Battlefield Play4Free

[HaemishM]

Other than the silly 4 in the title, I'm pretty stoked about this announcement.

Battlefield Play4Free

Essentially, it's Battlefield 2 maps with Battlefield Bad Company 2 classes that you can play for free with microtransactions. I'm in. Looks much better than Battlefield Heroes.

[NiX]

They have to prove the combat doesn't suck like BF:Heroes.

[Malakili]

I don't really see myself playing this instead of Bad Company 2.  Also, still waiting on Battlefield 3 if anything.  I guess I'm just not quite sure what their angle is.

[HaemishM]

Money hats? 

I gather that the engine isn't the BF:Heroes engine, it's the BF:BC2 engine. And it's first person which will immediately remove some of the suck of BF:Heroes.

[Nightblade]

I gather that the engine isn't the BF:Heroes engine, it's the BF:BC2 engine. And it's first person which will immediately remove some of the suck of BF:Heroes.

If that's the case, can we buy decent hit detection in the item shop?

[Muffled]

I gather that the engine isn't the BF:Heroes engine, it's the BF:BC2 engine. And it's first person which will immediately remove some of the suck of BF:Heroes.

If that's the case, can we buy decent hit detection in the item shop?

Zing!

[Furiously]

I'd settle for decent hack detection.

Just what I want - a game that is free...with no way to really ban cheaters.

[sinij]

What is it exactly are they charging for and is it DRM-free (you'd hope seeing how they are giving it away for free)?

[NiX]

If that's the case, can we buy decent hit detection in the item shop?

The most recent patch did a good job of correcting that.

What is it exactly are they charging for and is it DRM-free (you'd hope seeing how they are giving it away for free)?

It's likely to be browser based, which means it won't be using the Frostbite engine.

[HaemishM]

Not necessarily. Both FIFA Online and Need for Speed World (and I think Battlefield Heroes) launches a separate executable with hooks into the web site for account management. There's nothing keeping them from using that engine with this.

[NiX]

Going on the trailer, it would have to be a heavily modified one because it looks nothing like BC2. A lot of particle effects have been toned down and the model textures are of way less detail.

[HaemishM]

NECRO!!!

So this went sort of live yesterday. The client still has beta stamped on the HUD, but you can buy stuff with real money so it's live enough. The graphics engine is definitely toned down. It's a murkier version of BF2 with a few more particles. The sounds of the weapons are really meaty, almost too beefy. It plays like Battlefield, in that it's much better than Heroes but not quite up to Bad Company 2 levels. There's a distinct level grind in it, the client doesn't let you pick servers or maps but you can join your friends. It's a bit more than $.50 per battlefund (their currency - $4.99 for 700 BF) and many weapons can be purchased forever or rented for either battlefunds or credits. You earn credits for playing and achieving things like kills, base captures, etc.

For free, it ain't bad. The skill tree makes higher levels much more powerful, but you level pretty quickly early on and you can buy both XP boosters and credit boosters.

It won't replace BF:BC2, but it's way better than BF: Heroes.

[sinij]

Does it have any obnoxious "features", like adds ?

[Lantyssa]

Does running through Steam count?

[HaemishM]

Does it have any obnoxious "features", like adds ?

Why would it need ads (not adds - what the fuck, are you camping in Everquest?) when it will sell you or rent you a better gun for real money?

[sinij]

Does running through Steam count?

Yes it would, Steam is highly obnoxious. With that said, it doesn't make sense for Battlefield Play4Free, EA title, to be distributed through Steam. More likely you are trying, and reliably failing, at being clever.

[sinij]

Does it have any obnoxious "features", like adds ?

Why would it need ads (not adds - what the fuck, are you camping in Everquest?) when it will sell you or rent you a better gun for real money?

Things don't have to make logical sense in a la-la land of Corporate Amerika. That why they invented ??? step on a way to Profit!

[Azazel]

Anyway. Without pissing in anyone's cereal, I'm not sure why people here are excited for this when chances are most already have or access to BF2 or BC2?

[HaemishM]

It's not worth getting excited about. I posted in case anyone wanted to play. I was excited before I got BF:BC2. It's interesting, not a bad game for free. Like all the EA F2P offerings, it's a decent enough game, especially because it's free.

[Azazel]

Haemish, stop pushing this piece of shit spyware/malware combo. Are you fucking retarded?


Are you sure you want to continue?

This program can access:
All data on your computer.
All websites you visit.

[Trippy]

That's true of pretty much any program you install.

[sinij]

Haemish, stop pushing this piece of shit spyware/malware combo. Are you fucking retarded?


Are you sure you want to continue?

This program can access:
All data on your computer.
All websites you visit.

Holy fuck. I couldn't find anything on them farming your data. Where do you get this info? Is this new BonziBuddy effort?

[Trippy]

No, it's a generic Chrome app install warning:

http://src.chromium.org/svn/trunk/src/chrome/app/generated_resources.grd

[HaemishM]

Haemish, stop pushing this piece of shit spyware/malware combo. Are you fucking retarded?


Are you sure you want to continue?

This program can access:
All data on your computer.
All websites you visit.

What the fuck are you on about?

[Trippy]

Ignore him -- he downloaded and ran the installer through Chrome and got the generic Chrome app install warning message.

[Azazel]

How foolish of me to take heed of a warning from my browser. 

[Sheepherder]

Bit hypocritical of Google, too.