Battlefield 4

[Whirlin]

So... I was a big fan of Battlefield 2. My entire purpose in the game was to rank up so that I could always be the commander, where I would assign everyone a squad, and actually utilized the fullest extent of the commander abilities... People had consistent missions, rally points, etc. And most of the time, people would actually follow.

Battlefield 3 kinda missed the mark... they removed the commander role, and they buffed vehicles a little too much relative to humans. Plus, there was some animosity towards EA for Origin's attempt to rival Steam, which is a severely lacking platform. The emphasis of Battlefield 3 was more dynamic game environments, where walls could be destroyed, buildings could fall, etc. Overall the game was decent, I probably clocked about 20 hours into it, but the unbalance of the vehicles really struck too much of a steak between humans APCs. While squads existed in Battlefield 3, it was more difficult to set objectives as a squad leader (relative to Commander commands from BF2), and really the only thing squads offered was additional XP for the top performing squad, and an additional spawn point opportunity.

Battlefield 4 is scheduled to have an Beta scheduled for the first week in October. It's expanded upon battlefield 3's alterable terrain, but brought it one step further with dynamic weather. One preview showed a random hurricane in the middle of a beach invasion... providing cover to the storming team by suppressing sniper visibility via fog and waves. But best of all, it brought back the Battlefield 2 Commander mode, and a reemphasis on squad tactics and maneuvers.

I'm looking forward to giving it a try... a lot of the animosity towards Origin has decreased, even if it is horrible.

But we all know how well EA games do on release weeks...

[Taernath]

I've played all the BF games from 1942 onward. I think BF3 PC was great despite the lack of commander mode, but I've run into Origin/Battlelog bugs that rendered it unplayable. For that reason alone I will never buy a BF title on PC if it means I have to deal with Origin/Battlelog, though I may get it on PS4.

[Taernath]

The open beta began today. I played the one map they have available, and it feels more like Battlefield 3.5 than a true sequel. A lot of my friends are saying the same thing.

[Whirlin]

I've been clocking in a lot of time... mainly because if it's anything like BF2, the commander is just the highest ranked person... So, get ranks, be commander more easily!

There have been ongoing performance and balance issues that will need to be addressed before go-live.
Assault rifles are far too accurate, and too much damage.
Sniper rifles should be able to be reloaded with the bolt action while maintaining a zoom.
Light Machine guns are completely awful compared to assault rifles, and their accuracy is laughable, even at close ranges.

Everything needs a few more HP relative to weapon damage... It ends up being a roll of initiative to determine the winner.
Gunner seats on tanks need to be effective against other vehicles. Right now they appear to be classed like AR rounds, and basically can't assist against enemy tanks.


Lets see... as far as EA launches go, it's in a better spot than Sim City! Although, it hasn't really launched yet.
Weekend Day 1: Punkbuster lagged out all servers. So while you'd have a 20 ping, the game was choppy.
Last Night: Servers lost connection with the battlelog, so you weren't actually gaining XP/ranks/unlocks for the games played
Game Modes are a little too 'hidden' on the server browser. A lot of people were joining small map, no vehicles, and subsequently complaining that the game was too CoD-ish. It's more of an end-user error, but due to unemphatic design.

Buildings need more HP. While I understand the entire environment is meant to be dynamic, it usually only takes like, 5-10 minutes until the entire large map has all destroyable buildings completely leveled.

All in all, still one of the better FPSs I've played. I have faith in it eventually balancing out... I think they did a much better job of balancing out infantry versus vehicles in BF4 relative to BF3... In BF3, from what I remember, you'd just get into a tank and lolroll everyone.

[Whirlin]

Released yesterday. Some major highlights on changes since the beta:

Leveling up is 1000000x faster... I ranked up each match, easily.
You now retain XP if you get booted from a server mid-match... Used to just register points at the end of a match.
Unlocks are 100000000x faster. With like, a bajillion more options.
There's easily like, 50x more noobs out there, ripe for the slaughtering. They're bad, and should feel bad.


First day highlight:
Was playing recon, was the gunner in a friend's tank. Then we spotted an enemy tank with an engineer outside of the tank repairing it. I got out of the tank, flanked, and knifed the engineer. I then covered the enemy tank with C4, and blew it up. I then saw another enemy engineer aiming for my friends tank, so I swapped back my sniper rifle and headshotted him.

Side note: C4 does attach to vehicles... so, can easily make mobile bombs.

[Taernath]

Were you using the XP boosters?

I hear support is the class to play now. Unlimited ammo, grenade launchers, c4, mobile mortars, carbines etc. etc.

And yeah, creating VBIEDs is always a blast (dohoho), but some servers ban for it.

[Whirlin]

I don't THINK I was using XP boosters... However, I bought the special premium pre-purchase option that came with the 3 golden battlekit thingies, and there was an XP boost in there... But I was thinking that you needed to use the XP booster to actually activate it's effects?

Either way, one round of assault, one round of conquest, rank 2 already.

I just can't wait to be a commander again... I've missed commander mode.

[Gelston]

Single Player campaign fun?

[Taernath]

Friend of mine who is playing it on PC says it's in the same vein as BF3.

