[Izayoi]

can someone link me to the BF3 OT??? I cant find it anywhere..

OTs do not go up until a week before launch.

[iSurvivedTheOutage]

OTs do not go up until a week before launch.

lol excuse my n00bd0m....well...the topic with all of the screenshots and links?

[TheLegendOfMart]

I get why a lot of people are anti-enter/exit animation. I'm curious if you guys think its screwed up when people teleport? People say it 'slows down gameplay'. And I get that. But somethings NEED to slow down gameplay in order to balance the game. Does reloading slow down gameplay? If everyone pushed X then instantly reloaded would it be a better game? Does the chopper warming up slow down gameplay? I used to play a lot of Halo back in the day. Enter/exit vehicle animations never felt like a detriment to gameplay. Apparently to some of the BF community it is. Like I said, DICE will make their decision and it is what it is.

How many battlefield games have there been, and you are just crying about this now?

[endlessflood]

Bc2 balanced lol. The classes are not balanced, major game mechanics aren't balanced lol

The choppers are incredibly OP on consoles. Pretty much all of the other mechanics are OK in my view though. I still play it almost nightly (having bought it on release day) so I'd say I have no problems with the balance at all and find it to be one of the most balanced MP games I've ever played.

I guess lean and the universally beloved comm rose were removed too because it wrecked the balance right? (or maybe because you couldn't bind them to a controller).

As stated earlier, no Battlefield game has ever had lean. As to the commo rose, it does make sense with a keyboard and mouse. That's not to say that better implementations aren't possible though.

It doesn't help that Digital Illusions has been downsizing the franchise with each iteration produced from the Swedish studio. In Battlefield 1942, you could control warships and submarines. There were multi-seat bombers with machines guns attached for defense against intercepting enemy fighters. In Battlefield 2, all of that was removed. Players were able to neglect it. We had the new commander mode and a new squad system. Sure the vehicle variety didn't come anywhere close to Battlefield 1942's but it was modern and new. In BC2, there was no commander mode, a laughable squad system and new game mode that introduced multiplayer linearity that was all to familiar for those who had enough of the trend of linear singleplayer, that mode was named Rush. No jets, no prone, vehicle variety was at an all time low and all of this downsized to 32-players, though I'll give Digital Illusions the benefit of the doubt when they said that was due to an engine limitation. This is why people "whine." They're trying to get BF3 back to its roots. They're trying to convince Digital Illusions that making the game more feature-rich is actually the right thing for the game.

You seem to be talking about scope moreso than balance. I think that DICE have made it pretty clear that they want to have a much greater scope in BF3; I'm not sure that prone really adds to scope though.

Shit was so epic. Driving ships was so boss.

Were you one of the mofos who would move the carrier on Wake Island and make the frame rate drop to 5fps? :)

[Patrick Bateman]

Hahahaha. YouTube comments come through. "Based on a real WWII dogfight"

I hope they include Spitfires, Zeros and Messerschmitts in BF3 just for the lulz.

[Stallion Free]

Were you one of the mofos who would move the carrier on Wake Island and make the frame rate drop to 5fps? :)

I will neither confirm nor deny anything.

[Taurus]

Any news of console beta?

I bought MOH just for BF3 beta, it's still wrapped in plastics. :D

[dragonelite]

Any news of console beta? I bought MOH just for BF3 beta, it's still wrapped in plastics. :D

Wasn't September the month the beta started.
I could have sworn they said that at E3.

[Soulmiser]

Wasn't September the month the beta started. I could have sworn they said that at E3.

Yes this was stated at the E3 EA press conference.

[DTKT]

Wasn't September the month the beta started. I could have sworn they said that at E3.

It's disappointing that it's just going to be a multiplayer demo and not an actual beta.

[dragonelite]

It's disappointing that it's just going to be a multiplayer demo and not an actual beta.

That is what cliffyB said a beta 2 weeks before release is just a demo.

[subversus]

BFBC2 had beta, not demo. It had perfomance issues, netcode issues, balance issues. Most of them were fixed in day 0 patch.

[Stallion Free]

That is what cliffyB said a beta 2 weeks before release is just a demo.

He is completely right. Which is kinda amusing, since we all bought MOH for a demo.

