Sign in to follow this  
clyde

Battlefield 1

Recommended Posts

I'm enjoying the beta. I like how everything feels more chunky and deliberate. It's also interesting to see how the game looks more like Battlefront than it does to Battlefield 4.

The vehicles on the current map are much more rare than in the other games and it changes the dynamic of conquest significantly. I can't find a rocket-launcher anywhere, so I'll take a base with an cannon within range and try to deal with tanks that way. I also enjoy teh gas grenades in combination with the bayonet rush; I'll make some phat clouds, put my mask on, and then run in screaming. Lots of neat little adventures have happened to me already. At one point I was looking around for the buildings at 'B' and I didn't see any. I was like "I know I'm standing at 'B' and there are buildings at 'B'", but apparently someone had used the cannon at 'A' to demolish all the structures. Pretty fun.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I played a fair bit last night. Like you say it did feel like battlefront in style, but battlefield in gameplay mechanics. I actually found vehicles to be quite prevalent in the games I played - too much so in some cases as the weaponry to take out the larger tanks mostly wasn't there for the infantry. I struggled to find an anti-tank cannon I would fire before someone took me out and I thought their LoS cones were quite restricted.

All in all I did enjoy it but it quite buggy for me - I was lagging and warping and hanging like nobodies business. Frequent invisible buildings too.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't have much trouble using the cannons. They work really well as a mechanical-incentive for me to hold bases on a front line. Even with the assault-class I can't take out a tank, but I've taken out quite a few from a distance from the cannons at 'A' or 'D'.

I played a game this morning and someone on the enemy team was capable of bombing targets from a plane. I've tried flying an aeroplane and I have no idea how they were able to use it so well.

Also, I really enjoy wantching people on horses coming from 'E'. There is something really enjoyable about taking pot-shots at horseback riders coming over the dunes. It goes back to that "deliberate" feeling I mentioned earlier, there is a certain type of cinematic-fantasy to this game that the series has lacked with the exception of Battlefield:1943; the fantasy of taking pot-shots at a sword-wielding horseback rider coming at you over the dunes.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Man, the calvary is way cooler than I expected! Also, the sound design is amazing. I didn't get too much time with it last night but hoping to spend a few hours shooting dudes tonight.

 

I still wish they would have included female soldiers if they aren't caring about being historically acurrate, being a sword wielding lady on the back of the horse racing across the desert sounds f-ing cool. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I just assumed that there would be female models in the final game and this was just a limitation of the beta. Is this not the case?

 

Edit: I looked it up

http://www.pcgamesn.com/battlefield-1/battlefield-1-scrapped-female-soldiers-because-boys-don-t-believe-in-them-says-ex-dice-coder

 

weak. Maybe it'll be DLC.

 

Oh also: I noticed last night that sometimes the cannons have blown-up shafts and they won't work when they do. I think they may be on a repair-timer of some sort?

ALSO: I think the fact that the weather-system seems to make storms appear at various times of the match or not at all, is really neat.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

No there are no female models in the game. Just because, really.

I had mist descend earlier. Very atmospheric, no pun intended!!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This video has a lot of info that I did not pick up just from playing:

 

I really turned the corner on the game today. Even though I enjoyed playing it yesterday, I wasn't convinced that I would want to play it more than BF4, but after today I'm like "yeah...I really like this game".

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Didn't know you could reconfigure the planes. Right now the only class I've been able to unlock more than the standard weapons for is the Assualt class. No amount of playing support last night got it to level up within the class. I think progression is bugged for a lot of people.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I made a video where I point out that you can make foxholes and open and close doors.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Does anyone have any tips for this game, 'cause man, I am bad at it. Like 0.2 K/D bad. How do you "git gud" at Battlefield?

 

People seem to attack from basically any angle and you're never quite sure which way to look. I see people camping at sniper spots all the time, but when I do it someone knifes you in the back, or can see you from a mile off. Not sure what they're doing that I'm not. The rush mode is personally more satisfying as you always knew where the enemies would come from (and it's a lot less busy).

 

Or is that the point of Battlefield - it's chaos. You're scared, alone, and could die at any moment?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Does anyone have any tips for this game, 'cause man, I am bad at it. Like 0.2 K/D bad. How do you "git gud" at Battlefield?

 

People seem to attack from basically any angle and you're never quite sure which way to look. I see people camping at sniper spots all the time, but when I do it someone knifes you in the back, or can see you from a mile off. Not sure what they're doing that I'm not. The rush mode is personally more satisfying as you always knew where the enemies would come from (and it's a lot less busy).

 

Or is that the point of Battlefield - it's chaos. You're scared, alone, and could die at any moment?

