Battlefield 3

[Phire]

Gameplay teaser released today in preparation for the full trailer on March 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29-oK7Vy0pM



Looks really good from the brief glimpses you get and from seeing the quality of Crysis 2 and Killzone 3, this definitely looks like its right up there with the heavy weights in terms of graphics and technology.

[stu]

I'm there. This'll make me an odd duck, but 2142 was my intro to the series, and the only other iteration I've played has been Bad Company 2. I really dig DICE's style and never liked MW2 much, so this'll be my next FPS after Killzone 3.

[Surlyboi]

I'm in. I really dug 2142 though.

[Sky]

My computer is off in the corner, crying at the beating it would take trying to run something like that on a 64 player server.

[Speedy Cerviche]

I'm in. I really dug 2142 though.

I dunno why EA shat on 2142, it was the 2nd best game in the series after 1942 IMO.

After 2142 they dragged the Battlefield brand through the mud. Went after money pots with console style BF games, but just got lost in the CoD, MoH, etc. crowd. That along with dumb stuff like freegame BF heroes trying to make a big freeplay portal like SOE.

Hopefully BF3 gets back to the series roots of being massive free flowing maps with heaping servings of combined warfare. The thing I hope they can avoid is the superweapon spam that "Desert Combat" mod introduced into the series (machine guns, rockets, planes made much more lethal). It shattered the original game's delicate design which priotized balance above more "realistic" damage (idiot nerds hate that stuff, but it's much better gameplay).

[Sky]

Yeah, I loved 1942 but was meh about what came after, mostly due to the DC mod. Our old clan was split down the middle on it, half mostly played DC and the other half hated it. The first game was so much more tactical, played much slower for the most part, and you had to think more, because everything was so slow. Planes were susceptible to small arms fire, ffs (if you fired at the engine or sniped the pilot). That was such a great game and I'm happy I was in the right place at the right time with it, playing pubtards sucks no matter how good the game is.

[Malakili]

Probably an insta buy.  Though I think ps2 and tribes universe are direct competition for my gaming time.

[Speedy Cerviche]

Yeah, I loved 1942 but was meh about what came after, mostly due to the DC mod. Our old clan was split down the middle on it, half mostly played DC and the other half hated it. The first game was so much more tactical, played much slower for the most part, and you had to think more, because everything was so slow. Planes were susceptible to small arms fire, ffs (if you fired at the engine or sniped the pilot). That was such a great game and I'm happy I was in the right place at the right time with it, playing pubtards sucks no matter how good the game is.

That's why I liked 2142 because it restored a lot of the pre-DC pacing and combined arms warfare style elements (titan mode was neat). Unfortunately instead of further refinement of this area (titan design coulda used work, and more interesting ground vehicles, they just didn't have the character of 1942 vehicles) they went in the console/freeplay direction.

It will be great if they are coming back to their design roots and can execute well.

[NiX]

I'm so there, though I'm not expecting the MP to be anything like that trailer in terms of atmosphere.

[ffc]

Hopefully BF3 gets back to the series roots of being massive free flowing maps with heaping servings of combined warfare.

Yesssssss. Killzone 3 multiplayer feels sterile compared to BF and makes me want this even more.

[Gunzwei]

Instant buy.

[HaemishM]

If my computer can run it, I'm on that first day as well. The Battlefield multiplay FPS design is my favorite.

[Gunzwei]

Battlefield 3 - Fault Line Episode 1 Gameplay Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkZp2c_vzNY

[WayAbvPar]

If my computer can run it, I'm on that first day as well. The Battlefield multiplay FPS design is my favorite.

Ditto. Although I will probably try to find a way to upgrade my GPU to make damned sure I can run it. I played BF2 literally hundreds if not thousands of hours. Hope this is more BF2 and less BC2.

[HaemishM]

I'm still really digging BC2 multiplayer, so yeah, I'll probably be a goddamn slave to BF3 when it comes out.

[WayAbvPar]

I go hot and cold with BC2. Sometimes it is a lot of fun, sometimes it is like anal dentistry. Some of the class decisions they made were a fucking joke (let's make Medics sharpshooting HMG-toting nightmares! That won't possibly fuck class balance right into a cocked hat! Or a hatted cock, for that matter).

