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Is Battlefield 4 the worst thing EA has ever done to their customers?

Whompa said:
There's a select few that seem to have problems, but the levels of dramatization is borderline insanity. The real insult is that people are complaining about China Rising, something they should have preordered FOR FREE...and secondly, that they have a new shiny console and BF4 is somehow their only game and it's causing massive amounts of headache to them.

PC barely has any problems. I feel bad for the people who are losing their hair over the bugginess of a multi-platform launch game.



And this, among quite a few others, is why I don't believe the drama at all.
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So its people's own faults for assuming the game would work and not buying other games? Or it is their own fault for not buying it on your platform of choice? Its people's own fault for not preordering... somehow?

People are having problems getting a game to work and the developer is dragging their feet. Whether you believe us or not, those are the facts. As a gamer, you should be angry about this because next time it could be your game that doesn't work.
 
FlyinJ said:
You've got a shiny new console and only Battlefield is giving your problems.

I don't see why you're complaining.
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What if he can only afford one game after buying his console. What if BF4 was the only game he was interested in. People have a right to complain when the things they pay money for don't work.
 
I really wanted to play this game but after I got booted from conquest and then found out my campaign save was gone I sold the game and will never buy it again out of principle. And all this happened after the supposed patch that came out last week conveniently just before Black Friday.

VibratingDonkey said:
It's entirely sensible to expect it, but to still buy the thing on day one is not. People ought to cease such nonsense.
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As long as people keep buying their games they'll keep pulling this shit. All of this is happening because EA is so obsessed with dethroning COD as the top selling shooter. This is the definition of greed in how self destructive it is since in the long run this hurts Battlefield more than anything.
 
So here is a question, does DICE get any slack because of the new features they are bringing to BF4 this time? Again I think the web services for Battlelog are pretty ambitious, and the second screen integration with being able to see your full map or do the commander control from it as well are I think pretty innovative. As far as I know they are the first company to try that kind of real-time integration with a game using multiple platforms. I imagine that kind of stuff is what could be causing some of the online crashing as the game clients need to be talking to multiple platforms not just for the game code, but for the map, loadout sync, and commander and spectator connections.

Me and my friends experience on the PC and PS4 have been good so far. We haven't had too many crashes at all lately, perhaps 1 per night of over 3 hours of playing. We aren't using commander mode however, and the only second screen we use is the full battlemap on either a 2nd monitor or me using my PC battlelog to use the full map while playing PS4.
 
mcfrank said:
So its people's own faults for assuming the game would work and not buying other games? Or it is their own fault for not buying it on your platform of choice? Its people's own fault for not preordering... somehow?

People are having problems getting a game to work and the developer is dragging their feet. Whether you believe us or not, those are the facts. As a gamer, you should be angry about this because next time it could be your game that doesn't work.
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I'll tell ya straight up that complaining about China Rising is pretty ridiculous considering this game hasn't been out for that long and it was a free offering to anyone who preordered it...

Complaining that the game has been buggy, when the series has been buggy for years now, dating back to BF2 and maybe even earlier, is also pretty hilarious.

BF4 was obviously pushed out the door to beat COD to the market. It came with bugs as a result of that.

Here's where I'm having a problem: People, with that notion already implied into their heads, are now blowing this up like it's the end of the world.

I'd like to think I'm being fairly realistic in what seems to be the gaming apocalypse.

Also, cut the "us" stuff out. You're not a mob. Things aren't one sided. there's several people in this thread even that are saying things have been bumpy but not even remotely close to "unplayable."
 
FlyinJ said:
EA has pulled some incredibly underhanded, cynical and blatantly anti-consumer stuff over the years.

However, has anything topped this Battlefield 4 debacle?

The game was released on PC, and was plagued with constant crashing. You couldn't even finish a single online match without it crashing. Nothing was fixed for a month, then the PS4 version came out.

The PS4 version would constantly crash, and the main game mode of conquest wasn't even available. On top of that, any crash had a 90% chance of either corrupting or erasing your single player progress. The PC version is still an unstable mess.