[TheLegendOfMart]

I bought it for the DICE developed multiplayer then stoped as all the hackers descended. But yeah the BF3 beta factored in to the purchase decision.

[zero margin]

Hope this 5870 can run it on med/high.

[georgc]

Hope this 5870 can run it on med/high.

Thats what I have. I hope my body can take it.

[Makoto]

You seem to be talking about scope moreso than balance. I think that DICE have made it pretty clear that they want to have a much greater scope in BF3; I'm not sure that prone really adds to scope though.

Well, is prone really a matter of balance or simply the fact that people playing at low resolutions on 360/PS3 won't be able to see anyone in prone?

[Woo-Fu]

You can fix a lot of server side issues with just a week or two of "testing".

[Woo-Fu]

Well, is prone really a matter of balance or simply the fact that people playing at low resolutions on 360/PS3 won't be able to see anyone in prone?

The only problem I recall with prone in any game isn't being able to see prone people, it is with dolphin diving.

As long as you can't maintain your accuracy while changing stances it is fine.

[Klocker]

pic of class loadout and gear

no more sub-machine gun wookies! they are now true recon, distance players. Also, I like how it has the assault with med kits to support "other front line players". That makes more sense than seeing every other idiot as a medic. Also makes for less noob tubers as assault must choose between GL and medical supplies. Also instead of medics up front reviving like idiots, they can be back a bit providing suppressing fire. Wow. what a concept. :D

[PaNaMa]

I get why a lot of people are anti-enter/exit animation. I'm curious if you guys think its screwed up when people teleport? People say it 'slows down gameplay'. And I get that. But somethings NEED to slow down gameplay in order to balance the game. Does reloading slow down gameplay? If everyone pushed X then instantly reloaded would it be a better game? Does the chopper warming up slow down gameplay? I used to play a lot of Halo back in the day. Enter/exit vehicle animations never felt like a detriment to gameplay. Apparently to some of the BF community it is. Like I said, DICE will make their decision and it is what it is.

This exactly.

[Keasar]

I am so going for the guy second from the right who use bullets for body armor.
And he carries a LMG, my personal favourite.

[Relaxed Muscle]

pic of class loadout and gear no more sub-machine gun wookies! they are now true recon, distance players. Also, I like how it has the assault with med kits to support "other front line players". That makes more sense than seeing every other idiot as a medic. Also makes for less noob tubers as assault must choose between GL and medical supplies. Also instead of medics up front reviving like idiots, they can be back a bit providing suppressing fire. Wow. what a concept. :D

Wait...wait....

Now Assault class (preferred class for nobs and people that like to think they're playing COD) have the defibrilator and the med packs in their hands?...

Console players, we are now fucked, one thing is people not throwing ammo packs at all, and another is people playing like rambo without caring about curing and reviving people...nice.

[Mikasangelos]

Assault Class for me!

[spicy cho]

Wait...wait.... Now Assault class (preferred class for nobs and people that like to think they're playing COD) have the defibrilator and the med packs in their hands?... Console players, we are now fucked, one thing is people not throwing ammo packs at all, and another is people playing like rambo without caring about curing and reviving people...nice.

Why won't the support throw packs down? It worked in BF2. This is basically 2142's system and it worked great, best class balance of any BF. Giving the guy with an underbarrel launcher unlimited ammo was not a good idea. Medics with machine guns were an equally idiotic choice.

[Chinner]

Isn't there more customization to the base 4 classes than just that? I remember them saying, for example, that assault players will be able to give up their medic stuff in exchange for the grenade launcher add-on.

[Tawpgun]

I wonder what gadgets are coming back. Motion mines?

Also, support class is going to be very important with that support fire mechanic.

[spicy cho]

Isn't there more customization to the base 4 classes than just that? I remember them saying, for example, that assault players will be able to give up their medic stuff in exchange for the grenade launcher add-on.

I read this as well. Each class will have some choices/specializations when it comes to loadout I would hope. Please no motion mines.

[zero margin]

Thats what I have. I hope my body can take it.

same brother.

[Relaxed Muscle]

Why won't the support throw packs down? It worked in BF2. This is basically 2142's system and it worked great, best class balance of any BF. Giving the guy with an underbarrel launcher unlimited ammo was not a good idea. Medics with machine guns were an equally idiotic choice.

