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I really liked the M16A3 with ACOG and Heavy Barrel. I didn't like the scope for the AK-74M however...

BEFORE I START.....(WARNING-WALL OF TEXT INCOMING!)
I am not a reviewer by trade or a game critic of any kind.Im just an avid gamer who loves pretty much any genre, esp. FPS/RTS and im not a fan boy of any game or series in particular.I Am however a Rifleman in an infantry battalion in the regular army with a few years of weapons experience and around 15+ different weapon proficiencies and have a good idea of what a shooter should 'feel' like to be realistic.
Im a few hours into the Beta now and as far as i have experienced it is already a fantastic game in its current beta phase.Dice has already announced a quite extensive list of bugs/glitches/balance and progression issues that are already being worked on as a result of player feedback.In addition to this they have stated that some graphical improvements/tweaks will occur before the final release along with tweaking of the (oh-so delightful) destruction physics.The beta will not be getting patched which is fair enough as its a bit of a waste of time.
Its important that everyone remembers that this is a TESTING PHASE released with the hope that the players themselves will discover most/all of the issues so they can be rectified before final release, and who better to provide feedback then dedicated fans who want the absolute most from a game, which Dice is prepared to offer after the beta issues are adressed. The game has an incredible amount of content, dice claims 100hrs per class at least.With vehicles on top of that.I was a massive BFBC2 addict and had a fair go at BF2 and i think this game is really going to outshine them by a long shot after its final release.In all fairness there are issues (thats a given and i have faith they will be fixed) some i have encountered are....
- The fall through the earth glitch - (EASY FIX)
- Too greater Inconsistencies in external ballistics of same calibre rounds between different weapons, eg bullet flight time/path/trajectory - (EASY FIX)
- Slight issues with some weapons firepower being too great or small at different ranges, e.g getting hit square with 7.62x54mm at 150ish metres and living then killing your attacker with 5.56x45mm at the same range- (EASY FIX)
- Fall of shot seems to great with sniper weapons, at least SVD, i was aiming two points of aim above my target at about 250m and dropping shots onto him.- (EASY FIX)
- Buggy knife kills sometimes - (EASY FIX)
- Graphical bugs and glitches, exactly as expected - (EASY FIX)
- Collision detection bugs can cause you to refuse to vault over an obstacle and just keep jumping into it (EASY FIX)

These really are the only 'problems' i have personally 'noticed' apart from the ones already being adressed by dice.I will not complain about servers or matchmaking as that is the most important part of the Beta Testing, prepping or fixing servers. I would have liked to have seen vehicles in the Beta (none on 360) but as dice said it was too unbalanced on that particular map and you can imagine why.At least i like to haha.A good hard foot slogging infantry fight is a good change from vehicle rushing anyway so i dont mind too much as ill have a chance on other maps.The Metro map has a few annoying bottlenecks and "Dog Spots" that are heaven for campers and snipers, but if something isnt working to defeat them change your tactics and you can normally get around it (sometimes through painful trial and error haha)
'Dolphin Diving' while annoying isnt really a problem as a few well placed shots still kill your enemy before they can kill you.Its like the real deal,the quick and the dead,you cant complain that someone dived behind cover and you didnt kill them,what would you really do if a few rounds suddenly whizzed past your ears while you were running??(I wouldnt stop and shoot back thats for sure)
PRONE while annoying, believe it or not,is a tactic used by REAL SOLDIERS in REAL FIREFIGHTS and has been for quite some time.It can also be effectively combined with crawling/cover and concealment to increase your effectiveness while reducing your enemies.As annoying as getting killed by the guy lying in the bushes is its a reality you need to face.If you cant beat em', join em'.
The weapons are accurately represented visually and sound quite lifelike and most that i have used behave realistically although as with all FPS could be more realistic,but im picky with that.Trust me its not as exciting or intense firing a weapon as you may think (thanks a lot hollywood) however the game does make it believable.
I think the graphics are great and so is the sound, especially the dialogue between players.People complaining about the console graphics maybe need a better TV? (unless you believe console will parallel a dedicated hardcore gaming PC, sadly it wont, even dice has openly admitted this) I believe i have read that sound/graphics/lighting will all recieve tweaking before release so it should be even better.I am impressed by the way the weapon moves while crawling/running/vaulting as i feel that it pretty closely represents real life.
Dying too easy...Please dont complain about this, it doesnt need to be explained.You get shot and you die, just like real life.i have survived a lot of hits in the game and have failed to kill a few people with solid hits but on the whole it seems like if you shoot someone in the chest 1-2 times they die,Always 1 to the head.If you want weapons to accurately wound instead of killing be prepared for a 9mm round to the thigh causing you to collapse hopelessly in excrutiating pain with a severed main femoral artery, followed by three minutes of half a dozen of your teammates trying to administer first aid without any success before you bleed to death.Or just take the kill like a man and get on with it.
Classes.Easily balanced between dedicated assault/medsault etc...tweak it to your tactics it works a treat.BUCKETLOADS of unlocks/customization that cant be ignored.
Taclights.Yes the are real,yes they are bright and yes they blind the S**T out of you.use them in CQB in the dark and youll see their merit.
Laserlights....Still nt sure,kinda cool,they hurt your eyes a bit, i think thats it haha.
Suppression system.Very welcome addition,another great degree of realism added to an already likelike (enough) game.

