So Battlefield 4...

[Mr Bean]

Grabbed this today, it's like Battlefield 3 but everything is cleaned up with a new engine much smarter choices and the same generic rock paper scissors vehicle combat minus this odd ammo thing tanks having going.

Upsides
Frostbite is a pretty engine in vehicle destruction and combat. Having a firefight in a city is amazing when bullets are tearing things up and the fact bullets act so differently depending on what they hit. Behind a concrete block you get deflections and the sparks of bounces hitting the wall then the street. While fighting in an office area full of drop ceilings and drywall results in dust clouds of all those particles getting kicked up.

Fighting is oh so fast and smooth and balanced between skill and luck.... but it's still cone fire.

Downsides
It's day 1 so the perfect kit has yet to be found but it will. Also explosive weapons are wonky between hilariously lethal and the gentle breeze of a butterfly's wing on a calm summers day.

As in already I've had a grenade kill me over six meters away on top of a guard shack as I stood under it, and I've had 20mm shells from a boat impact my shins and do nothing except shake up my screen. I've also had a grenade go off on my toes (I threw it there) and it did 5% damage to my heath while the next murders everyone in a two meter area.

Possible sides
I have yet to experience the single-player campaign. BC2 was gloriously bad, BF3 was terrible with amazingly hilarious quick time event fails and early reviews say BF4 campaign is glorious bad as in high school self insert fan fiction bad. Like you went to a seventeen year old kid and told them, write me a really gripping story full of explosions and DRAMA. And that poor kid slacked off until the week before and had to submit his video by stringing together the plots from 16 other war movies in a quick cut and paste job.

I hold out high hopes for a terrible... terrible plot

[Mr Bean]

Two follow up comments
1. The Battlefield theme at this point is wub wub wub wub wub LOUD NOSIES LOUD NOSIES
The old themes from BF1942 to BF2142 plus the BF3 theme
But Battlefield 4?
WUB WUB WUB WUB LOUD NOIIIIISEEEEEEEEE tiny bit of the old them LOUD NOOOIIISEEE

Serious step back

2. BF4 Single Player
*Screenplayer by the graduating class of the Michale Bay and M Night Shyamalan screenwriters academy.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Two follow up comments
1. The Battlefield theme at this point is wub wub wub wub wub LOUD NOSIES LOUD NOSIES
The old themes from BF1942 to BF2142 plus the BF3 theme
But Battlefield 4?
WUB WUB WUB WUB LOUD NOIIIIISEEEEEEEEE tiny bit of the old them LOUD NOOOIIISEEE

Serious step back

I am continually amazed that one of the most beloved musical themes in video game history can be so thoroughly ignored. What are they doing over there? It cannot be that hard to write a real variation of the 1942 theme. Hell, I'm sure fans have done it a zillion and one times by now.

[ray245]

It's seems like Battlefield 4 wants to distant itself as far away from Battlefield 1942 as much as possible.

[Mr Bean]

Well just encountered my first serious bug. There is a checkpoint right before a cutscene that I had to restart to after accidentally ending up glitched. Only after being glitched I would restart stuck in the cut scene. I'd watch it my guy would get knocked down... and never get up again. It's the standard EXPLOSION oh wow slow pan over the devsitation then stand up and start fighting again.

Except my guy would never get up. I'll restart the mission! Which was apparently 20 minutes of game play earlier.
Good thing BF4 has a save anywhere .....noooopeee Okay what about chose which checkpoint to restart to? Nooooooooooooooope.
Fuck

[Mr Bean]

Fun things so far, could be called spoilers but not really

"We pulled in over four hundred mostly women and children from the survivors
-Directly to left something like 95% dude npc plus a single child and maybe two women out of forty person refugee crowd

"I'll brief you when we get there"
-Says the obviously evil CIA spook as you take a nice boat ride to your target, there is literally nothing to do on said boat ride except drive and he waits until you there and UNDER FIRE before telling you why you are there.