Not Support I mean Assault class in BC2, you could count with the fingers of one hand the number of people that throwed ammo packs in BC2. Well they did, but for only themselves, I was fine having a more lone wolf class/independent offense unit in BC2, while the more focused support actions were dealed by other classes.

Giving the med pack/defribilator to the people that is only interested in their K/D ratio is a wrong choice in console at least, It might work on PC, but with the COD kiddies that populates the random crown on consoles? If works, I have to see it with my own eyes.

[Raide]

You have my Medi-kit!

I will be an Uber Medic.

[Norml]

Don't like the medic change.I hope assault can still have C4 and not just sniper.

[Anton Sugar]

Isn't there more customization to the base 4 classes than just that? I remember them saying, for example, that assault players will be able to give up their medic stuff in exchange for the grenade launcher add-on.

Yes, that's what they've been hinting/a few impressions have been reporting. If you go the Medic route, you don't get an M203 grenade launcher.

I know we're not doing an OT until a week before, but maybe someone should just make a new/info thread so this stuff doesn't have to be repeated.

[n0n44m]

I do hope I can still play as a wookie with 4x scope using the GOL/M95 as a Q3 railgun :P

*had such an awesome match last night*

[SapientWolf]

Wait...wait.... Now Assault class (preferred class for nobs and people that like to think they're playing COD) have the defibrilator and the med packs in their hands?... Console players, we are now fucked, one thing is people not throwing ammo packs at all, and another is people playing like rambo without caring about curing and reviving people...nice.

They can just throw up "Sweet revive, bro" and +10s on the HUD. Problem solved.

[The_Player]

[Keasar]

Hail Demize!

[Kyaw]

Here is a very detailed review from the Project Reality community (source):

Sorry for the delay, I've been busy with some other stuff. Below is a rough description of what I played and a first impression.

Before I start I would just like to point out that the game version we played was pre-alpha and as such still had some bugs and issues, and nothing in it is final. Also, this is all from memory so I reserve the right to be wrong about and/or forgetting stuff.

We got to play one round as attackers and one round as defenders on the Rush game mode(destroy/defend a number of objectives in order on a narrow map). It was 16vs16, give or take. Each round was approximately 20 minutes.

The Map

The map was Operation Metro(I think that's the name). It takes place in and around a part of the Paris metro. Russia is defending and the USMC are attacking.
The first stage of the map is a park with a pond or small lake, lots of bushes, some trees, low walls, park benches and stuff like that. The US gets a LAV-25, the rest is pure infantry. This is the most sniper/scope friendly part as it's quite open and has engagement ranges from a few meters up to probably around 100m. It looks nice and it's imho a good idea to have something different before heading into the metro.

The second stage takes place down in the metro itself, and is accessed from the park through a collapsed tunnel which in turn leads into the station where the objectives are. There's lots of CQB action with the attackers having to force their way through the tunnels(giggidy), up some escalators and on to clearing rooms and corridors. Some parts of the tunnels are dark and sneaky, so the weapon lights can both help you and get you killed.

The final part spans from the station exit/entrance on the other side and a bit into the city itself. This part is urban with a few smallish streets and some enterable multi-storage buildings leading down to a sort of square area where the final objectives are. If the first part is long range and the second is close I would say this part is medium-ish in range. Lot's of people sitting in windows covering the streets. RPGs come in handy to blow the campers away.

Overall the map is very linear and feels designed for Rush from the start. The mix of longer range combat at the park, followed by intense CQB action in the tunnels and station and finally some street fighting adds some nice variety. It would be interesting to know how accurate the map is compared to the real thing.

Kits

The kit layouts were something like this. No limitations.