Thats it for now i dont want to bore anyone (else) to death.If you got this far i applaud and thank you.Hopefully have another spiel after another few days online.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
In addition.....
The glare from campers scopes is an awesome addition and has scored me a sneaky kill by shooting into a bush on more than one occassion.
Yea it is sometimes hard to identify friend from foe on the battlefield..thats what happens when you think all the bad guys on earth are terrorists in robes and not soldiers in uniform.Keep your eyes open and stay on your toes.
The battlefield is a deadly and complex place, urban terrain is the most complex of all.Yes every bush,corner,burned out car etc could have an enemy behind it,or a bomb hidden inside it.Yes snipers will kill you the moment you walk into the open, and heavily armed will rush you with HE weapons and heavy fire.And yes,people will die and you will be scared and confused and disoriented...This is what a battlefield is like...this is what BF3 is like. The Name Says It All.

To note Oz, the beta is timestamped june
which means the beta is months behind the current built
why they would release a build for "testing" that is so old, with so many bugs and missing features a month before release is anyone's guess.

I actually looked into this today and the explanation given is that the beta was ready for all platforms some number of weeks ago but needed to be reviewed and cleared by microsoft and sony before being released as dlc.The pc beta has long been ready but was held back to be released simultaneously across all platforms..Lets hope they still have to time to sort this gem out hey.

Grundz wrote:going prone in general gets you killed
you want to kneel with the option of going prone behind cover when you get shot at, not go prone and slooowlly crawl away when being suppressed

i disagree. I've managed to get the drop on a lot of opponents (as a sniper of course) by proning behind cover to get into a better position. I also went 21 and 1 while prone in the tunnels, but I found myself a damn good spot that makes it very difficult to be target, it only really works while prone though.

- Fall of shot seems to great with sniper weapons, at least SVD, i was aiming two points of aim above my target at about 250m and dropping shots onto him.- (EASY FIX)

Definitely an issue. I was master of figuring out bullet drop on the fly in Bad Company 2. They seem to have revised the method by which bullet drop is determined for this because there seems to be no logic to it and I can't figure it out.

illuknisaa wrote:

imark789 wrote:Honestly, I was really expecting better from the game, and while I'm aware it is a beta, I won't buy the final game if it isn't much better. They'll have to prove to me that the graphics are better than they are in the beta, because it looks like it's from 2007...and while gameplay is more important than graphics, battlefield is just bad.

Wow dude, are you demanding better graphics than in crysis(no other game has ever done that) because crysis is infamous systemkiller.

When did I say I was demanding anything, or expecting graphics better than Crysis? The graphics looks worse than Xbox 360 games from 2007, like Halo 3. I know I'm playing on Xbox 360, which is a 5 year old machine, but like I said, these graphics look really bad. Gears of War 3 came out a week or two ago and looks pretty damn good, so DICE should be able to make Battlefield look up to date, at least as far as Xbox games go. I don't expect it to look as good as on the PC, but I don't see why it has to look worse than BFBC2 on the same console, same TV...

One thing I really like about BF is that Sniping is pretty difficult. There's none of this cheap-ass quick scope twitchy shots. You actually have to lead your target if he's too far away.

I'm a terrible sniper, but in CoD anyone can be a sniper. Just point in the general direction of the guy and click the mouse, bam that's a kill for you.

imark789 wrote:

illuknisaa wrote:

imark789 wrote:Honestly, I was really expecting better from the game, and while I'm aware it is a beta, I won't buy the final game if it isn't much better. They'll have to prove to me that the graphics are better than they are in the beta, because it looks like it's from 2007...and while gameplay is more important than graphics, battlefield is just bad.

