Battlefield 3

[weemadando]

More from Mr Gies

really dumb thing about battlefield 3 PC that i didn't find a place for in my review: you can't currently rebind push-to-talk.

Man. Can't wait for the 27th...

[Executor32]

I'm installing it now, and though installation is done through Origin once that's installed, it's definitely installing from the DVD.

[open_sketchbook]

My buddies and I had the luck of having nothing to do today, so we went to the midnight release and played it a bunch. I think cinematic is exactly the correct word for this game; playing multiplayer with friends feels very similar to playing a single-player campaign of some kind, because the maps are perfectly designed to create awesome set-pieces. The game is stunningly beautiful, which we knew that already, but more than that, the presentation is fantastic. Weapons feel hella meaty, the freerunning-y aspect of infantry movement combined with the density of the terrain makes foot soldiers relevant even in the face of all kinds of vehicles, and I didn't notice any particularly bad balance issues in the few hours we played. Conquest seems to have an attackers-advantage for the capturing, which makes the game very dynamic, as flags change hands very rapidly. I didn't notice an excess of sniper whoring, which was nice. Sound design is also excellent. I had some stability issues and my buddy's graphics card derped out for a bit, but he updated his drivers and it fixed, and my issues probably have to do with my refusal to close anything before running the game.

I kinda wish I had time to be playing it right now.

[Mr Bean]

Twenty hours later lets see.

Multiplayer was awesome and fun and the each new do-dad wants me to get more do-dads. Playing nothing but the medic class and it seems that everyone else is playing nothing but Engineer or Assault. Support classes are non-existent at present because the support class takes awhile to level into being a Spec-Ops class. Combat feels like more polished Bad Company 2. But sad to say there is a knife cooldown so I only have 11 unique dogtags at present.

Conquest Metro is MUCH more fun than Rush Metro.

Also the Single player is in fact rubbish but of the good kind. And I'd have called it a decent single player campaign except for the AI. See the AI is idiot but they all use aimbots and they all hate you, but this is not universally true for on one level they give a good accounting of themselves and are more than happy to give bullets not just to you but also to your other three squadmates as well who just as immortal as Aerith. It's an okay story bound up with lots of plot holes, some good ideas and a truckload of bad ones.

Also suggestion:Fail every quick time event at least once, some of what happens when you do is hilarious. The dogs ripping out your throat in MW1 and MW2 always disturbed me somewhat since I've seen just such a thing happen in RL. But the stuff in Battlefield 3 is Looney Toons at times. Also the plot gives MW2 a run for it's money in dumb, but not as dumb as Bad Company 2's plot. As opposed to the Bad Company 2 plot in my mind which was outstanding in which scalar weapons (Stupid name, stupid weapon) was just search-replaced with "Godzilla" thus making my version of Bad Company 2 one of the greatest stories ever told.

[defanatic]

I keep getting a page load error on the "redeem product code" function in Origin. So far, frustrated. :/

[Kinyo]

Just got it today for the Xbox.

Going through the campaign at the moment, not far in, but it feels like a hell of an improvement over BC2.

Story reminds me a little...well a lot like Black Ops but different enough that I don't really care that much. That being said it could shoot off in a different direction since I am not too far in.

Cover is a little annoying at times. I might think I have my head down but suddenly i'll get clipped by 10 rounds and have to go prone.

The most annoying thing so far is the updates and HD install when I put it in the first time but thats done. Looking forward to multiplayer when I have done the single player campaign.

[Edward Yee]

Conquest Metro is MUCH more fun than Rush Metro.

This is VERY true, at least for whichever team holds the high ground (that is, whichever one is coming from the "defenders' side" in Rush with the cafe). I should note however that 64-player (PC) Metro Conquest is INSANE for levelling Assault and Support.

Also the Single player is in fact rubbish but of the good kind. And I'd have called it a decent single player campaign except for the AI. See the AI is idiot but they all use aimbots and they all hate you, but this is not universally true for on one level they give a good accounting of themselves and are more than happy to give bullets not just to you but also to your other three squadmates as well who just as immortal as Aerith. It's an okay story bound up with lots of plot holes, some good ideas and a truckload of bad ones.

I ended up giving up on trying an All-Hard run and from "Going Hunting" onward just did it on Normal. (Just Select Mission if you want to change difficulty.)

The worst plot hole though, in light of the real-life "Fast and Furious" case involving BATFE, is:Spoiler

How the interrogators/"OGA guys" didn't think that letting Solomon near nuclear devices was the worst idea, or that Blackburn would just accept the "Solomon was our agent" explanation as if that'd magically make him not a problem

Also suggestion:Fail every quick time event at least once, some of what happens when you do is hilarious.

The best one is the *ahem* "rat battle," but most of them are just you and someone else competing to see who can beat or kill the other in a scripted sequence... on the other hand, unlike The Force Unleashed, all of them are "if you fail then you die, but if you win then they get killed as brutally as we can think of at the moment." I'm reminded of weemadando's comments on The Raid (the 2011 Indonesian movie) and the "look of fighting" in 21st-century "real-world military"-based media.

[Stark]

People need to wise up: the leveling isn't 'fast' if you do the 'trick' or whatever; it's just really fast. You'll get a level every round or two, and if you're farming ammo crates more.

I just lol that they have the worst chopper controls in the entire world, and yet this has done nothing to stop chopper rape. Coulda just stuck with controls that meant more than nine people could fly? Maybe accidental TK from fucked controls is a design feature. Damavand is hilarious - it's literally raining choppers.

And really, what a great addition jets were. I'm really glad the maps have giant deadzones around them for the jets - because farming them for points is hilarious. Can't be Battlefield without game-useless jets being shot down instantly!

