BF3 Beta and initial thoughts
Hey, folks -
Who else has been trying out the beta, and what are everybody's thoughts?
I'm slightly annoyed at needing to launch the game apparently from a web page, but I'm guessing I'll get used to it. I'm a nub to the BF series, so I have a lot to catch up on. It downloaded overnight, so I played two rounds this morning - died within 3 minutes both times, and then had to head in.
Overall, I'm looking forward infinitely more to setting up some xbox hueg matches with fellow Icrontians (and hey, maybe we can even use some of these "tactics" and whatnot), so I'm trying not to let my random beta screwing-around influence my opinions, but so far I'm just Nubbly McNooberson.
Who else has been trying out the beta, and what are everybody's thoughts?
I'm slightly annoyed at needing to launch the game apparently from a web page, but I'm guessing I'll get used to it. I'm a nub to the BF series, so I have a lot to catch up on. It downloaded overnight, so I played two rounds this morning - died within 3 minutes both times, and then had to head in.
Overall, I'm looking forward infinitely more to setting up some xbox hueg matches with fellow Icrontians (and hey, maybe we can even use some of these "tactics" and whatnot), so I'm trying not to let my random beta screwing-around influence my opinions, but so far I'm just Nubbly McNooberson.
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Game preorder or MOH special edition allowed a 2 day grace period before open season on the beta tomorrow.
I hate your guts, Thrax!
Oh yeah? Well I have SolidWorks 2012 on my system. Yeah! Deal with it!
The sound design of this game is fantastic. It was good enough with BFBC2, but they've really taken it to the next level with BF3. This is some of the finest sound mixing in a video game.
The browser totally sucks. I don't know what they were thinking. On first play, you can't even set controls, graphics, or other options until you're in the game. Once you're in the game, you can't be in option menus when you die. So you have to hide before you option it up.
I'm also confused to why they picked the map they did. No vehicles makes it feel like it's trying to hard to do the CoD thing. It's still fun, but not nearly as good as it could have been. It's too small and restrictive. There aren't even gun emplacements. Such an odd pick for the beta map.
Makes the game unplayable for me.
BTW, I still got it
One day I'll "get it."
sounds like the beta map is the same as the alpha map.
Random disconnect issue seems to be related to UPnP, Piggy, google for solutions. I seem to disconnect only during my good rounds, which don't count. I've unlocked level 3 four times now.
Really don't see what's so difficult about the browser, I totally prefer it over an ingame server listing (which never worked properly with BF games in the past, so it's already an upgrade).
The spawn-first-before-change-settings is annoying, can't imagine that'll last longer than the beta stage. Gun emplacements exist on any surface capable of allowing a bipod to be set up on. Support class should be your ticket.
It's not difficult. It's a useless layer that's been created to hide the developer's fucking incompetence with creating a decent in-game matchmaking tool.
Socially speaking, it seems to be way more powerful anyway - drag and drop friends into my loading bar? Okay, done.
I really don't understand how this battlelog system is supposed to help. The arguments of "No pregame movie, no nvidia logo, no developer logo, no splash screen, no narrative screen" doesn't really mean anything. They could have done all of these things without the browser based server list. ANY game could do all of those things at any point in time.
I seriously hate that browser.
Again, just like Pigflipper said, not being able to adjust anything until you've spawn frigging blows. Holy crap.
I did get a chance to play some Caspian Boarder last night before going to bed. Played it for about 25 minutes. It is really, truly awesome. Where the rush map feels like an annoying CoD style play, Caspian shines in the way only BF games can shine. The vehicles are spectacular, the map is massive, and the chaos is unmatched. Feels good to be playing engineer again on a map that actually matters - using the rocket launcher on vehicles rather than infantry.
The map does feel a bit unoptimized, though. My framerate is considerably worse of Caspian than it is on the other map.
Wait, how does that not mean anything - you can literally time the difference it would take to jump ingame on BFBC2 vs BF3. Sure anyone can remove ads... but they haven't, and they won't, and they probably never will.
Seriously, someone please explain what it is that is so horrendous about this new way of launching the game. Is it because it's a website (and if so, why? It presents THE SAME INFO without loading a game to see it), because it's different than you're used to, or something else I'm missing entirely?
Edit: I guess a better way to phrase the question is this, what exactly is the inconvenience of having this new system?
Exactly! Even more reason to be excited we don"t have to deal with them with battlelog!
For instance, I almost always have tabs saved in FF that have videos or music on them. I fire up BF3, which launches FF, which then starts playing music. I have to run through and close tabs or pause.
Furthermore, I hate additional applications running while I try to game. I end up dodging around the splash logo when the game actually launches and close FF before the game boots. It bugs me.
Those are some of my particular inconveniences with it. It's all just.. unnecessary. There was no need to change the paradigm. It's worked just fine for the last decade.
I mean - think about this. You have to launch Origin, to launch your web browser, to launch a video game. What in the world? Why is all of the necessary? Why is that a good idea? The benefits of speedier game join are lost when you have so many frigging layers of launch.
For as polished an experience BF3 is, this mucky launch setup seriously detracts from the user experience.
now I want to buy a 30" monitor
about Bobby's nick picks
Origin is always running like Steam is
Web browser is always running anyways. just opens a new tab
get more RAM
edit:> also, CrossfireX 6970's this game looks so sweet with all the eye candy on
Three rounds in so far. 8 & 5 and 3 & 8 and 8 & 3. I appear to be better at defense.
The game itself is good. DICE has done a well and this is just the beta.
Movement is fluid. At first it feels a bit slow (namely in regards to jumping over walls), but the realistic animations and how the hit boxes appear to follow along well make this an excellent addition to the BF series. Hitting the prone key to do a running slide into cover as you hear bullets pinging off the environment around you feels awesome.
I can't speak to the weapons with my limited exposure, but I haven't raged over any OP-ness yet.
There is the standard assortment of jackasses around. Spawn campers, people complaining about spawn campers, etc. Nothing new here.
Now to things that DICE probably didn't have much choice in... The battlelog system... As a hater of 99% of things EA does I am going to be incredibly critical here. I don't see that it -adds- anything to the game. Any of the -features- available could have been done with an ingame menu system. They could take that web page and load it inside the game and I might accept it. Perhaps I am just disliking the change here. But what is the sense of change if there is nothing gained from it? Maybe at launch EA will have made the battlelog system so good we will all bow to the superiority. Doubtful, but maybe.
And now to Origin. EA's choice of moving to Origin when they could have gone to steam? Again doesn't add anything to my experience. In fact, I would claim this hinders my experience. For those who might claim competition is a good thing, again we shall have to wait and see if anything of value comes from this.