Who knows the fishes might have listening equipment.

Last you play as Tombstone a.... elite? Special? Who cares they are the only group of trained marines in the entire fleet who's sole job it is to do everything. And I mean that zero support pretty much 24/7. Call of Duty this is not.

[Mr Bean]

#$%$#sdifhsidhfsidhff\
Yep it's game breaking since I got to that same point in the same mission and a fucking solider got glitched underground. Could not get at him to kill him and could not advance until he died and lo and behold the same checkpoint.

It's not twenty minutes of gameplay it's forty minutes at this point and I've done it twice now.

[The Vortex Empire]

I'm only on the third mission and at least 3 times so far I've ended up having to scour the area I'm in for 5 minutes to find the last guy hiding in a corner somewhere. Brilliant AI! It's also incredibly easy even on hard, you can literally just casually poke out and headshot 5 guys without taking a hit.

I miss the Bad Company games, where they didn't take themselves seriously. At least then they had an excuse for poorly written, unbelievable stories.

[Broken]

I managed to finish the campaign on hard in a few hours, no glitching bugs although it crashed a couple times. The story is hilariously bad, but I only wanted to do it for the multiplayer unlocks thankfully.

Now, what I'm annoyed about (besides the theme of course) is in multiplayer there is no preset hardcore search setting. You apparently have to search in the custom servers (only figured that out after I googled where all the hardcore servers were) for something like hardcore servers as I discovered before going to sleep last night. I can't wait for some gametime; no more 3rd person tanks, kill-cams, or the silly spotting system.

[Lagmonster]

If you're coming from Battlefield 3, I presume it's a case of "if you liked what we did before, you'll like this".

Although it sounds like they didn't bring back the co-op missions. This is probably a good thing; Bean tried to drag my decrepit ass through them in BF3 and I think I thoroughly represented the horrors of partering with people with reflexes so slow that you wonder if they just came out of cryogenic suspension.

[Mr Bean]

If you're coming from Battlefield 3, I presume it's a case of "if you liked what we did before, you'll like this".

Although it sounds like they didn't bring back the co-op missions. This is probably a good thing; Bean tried to drag my decrepit ass through them in BF3 and I think I thoroughly represented the horrors of partering with people with reflexes so slow that you wonder if they just came out of cryogenic suspension.

Trust me it's not a case of reflexes, when my circle of online friends gets together for L4D2 or any other co-op verses game it's a story of "whichever team gets Bean is going to win". Not because I'm amazingly good (I'm not) but because I'm a solid "good". On the typical BF server I always finish top six if I started that game. I've seen some crazy players out there who go top two time after time. I'm in that nice top 10% bracket, not great but good.

And from what I've seen no co-op missions so no co-op joys to be had there.
Also I forgot to mention, yet to see any QTE, I've seen plenty of obvious places for a QTE but nothing there. Refreshing, except for when I have to watch the same thing over and over again.

[Losonti Tokash]

Bean, what's your battlelog ID?

[Mr Bean]

Some minor plot spoilers Spoiler

Dima's back!
And then he died
Seriously the first Dima mission was the ONLY good one in BF3. It stood out so much from everything else I thought it had slipped out of a different game. Racing against time across office buildings and stock exchanged to stop a nuke? The fact you knew more about Dima's boys in a one minute car ride than everyone else in the single player all game? Great mission, and he shows up in this game, gives me a shank has more personality in two minutes than fucking Irish.

Then he died oh well
I wanted a radioactive Russian on my side

[Kojiro]

The beta was quite fun. I'm a big PC player and I liked what they've done with the game as a whole. I picked up my copy of BF4 this morning on my way to work. It's sitting on my desk, taunting me... but I do have a 3 day weekend coming up.

Any other Aussie players are welcome to send me an invite and squad up.

