with your naked eye.

I seriously question the motive here. The effect looks crappy and detracts from the core gameplay.

Well lens flare is obviously something your eyes won't do but the bloomy HDR effect is reflective of your actual eyes adjusting to the sunlight I would think. On a lot of maps it's not really an issue since you're mostly inside or mostly outside.

I guess the lens flare would only be a problem if you're facing towards the sun, it's pretty overdone I guess to give it an action movie feel but I never felt too hindered by it since it goes away when you turn ~45 degrees. I can see how it could be a problem if a sniper purposely camps at a spot that gives people coming out of the building the most possible lens flare.

 

[Acert93]

Wow are squads, joining, etc just buggy. And trying to lay down a spawn beacon has been buggy every since the beta. Ugh!

 

[Scott_Arm]

Hardcore was a neat idea until I kept getting team killed at deployment. I knew it was time to bounce.

 

[Arwin]

I'm not really quite feeling the single player campaign yet - although I seem to be in pretty deep shit already, it is still pretty much a tutorial, and those two things don't go together well. If it really is a tutorial, the punishment for failure is instant death each time. In terms of the actual battle situation, there's something realistic about it, except that in that situation nobody would have given me the task to fire an RPG if I didn't understand I need to be far away from the others to make sure I don't hurt them in the process.

So a more comprehensive training mission wouldn't be amiss. There is something, but that basically only teaches you simple gun combat, and that's the point I don't have much trouble with (at least not in the corridors, the first open field bit was quite hard).

If you're doing time travel anyway, you can start that section with 'blah blah blah in 1984 at Westpoint' or whatever as a flashback and have a young version of the main character do some training stuff for the various weapons and basic combat scenarios. Then you can weave in some fun bits about the character, and also do an estimation on the right difficulty level for the player to keep things interesting during the campaign. You can even make this bit optional.

This, for me at least, is too much trial and error and the death-per-minute rate is way to high to keep a good flow to the game. Hopefully it gets better (or I get better!) later on ...

Other than that though the game seems classy so far.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Best bug ever: A guy on our team last night was showing up as an enemy character model without a name above his head. We really spent A LOT of time trying to kill him, which resulted in many of our own deaths. Took me a while to figure out what was going on.

 

[NRP]

I saw something like that too a couple of times - a guy with no friend/foe identifier walking around crouched and firing his weapon full auto forever. He seemed to be invincible.

And oh my god is the SOFLAM totally worthless! I wasted 30 minutes of my life trying to use it on Caspian Border. You can lock on to aircraft, but you can't follow the aircraft very well, so it's easy for them to fly out of your field of view. I've heard there's a way you can remote deploy it, but damned if I know how to do it. I ended up with exactly one assist for 45 pts.

This game is a head scratcher. It seems like the most unrefined BF game ever released. It can't be the same team that did BC2, because that game was a lot better imo. Did DICE put their scrub team on BF3?

 

[Scott_Arm]

The only problem I have with Battlefield 3 is that the destructible environment doesn't seem to come into play nearly as often as it did in Bad Company 2.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

The only problem I have with Battlefield 3 is that the destructible environment doesn't seem to come into play nearly as often as it did in Bad Company 2.

Yeah ! Even I don't get it , the destruction was always all around u in BF:BC2 , but somehow its hardly visible in BF3 at all ! It hardly comes into play !

Otoh, I find myself at loss in the open. I am useful only in closed spaces with my shotgun !

 

[Arwin]

I have switched back to Easy, which unfortunately required me to restart the Campaign. That's a little old fashioned if you ask me ...

This helps a bit. I could get past the section on the bridge - I can't handle the heavy machinegun very well at all with the controller, was aching for Move support (shame so few realise how much better shooters can be with Move).