Then the XBO version arrives, and somehow they got Conquest working on the both consoles. However, they were both still extremely unstable, and crash constantly. They both have a high chance of corrupting or deleting your single player save file.

Now, China Rising, the first DLC comes out. The base game still is a complete trainwreck of constant crashes and single player corruption, yet they're still pushing out the DLC. Why?

Well, because they want people to pay an extra $50 to be a Premium member so they can get the DLC. Even if you pre-ordered the game to get the free China Rising DLC, you're not allowed to play it for two weeks unless you pay them $50.

I just can't wrap my head around their massive arrogance mixed with stunning incompetence.

Have any of their previous debacles rivaled this one? Granted, Sim City was unplayable at release due to their incompetence and arrogance as well, but that only affected one platform and not three...
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Not an EA product, but PS3 Skyrim. . there are no words to describe it.
 
Man, remember when we actually loved EA when they released games like Dead Space and Mirror's Edge back in 2008/9 ? We thought Activision were the most evil thing ever in the industry.

That already seems like a long time ago...
 
Just chiming in my two cents, but Battlefield 4 has been great for me. I bought it for PC and while it crashed a lot at launch, a few patches later it's been crash-free for me and I'm loving the game. It's the most fun multiplayer game in years in my opinion.
 
If you find yourself playing domination on the new "Silk Road" map do not be alarmed. You did not time warp, or jump between games. It is indeed Battlefield 4 you are playing, but the map is decidedly not.

4 is not off to a good start, DLC or otherwise.
 
I remember the day when you bought a game and it worked. No patches, no server issues, it just worked. No wonder EA has been voted worst company in America 2 years in a row, and now because of this BS, it will be 3 years in a row. Get your crap together EA.
 
Honestly, this is pretty tame by EA standards.

Battlefield has always had rough launches. It has only gotten worse since they've been rushing them out the door to "beat" Call of Duty.
 
It's been working pretty well for me lately but it's still really frustrating since I bought the game and premium (although I got half off premium). BF is the only competitive MP game I play for massive amounts of time and it added greatly to my excitement for PS4 since I'd have a nice MP game at launch. Not being playable until last week and still having some annoying bugs is not how a game should be launched.
 
No doubt the game was rushed, they wanted to get it out before Call of Duty.

I wish they just focused on MP. I don't think a single person buys BF4 to play the single player
 
The only problems I had with this game were the constant server disconnects and ctd's with the PC version. It actually got so bad it I just uninstalled in a fit of rage. I'll come back to it someday.
 
Whompa said:
PC barely has any problems.
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ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!

The PC version of this game was a GODDAMNED MESS for the first 3 weeks of its release with both client and server crashing. As a server owner, I was tearing my hair out trying to keep it populated after it would crash and players would lose progress.

Yes, the PC version has improved recently, but IT COULDN'T EXACTLY GET MUCH WORSE!

"Barely any problems" -- don't make me laugh.
 
Mahonay said:
I was having a similar issue right around launch. Sorry to hear you're still having that problem. That's fucking ridiculous. Bleh.

I'm guessing you've tried to delete and reinstall the game already?
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Yup, done that. Didn't change a thing. I guess all I can really do is hope EA and DICE sort everything out eventually.
 
I feel like I'm in a super duper small minority when I say this but... BF4 works just fine on my PS4.

I'm clearly missing something here.
 
carfo said:
No doubt the game was rushed, they wanted to get it out before Call of Duty.

I wish they just focused on MP. I don't think a single person buys BF4 to play the single player
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Completely agree. They should have put every dime towards multiplayer.
 
carfo said:
No doubt the game was rushed, they wanted to get it out before Call of Duty.

