Beta Impressions

BlitzKrieg

for those lucky few! Please not a thread about complaining not getting your key yet. There are plenty of threads about that already


So I got to play a good bit of the pc beta today and I ranked up to around 7 so far.

So my first impressions were not good.

Firstly the mechanics were very *bizarre* the whole game is run from a facebook like website with none of the server searching done ingame. This caused frustrations with getting the settings right cause you can only access settings in game...in a server.

Which was very difficult to do. Lots of servers denying me access either by being full or other unknown problems and the few I got into I kept crashing out of.

Resorted to finding a server with no players and setting up from within that.

Finally into the game and I was really worried. I thought they'd chosen a poor map. I was under the impression we were getting the version of metro with vehicles, the full park etc. Instead we got the same one on show at the eurogamer expo with no vehicles and very tight quarters.

Not only this but I was finding a lot of points in the map where I would dive through the ground to pop out under the map. Very disconcerting.

But I persisted and found the new mechanics to be a somewhat confusing but enjoyable affair.


The redesign of the classess and functions is refreshing with the new scope reflection being the biggest to stand out. sniper rifle scopes now glint rather dramatically (in the expo I put this down to players having torches on their rifles) easily giving away their position. Though not necessarily making them an easy kill as the flash also blinds people shooting at them, making it hard to get a quick headshot. But it forces snipers to rely on their secondary until a target is spotted and then quickly change to snipe and relocate.

But not many people have clicked to this new mechanic and some games are drowned in sparkling lights across the landscape as snipers shoot away at each other.

The other half of this which I didnt fully click until my last 2 games is how the support suppression ability also works with this feature as it is very easy to suppress and force a sniper to relocate if a gunner gets a good position to set up on a bipod with his ammo pack nearby. Controlling areas of the map is surprisingly functional where you would not necessarily get lots of kills but your supress assisst points would go up quite rapidly. So Snipers cant reveal themselves as they need to kill off these gunners so they dont lockdown areas of the map (underground locking off tunnels by the trains can seriously screw an attacking team over) while gunners can suppress foolish snipers who dont hide their reflections.

This would all be an awesome game if I hadnt spent most of today crashing every 5-10 minutes. It was only 2 games a go that I worked out to turn UPNP off and now I have no connection issues. The game is smooth playing (except the going through the ground bits)

So my impressions have turned from initial sour to somewhat excited pleasure.

Even Battlelog is slowly growing on me. Its very functional. I really feel that Dice wanted this alone as their requirement to play BF3 allowing players to access their BF3 account anywhere a machine can support the game. But EA forced Origin on them aswell. If I didnt need to run origin parallel to battlelog it wouldnt be an issue. But origin really eats up my machine process and is just a fugly system.

But battlelog is low maintenance and now that the servers are less crashy quite straightforward manner to play the game. Just feels weird that I need to boot the game each time I try a different server. But I guess thats not a far leap from the load times in prior BF games.


As I play more support I get more excited, havnt tried recon/engie much yet. Assault feels quite familar. Though my friend hates that the acog unlocks before the red dot as he's finding it a pain to work with.

sink

I seem to have had a relatively easy time of it. I got home and online at 1930, got my steam key from MOH, downloaded and was playing the game by 2100. Launched first time no problem got on to a server within minutes and was playing away.

That said I did notice a fair few bugs, the most annoying being most of the HUD disappears off the side of the screen at resolutions above 1920x1080. I unlocked a few addons (acog and and stock) but they don't seem to appear in my equipment list.

I'm enjoying the game so far, still getting use to the mechanics. The torch/flashlight seems a bit overpowered, in the narrow corridors of the metro you can't see a thing if someone points it remotely in your direction, very frustrating. The glint however is very handy for pointing out the campers in the bushes.

BlitzKrieg

sink wrote: »

That said I did notice a fair few bugs, the most annoying being most of the HUD disappears off the side of the screen at resolutions above 1920x1080. I unlocked a few addons (acog and and stock) but they don't seem to appear in my equipment list.

I dont know if you missed this or not. But there is a button at the top of the loudout screen called customize. to customize individual weapons you need to click on it as each gun comes with 3 specialisations now.

My machine gun currently boasts a bipod, red dot and a acog sight which makes it a monster. (though I just unlocked the m249 and am loving it)

I'm enjoying the game so far, still getting use to the mechanics. The torch/flashlight seems a bit overpowered, in the narrow corridors of the metro you can't see a thing if someone points it remotely in your direction, very frustrating. The glint however is very handy for pointing out the campers in the bushes.

I think thats the main purpose of the torch. Best use of it I have seen is with handguns because it quickly evens the playing field when you run out of ammo/reloading in a bind and you pull one of these out in close combat. I've been screwed over by it a fair few times.

the torch is really a close combat affair it seems. must be lethel with the shotgun I imagine...

EDIT:

one other bug I found is if you press ESC too soon after dying as it will turn your screen a tint of blue while playing. Kind of funny when you do it the first time. You fix it by hitting esc again while still alive.