[senorgordoburro]

I have it being delivered with my PS4 in a couple weeks, I'm stoked to start playing.

[Androidpk]

Single player campaign is kind of meh, just like the 3rd one.

You actually have to activate the xp boosts, they don't start automatically.

[Drunken Durfin]

Just got a new 27" monitor, feel like I should get BF4 just because it would be awesome on this screen. How's the sniper play?

[SHAFT]

Downloading this now. Where do I go so I can kill Whirlin?

[Androidpk]

Just got a new 27" monitor, feel like I should get BF4 just because it would be awesome on this screen. How's the sniper play?

It seems like sniper rifles are a love/hate thing this time around. I only used them for a little bit so I could unlock the designated marksman rifles.

[NinjasLeadTheWay]

So... I was a big fan of Battlefield 2. My entire purpose in the game was to rank up so that I could always be the commander, where I would assign everyone a squad, and actually utilized the fullest extent of the commander abilities... People had consistent missions, rally points, etc. And most of the time, people would actually follow.

Battlefield 3 kinda missed the mark... they removed the commander role, and they buffed vehicles a little too much relative to humans. Plus, there was some animosity towards EA for Origin's attempt to rival Steam, which is a severely lacking platform. The emphasis of Battlefield 3 was more dynamic game environments, where walls could be destroyed, buildings could fall, etc. Overall the game was decent, I probably clocked about 20 hours into it, but the unbalance of the vehicles really struck too much of a steak between humans APCs. While squads existed in Battlefield 3, it was more difficult to set objectives as a squad leader (relative to Commander commands from BF2), and really the only thing squads offered was additional XP for the top performing squad, and an additional spawn point opportunity.

Battlefield 4 is scheduled to have an Beta scheduled for the first week in October. It's expanded upon battlefield 3's alterable terrain, but brought it one step further with dynamic weather. One preview showed a random hurricane in the middle of a beach invasion... providing cover to the storming team by suppressing sniper visibility via fog and waves. But best of all, it brought back the Battlefield 2 Commander mode, and a reemphasis on squad tactics and maneuvers.

I'm looking forward to giving it a try... a lot of the animosity towards Origin has decreased, even if it is horrible.

But we all know how well EA games do on release weeks...

Battlefield 2 was my favorite FPS of all time. The bullet drop was done very well. Sniping was the shit. And I loved GTA'ing people's helicopters.

[Androidpk]

I've never really liked using the bolt rifles. My accuracy isn't good enough for scoping headshots. I like using the semi-automatics though. M39 4 life.

[NinjasLeadTheWay]

M24 here. Thousands and thousands of kills and headshots. If you constantly played against someone who would fly the blackhawk to the top of the lighthouse and snipe you from there or would stay back behind your team constantly to shoot you in the back, that's how I rolled. Also, I never played anything except hardcore. Kill cams and radar were lame.

I miss that game.

[Androidpk]

Yes. I only play hardcore.

[Gizmo]

Love bolt action rifles. hardcore eh? I may have to try that as a huge sniper fiend

[Whirlin]

Downloading this now. Where do I go so I can kill Whirlin?

Bring it.

[Gelston]

Picked it up today for my PS3. It came with a code that allows me to get the PS4 version of the game for $10.

[Taernath]

A friend got an extra PC copy from a promotion and gifted it to me. Enjoying MP so far but I haven't seen anything too awesome yet.. besides maybe the waves on a water map.

[daemon]

Game is amazing. I'm on the PC though. My friend hooked me up with some computer upgrades specifically for this game. I can't imagine why anyone would prefer CoD over BF.

[Androidpk]

Damn this looks cool.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VERIy7MzHdg

[Taernath]

Meh. I've done all I want to do in that game. Close to max level, weapons have all unlocks... bring on the Battlefront.

[Androidpk]

Meh. I've done all I want to do in that game. Close to max level, weapons have all unlocks... bring on the Battlefront.

You haven't played Zavod at night!

[Androidpk]

Link your battlelog profile.

[Taernath]

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/user/Gamewizarddotexe/

[Androidpk]

Weak!

[Androidpk]

Actually, not bad. Pretty similar to mine.

http://bf4stats.com/pc/androidpk

M39 EMR FTW

[Whirlin]

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/user/Gamewizarddotexe/
I was wondering who gamewizard was in my steam friend list..

I haven't played BF4 in forever:
http://bf4stats.com/pc/LordWhirlin

[Androidpk]

You and Taernath don't seem to like vehicles :/

[Androidpk]

This made me giggle

Your basic Battlefield 4 player isn't too smart, but you can blow off a limb, and they're still 86% combat effective. Here's a tip: Aim for the head, and put them down for good.

[Taernath]

I was wondering who gamewizard was in my steam friend list..

I haven't played BF4 in forever:
http://bf4stats.com/pc/LordWhirlin

It's Shaved Ape now, FYI


You and Taernath don't seem to like vehicles :/

I do, it's just that when I was focusing on unlocking attachments it was better to play infantry only maps. Plus, almost every class has an option to deal with vehicles so they're a lot less attractive.