The Battlefield 3 beta has been available for players mostly worldwide (sorry Asia) on Xbox, PS3 and PC for just over a week now. It will come to a close some time on Monday 10/10/2011 I believe. The game is amazing. I will try to list out my thoughts and drop some impressions of this game in a 'storymode' here and there possibly.
First of all, I'll drop the bad stuff I ran into. Yes, bugs. The beta was bugs galore. As a headline this sounds devastating for a game like its unplayable, but in truth, if you actually try the game, it works great. It's very nice and smooth. There are graphical slips and odd screen flashes every so often, but I assume these are usually server errors and last only that flash of a second anyway. The bugs I ran into were annoying, but not game stopping in any way. Some did lead to me being killed though. One bug is that if you drop ammo or a health kit, this new object in the game is given some "indestructible" characteristic. If I'm under fire and suppressed behind a destructible object, when I drop health for myself, if I happen to be looking at the barrier I'm behind, my health box either completely destroys the cover, or else glitches into it so that myself and the enemy can now see through the barrier and even shoot, since...I died instantly when he saw me. I was not a fan of the random floating kill cam. Being killed only to see the kill cam stuck underground often moving too so I can't tell anything from it. Sometimes I could not zoom down sites, other times getting over a barrier would just repeat the animation but not let me over. I'm confident in DICE that all these will be removed. They release very polished games. However, as I have experience in testing myself, I'm worried about the available timeline to release taking in to consideration that the software has to locked down and sent to the retail disc creation facilities to sell. I would guess that point is actually NOW. We may see a huge update download upon release, but it should fix an S-ton. Btw, when I say cons, what I really mean in this blog, is that I had issues w/ these in game features and I hope they can be tweaked a bit or possibly just list possible design reasons. One issue I had just this morning in play was the revive paddles. In BC2 I had them down to an art. I could rambo revive a full squad like an assembly line w/o a touch and go finesse. I tried that in the beta and I missed every single body. Maybe the design has changed, but I need to get right up on the body now and hit em w/ the paddles. However, I'm a bit suspect as though the revive has weak hit detection. I've had quite a few complete misses when I was right over a guy. Hit detection may be bad or I can't tell if the new gun recoil is messing me up. I feel like I lay into people at times, usually at distance though w/ no scope or a weak one and I cannot bring people down. You know, at that thought, it would be interesting if the kill cam could show if your killer was under suppression (if they were) and yet were still able to kill you. A few thoughts I wanted to drop in this blog about the game that bugged me are actually just team gameplay issues. Because the squads were not easy to set up and work with, and many new players were trying this game, it was hard to react to some of the 'gang up' sessions where experienced players would get behind us and just rip into players for high K/D and points. That is typical of any FPS and a good BF veteran anyway. For retail, we can create platoons and that should be some wild fun facing other large groups at once that are coordinated, hopefully.
What I love about this game is everything BC2 had plus some new intensity and features. I have to have to rave about the tunnel segment of rush on the beta map Operation Metro. The map is broken into 4 rush stages w/ 2 outside and 2 in the tunnels. The subway boarding platform area is designed w/ a track on each side of the platform as you would find in any typical station. Attackers can rush the middle (pretty viewable to defenders)can run down the outer sides walkways, or even within the train cars. The game ambiance down here w/ the new cleaner and sharper audio with extremely dark parts of the map create a nightmarishingly fun experience. I enjoy the first tunnel portion more as a defender because you have time to spawn, run ahead and set up waiting to ambush anyone coming in. You can sit in silence waiting, and then through the darkness you can see gunfire light off to the distance along with its echoed or muffled report. You'll hear burst fire, back and forth; and sometimes just the sound of a room lighting up when you know a group of players likely happened the stumble into a room of enemies with perk you up. It's just so awesome to hear that exchange as distant muffled rumble. The whole experience makes you grit your teeth and rush adrenaline b/c you know that group may likely change direction if they can't push through your team and they will come STRAIGHT AT YOU. I get excited playing as support class in this situation because you can lay prone and just dump lead into anything you don't like. Of course you will make enough noise and light that anyone within sight of you will be on your ass. Usually though, that can expose enemies who flanked your team, and if your squad is paying attention can flush those guys out.
Outdoor sections were interesting. The opening stage of the map is in a park, and again, I love how it starts quietly, just the breeze and maybe some birds or trees rustling. Count to 10, maybe, and then it starts. Crack, of the sniper rifle, BOOM, of a tossed grenade. From there it's usually symphony of gunfire bouncing around the map.
There were no vehicles on this map I had thought there was an LAV on it though from past trailers, but I really don't even see the need for it now. It would be a create moving barrier that players could drive right up to the MCOM and park it to protect themselves while they light it. We'll have to see how it goes in the retail, but I am eagerly looking forward to the vehicle and gameplay footage I've been checking out that PC players recorded when they had a chance.
This game will be everything you hoped and even more. The metro map was a great introduction style map and game for people who were curious how it played vs COD. I do look forward to the new players, and old, b/c it will keep the game fresh, also frustrating, but you have fun with it and you learn so much by seeing what other people do. The gun load outs are awesome. They are confusing to me, only b/c its so new to how BC2 loaded out, but I like the options and unlocks. I look forward to the new surprises for each rank up w/ class or gun! My launch worries were around server performance. Both BF1943 and BC2 had unplayable lag issues and other server problems that just pissed me off. My fear/hope is that with such a large marketing campaign, this game will launch with more players than it can expect and will fail due to turning off the players, especially new ones. Thinking about it, even Medal of Honor that launched last year failed horribly in its online performance. EA and DICE better invest in their server tech and resources to make this a seamless launch. I have faith in DICE, I hope EA doesn't push too hard on this series to lower quality or burn the users out, but I definitely know this game will amaze people.