Mossay

I'm playing on the PC-

I'll keep my main point short: dont wreck your head manually sorting servers by ping, amount of players playing, etc desperately trying to find a server without a long queue. Just click quick-match and you'll bypass most of the queues and be in-game within a minute.

Battlelog aside, with the actual game I'm finding it to be a lot of fun and refreshing after being lured to black ops on the PS3 by friends. I spot someone first, my twitch reflex kicks in, I shoot them, they try to fire back, they die first. Thats the way I like it- the weapons are lethal and feel very responsive. You can't just sprint like a mad man to the objective or past section where theres a hell of a lot of crossfire. Pretty much everytime you try that you'll meet a swift death which is the way it should be.

At the moment I love how a sniper's scope gives off a glare, I'm assuming high level snipers will have an attachment that eliminates it or at least reduces it. Its very handy as a lot of campers on the Metro map go to the islands in the beginning -which overlook the attacker's spawn area.

Scope-steady is what brings together the sniping gameplay for me-- an opponent may have a better rifle, and a better position, but with a keen eye, patience and the ability to steady your scope you can easily level the playing field and take out the opponent. It effectively minimizes the advantage a sniper has over you should he know where you are because you can essentially fire at him with the same level of accuracy after jumping out of cover. Couple that with the spotting system and snipers arent as big of a threat as they used to be.

BlitzKrieg

At the moment I love how a sniper's scope gives off a glare, I'm assuming high level snipers will have an attachment that eliminates it or at least reduces it. Its very handy as a lot of campers on the Metro map go to the islands in the beginning -which overlook the attacker's spawn area.

I just tried sniper for a bit and I was a cheeky f*cker as I kept my pistol in hand right up until I spotted someone and then quickly changed to sniper aimed and fired and then changed back to pistol and got into cover.

no rifle in hand no glare...

Its a wonderful way to counter snipe (where most of my kills come from)

SeantheMan

Mossay wrote: »

Scope-steady is what brings together the sniping gameplay for me-- an opponent may have a better rifle, and a better position, but with a keen eye, patience and the ability to steady your scope you can easily level the playing field and take out the opponent. It effectively minimizes the advantage a sniper has over you should he know where you are because you can essentially fire at him with the same level of accuracy after jumping out of cover. Couple that with the spotting system and snipers arent as big of a threat as they used to be.

This steady scope is on a sniper, is it the equivalent to holding your breath ? not had a chance to play myself yet.

you can essentially fire at him with the same level of accuracy after jumping out of cover.

This sounds totally stupid,

BlitzKrieg

yeah...


ughh


all complaints about the beta

MUTE

someone leaked the password to a caspian border 64 player server

oh sweet mother of f*cking mercy.

THE MAP IS HUGE

it is insanely over the top painfully humongus. I kept getting lost trying to find my way to anything.

Jets constantly buzzing overhead and helicopters scouting around. Its bloody mental

also laggy as hell

but it was an american server not meant to be flooded by random people who got the leaked password

and all of those complaints cannot compare to the giddy excitement I got when I brought my T-90 over a hill to see across the huge landscape of a map dotted with infantry and tnaks icons, smoke billowing from a ruined building, jets dogfighting in the distance.

It was jaw dropping.

And my computer ran it all rather sweetly I might add.


And now battlelog is down as they change the password I think

Mossay

SeantheMan wrote: »

This steady scope is on a sniper, is it the equivalent to holding your breath ? not had a chance to play myself yet.

This sounds totally stupid,

yerp its holding your breath, theres even a sound effect of the player holding his breath. Its not particularly ground-breaking since its been in Call Of Duty, but its a welcome addition as it adds an extra dimension of difficulty to mastering sniping. I'd assume theyve increased all the sniper rifles weapon sway to make holding your breath worth someones while using.

Just to clarify: you dont have a steady aim while jumping, I meant that should you sprint out from cover and then stop and aim at the enemy, holding your breath makes the sway quickly disappear.

Theres always the flip-side that the enemy sniper also uses steady-aim the moment you pop out and picks you off. What I was really getting at was in games like bad company 2 you were reduced to peek-a-boo sniper war continuously peeking out from behind a rock, waiting for the other to take a shot so that you could capitalise on the time it takes to reload a bolt-action rifle. -- Now you can do something they normally wouldnt expect: sprint out of cover to a close by vantage point and shoot. If you tried something like that in BC2 you'd have to wait 3 seconds while you crouch to eliminate the sway.. and you'd most likely die. But as I said in my earlier post, combining steady-scoping and the spotting system is what makes the system really work, otherwise you'd most likely die.

Or even think of it this way: you run out from behind cover, the enemy sees you and shoots, either severely wounding or missing you. The time it takes him to fire the 2nd shot is significantly longer than it is for you to steady-aim and fire at him. Should you have enough skill, and due to the nature of the prone position i.e. you'll hit the face first, you'll most likely shoot him in the head and kill him.

I guess thats a really roundabout way of saying it offers people with sufficient skill an opporunity to survive.

