EA™ and DICE™ present™ Battlefield™ 3

[Gwardinen]

I just finished the campaign minutes ago, and mostly agree. That said, nothing about the campaign surprised me, good or bad. It's basically the same as the current generation of Call of Duty games' campaigns, so go into it knowing that and you'll get a somewhat entertaining, heavily scripted thrill ride for a few hours.

That helicopter example is particularly egregious, and I did run smack into that wall the first time and die too, but again it's to be expected from this subgenre at the moment. If you're used to these games it won't be particularly troublesome for you, but if you go into it thinking that because it's called Battlefield 3 it's going to be different you'll be disappointed.

[JonCole]

I just finished the campaign minutes ago, and mostly agree. That said, nothing about the campaign surprised me, good or bad. It's basically the same as the current generation of Call of Duty games' campaigns, so go into it knowing that and you'll get a somewhat entertaining, heavily scripted thrill ride for a few hours.

That helicopter example is particularly egregious, and I did run smack into that wall the first time and die too, but again it's to be expected from this subgenre at the moment. If you're used to these games it won't be particularly troublesome for you, but if you go into it thinking that because it's called Battlefield 3 it's going to be different you'll be disappointed.

I think Call of Duty does a better job of limiting where you can go in a given area without invisible walls, nearly instant death or a scripted event actively blocking a visible route. I'd take COD's small spaces over BF3's sprawling arenas any day, mostly because I can reliably see the intended route in a more attention dense region of play.

Not only that, but I failed to mention the really simple fuckup that is your squadmates taking cover. I died at least four or five times in this game so far by taking the "wrong" cover and having a squadmate either push me out or trap me in front of him. It's simply poor design.

Edited October 29, 2011 by JonCole

[Brannigan]

Yea I went into this expecting I'd do what I did with bad company 2. Play 10 minutes of the single player then forget it exists. I really did forget bc2 HAD single player eventually, someone tried to talk to me about the campaign and I was really confused until it hit me that there was more than multiplayer.

[Gwardinen]

Not only that, but I failed to mention the really simple fuckup that is your squadmates taking cover. I died at least four or five times in this game so far by taking the "wrong" cover and having a squadmate either push me out or trap me in front of him. It's simply poor design.

Ah yeah, that happened to me too. That's profoundly stupid and annoying.

I dunno, maybe it's been long enough since Black Ops that I'm forgetting that it was more refined, but playing the BF3 campaign really felt exactly the same except with a less interesting plot and better vehicle sequences.

Honestly my favourite thing about the campaigns in these games is that they're so simple and short that you can just complete them over a couple days in a relaxed fashion. Maybe that sounds nuts but I sort of appreciate a game that doesn't really expect anything of me occasionally. Particularly after having played Dark Souls, that expects everything, and before playing Skyrim, that will expect ALL TIME.

[Thrik]

As someone who's only ever played the multiplayer side of Battlefield (not that any in the central series ever had a single-player before), I'm absolutely loving this. It has taken everything I loved about the multiplayer in the previous games and expands upon it. There's absolutely nothing comparable IMO, and I don't consider it fair to compare something like Call of Duty's multiplayer to it due to them operating on two completely different levels so I'm not going to. Compared to its cousins like PlanetSide, Tribes 2, and of course its predecessors, though? Beats 'em all.

One thing I am sad to see gone is the commander role, as in Battlefield 2 and 2142 you had a guy on each team who sat in an RTS-like view dropping supplies, sending squad orders out, using artillery, etc. With that said it doesn't seem to make much of a difference to the actual gameplay on the ground, beyond knowing you can no longer say "Oi, bombard that area" and have to rely on a buddy in a jet or something doing it instead. Chat is nicely integrated into the PC though so chances are it'll happen if you ask, and of course you can use the marker system to highlight a target to nearby team mates.

The refined squad system does work well as it now forces everyone into squads, so you tend to have a number of self-organised groups going about the objectives rather than a sprawl of randomers like in the past games. Even though squads don't necessarily have leaders who know what they're doing, the simple fact they spawn together and can see each other highlighted seems to encourage better teamplay. It's a shame this forced squad approach has resulted in squads having a limit of two less players and it's trickier to join squads with friends, but it's a worthwhile compromise (and may very well be improved through patches).

The maps themselves are absolutely incredible, featuring the most epic environments I can remember from past Battlefields and then going beyond that. Not only are they huge, open, and complex; but they also have some incredible special effects going on and feel extremely organic rather than totally static as in the past games. It really is a complete joy playing the game, totally unpredictable and you genuinely have to think hard about how you're going to approach an area rather than just running in and gunning unless you fancy a thousand deaths — this is so not a twitch shooter like Call of Duty.

