f13.net

After a week of play, I say: wait a patch or two for this one. I'll go through the minor things first and then the big honkin superpowered flaw:

1). The U.S. respawn crates come back instantly at the base after being destroyed.  Given that they start in very advantageous positions on a couple of maps, this is very hard for the NVA to overcome.

2). The vaunted antiair ability of the NVA simply isn't there.  Its almost impossible to hit jets with the heatseeker SA7, and it takes 3 direct hits from an SA7 to kill a copter.  Guess how many rockets you get with it? 3.

3).  Think spawn camping was bad in BF?  Here, most of the maps seem to have the flags within shooting distance of each other.  Its not uncommon  to get killed 4-5 times before you are able to get away.

4). Tanks are useless (at least on the NVA side) for the reasons below.

5). On servers without autobalance, things are way, WAY out of whack.  The NVA will always be outnumbered at LEAST 2 to 1, I've been on servers with 8 NVA and 24 U.S. where none of them would switch over.  Why?  Because....

THE M60/LAW COMBO IS THE MOST UNBALANCED COMPuTER GAME CREATION EVAR.  Its really hard to overstate this.  At least 80% of U.S. players on pub servers are wielding M60s, which also double as a sniper rifle.  Tanks? Well, they stop one-shotting NVA 500m away with their M60 and whip out the LAW.

In general, the team balance problem is about more than the M60.  The U.S. side just plain gets cooler shineys.  The NVA has a bunch of unbelievably shitty handheld weapons (although the RPD has its moments), and the U.S. gets all the attack copters and one invincible class.  Traps are fun now, but even after a week people are learning how to avoid them.  Without that, the NVA has nothing...I'm always NVA on pubs and we get beat 75% of the time.


Someone said here once that BF:V will take one patch before its playable and two for fun.  It looks that way...I just don't know how they will overcome the team balance problem without fundamentally and radically changing weapon/vehicle loadouts.

I honestly never got around to buying BF:1942.  So all I really knew about this title is that lots fo people like the series, and that it is set in Vietnam.

Seems cool. After all, I love the idea of flying around in a Bell will some classic rock blaring over the speakers.

But I missed one important detail along the way: it is really only an online game. No single player content whatsoever (well, maps with bots.) And since I don't have a regular group of online buddies, in addition to the fact that I refuse to get one of those silly microphones...

I'm not going to get much utility out of this title.

I guess my problem is I like games with plotlines. Star Control 2. XCom, Halflife. bla bla bla.

So, until I find a group to play this with, it is a 2 out of 5 game.

Triforcer is right, but it's not as bad as he says.
Even with the faults he points out, BF:V is still better than BF1942, which is a very good game.

1). The fact that US respawn crates come back is countered by them being much harder to transport and almost impossible to hide. Most players can't move them and spend a lot of time crashing hueys while trying.

2). The M60 and the russian machinegun are in fact better anti-air weapons. The NVA also have a very good AA-cannon on tracks which kills jets quick. It's hard to hit jets with the SA7, but not impossible - and it hurts them. The MIGs are VERY good at downing US jets.
... on some maps with US air supremacy, NVA just have to hide from the airunits and carry on with their fun. Doable.

3). This is true.

4). Not useless, but compared to BF1942, which was very much a tankers game, they're not that tough. One of the NVA tanks is amphibious. Very nice.

5). True. Stay away from those servers.

And everything about the M60 and the American shiny is true. I don't know what the solution is - but autobalance and a M60 nerf is definately the first steps.

I wrote a very long post about why BF:V is better than BF1942  on some other board, but since crossposting is considered bad form and linking to said board gets my post insta-deleted by Schild, I have a problem (being too lazy to make my argument again).

As an aside, I'd hate to think how loud music would have to be in order to be heard in a helicopter.  I'm thinking "resulting in total deafness" loud here.

I've been interested in the BF games, because I enjoyed the hell out of playing a support role in Wolf:ET.  Just haven't had the impetus to go spend the money.  Thanks to Triforcer, now I can sit out BF:V for at least a couple of patches.

Ah well, I still have UT2k4.  ONS for great fun!

Don't be too turned off of the game just because of early balance issues.

I am enjoying the heck out of BFV, and it's a nice advancement of the Battlefield franchise. I even enjoy playing the occasional single player bot-match. The enemy AI seems much improved.

Damn right! Pancake to victory!

BF1942 needed a bunch of patches before it became really playable. Looks no different for BFV.

Glad I didn't buy it really. I've been kinda busy playing FarCry.

I was gonna get FarCry, but my ears shot blood when I saw the System Specs. So i got Pandora Tomorrow instead.

It will certainly make even the godliest of godboxes scream for mercy with everything cranked up.