Wow dude, are you demanding better graphics than in crysis(no other game has ever done that) because crysis is infamous systemkiller.

When did I say I was demanding anything, or expecting graphics better than Crysis? The graphics looks worse than Xbox 360 games from 2007, like Halo 3. I know I'm playing on Xbox 360, which is a 5 year old machine, but like I said, these graphics look really bad. Gears of War 3 came out a week or two ago and looks pretty damn good, so DICE should be able to make Battlefield look up to date, at least as far as Xbox games go. I don't expect it to look as good as on the PC, but I don't see why it has to look worse than BFBC2 on the same console, same TV...

Oh xbox well that explains a lot but after looking some screenshots of xbox it doesn't look that bad (actually it looks pretty close to high on pc).

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1070543/battlefield_3_beta_xbox_360_hd_screenshot_gallery.html

The things that xbox is missing are AA, AF and SSAO/HBAO (I personally can't see this withput looking). Characters and view distance are worse.

http://www.realmofgaming.com/screenshots/xbox360/Halo3/Halo3_001.jpg

While Halo has more AA and AF it doesn't have fully dynamic shadows, 3d fog volumes, better lighting, destruction and scenery generally lacks stuff (small details like papers moving metro singnals, waste bins and rubble.

And considering it's be..

chaos0xomega wrote:
i disagree. I've managed to get the drop on a lot of opponents (as a sniper of course) by proning behind cover to get into a better position. I also went 21 and 1 while prone in the tunnels, but I found myself a damn good spot that makes it very difficult to be target, it only really works while prone though.

Yeah, i was referring to people that are actually playing the game and not sitting in one spot

You have instantly made the game a must buy to me.

They've said the beta build is 40+ days old, so I'm not too worried about bugs like that, they're probably already fixed. The one big issue I have with the game is teammates being able to "nudge" me, every game I get nudged out of cover, when I'm throwing a grenade, when I'm disarming etc. Squad members spawning on you nudges you also, they need to increase the distance they spawn or something like that, it wouldn't stop griefing but it would stop people doing it by accident.

illuknisaa wrote:

http://www.realmofgaming.com/screenshots/xbox360/Halo3/Halo3_001.jpg

While Halo has more AA and AF it doesn't have fully dynamic shadows, 3d fog volumes, better lighting, destruction and scenery generally lacks stuff (small details like papers moving metro singnals, waste bins and rubble.

And considering it's be..

Reach looks considerably better than Halo 3. If you're going to compare, you should at least use shots from that.

That said, I think BF3 looks fine on the 360, some of the textures are a bit muddy up close, but that is expected for the platform. That map they sent out on 360 is a really poor example of what battlefield is though, imo.

daedalus-templarius wrote:

illuknisaa wrote:

http://www.realmofgaming.com/screenshots/xbox360/Halo3/Halo3_001.jpg

While Halo has more AA and AF it doesn't have fully dynamic shadows, 3d fog volumes, better lighting, destruction and scenery generally lacks stuff (small details like papers moving metro singnals, waste bins and rubble.

And considering it's be..

Reach looks considerably better than Halo 3. If you're going to compare, you should at least use shots from that.

That said, I think BF3 looks fine on the 360, some of the textures are a bit muddy up close, but that is expected for the platform. That map they sent out on 360 is a really poor example of what battlefield is though, imo.

He's comparing it to Halo 3 because I said BF3 had worse graphics than Halo 3. Which I honestly think it does, the textures in BF3 are god-awful. Foliage looks like it is out of Minecraft, and even on my gun they look far 'muddier' than I've ever noticed. Just look at image 15 from your link
http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1070543/battlefield_3_beta_xbox_360_hd_screenshot_gallery.html

and you'll see what I'm talking about.

im loveing the bata. and i think it looks good considering im haveing to play it on the 360. and imo i allways thought halo was bad. not as bad as cod.but still bad.

imark789 wrote:

He's comparing it to Halo 3 because I said BF3 had worse graphics than Halo 3. Which I honestly think it does, the textures in BF3 are god-awful. Foliage looks like it is out of Minecraft, and even on my gun they look far 'muddier' than I've ever noticed. Just look at image 15 from your link
http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1070543/battlefield_3_beta_xbox_360_hd_screenshot_gallery.html

and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Oh, well then.

Guess I need to learn to read better, lol.

Its fun but a little glitchy.

I was gonna sign up... but then I found out it requires windows 7.