[HaemishM]

Yeah, the medic's with sniper accurate heavy machine guns is really my only complaint with the whole BC thing. But even then, I still enjoy the hell out of it.

[Azazel]

I've been playing a lot of BC2 again recently. It seems that the sniping MGs have been nerfed a bit. Seems a lot more kick on them now.

[Sheepherder]

Some of the class decisions they made were a fucking joke (let's make Medics sharpshooting HMG-toting nightmares! That won't possibly fuck class balance right into a cocked hat! Or a hatted cock, for that matter).

Technically anything you can carry isn't an HMG.  But by the numbers, they did right by machine guns.  Any two weapons of similar caliber and barrel length, barring any mechanical defect, will have very similar ranges.  Ergo, similar machine guns and sniper rifles tend to have the same range +/- a hundred metres or so.

[Trouble]

Point being: the real life downside didn't translate. AKA carrying a fucking heavy ass machine gun is a real issue, and the game has no representation of that. The easiest thing I can think of is making medics move at 30% speed. It'd be incredibly unfun, but it'd translate the real life issue well and probably well make up for LMG sniping quite a bit.

[Nebu]

Yeah, I loved 1942 but was meh about what came after, mostly due to the DC mod. Our old clan was split down the middle on it, half mostly played DC and the other half hated it. The first game was so much more tactical, played much slower for the most part, and you had to think more, because everything was so slow. Planes were susceptible to small arms fire, ffs (if you fired at the engine or sniped the pilot). That was such a great game and I'm happy I was in the right place at the right time with it, playing pubtards sucks no matter how good the game is.

This.  I have yet to find a game that captures the strategic feel without being overly dedicated to realism (a la WWIIOL).  I miss BF1942.

[Sheepherder]

Point being: the real life downside didn't translate. AKA carrying a fucking heavy ass machine gun is a real issue, and the game has no representation of that. The easiest thing I can think of is making medics move at 30% speed. It'd be incredibly unfun, but it'd translate the real life issue well and probably well make up for LMG sniping quite a bit.

They aren't even all that heavy.  The ammunition is, but if ammo count were to be the determining factor then you're looking at people gaming the fuck out of the system.

[Azazel]

Point being: the real life downside didn't translate. AKA carrying a fucking heavy ass machine gun is a real issue, and the game has no representation of that. The easiest thing I can think of is making medics move at 30% speed. It'd be incredibly unfun, but it'd translate the real life issue well and probably well make up for LMG sniping quite a bit.

Unlike, say, the Engineer carrying around a half-dozen AT-4s or Anti-tank mines? Maybe he should move at 10% speed? Or Assault carrying an Ammo box? WAP is just butthurt about Medics. And yeah, the man-portable MGs in the game are a mix of LMGs and GPMGs, not HMGs. I find the scoped SMGs on Engineer are more effective at long range anyway, since you have less kick and less muzzle flash.

[bhodi]

The classes are "Balanced" as long as you ignore the fact that a Recon with a 12x scope sitting in spawn doesn't really help his team, sniper rifles are kind of lame (from a fun perspective on both sides) and people getting ressed with half health would solve the medic balance issue (which is the fact they can keep a squad up and a push going, not that their weapons are overpowered).

I play a lot of BC2, mostly on the goon server, which is amazing because people actually spot. Which is awesome. Steam says 73 hours, and I only got it in the last sale.

[Surlyboi]

The classes are "Balanced" as long as you ignore the fact that a Recon with a 12x scope sitting in spawn doesn't really help his team, sniper rifles are kind of lame (from a fun perspective on both sides)

As a recon with a 12x scope, enemy sighting and a few mortar strikes peppered here and there to keep flags clear, I've turned the tides of more matches than I care to count. Your milage may vary.

[Sheepherder]

My best sniper ever story involves a game of BF1942 where one horribly damaged fuck camped the south central flag in El Alamein for almost the entire goddamn match from the edge of the map, across a saddle in that big central ridge.  He got like five goddamn kills, never bothered to capture the flag even after he shot any enemy trying to take it, and then at the end someone got pissed and dropped a bomb on him.

[TripleDES]

Is it open world, or does it just have really huge maps? I saw that video that italian gaming site took during a closed presentation. At the beginning, they seemed to be demoing a huge height-mapped desert and then proceeded to play in what appeared a pretty large city, because the skyscraper models went pretty far down the map. Or is it just for effect and invisible walls everywhere?