I'll tell you what, though. This game is fuckin' hard. I've been playing Battlefield games since I was like 10 in addition to countless other team multiplayer shooters, yet after about two hours of play I'd managed one kill. As you'd expect from any Battlefield game and indeed war itself you die fast, hard, and you often don't see it coming.

Yet with thoughtful use of the environment (rather than charging through like it's a Quake DM arena) you can at the very least avoid dying so often, and over time you remember what kind of actions are going to result in fast deaths and start moving more like a real soldier. Then with a bit more time you figure out how to not get your head blown off while managing to take others down.

Loving it! I advise those not looking for their next big multiplayer addiction not bother, though. Despite what the marketing would have you believe, just like its predecessors this is very much a game completely built around its multiplayer with an OK single-player diversion on the side.

[Thompson]

I'm not going to try and explain why this game is incredible, but i'll just say that it deserves all the praise the MP gets and all the shit the SP gets.

What I really came here to do was tell this tale:

I jump into an attack chopper at the start of a game and immediately switch to the gunner seat as I didn't feel like piloting, another guy jumps in about a second later and proceeds to fly up and then flip the chopper over into a hilarious crash. A few seconds later this happens in chat:

ChopperDude: THAT'S FOR BEING LAME

ChopperDude: NEXT TIME DON'T PRESUME OR EXPECT

Me: What are you on?

ChopperDude: YOU WANT ME TO FLY?

It's not every day you see all caps rage over something so unimportant and random. There's so much wrong with it, I can't believe that there is a human being somewhere on Earth who typed that into a video game.

[miffy495]

I'm honestly more surprised that you didn't expect people who act like dicks in your game. This is kinda why I only ever play Thumb-related private matches of things.

[Thompson]

Oh I expect dicks, believe me I do, but i'm not sure i've ever seen anything quite like that. I think it's a bit sad that someone wouldn't play public multiplayer just because they might encounter assholes, assholes who are just insignificant angry idiots on the internet, assholes you never have to spend any more time with than you want.

I've developed a tough internet skin over the years because I realized that people's opinions of me on the internet are so irreverent and unimportant as to be laughable; at this point I find it funny that they'd waste their time trying to make me feel bad about myself.

Besides, the unique thing about the internet is that if I don't want to talk to you I can just not talk to you.

[Brannigan]

I also expect huge assholes, they don't bother me. To be honest what bugs me more is when I have a team full of dumb dumbs. I don't rage or anything, but anytime I have to switch roles every 5 minutes to insure the game moves forward is pretty annoying. The assholes can either be ignored, or occasionally are entertaining when I feel like messing with them.

[miffy495]

It's not that they particularly bother me. It's more a quality of life thing. With time available to spend on games so limited, why spend it dealing with assholes?

[Forbin]

Is someone going to create a thumbs platoon?

[Gwardinen]

Is someone going to create a thumbs platoon?

If it wasn't wiped at the end of the beta, the Idle Thumbs platoon Squid Division created should still exist.

I am sort of considering buying this, despite having no money. I played the singleplayer campaign at a friend's and thought it sucked, but the idea of doing Battlefield multiplayer with thumbs is very tempting. I just wonder how much it'd actually happen.

[Thrik]

I'm not going to try and explain why this game is incredible, but i'll just say that it deserves all the praise the MP gets and all the shit the SP gets.

What I really came here to do was tell this tale:

I jump into an attack chopper at the start of a game and immediately switch to the gunner seat as I didn't feel like piloting, another guy jumps in about a second later and proceeds to fly up and then flip the chopper over into a hilarious crash. A few seconds later this happens in chat:

ChopperDude: THAT'S FOR BEING LAME

ChopperDude: NEXT TIME DON'T PRESUME OR EXPECT

Me: What are you on?

ChopperDude: YOU WANT ME TO FLY?

It's not every day you see all caps rage over something so unimportant and random. There's so much wrong with it, I can't believe that there is a human being somewhere on Earth who typed that into a video game.

Haha. Dicks in multiplayer provide half the fun, anyone who doesn't immerse themselves in games with them is missing out!

I remember when I was like 12 and playing the then-new Tribes 2 — which was in many ways Battlefield's closest predecessor, featuring a similar bland of ginormous maps, ground/land vehicles with appropriate weapons to combat each, strong infantry combat, a commander view, etc — and some guys were really getting on my nerves by being all buddy-buddy with each other and making it hard for anyone else to get vehicles, etc.

So I did what any 12-year-old would do. I grabbed the only transport ship our team had, and waited for it to fill with five juggernauts (the heaviest class which moved incredibly slowly). I then headed for the enemy base at a huge height from the ground and then about halfway across the map turned outwards towards nowhere.