USMC

• Assault - M16A4(4x scope), M9, Frag Grenade, Medic Box, Defibrillator
• Engineer - M4(ironsight+weapon light), M9, Frag Grenade, SMAW, Repair Tool
• Support - M249(4x scope), M9, Frag Grenade, Ammo Box
• Recon - M110(bit more powerful scope, dont know exactly), M9, Frag Grenade, C4

RUS

• Assault - AK74M(4x scope), MR-444, Frag Grenade, Medic Box, Defibrillator
• Engineer - AKS-74U(ironsight+weapon light), MR-444, Frag Grenade, RPG7, Repair Tool
• Support - Pecheneg(4x scope), MR-444, Frag Grenade, Ammo Box
• Recon - SVD(bit more powerful scope, dont know exactly), MR-444, Frag Grenade, C4

Random stuff

• Sprint. There seems to be unlimited stamina. You can strafe(slightly) while sprinting, which is pretty nice.
• Weapon lights. Can be turned on/off via a hotkey(L). Blinds people at close range. Other player's lights are seen as a glowing dot at long range.
• Vaulting. When approaching an obstacle you can press space to climb/jump over it. This seemed to work on everything I tried it on. You can not fire while the animation plays(around 1 second). Jumping is still ingame if for some reason the vaulting isn't working on something.
• Deviation. Deviation feels pretty good for a vanilla game. As always it's stance-dependant. When hipfiring it's accurate enough to take out people close to you, but that's it. When aiming down the sights you can kill people are range quite effectively. Snipers/marksmen are most accurate, assault rifles in the middle and undeployed machine guns last, however deployed machine guns felt more accurate than assault rifles. When jumping you get maximum deviation, and it takes a second or two to settle again. When going prone you get this animation thing that moves your view around a bit, but the crosshair stays tight. I tried it against a wall, and since the animation is not random it's easy to compensate and fire at the intended spot while going prone. So prone diving works pretty much. However it may just be that they haven't added the deviation increase yet.
• Deploying weapons. Machine guns can be deployed on most surfaces like walls, windows and different kinds of cover, as well as when being prone. When prone or standing/crouching next to a deployable surface you just right click once and he folds out the bipod. That locks your weapon to the surface and you can swiwel around the bipod itself(which looks nice) in a limited arc(100ish degrees maybe, could be dependant on the surrounding objects). You can fire via the crosshair or scope in for added accuracy. To un-deploy you just move away from the position.
• Rockets. The two rocket weapons on this map were both unguided, and seemed to be fairly accurate with not much drop. Explosion radius was enough to kill guys at maybe 1-2m but nothing extreme(BC2 CG, I'm looking at you).
• Squadleader. There were 1 SL per 4 man squad. There was no squad selection/creation menu(yet?) so it was random. The SL was the only player in the squad you could spawn on.
• Commo-rose. No commo-rose or communication tool to be seen anywhere. Probably not implemented yet. At the closed presentation we were on before the play test the devs there got asked if BF3 would have a commo-rose a la BF2 or a context sensitive key a la BC2(which means one key, and depending on what you're looking at/doing it gives a different message). He said the commo-rose is awesome, but was prone to causing spam in BF2. He couldn't give a full answer due to the marketing plan they have(gameplay details/news to come at GamesCon btw), but I interpreted the rest of his somewhat dodgy reply as that they were aiming for something in between the commo-rose and the BC2 system.
• Spawning. You could spawn on either the team's main spawn or your SL. When having the SL selected your camera spectates him until you spawn. I spawn killed a few guys and spawned too close to the action a few times myself when using the team spawn, so we'll see if they improve this somewhat.
• Melee. Melee is BC2 style, i.e. a melee key and no knife in the inventory. I never got to melee anyone(sadface) but my friend got one and said it triggered some animation where he grabbed the enemy and slit his throat in a cinematic fashion. Unknown if it's always like that or only in some situations. I personally hate being helpless because I have to spend several seconds caught in a knifing animation with no way to abort.
• Damage. Rifles seemed to kill in around 4-5 shots. LMGs felt the same. Snipers(or marksmen really) in 2-3 shots. This is all non-headshot. So somewhere in between vanilla BC2 and BC2 hardcore.
• Hit Detection. The hit detection felt solid and I didn't notice any shenanigans, but it was a local LAN game after all.
• Sounds. The sounds were very nice. Really. A bit less cinematic than BC2(which is good imho), and more sharp, snappy or crisp than many other games. And as always there were echo and other sound simulation effects that changed depending on the location.
• Medicing. Press 3 to throw a medic box on the ground, which in turn heals people in a radius around it. Press 4 to pull out the defibrillators, then use them on a dead guy to revive. When being revived you start prone, and you're blurry and unarmed for a second or two. It would also appear that you don't auto-heal to full health, more like 80-90% or something.
• Vehicles. There were only one vehicle on the map, and I didn't get to use it. It went down real quick seeing as half the team was playing as engineer because of the ironsight weapon the class got. However my friend managed to get in a LAV-25 that was stuck(lulz), and he reports that driver/gunner is shared and that thermal can be activated via right click.
• Fire selector. You could switch between single fire, burst or automatic depending on the weapon by pressing V. Not much to say really, it works and can be nice to have although I prefer running on auto and doing manual single fire.
• Destruction. The destruction felt a bit toned down from BC2. You blow parts off of walls and stuff, but it took some shooting. When I fired an RPG at a guy in a window, it left a hole approximately 2x2 meters in the wall. I never got to see a building collapse. Overall you could notice that the destruction was there, but it didn't feel like it was the main focus of the game, like in BC2. Less gimmick and more gameplay.
• HUD. The HUD can be seen in videos and stuff like that, so I won't go into detail. But generally it felt pretty unobtrusive and it showed the important stuff. The minimap was decent, but not perfect - I'd prefer a more map-like one over the stylish one. And there was no way to bring up a big map. However they keep insisting, like so many other new games, to block my view with these damn score popups.