[Strazos]

Real Recon Snipers Snipe with Shotguns and Slugs. 

[Speedy Cerviche]

In BF1942 they didn't give ANY classes a .30 calibre MG, shows how dedicated to balance over reality they were back then. They also made fixed heavy MG gunner positions in bunkers and trenches very vulnerable to return fire and sniper fire (your head was really exposed), again for balance.

As a recon with a 12x scope, enemy sighting and a few mortar strikes peppered here and there to keep flags clear, I've turned the tides of more matches than I care to count. Your milage may vary.

For every sniper like yourself who plays for team objectives, there are 100 that have the ninja/rogue mentality of sneaking around hidden and wanted to rack up ambush kills against people who can't fight back.

[Jimbo]

BF2 & BF 2142 had somewhat better classes, I just play the game and ignore the real world stuff of these games, there is no way in hell any of it really translates over 

Example, I was assigned the M-60, when I was a Combat Engineer, that GPMG (why we call it that instead of LMG I have no freaking idea) its weight was about 24lbs, plus I had to hump 300 rounds (100 round ammo bags, which was canvas and cardboard), I am only 5'6" about 135lbs back then so I had a bunch of gear and there was no way I could do as much run and gunning as people claim they could do.  I carried a M-16 and about a 25 lbs of medical gear (or more depending on missions and if we had a vehicle or not) when I was a medic.  Combing the 2 could be possible, but would severally hamper a squads ability to function.  They need the support weapon to lay down fire, they need the medic that can fight, but will stop fighting and focus on treating the wounded asap.

I really hope they do bring back the commander ability!  I hear they want to drop it though...

[HaemishM]

I'm going to assume the Battlefield 3 maps will be fucking huge, probably bigger than BC2. It's one of the things that separates it from the COD series so much, and probably why I like BF games over COD - big maps with lots of room for lots of players instead of grenade spam-filled phone booths with high kill counts.

As for BC2, there are a few balance issues I think exist - sniping LMG's and the goddamn Uzi. When I got the Uzi as an engineer I was just flabbergasted at how accurate that thing is. Uzi's are notoriously spray happy - they do not put a stream of bullets into a circle the size of a dime.

[bhodi]

[HaemishM]

I've had some battles where I've made a significant difference as a stealthy, ambushy sniper. What really fucks teams though is when you have 6 snipers taking potshots from half a mile away and no one taking out vehicles or actually going to cap a flag.

[Sky]

My best sniper ever story involves a game of BF1942 where one horribly damaged fuck camped the south central flag in El Alamein for almost the entire goddamn match from the edge of the map, across a saddle in that big central ridge.  He got like five goddamn kills, never bothered to capture the flag even after he shot any enemy trying to take it, and then at the end someone got pissed and dropped a bomb on him.

That shit didn't happen in competitive play much. He would usually end up like you say, just a non-factor in the game. But if it was, say, the clan invading a pub where you would see a ton of snipers (camping the tards on the runway fighting over planes)...well, we had a massive thread dedicated entirely to screenshots of knife kills on snipers. One of the clan's favorite activities.

On medics: when I first started playing bf1942, I liked the regular grunt gun (assault kit?). But once I was asked to play medic, I never went back. It had a much nicer burst, even though it did slightly less damage you'd get more head shots, so you'd end up with more hits. And of course be able to heal yourself and your squaddies after. Then I got recruited as a pilot and usually went engineer to repair planes (on pubs, usually on private, it's faster to just get shot down and respawn). Another El Alamein story - landing the plane at the edge of the map in the desert, jumping out to repair it, jumping back in, total denial for the plane campers. It was so much fun to take competition level skill onto pubs and just pwn the server...part of why pubs aren't fun for me now that I'm the pubtard :p

Anyway, setting nostalgia aside. Can't afford the game at release and by the time it's affordable, the servers are haunted by guys who have learned all the tricks of all the maps months ago and not fun as a newbler. It's why I've stayed away from shooters since BF2.

[NiX]

Real Recon Snipers Snipe with Shotguns and Slugs. 

I remember you telling me about this setup. Motion mine + Slugged shotgun was an incredibly deadly combo. I think I racked up 10 kills on one objective. They were very unhappy with my performance.