Now, Tribes 2 had an interesting feature that Battlefield lacks: the maps are infinite, as in the terrain loops endlessly. So I was all "just going to flank them from behind guys" to the juggernauts as I took an insanely far-out route to get to behind the enemy base, with them regularly being all "wtf" and "bit ott dude".

Then literally about 5 in-game kilometres away I politely parked the ship and detonated myself with a grenade.

Man, what a dick I was. Good game, Tribes 2!

ZlQ7xgAZWZE

[Brannigan]

The platoon was wiped.

[Thrik]

Aye, everything Battlelog-related was wiped AFAIK. You can find me under 'Thriky' if anyone wants to play on the PC, which I should be doing so regularly considering the literal hundreds of hours I've put into BF2 and BF2142.

Edit: Just remade it using the same details as the Steam Community.

[Patters]

Haha. Dicks in multiplayer provide half the fun, anyone who doesn't immerse themselves in games with them is missing out!

I remember when I was like 12 and playing the then-new Tribes 2 — which was in many ways Battlefield's closest predecessor, featuring a similar bland of ginormous maps, ground/land vehicles with appropriate weapons to combat each, strong infantry combat, a commander view, etc — and some guys were really getting on my nerves by being all buddy-buddy with each other and making it hard for anyone else to get vehicles, etc.

So I did what any 12-year-old would do. I grabbed the only transport ship our team had, and waited for it to fill with five juggernauts (the heaviest class which moved incredibly slowly). I then headed for the enemy base at a huge height from the ground and then about halfway across the map turned outwards towards nowhere.

Now, Tribes 2 had an interesting feature that Battlefield lacks: the maps are infinite, as in the terrain loops endlessly. So I was all "just going to flank them from behind guys" to the juggernauts as I took an insanely far-out route to get to behind the enemy base, with them regularly being all "wtf" and "bit ott dude".

Then literally about 5 in-game kilometres away I politely parked the ship and detonated myself with a grenade.

Man, what a dick I was. Good game, Tribes 2!

ZlQ7xgAZWZE

completely agree. With stuff like hlg (hidden league gaming) basically breaking halo 3 by getting to areas which are basically inaccessible unless you know certain tricks. I myself found a couple of places independently. I only once came up against an actual hlg team (in over 4000 games), it was hilarious because 2 of us knew most of the hiding spots.

[Cigol]

I've played about 8hrs of the game so far and I think it's pretty addictive and fun in multiplayer for sure. Singleplayer was such an obvious COD rip-off I couldn't stomach playing it for more than 10 minutes at a time but it supposedly gets better.

Right now the only thing that's annoying me are the maps are not big enough in my opinion. 64 players (on the PC) is enough to have bigger maps where you actually need to ferry people to and from the frontline, as it is now you can literally get into a helicopter, go up a few feet and then notice you've been locked onto by a lone soldier a stones throw away. Not saying all the maps should be bigger but they should have made one or two really big maps especially for the PC. Think it would be nice to let the game breathe a little, and give my ears a chance to rest at least... as the pounding from the sound effects are glorious at first but it soon becomes fatiguing.

Oh and all the explosives spamming that goes on, especially with ammo packs thrown on the ground to replenish... gets old fast.

[Brannigan]

I've played about 8hrs of the game so far and I think it's pretty addictive and fun in multiplayer for sure. Singleplayer was such an obvious COD rip-off I couldn't stomach playing it for more than 10 minutes at a time but it supposedly gets better.

Right now the only thing that's annoying me are the maps are not big enough in my opinion. 64 players (on the PC) is enough to have bigger maps where you actually need to ferry people to and from the frontline, as it is now you can literally get into a helicopter, go up a few feet and then notice you've been locked onto by a lone soldier a stones throw away. Not saying all the maps should be bigger but they should have made one or two really big maps especially for the PC. Think it would be nice to let the game breathe a little, and give my ears a chance to rest at least... as the pounding from the sound effects are glorious at first but it soon becomes fatiguing.

Oh and all the explosives spamming that goes on, especially with ammo packs thrown on the ground to replenish... gets old fast.

Agreed on the explosive spam. On map size, a couple are fairly big. Firestorm is not small at all. Kharg Island I think might be the biggest, especially on the first section of rush where attackers start off shore.

[Brannigan]

Ugh, again mixed mode servers that don't label themselves as such can fuck right off. On my 5th unlabeled mixed mode server...

[brkl]

I was going to come here and write how now I feel like buying the game, but reading about explosive spam and such makes me realize it's perhaps not all that wonderful (even if it's good).

[Brannigan]

It doesn't always devolve to that, just sometimes you end up fighting against 15 engineers.

[Thrik]

Haha! Awesome.

s_JIKrjs5IY

[Gwardinen]

Wow, that's great. Makes me want to play the game but I'm still unsure if it's worth it to buy full price right now just for the multiplayer.