YOU KILLED [player] +10 KILLING A DUDE +5 HEADSHOT +1 NOT KILLING YOURSELF +20 NOT SEEING ANYTHING BECAUSE OF THIS

• Suppression. There is some form of suppression implemented in the game, but my vision didn't get impaired every time I got shot at - more like just a few times. Likewise, I only got points for suppressing(yes, you do get that..) after killing a guy a few times despite me killing a lot of guys. I'm not sure what's going on here, but if you can't suppress people every time by shooting at them I fail to see the point. Gimmick or bug?
• Mods. They got asked about mod tools at the presentation, and like we already know there are currently no plans for them. They will look into it post-release
• Reloading. This is a nice one. If you still have a round in the chamber and press reload, you do a quick reload and just put in a new mag, while if you're completely empty the animation is longer because you need to chamber a new round. Because of this 31 rounds of ammo in total is possible(30+1). Strange thing is that you spawn with that as well - I'd like to see 29+1 as default.
• Animations. Animations looked really nice. Reloads were fairly accurate and the running/climbing stuff looked motion capped or at least equally realistic.
• E-Sport. They were very secretive, but they hinted at them doing more for E-Sport with BF3 than with previous titles.
• Servers. There will be dedicated servers. No word on if it's only through GSPs, but unfortunately I find that likely.
• Scopes. The scopes were in 3D and looked nice, but they zoomed the whole screen and not just the area in the sight :/
• Prone. It's prone. You're crawling on the ground. Bit nicer movement animations than previous games though.
• Ammo. The support class can throw an ammo box on the ground by pressing 3(or 4) which then re-supplies everyone in range. Disappears after a while and the player gets a new one.
• Graphics. It looked kinda like in the trailers, albeit a bit smudgy or something that I can't quite put my finger on. It's quite possible that they had it turned down slightly for gameplay purposes, since a pre-alpha game isn't fully optimized yet.

Conclusion

So what did I think of the game? Well you probably noted that I mentioned Bad Company 2 as a reference several times. That's simply because they are very similar. In a good way though, because this feels like an improved BC2 in pretty much all aspects. If you liked BC2, you'll probably need new pants after playing BF3 - and if you despised BC2, you'll probably be sorely disappoint. The gameplay is fast, action packed and at times a bit spammy. However because it did feel more like Bad Company than Battlefield 1942/Vietnam/2/2142, I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. But maybe that's just me being nostalgic, and not willing to accept that newer games just wont feel like the older ones?

So will Battlefield 3 be the shizzle? Well I can't answer that question. Why? Simply because the BF3 I'm waiting for is a game with 64 players, a combination of air, ground and infantry working together on big(ish) conquest maps. This demo version had only one of those things - infantry. So guessing what the other components are like is as hard for me as it is for you. What I can say though is that for a vanilla BF game, the infantry part felt very nice, and the 40 minutes I spent in the BF3 area flew by and my heart was pumping for a good while after getting back to my regular seat. So considering this, and if the other parts are equally fun, this game could turn out really good in the end.