[Kinyo]

Just got to the end of the singleplayer campaign... Is anyone else severely disapointed by the ending?

I get what you mean Edward...

[Losonti Tokash]

Thought the ending was the best part. Ambiguous in a good way.

[open_sketchbook]

Yeah, that was exactly the sort of ending a game like that should have.

[Jade Falcon]

Meanwhile I tried installing and reached 77.9% and the crap that happened in Crysis 2 happened again. Namely a sort of metallic 'clicking' noise from the drive. It's possibly some sort of DRM or wierd layer in the disc. I have to download the entire game from Origin which is no sodding joke. About 12.45 in the morning I started and it's still downloading....

[Stark]

Yeah dude, it's a layer of DRM that makes CD drives click. That's what it is; security. That's why it happens to everyone.

Or your fucking drive is broken, dumbass. $10 gets you a new one.

[Jade Falcon]

Yeah dude, it's a layer of DRM that makes CD drives click. That's what it is; security. That's why it happens to everyone.

Or your fucking drive is broken, dumbass. $10 gets you a new one.

Bollocks to you as well, I should have stated that these are the only two games there has been the issue with. There had also been something in Battlefield 2 with my previous machine in as much that both BF2 and BF2142 took a wee while for the autorun to engage. So my fucking drive is not broken, it's just possible that that particular drive isn't totally compatible.

Anyway, game now running.

The controls seem a bit sluggish, but that's maybe because I've been playing MW2 the last couple of days, it's just getting used to it.

[Edward Yee]

Thought the ending was the best part. Ambiguous in a good way.

Yeah, that was exactly the sort of ending a game like that should have.

Shall I assume that the two of you were referring to:Spoiler

Dima's monologue cutscene at the very end?

As for the plot hole, it's particularly galling since:Spoiler

Blackburn had fragged his unit leader over it -- with no actual explicit order or even suggestion to do so from Dima, just Dima suggesting what his priorities should be -- and the interrogators should have recognized that Blackburn would be utterly unreceptive to the idea of Solomon* as being "one of ours," and that the revealing thereof would in no way be a deterrent to him. Also, leaving Blackburn in the same room as Montes unattended for any period of time...

* I have to admit, I found it an intriguing touch that the voice actor for Farukh al-Bashir pronounced Solomon as Suleiman.

[Losonti Tokash]

I was also referring to the brief moment of Blackburn opening the device and just looking at it before cutting away and giving no indication of what happened next.

[Stark]

Are you seriously saying intelligence agents misjudging their subject is a 'plot hole'? Maybe you missed the part where they were just looking for Blackburn to give them something credible and verifiable, which he was unable to do, while confessing to everything they held him for.

It's a shame that the finale will be totally ruined by the continuation of the story. It's clear that Blackburn would have been killed, but no video game is going to show NYC blown up by a nuke, so he'll magically disarm it with his sunken cheeks.

[CaptHawkeye]

At least Battlefield 3 finally stopped with the invasion USA bullshit. Fighting with Russia in BF3 is only incidental to an objective of a mission or two rather than "COUNTER ATTACK AT THE BURGER KING".

[Kinyo]

At least Battlefield 3 finally stopped with the invasion USA bullshit. Fighting with Russia in BF3 is only incidental to an objective of a mission or two rather than "COUNTER ATTACK AT THE BURGER KING".

Until Bad Company 3 comes out at which point its more counter attack in Alaska than Burger King

[Losonti Tokash]

Spoiler

Blackburn had fragged his unit leader over it -- with no actual explicit order or even suggestion to do so from Dima, just Dima suggesting what his priorities should be -- and the interrogators should have recognized that Blackburn would be utterly unreceptive to the idea of Solomon* as being "one of ours," and that the revealing thereof would in no way be a deterrent to him. Also, leaving Blackburn in the same room as Montes unattended for any period of time...

* I have to admit, I found it an intriguing touch that the voice actor for Farukh al-Bashir pronounced Solomon as Suleiman.

Total bullshit, Dima says "If you don't shoot him, millions will die."

[Jade Falcon]

Anyone having any problems with co-op?

Me and another guy tried it. If he was hosting I got his invite, accepted and it said it was waiting for him to start, but no way of starting. If I hosted, he never got the invite.

Maybe it might be worth trying someone else and see if it works.

[Tolya]

What really stumps me is that Cole actually shoots YOU if you fail to shoot him.

The game punishes you for not catching up with the silly quicktime events. Or, when you have to knife a tango in a basement, if you miss your "left click" window and walk too close up to him, you... just die before anyone notices.

But the biggest grief I have with BF3 is that it's a fucking Avatar styled game. They invested A LOT in the visuals but the story was done by some MW hyped butthead. Geez, bloody Bohemia Interactive can come up with a lot better stuff.

[Stark]

Yeah, but the game works, so they beat out Bhhemia Interactive. :v

[Flagg]

Yeah the end got really silly. You meet a guy whose forces just killed almost your entire squad, he tells you a few lines of dialogue that only make sense if you've played through "future" events, and suddenly you're completely convinced and Spoiler

frag your CO

.

But overall it had a better story than MW while being a blatant ripoff of MW.

[Stark]

Actually it was CO incompetence that got your squad killed. Did you go to sleep in the cutscenes? The whole squad hated him becusse he savrificed them for promotion.

I didn't even know it was him, and I don't care that it was. The GRU guys aren't paratroopers anyway.

The real 'plot hole' is that 5 guys can destroy an entire company of Russian soldiers in the open because their air support was late (and a single plane).