 

When you are at a flag, you should see a semi-circle that might have a little bit of red on it. That red is enemy presence. On this particular map, there seems to be a lot of folks waiting just outside of the capture radius until it is captured by your team; once you capture, they will run back in or snipe. I think dealing with it requires a few techniques. The most reliable one is to own a particular objective for the entire map; even after you die, you will see that enemy patterns are emerging. Another technique is to pay attention to the minimap, especially friendly tank placement and crossbones. The tanks tend to draw most of the attention and keeping them on your flank, but not being too close to them can give you some survivability.

If dying frequently bothers you a lot, I'd snipe or mortar from behind friendly objectives. I wouldn't say that stealth, flanking kills are especially common in Battefield games, but I know what you are talking about and I think it is this particular map. Also remember that if you are sniping and you don't move positions after you have an encounter, someone will know where you are.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Does anyone have any tips for this game, 'cause man, I am bad at it. Like 0.2 K/D bad. How do you "git gud" at Battlefield?

Ha there's a question. The element of chaos in battlefield has always been there so don't really expect to be alive too long. Learning stuff like bullet drop, recoil and quite how each weapon works takes time - I know how this sounds but, mechanically, it shares its DNA with Counter-Strike, not something like Doom or CoD.

The primary advice I would give is try to find a good squad and stick with them. If they are all camping snipers, leave and find a different squad. Go as a medic or support and spam health or ammo drops as much as you can. If you trying to capture a point, then make sure you are in the capture radius. Spot as much as you can (I don't know if you are playing console or PC but the default spot key for PC is Q) and generally make yourself useful. Oddly enough, your KDR in battlefield doesn't necessarily speak much to your contribution to your team. You can get a perfectly good score with an abysmal KDR.

As for your weapons, know what their strengths and weaknesses are. Automatic guns are for close quarters ( you can get away with 'spraying and preying' with the assault class and firing from the hip) while the support class requires engagement with iron sights and a little distance to be really effective. Don't forget your keys for lobbing grenades and meelee attacks. Meelee attacks in BF1 are very difficult to avoid, especially a good bayonet charge.

Use cover - stay in buildings, follow ridge lines, stay off anywhere that gives you a silhouette against an horizon. If you are heading to a exposed point, try to get there in a vehicle, don't walk or run.

Lastly, NEVER STAND STILL. well unless you are firing from range, but even then you should be crouched or prone. Standing still in BF is just an invitation that says 'please headshot me' to any sniper on the map.

I've only ever had a KDR approaching 1 in one BF game, and that was BFBC2 (which some people will tell you isn't a true BF game) however I have been top point scorer many times. Some times you find a class and weapon that just clicks for you and you can just play that class and weapon. It can very topsy-turvy too. One game I can get a load of points and a very positive KDR, the next match I've scored nothing and I'm 0-17 on the kill/death score. You sort of have to roll with it. It's Battlefield.

Vehicles and planes are another kettle of fish. Tanks at the moment feel very OP, planes are a skill unto themselves. I can fly a plane, I can't hit a cow's backside at five paces in one :-/ Start with tanks and go from there.

That's about it. I don't snipe a lot in BF games, hence limited advice for sniping. That said I've had some success sniping in BF1, which feels a bit weird to be honest.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Interesting game. Very pretty. Good shooting. Fun vehicles. I do like the return to simpler weapons. It was an aspect of the BFBC2: Viet Nam DLC that I enjoyed, to play Battlefield without heat seeking RPGs and various hi-tech gadgetry. That said, I hope BF1 does go into the alternate history route and do some goofy steampunk weapons and vehicles. Why not?

 

I have some aesthetic quibbles. The re-use of graphic design elements from Battlefront is seems mostly out of place, the very clean menu design betrays the tone of WWI, or at least my stereotyped notion that there should be some skeumorphic references for a period piece UI. What bothers me even more is the view from orbit, seeing the globe of Earth on the menu. I admit it is cool that the globe zooms into the theater of the map you play on, but it again rubs against the theme of WWI, humans weren't in space yet, so obviously we are aliens.

 

My final quibble is the female announcer voice. She's so calm, as if she is speaking from an announcement booth. But that again is something that takes me out of the WWI realm. She should be there on the front line with me, screaming at the top of her lungs. WE LOST GEORGE!! 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Interesting game. Very pretty. Good shooting. Fun vehicles. I do like the return to simpler weapons. It was an aspect of the BFBC2: Viet Nam DLC that I enjoyed, to play Battlefield without heat seeking RPGs and various hi-tech gadgetry. That said, I hope BF1 does go into the alternate history route and do some goofy steampunk weapons and vehicles. Why not?