I'm faring a bit better now, but so far this is really not a game for me. It looks great, absolutely, and I do enjoy that to some extent, but other than that I'm not enjoying what I am doing. It is a little bit too realistic (and serious) in some areas (when I was crawling in the tubes and a tremor happened, I wanted Bruce Willis style comments to give my guy personality) and then when the game is very unrealistic (checkpoint system) that can get really annoying as well.

I'll definitely give it more time, but a lot of the time I am shooting at guys and nothing is happening, and I don't understand why. I keep asking myself if it is a matter of scripting or whether my aim/precision is crap, etc. I really have to get used to it. The shooting itself feels pretty satisfying otherwise.

I don't know. I guess I am just proving to myself that I have been right in steering clear of all the Call of Duty type shooters so far, and Battlefield 3 clearly targets that audience in singleplayer, so no surprise there.

Hopefully though the battles open up a little and last longer as the game progresses. If this goes on much longer I'll probably give up on the single player and stick to multiplayer.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Otoh, I find myself at loss in the open. I am useful only in closed spaces with my shotgun !

So basically u have no aiming skills ?

 

[Rangers]

I have switched back to Easy, which unfortunately required me to restart the Campaign. That's a little old fashioned if you ask me ...

This helps a bit. I could get past the section on the bridge - I can't handle the heavy machinegun very well at all with the controller, was aching for Move support (shame so few realise how much better shooters can be with Move).

I'm faring a bit better now, but so far this is really not a game for me. It looks great, absolutely, and I do enjoy that to some extent, but other than that I'm not enjoying what I am doing. It is a little bit too realistic (and serious) in some areas (when I was crawling in the tubes and a tremor happened, I wanted Bruce Willis style comments to give my guy personality) and then when the game is very unrealistic (checkpoint system) that can get really annoying as well.

I'll definitely give it more time, but a lot of the time I am shooting at guys and nothing is happening, and I don't understand why. I keep asking myself if it is a matter of scripting or whether my aim/precision is crap, etc. I really have to get used to it. The shooting itself feels pretty satisfying otherwise.

I don't know. I guess I am just proving to myself that I have been right in steering clear of all the Call of Duty type shooters so far, and Battlefield 3 clearly targets that audience in singleplayer, so no surprise there.

Hopefully though the battles open up a little and last longer as the game progresses. If this goes on much longer I'll probably give up on the single player and stick to multiplayer.

I'm liking the campaign a surprising amount.

It is pretty difficult. On normal, I'm not a great player but I've died a lot. It's designed with some scripted trial and error sections as well. If you're having trouble on the part I think you are, you're really gonna be toast later on

But so far I'm for the most part enjoying the challenge, visuals, and find it has more freedom than a COD game, though they're similar.

And yeah, it looks really good, though I find myself tiring of all the dark sections sometimes, they look at times astonishingly good though. It seems the engine is really suited for dark/rainy stuff. Just got into a brightly lit forest area so we'll see how that holds up.

Paris though, wow. At times I thought that section was going to really transcend and be a stunning sequence, certainly the lighting does imo, I'm not sure the gameplay rises up.

I'm even rather enjoying the story within a story stuff much more than in a COD, COD you cant follow anything, where this story is simple enough to follow, if rather bland.

The game is frustrating and you'll need to put it down every so often or get burnt out.

It's a shame just how BAD the shadows can be with a spotted effect on characters faces. Really odd, I wonder why nothing could be done about that. Especially in such a spectacular looking game otherwise.

 

[Acert93]

So I unlocked the IRNV for the M416 last night and then I added the bi-pod (- forearm grip). While the IRNV isn't great for mid-close range (just outside hip fire range) and it closes out your peripheral vision when scoped, I must say it is a nasty add-on. Switching over to single fire mode on the M416 and crouching gives you some pretty solid range (bi-pod deployed allows you to fire even quicker due to lack of kick). We were doing Rush on the map with the base jump and as a defender I was able to spot all the snipers (they really need a stealth unlock to counter this silliness). I got quite a few kills, assists, and a lot of suppression points. Sure, the sniper can reach out further with more damage but with the IRNV and any solid rifle with a single fire mode you can ping them fast enough to surpress them (make their screen blurry) and then slowly widdle away their health, maybe even get a headshot in.