[Broken]

Well, I wouldn't get too excited. The servers are stupidly unstable right now, I haven't finished more then 2 out of 5 rounds without a server crashing and disappearing (and taking all your progress with it). I was trying to grind up some recon for the DMR's and so far have lost 4 sniper ribbons, 2 headshot ribbons, and a marksmen ribbon amongst others due to servers taking a shit.

[The Vortex Empire]

Okay, so it seems that if I die once on the Tashgar mission, I have to start the mission over because the game will just crash while loading every time without fail if I try to resume from the last checkpoint. A quick google search shows that this is a widespread problem. Fantastic.

[Mr Bean]

Okay, so it seems that if I die once on the Tashgar mission, I have to start the mission over because the game will just crash while loading every time without fail if I try to resume from the last checkpoint. A quick google search shows that this is a widespread problem. Fantastic.

Funny enough I have the exact same issue and I looked up a walkthrough online. The point at which my game crashed was about two minutes from the end of the mission... lovely.

[Replicant]

I have two questions having played none of the Battlefield games at all. I have Black Ops 2 and have decided to relegate that game to nothing but Zombie play.

1. Quick scoping - Does BF4 have it? I HATE it beyond belief, I know its a laugh and a half to talk about realism in these games but please please stop letting this exist in games.

2. C4 Frisbee satchels - This is another one that pisses me off, C4 satchels that players can Frisbee long range to kill large groups of enemies with their blast radius.

Do either of these or something equivalent exist in BF4 or does its multiplayer have anything equally as broken and retarded?

[Mr Bean]

1. Quick scoping - Does BF4 have it? I HATE it beyond belief, I know its a laugh and a half to talk about realism in these games but please please stop letting this exist in games.

You can quick scope... but you won't hit shit, snipers get massive penalties when moving around. Since it's cone fire accuracy increases/decreases in mm as in a 7 means you have a 7mm wide circle where bullets with load within. Accuracy increases as you stop moving and change stances but it's on a curve. Also caps are different between weapons.

So a recon with a bolt action rifle who's been running and jumps a car when he lands he will be at the max of 7mm inaccuracy, a AK-12 will be the same. However both don't increase at the same rate or decrease at the same rate. So the AK will be fully accurate before the recon with the rifle is. Also the act of scoping itself imposes a delay of non-improvement untilt he animation finishes. Something else BF does right is that while your putting the gun to your eye you don't start getting more accurate until it's there.

2. C4 Frisbee satchels - This is another one that pisses me off, C4 satchels that players can Frisbee long range to kill large groups of enemies with their blast radius.

You can down stairs but that's about it, you can throw C4 about three meters max and it's got a one meter kill radius.

or does its multiplayer have anything equally as broken and retarded?

YES
THREE games now when you spawn in you see a black screen and will be shot before you can see anything. This was an issue in Battlefield 2 they had to fix, and in Battlefield 3 and now 4. It's very common to spawn in and die. On some maps (The rush map with the dead carrier) it's possible to camp the other sides spawn ridiculously easy since all the spawn points are in the open and there's handy cover about 60 meters back perfect for camping it. Lots of spawn killing in this game because again they build a spawnpoint system with only three or spawnpointers per flag rather than the standard nine we load up when doing a custom map in the BF2 days. Meaning one squad can lock down a flag and camp all spawnpoints because they put so few.

[Replicant]

So on maps as huge as those in BF4 they have only a few spawn points and they are right in the open? That sounds insanely poor in the design, especially since it is something so easily avoided in game design.

I am glad to hear that quick-scoping and satchel Frisbees do not exist.

Thanks for the information.

[Mr Bean]

So on maps as huge as those in BF4 they have only a few spawn points and they are right in the open? That sounds insanely poor in the design, especially since it is something so easily avoided in game design.

I am glad to hear that quick-scoping and satchel Frisbees do not exist.

Thanks for the information.

They keep making this mistake for five godamn games now. Mod teams don't make the mistake but fucking DICE stills like huh turns out if I set this spawnpoint 100 meters away from the flag with it's back turned to the next flag 9/10 that person is going to spawn in and be shot down by the fucking static machine gun I set FACING THAT SPAWNPOINT.