Thankfully I'm gonna get a copy of W7 for free (probably this weekend when I replace my aging and now non-functional seven year old dvd-rw drive) due to my school's deal with MS to obtain free software for its students (and due to this they have to use all microsoft/microsoft-endorsed products on their computers and appropriate classes).

Hopefully I'll be able to see if it lives up to its hype or if it's just another genericborefest then.

The robot is fun and very useful to disarm points, ive even rollled it in and disarmed a point that they were all standing around, twice, with it XD

to be noted it is rather difficult when you start out (just like all bf games) since the gameplay and map is rather unforgiving

I played a couple games, hoping is was going to be amazing as all the hype my friends put up around it. I was majorly disappointed. Even though they are on the new engine, the graphics were nothing new, often glitches, and probably worse than MW2. While the game is somewhat enjoyable, I often get frustrated in the horrible unbalance and how impossible it is to see people. The major amount of glitches sorely hurt my playing ability and the fact that the game comes out in a month does not encourage me to buy (which, come on, that is the point of this beta). The minimal amount of variation, (1 map, 1 mode), I felt they really weren't in it to test much. It was sorely worse than the gears beta and halo beta. The only people I've seen defending it was fanboys, and to that there is no surprise. Honestly, I will not be picking up battlefield 3 as the beta sorely lost any hype I had for it.

You really need windows 7 to play it? Looks like I'm off the hook playing with my dad.

I gotta say that imark789 was right about the textures on xbox version but I think DICE used lower textures on it because they wanted a smaller file or that they have not optimized xbox version as much as ps3.

And you dont need W7 to run BF3. You need a video card that has dx 10 or 11 (which sadly wont run in xp) so you can use Vista

The official minimum requirements for PC players were announced September 20, 2011:

Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) 32-Bit
Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core (Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHZ or Althon X2 2.7 GHz)
Memory: 2 GB
Hard Drive: 20 GB
Graphics Card (AMD): DirectX 10.1 compatible with 512 MB RAM (ATI RADEON 3000, 4000, 5000 OR 6000 series, with ATI RADEON 3870 or higher performance)
Graphics Card (NVIDIA): DirectX 10.0 compatible with 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE 8, 9, 200, 300, 400 OR 500 series with NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GT or higher performance)
Sound card : DirectX compatible
Keyboard and Mouse
DVD ROM Drive

Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows 7 64-Bit
Processor: Quad-Core CPU
Memory: 4 GB
Hard Drive: 20 GB
Graphics Card: DirectX 11 compatible with 1024 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 or ATI RADEON 6950)
Sound Card: DirectX compatible
Keyboard and Mouse
DVD ROM Drive

I've been playing it on PS3 so some of it differs a bit from the PC and Xbox reviews I've been looking at. There's some definate beta issues going on, but overall I am liking it. (with PS3 there's only the metro map to play on)

Right now the biggest issue seems to be holes in the map, lots of areas you start sinking into the ground when crawling and if you don't back out right away you end up stuck under the map. If you are in a key area it can be a boon as you can see and shoot people but often you will be bouncing up and down like crazy so the shots can be difficult. Very frustrating as it happens the most near the first A crate on the map and you'll fall into the blast craters regardless of if you are prone or not. Lots of times I've been running over to the crate to end up falling off the map.

It's also very easy to get stuck on small terrain elements and jumping only works to clear the object if you are directly lined up with the obstacle really annoying when you bump into a small rock and have to turn to face it in order to move over it. Particuarly when it's small enough you should automatically step right over it.

I do like that they have minimized grenade spamming in the game, the delay on tossed grenades is pretty long at times and they don't bounce around like a super ball. Which was one of my biggest beefs with kill zone and call of duty. They are still plenty deadly but not a noob tube resort weapon like in most games. I do however think the rpg is a bit weak, it seems to do less damage than the grenade when it should have a larger blast radius. The hand grenade seems to be much more lethal and I rarely seem to take non fatal damage meanwhile I constantly seem rpg splash damage from les than 5 feet away and just keep going along. The rpg should be a bit harder hitting particuarly inside the building where the blast concussion would be compressed and more lethal.

Sniper rifles seem to be a bit weak IMO, unless it's a head shot it takes 2-3 rounds minimum to drop a target. It doesn't pair up particuarly well with how they function in real life where even a round taken to the chest is going to down the target. They may not be dead isntantly but they won't be functioning much less running and gunning. The targeting is really floaty (even when prone) unless you have a bipod, very hard to actually stay on target much less pull off a head shot. There's no hold breath option which doesn't help. I find that it's easier to snipe with an assault rifle or the UMP-45 than it is with a dedicated sniper rifle, as firing in burst is far easier to down a target with and more likely to land a head shot with. That's really bad IMO.