BlitzKrieg

the password has not been changed but the servers are almost always full anyway if you want to try its:

Rumncoke

password are for american servers only.


edit: also Jet camping is officially gone. Instead jets appear as a spawnpoint during the load screen when available and you jump directly into them.

AnCapaillMor

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

edit: also Jet camping is officially gone. Instead jets appear as a spawnpoint during the load screen when available and you jump directly into them.

Oh i like that, too many time i've seen our team getting creamed because 10 idiots are queueing for 2 planes in bf2.

the_syco

A few forums mention that once you level up, the sniper glint gets replaced by something else that has less of a "shoot me" glint. Not sure what happens, though. Sounds like a possible scope add-on.

Apart from the CTD's, liking the RPG.

Hellrazer

Impressed so far but the one thing that is doing my head in is that you cant bind mouse buttons.I never play with a standard wsad setup and Im finding it hard to adjust to having to play like that.

Other than that--performance is excellent @ high on auto and the graphics are amazing.

Cmon EA sort out the button mapping.

AnCapaillMor

Hellrazer wrote: »

Impressed so far but the one thing that is doing my head in is that you cant bind mouse buttons.I never play with a standard wsad setup and Im finding it hard to adjust to having to play like that.

Ok now thats going to piss me off, last time i used WSAD was on renegade on the amstrad.

2smiggy

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Ok now thats going to piss me off, last time i used WSAD was on renegade on the amstrad.

just as a matter of interest, what do you use instead for back /forward etc. last time i played on the PC was return to castle wolfenstein !!

AnCapaillMor

Yeah arrow keys and map crouch, reload, prone to mouse buttons.

2smiggy

sound, had a fairly basic mouse when i was playing games on the pc. could see the advantage of a fancy mouse ok.

Captain Chaos

the_syco wrote: »

A few forums mention that once you level up, the sniper glint gets replaced by something else that has less of a "shoot me" glint. Not sure what happens, though. Sounds like a possible scope add-on.

Think it's a killflash, hope so anyway.

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=241403

mozattack

Any PS3 reviews of the BETA lads?

Hellrazer

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Yeah arrow keys and map crouch, reload, prone to mouse buttons.

Similar here.Thumb mouse buttons for forwards and backwards and crouch,reload also mapped to mouse.

WSAD is killing me

mozattack

I see that when you are killed it keeps a tally of the score versus the person who has killed you... that is deadly, e.g. "me 1, foe 2"

ktulu123

Its awesome on the 360! Will get the pc version tomorrow

the_syco

Hellrazer wrote: »

WSAD is killing me

Cannae get used to "F" for knifing Use the thumb button on the mouse for that. Also, mouse is a wee bit jerky. Have to play in "raw" mouse mode, otherwise a pop-up appears behind the screen that limits my mouse usage. Cannae get to said pop-up either :mad:

Dcully

ktulu123 wrote: »

Its awesome on the 360! Will get the pc version tomorrow

The first thing that I noticed once I finally booted into the level was how drastically different the Xbox 360 version looks compared to the PC.

Thats taken from gameinformers` first impressions, pretty much what everyone is saying that played on both formats.

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/battlefield_3/b/xbox360/archive/2011/09/27/battlefield-3-beta-impressions.aspx

Terran

What do you expect? The consoles are years behind PCs in terms of power and performance.

ktulu123

Yeah id say the pc looks 12 times better but the game play is class! Also the war tapes surround sound is great

Dublin_Gunner

the_syco wrote: »

Cannae get used to "F" for knifing Use the thumb button on the mouse for that. Also, mouse is a wee bit jerky. Have to play in "raw" mouse mode, otherwise a pop-up appears behind the screen that limits my mouse usage. Cannae get to said pop-up either :mad:

Can you not use your mouse software to bind the button to 'F'? Problem solved.

I have a 'Battlefield' loadout on my mouse, use it for ALL bf games.

Front thumb = melee, rear thumb = Assault rifle, middle mouse = nade

I my Coolermaster Storm Sentinel

However I miss not having a rocker switch on the scroll wheel - used to be dead handy to insta-switch between pistol & main weapon

the_syco

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Can you not use your mouse software to bind the button to 'F'? Problem solved.

Gonna look at the inf files later, and that also.

the_syco

Dcully wrote: »

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/battlefield_3/b/xbox360/archive/2011/09/27/battlefield-3-beta-impressions.aspx

I should note that many of these these upgrade paths are linked to the weapon you're using, not your overall rank. If you unlock a scope for the M16A4 that you use as an Assault soldier while playing on the U.S. side, it won't be available when you're using the AK-74M as an Assault soldier on Team Russia.

Interesting about the scopes. Do both teams have access to the same weapons, I wonder?

If not, this would hark back to the Nam days.

Big Knox

Lads is the only way I can get a PC code to buy MOH??? As I really don't want to do that!

Shy_Dave!

Open beta will start tomorrow well they say that but EA are useless

seyeM

http://sourceforge.net/projects/joy2key/ - handy key mapping program, don't know if it works for mice though