On the satellite map this is literally the case, there's a spawnpoint on C that faces C with it's back to B and a static MG at B can camp it with ease. There are several examples of pants on head retarded spawnpoints on other maps.

[Replicant]

So on maps as huge as those in BF4 they have only a few spawn points and they are right in the open? That sounds insanely poor in the design, especially since it is something so easily avoided in game design.

I am glad to hear that quick-scoping and satchel Frisbees do not exist.

Thanks for the information.

They keep making this mistake for five godamn games now. Mod teams don't make the mistake but fucking DICE stills like huh turns out if I set this spawnpoint 100 meters away from the flag with it's back turned to the next flag 9/10 that person is going to spawn in and be shot down by the fucking static machine gun I set FACING THAT SPAWNPOINT.

On the satellite map this is literally the case, there's a spawnpoint on C that faces C with it's back to B and a static MG at B can camp it with ease. There are several examples of pants on head retarded spawnpoints on other maps.

How many of the maps are affected by this?

[Mr Bean]

How many of the maps are affected by this?

All but it's specific flags/points that are bad. It's a very luck of the draw thing
The only map types that don't suffer from it are Rush and DM games because those by default have your entire team in the way before they can get at you.

[Replicant]

How many of the maps are affected by this?

All but it's specific flags/points that are bad. It's a very luck of the draw thing
The only map types that don't suffer from it are Rush and DM games because those by default have your entire team in the way before they can get at you.

So do you think BF4 is a worthwhile replacement for BO2? I really don't want to put my trust in these fucks again and get Ghosts hoping that quick-scoping is gone like they are hinting. I feel that what they say is a load of shit and they don't want to upset the apple cart full of quick-scoping fanboi assholes that worship the CoD games.

[Mr Bean]

So it's three weeks later I've hit 30, I've seen people hitting 95 and one person who was 102 in a game. I've mastered all the classes except Recon (Working on that now) so I'm going to comment on what I've seen.

First off the vehicle locks rear their head again, an scout helicopter is utterly useless for the first hour you play it, but once cannons and rockets are unlocked it's a death machine, with two engineers on board it's an even greater death machine. The most lethal team in the game is a an scout helio with two engineers with javelins and repair tools ready to go. The javelins let the helo engage everything armored while cannons let the pilot reap infantry. AC-130 gunships are amazing except the cannon which is lackluster, the 40mm gun and 25mm minigun are both amazing in effectiveness but you are on board the biggest target in existence. The tank only gets more survivable as upgrades are unlocked while the Bradley equivalent gets more lethal. Attack helios are slow and die.... way to often, unlike scout helios if you hit an attack helo it has a 50/50 chance of flipping on it's back and thus dieing before it knows what's going on while scout helios just lean a little bit, easy to correct for. Planes are a mixed bag of useless or amazing depending on what you have unlocked.

Once again the flight model is balls, I've not seen such a worse air game since.. Battlefield 3.

As for infantry, the best all around class is whichever you like because the best medium gun in the game is a carbine, every class but assault I play uses the China Rising gun, the MTAR which is... and I can't stress this enough, the most amazing gun in the game sure to get nerfed as soon as more people unlock it (Which is dead easy, just need to kill one person with a grenade, a rifle, and I think an LMG in the same round). It's highly accurate for the first ten bullets and fires those in two seconds, meaning you spend ten minutes per engagement but even looking funny at another player results in a kill. The only gun that out shoots it is the AEK but only because the AEK is a touch longer ranged. I've poped snipers at 200 meters with ease even with a silencer equipped.

Side comments, silencers are handled well in this game, they make your gun sound not gun like and don't make you pop up on radar when equipped plus add a massive bullet drop.

I've been enjoying myself these last few weeks despite the crashes but I can't stress this enough the game still has rough patches but it's getting better each week.