One good feature is they added lens flare to sniper scopes so they can be seen at a distance if the light angle is correct.

The game is all about staying as low as possible and camping as much as possible, regardless of what weapon you use. I find the battle in the park somewhat aggrivating as there is an absurd amount of plants and rocks, I've never seen a park anything close that that level of landscaping. It makes for a playable map but it just doesn't feel correct. I have few complaints about the metro design as it feels more correct.

I find the tactical lights and lasers a bit wonky, yes tactical lights should be blinging inside at close quarters. But when fighting outside in the high noon sun they really shouldn't have much effect. The lasers seem to be overly shiny, lasers are a very focused beam of light and only blind if they directly hit the eye these lasers seem to blind if they are even in your general area. It would be nice to see some polarized goggles as an unlockable option that'd help reduce glare or light effects.

A huge annoyance is getting blinded by team mates who are running around like idiots with their lights and lasers on, for some reason they love to run forward to advance posistions and turn around to blind their team mates. Additionall the lights and lasers often seem to cut through terrain, lots of time you can be blinded by tactcial lights or lazers despite the fact there is a solid object directly in front of you. I've been blinded inside the metro from lights that are on the other side of a solid wall, hopefully that's just a beta issue.

I'd love to see how the vehicles play out, I really enjoyed the bad company games and using their vehicles.

My biggest two complaints are

1: The lack of being able to mute other players, it gets really old listening to somebody trash talking or their kids crying in the background.

2: Enemies not appearing on radar. It's very hard to tell where shots or noises are coming from even when you or otehr squad mates have a direct line fo sight to the enemy they don't show up on the mini map nor is tehre a way to mark them. In Bad Company you could spot and mark enemies by pressing select, and if somebody in line of sight to your team was firing a non-surpressed weapon they'd likewise be marked.


Overall the game the beta has been intresting and it's good enough I'll be picking it up. I do hope some of these issues are tweaked, they don't make the game unplayable by any means but they can be annoying.

-rpg and sniper rifle seem "right" the rpg is extremely deadly with explosion specialization or an ammo box and is excellent for destroying the enemies cover, not so much just directly murdering people
-sniper rifles are difficult to use which is never a bad thing IMHO

-camping gets under control real quick if someone on your team has an rpg, if lag is low and you can go prone behind cover before you die, or if you have people zigzagging through the map instead of going straight up it.

-yes being blinded sucks

-enemies /do/ show up on the radar if firing non suppressed weapons.

illuknisaa wrote:I gotta say that imark789 was right about the textures on xbox version but I think DICE used lower textures on it because they wanted a smaller file or that they have not optimized xbox version as much as ps3.

And you dont need W7 to run BF3. You need a video card that has dx 10 or 11 (which sadly wont run in xp) so you can use Vista

IE, you need windows 7, because gaming on vista is kinda silly

Caspian Border is open for all. A bit glitchy for some people, but a proper BF experience nonetheless. Go try it out if you didn't have the chance during the closed tests.

The Caspian border is even more awesome than operation metro.

Interestion stuff:

when spawning to a radio becon you actually parachute to the beacon instead of just popping out nowhere.

Snipers are less common but engies are plenty.

I find it hard to kill jets with AA tanks but jets aren't that dangerous to ground forces.

Ninjaing tanks with C4 is really fun and fairly easy.

You can play Caspian on conquest and rush. Rush takes place in the highway.

Caspian gets really laggy if there is many people playing at the same time (rush hour) and when server fill with more than 30 people.

Radio antenna is pretty bad place to camp.

Bipods are handy on all guns.

His Master's Voice wrote:Caspian Border is open for all. A bit glitchy for some people, but a proper BF experience nonetheless. Go try it out if you didn't have the chance during the closed tests.

Open for 360 as well? I can't be bothered with all of the hoops to install it on my pc.

Grundz wrote:
-enemies /do/ show up on the radar if firing non suppressed weapons.

What platform are you using? With PS3 they don't show on radar when blasting away with unsurpressed weapons or even when shooting the RPGs. Could be system specific glitchyness.

His Master's Voice wrote:Caspian Border is open for all.

What platform are you using?

Caspian still isn't available on PS3 :( Also no remote robots or vehicles that I've seen on the PS3 beta, although I've noticed they are appearing in some of the videos online.