I wish they just focused on MP. I don't think a single person buys BF4 to play the single player
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They wanted to get it out before the end of this year. Otherwise it would have went up against Titanfall next year, which wouldn't make any business sense.
 
fade_ said:
The worst thing EA has ever done to its customers is far worse. They take dedicated devs that make great products and sap the life blood out of them until they are empty husks that whither and die. Origin, Bullfrog, Westwood Studios, Bioware, Maxis and now DICE. All devs that made games that hardcore gamers loved now dead or about to die. Sad really.
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Came to post this. Bad games are bad, but killing devs is worse.
 
I totally get that people have had problems with Battlefield 4--I'm even amongst them, as I've had the game crash on me in the middle of rounds and horrible server lag in other cases like almost everyone else.

I also had SimCity straight up lose cities of mine, or not allow me to log into servers I had cities saved on for days, to the point where I've abandoned more cities and servers than I had working ones. But even if the online hassles had gone as well as Battlefield 4's have (which, again, I will say have been pretty bad), at its heart Battlefield 4 is a fun game to play. SimCity, at the end of the day, was not. Too many compromises were made to make their costly and inaccurate agent-based model work. Battlefield 4 is still the Battlefield everyone knows and loves, even if some people have perfectly legitimate gripes about things like the new levels or balance issues like the Little Bird dominance or whatnot.

Battlefield 4 can be fixed. SimCity cannot. Therefore, SimCity is worse.
 
I am absolutely stunned that consumers continue to purchase EA products.

Actually, no. I expect average consumers to make bad decisions.

I'm stunned that NeoGAF posters purchase EA products. I mean, how can you voluntarily throw away your money on crap products from a terrible company with a relentless track record of horribleness when YOU KNOW BETTER.
 
Whompa said:
I'll tell ya straight up that complaining about China Rising is pretty ridiculous considering this game hasn't been out for that long and it was a free offering to anyone who preordered it...
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I preordered the game, did not get China Rising free, paid for premium, and I still cannot access it.

Do you find complaining about that 'pretty ridiculous'?
I do not.
 
Nightstick11 said:
Is there anyone who would shed tears if EA just bankrupted today?

Witness their list of unforgivable atrocities against the gamers:

1. Killing a bunch of beloved studios such as Microprose, Westwood, BioWare, etc. This is unforgivable.

2. Contributing to the death of Sega.

3. Trying to kill Nintendo.

4. Online passes and other ridiculous money-grubbing ways

5. SimCity 4

6. Now they're literally shipping games that aren't even finished.
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I need to see what battlefront and mirror's edge will look like. Expectations shall be kept as low as possible and if they are terrible then EA has my permission to die.
 
TekGryphon said:
I am absolutely stunned that consumers continue to purchase EA products.

Actually, no. I expect average consumers to make bad decisions.

I'm stunned that NeoGAF posters purchase EA products. I mean, how can you voluntarily throw away your money on crap products from a terrible company with a relentless track record of horribleness when YOU KNOW BETTER.
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Because despite the issues I have had with BF4, I know I will put well over 400 hours at least into the multiplayer. I bought the PC+Premium along with the PS4 version, I have already put over 60 hours into them combined and many hundreds more later.

BF3 had a lot of the same issues for months before it really started to function. Yet I also bought the PC+Premium along with PS3+Premium and have put about 450 hours total into BF3. The same can be said for the previous games in the battlefield series, I triple dipped on Bad Company 2. Despite the flaws the battlefield games are great. They all have hiccups at the start, you learn what maps / game modes work the best. You also learn not to play on servers with 300+% tickets that take over an hour to play because you lose your stats if it crashes.

Then you have a fabulous time playing Battlefield because it is some of the best multiplayer gameplay for what battlefield players enjoy.
 
Dubz said:
So I bought Premium on Day One, and now I can't play China Rising because it's not on the PS Store yet...who do I blame for this one?
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Have you checked the servers? I didn't download anything besides premium, and it's listing (empty) China Rising servers.
 
Despite the state the game was released in, I feel sorry for the devs being forced to release it. I'm sure they knew (especially after the comments about considering delaying the game) but EA wouldn't let them wait and now they're the ones answering for it. The actual game is great but just wasn't ready for launch.
 
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