I don't think the IRNV is a game breaker (I think I like the holoscope better) but I am finding that the unlocks offer a LOT of advantages. I really don't like this dynamic. In BF2 most of the unlocks weren't game changers. In MW1 and MW2, if you were solid with iron sights, your starting weapons in the stock classes were pretty solid--solid enough to jump in and compete. In BF3 the maps offer enough variety that certain unlocks, both guns, attachements, and vehicles, really can be game changers. Active Armor on Tanks? Missiles and Stealth+IR Flares on Helos?

The worst part is that some of the BEST gameplay-teamplay stuff, e.g. Jav. + SOFLAM, aren't there from the beginning so it is a hurdle to teamplay. We wanted to get that combo going last night with the group that has played every night and we didn't have the right combo of everyone with unlocks to do it. Part of it is we aren't grinding in the right classes for that, but that is the point: don't we want to encourage team play among everyone? Telling noobs they need to grind for pts (and kills for attachments) to get team play unlocks seems very counter intuitive. How about give all the team play stuff up front and turn the table so the stuff for more pt-grind / attachements comes later

I am enjoying the game a lot, but for every amazing thing in the game there are head scratchers that make you go, "What the?" BF3 blows away other MP games by the things it does well -- not even close IMO -- but the things it goofs up (like the menus) make you wonder how some things didn't get worked out earlier in development.

Ps- Very glad I didn't get MW3. I enjoyed MW, esp. MP a lot, but BF3 is a blast. And the graphics have grown on me.

 

[Acert93]

This is what I am talking about with the unlocks.

IR Smoke

The first unlock for the tank group is IR Smoke, which, when deployed, casts smoke around the vehicle, preventing it from being seen, spotted or targeted.
Secondary LMG

A light machine gun mounted co-axially to the main gun, and provides a secondary fire to the tank operator.
Autoloader

The autoloader increases the speed of reloading the main cannon.
3X Zoom

An improved optics set with the option to switch to 3X zoom for engaging targets at long range.
Maintenance (regen)

The maintenance unlock improves the tank’s ability and speed of which it regenerates its armor.
Secondary HMG

A secondary heavy machine gun mounted co-axially to the main cannon. The HMG is well suited against infantry and smaller vehicles as well.
Proximity scan

Scans the area around you for enemies and displays them on your mini map.
Guided shell

A shell which can lock on enemy vehicles and track them. The shell can also lock on vehicles designated with the laser designator from teammates.
Thermal optics

A separate set of optics with thermal vision which can better point out enemies.
Thermal camouflage

Makes your tank harder to spot for enemies, increases the time it takes to lock on your tank as well, and decreases the time your tank is spotted by enemies.
Canister shell

A large, shotgun-like shell that fires thousands of small pellets, which is very useful against infantry.
Reactive armor

Upgraded armor which can sustain much more damage.

There are unlocks for customizing an experience and unlocks to unlevel the playing field. I am doing a bit better now that I am learning the core stuff and getting familiar with a couple maps, so it isn't so much that I am struggling, but that I see this as a poorly thought out design that detours new players.

Oh well, all those December 25th new-game-owners will be fun fodder!

 

[NRP]

I'm finding the most enjoyment when I'm in a tank, where sometimes I feel like Zunderholz.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

So basically u have no aiming skills ?

Well, yes thats true in this game. I am perfectly ok in Resistance 3 MP, but here I am really sucking at aiming right. Sometimes I figure a situation out and flank a squad, find them off gaurd, but my clumsy aining means its me who dies!
Maybe its to do with acceleration. In R3 I turn off the acceleration while moving the cursor, Can I do that in BF3 ?
Hope I get used to it !