[Klocker]

Not Support I mean Assault class in BC2, you could count with the fingers of one hand the number of people that throwed ammo packs in BC2. Well they did, but for only themselves, I was fine having a more lone wolf class/independent offense unit in BC2, while the more focused support actions were dealed by other classes. Giving the med pack/defribilator to the people that is only interested in their K/D ratio is a wrong choice in console at least, It might work on PC, but with the COD kiddies that populates the random crown on consoles? If works, I have to see it with my own eyes.

nah... plenty of medics out there now (too many on 360)...they will just turn in their beret and big ass MG for an assault rifle and helmet.

[endlessflood]

The only problem I recall with prone in any game isn't being able to see prone people, it is with dolphin diving.

Actually I think it might be neither in this case. I remember one of the DICE guys (probably Alan Kertz) saying that prior to the release of BFBC2 they did originally have prone in the game. During playtests with prone in he said they found that the result was slow, boring games where nobody went for objectives. When they removed prone it increased the pace of the game and led to everyone pursuing the objectives. The difference was profound enough that they decided not to include prone in the final product.

Then around the time of the BF3 teaser trailer Alan Kertz came out and said that prone would not be in BF3... only to be overruled by his superiors at DICE. Anyway, I'm harping on about it. Maybe they'll find a way to make it work without negatively impacting on the gameplay this time.

[Mr_Brit]

Can you strafe properly whilst sprinting now or is it still like BC2?

[zero margin]

sweet impressions, especially going off memory. The mode you described definitely seems like something out of BFBC2, not that that's bad but pretty sure most of us want (like you said) the massive scale that BF is known for.

[Keasar]

Can you strafe properly whilst sprinting now or is it still like BC2?

Some light strafing apparently according to that review, was it really that wideangled you could sprint and strafe in BF2? Can't remember exactly.

[aperman]

I'm sure playing Rush on a Rush-oriented map factored into that feeling. Conquest w/ vehicles and 64 players should bring back some of that 'classic' BF feel.

Anyways, I have no major problems with BC2, so all this sounds great.

[SneakyStephan]

Reading that summary (from someone who actually knows what they are talking about , for once!):

Reminding me of the lack of strafing in the movement in bc2 made me cringe immediately, I hope it's a LOT better.

The damage is really dissapointing, it sounds like it's just going to be a lot of random dying before being able to react or dive for cover when at cover or being randomly sprayed down.
If it doesn't take enough bullets for aim/recoil control to actually come into play then what is the point of spread and recoil.

Hardcore mode is there for when you want to play like this (I do too sometimes), so people should have been able to have their cake and eat it too.

Maximum spread when jumping is some good news though.

Jumping being still in, I didn't even think of it as a possibility (being taken out) , but that would have sucked.

The biggest let downs by far are his suggestion that we'll only get those god awful terrible awful (did I mention awful) sponsored servers again and no news on comm rose.


I wasn't prepared for his soul crushing conclusion though.
I was both curious about the game and genuinly excited about it being a return to it's roots.
Now all that is left is curiosity, I am crushed.

[Mr_Brit]

Some light strafing apparently according to that review, was it really that wideangled you could sprint and strafe in BF2? Can't remember exactly.

You can't strafe at all whilst sprinting in BC2? I have no clue why DICE thought that was a good idea.

[SneakyStephan]

You can't strafe at all whilst sprinting in BC2? I have no clue why DICE thought that was a good idea.

It makes the game very akward to play, but eh add it to the 200 other questionable changes and choices in bad company.

[Stallion Free]

You can't strafe at all whilst sprinting in BC2? I have no clue why DICE thought that was a good idea.

In real life I can't strafe while sprinting so.....

lol.

[Kyaw]

sweet impressions, especially going off memory. The mode you described definitely seems like something out of BFBC2, not that that's bad but pretty sure most of us want (like you said) the massive scale that BF is known for.

Just for the record, it's not me.

It's from a guy called Zrix from Realitymod forums.

[Mr_Brit]

In real life I can't strafe while sprinting so..... lol.

lol. No strafing made movement in BC2 pretty awkward. It never feels as smooth/intuitive as something like COD or Halo.