 

As far as a lot of people are concerned, the game's already close to steampunk territory, since the overwhelming majority of the guns are experimental or even postwar models that are only included on the technicality of them being produced in 1918. Maybe DICE thinks they're toeing some line here, but it's definitely already fantasy, to some extent, and hopefully they recognize it with their DLC.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow that is a cool post. It makes sense that the fetish of an attic full of guns and the gun-unlock system would drive the game immediately into unrealistic realms. An authentic WW1 game would be about drowning in a cesspit of a trench while enduring endless artillary bombardments; basically what the Verdun game already does. How else could that be hamstrung into the modern multiplayer XP unlock-ables carrot? Upgrading your shovel? Upgrading your helmet-on-top-of-a-stick-to-fool-snipers?

 

What makes me most excited about the hamstringing of history into an arena-shooter is when inevitably WWI gets played out, and the COD and BF franchises dig deeper into history, making sweet arena-shooters with during 19th and 18th century combat, with semi-auto muskets, horse-drawn-cannons getting carted around the map, dandies jumping out of bushes with dual akimbo blunderbusses. Upgrade your tricorner hat. Set in the French-American Wars, Barbary Wars, Napoleonic Wars. Who am I kidding, they'd obviously just focus on the American Revolutionary War.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't know why anyone would expect historical accuracy from Battlefield. Using late war weapon prototypes is pretty much the name of the game. And don't take that to mean you shouldn't have high expectations for certain things, but historical accuracy isn't necessarily good or bad and considering the type of ridiculous game that BF is I think it's a misplaced expectation.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't know why anyone would expect historical accuracy from Battlefield. Using late war weapon prototypes is pretty much the name of the game. And don't take that to mean you shouldn't have high expectations for certain things, but historical accuracy isn't necessarily good or bad and considering the type of ridiculous game that BF is I think it's a misplaced expectation.

 

As is usually the case with "accuracy" complaints, I think that the expectation of historical weaponry is a stand-in for the expectation that Battlefield 1's new setting would inform the gameplay in some way beyond goofy period touches like saber charges on horseback and shooting down zepplins with small arms fire. As far as I can tell, it hasn't even informed it to the degree that Battlefield 1942's setting did, wherein the majority of the classes had single-shot weapons and a robust automatic weapon was the special province of the Assault class, so it's fair to be disappointed for Battlefield 1 being basically Battlefield 2142, a fantasy skin on modern warfare.

 

I don't fault them for that, not really, but I do think it's weird that they cling to this fig leaf of historical plausibility (all guns were technically in service during the Great War, for example) when they're clearly designing a near-steampunk wartime romp and would probably be better off embracing it, since the people who care about historical accuracy aren't being fooled by technicalities.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It hasn't influenced the gameplay? My second hand impression was that it had. I would hope that it would to some extent, but at the same time I think that's more about capturing the feel rather than being nitpicky about this or that weapon (which again of course has its place).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Been watching some videos of the campaign, getting a really strong Bioshock vibe from the font choices for the instructional text. Am I crazy?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

what's the deal with this trial thing I've been hearing about, do you need to be paying for their subscription service thing to use that? I missed the open beta and wanna goof around with this a bit before I drop 60 bucks.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

From what I understand, if you have EA Access ($5/month) you can play for 10 hours, 4 maps and the campaign. Only on PC and Xbox I believe.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Just finished my first match of the final release (Got a month of EA Access thinking that I'll make my money back with the 10% discount).

Totally into it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I figure I'll write up my initial impressions while I wait to go home so I can play my remainng 7 hours of the trial.

I don't know why this game feels fresh to me, but it does. It's got the same pacing as other Battlefield games in that you can spawn near to or far from the fighting, and the playable areas are wide and varied. I tried the new mode where it's a combination between Rush and Conquest. It was pretty neat. Having only two Conquest-objectives does a good job of forming a front-line. The attackers got an airship in order to retry when they failed to push the line all the way across the map. Not knowing how to fight back against that thing is frustrating, but also kinda interesting. I assume it won't be a problem when everyone knows how to deal with in, but in the meantime, it's kinda novel to have to run between cover (that is above you) as you try and defend objectives. I also discovered that I could snipe dudes who are manning the blimp-guns and that was unsurprisingly satisfying. 

I played four maps and they felt vastly different from one another. The smoke and fog effects are both very pretty and mechanically significant. There were multiple occasions where I became disoriented while shooting through a cloud at an enemy 100 feet away and losing visibility of them (where the cloud was seemingly created by large munitions). I love that type of thing. 

I'm completely unfamiliar with the maps, so I'm sure I'll develop paths that make them seem smaller eventually, but right now they feel like rich, dynamic spaces. 

There are UI annoyances though such as not being able to customize your loadouts unless you are currently in an ongoing match; I have no menu option to quit the game directly after a match; the new mode's (not the pigeon one) start-menu seems intially confusing and also seems to kick everyone from the game at the end of it.

I'm really enjoying it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this