Battlefield 3

[Reassuring Curve]

A question in the same vein: can you steal have half your team standing on a B52's wings, repairing away?

[Dark567]

This video showcases a lot of that. Sorry to derail the BF3 discussion with nostalgia, but does it fix these old "bugs"?

Semi-yes. In each iteration they have tried to make less and less crazy things like flying tanks or jumping out of your own air plane to fire a bazooka at an opponents plane only to jump back into your own. Yeah, you can't do that in BF3.

A question in the same vein: can you steal have half your team standing on a B52's wings, repairing away?

No, you will die very quickly.

[Obby]

So on a whim I just decided to use the IRNV scope on the SCAR-H as engineer.

Holy crap, it's so nice. It makes it ridiculously easy to find targets just chilling in the brush and whatnot. I had always wondered how people found me so easily when I did that, and now I know. It makes people, mines, and support packs show up bright orange, vs. everything else being various shades of dark green.

[Dark567]

So on a whim I just decided to use the IRNV scope on the SCAR-H as engineer.

Holy crap, it's so nice. It makes it ridiculously easy to find targets just chilling in the brush and whatnot. I had always wondered how people found me so easily when I did that, and now I know. It makes people, mines, and support packs show up bright orange, vs. everything else being various shades of dark green.

Yeah, I always use the M16A4 or AK-74s with IRNV. It's awesome really, I just rack up kills.

[The Scyphozoa]

So... I have only been alive in the game 2 hours so far. And I really enjoyed it. Despite what I'm about to say, it seems like a really great game.

But... some of this shit is so fucking unbelievable. What the fuck are they DOING at DICE? When I was playing (Xbox 360) I noticed the message about quick match not working and how you have to use the server browser. Well guess what? Quick match hasn't worked in ANY BF GAME THAT HAD A SERVER BROWSER. That's right. It worked on BC2 on console because it HAD to since there was no server browser. It didn't work in BC2 PC where there was a server browser. It didn't work in BFP4F either.

In BC2, if you had Aim Down Sights/Zoom In set to "toggle" instead of "hold the button", it wouldn't always toggle. Most notably, the gunner seat of the HIND and the side machine gun ports of some tanks. You had to hold the button down to stay zoomed in. Well the same god damn bug happens with the side machine gun ports in BF3. What, did you just copy the broken code? Did you even LOOK at bug reports?

And I just recently found out that there's a bug where if you try to press the detonate button for your C4, your character's hand will display the detonating animation, but instead of your C4 detonating, another stick of C4 will pop out of your body as if you had pressed the throw C4 button. Oh, and guess where else we saw that bug? That's right, BC2.

I don't QUITE understand how they can call BC2's engine "Frostbite 1.5" and BF3's "Frostbite 2.0", since they're obviously copying too much of the code. Or at least, they're copying all the broken parts. And what's worse: that C4 bug wasn't even in BC2 since the beginning! It started after some patch broke it. I don't know if it was ever fixed in BC2 or not. But it's either a miracle that nobody in goddamn in-house testing encountered it, or it's pathetic that nobody fixed it, even after thousands of players saw it themselves.



Sigh. All this bullshit looks really weird when you look at it next to the fact that BF3 patches are supposed to be nerfing flashlight glare, adding car horns, and adding a new gametype. Albeit the gametype is only slightly different from Conquest but that's actually pretty good game support.

[Xeio]

Incidentally, for anyone who hadn't seen it yet (few days old now) but still funny. PETA, nutty as usual.

Also, I wonder if I could use a 360 controller to pilot helicopters/jets, mouse just feels so finicky... I shall have to test this once I'm done with OMGSKYRIM.

[EdgarJPublius]

So... I have only been alive in the game 2 hours so far. And I really enjoyed it. Despite what I'm about to say, it seems like a really great game.

But... some of this shit is so fucking unbelievable. What the fuck are they DOING at DICE? When I was playing (Xbox 360) I noticed the message about quick match not working and how you have to use the server browser. Well guess what? Quick match hasn't worked in ANY BF GAME THAT HAD A SERVER BROWSER. That's right. It worked on BC2 on console because it HAD to since there was no server browser. It didn't work in BC2 PC where there was a server browser. It didn't work in BFP4F either.

In BC2, if you had Aim Down Sights/Zoom In set to "toggle" instead of "hold the button", it wouldn't always toggle. Most notably, the gunner seat of the HIND and the side machine gun ports of some tanks. You had to hold the button down to stay zoomed in. Well the same god damn bug happens with the side machine gun ports in BF3. What, did you just copy the broken code? Did you even LOOK at bug reports?

And I just recently found out that there's a bug where if you try to press the detonate button for your C4, your character's hand will display the detonating animation, but instead of your C4 detonating, another stick of C4 will pop out of your body as if you had pressed the throw C4 button. Oh, and guess where else we saw that bug? That's right, BC2.

I don't QUITE understand how they can call BC2's engine "Frostbite 1.5" and BF3's "Frostbite 2.0", since they're obviously copying too much of the code. Or at least, they're copying all the broken parts. And what's worse: that C4 bug wasn't even in BC2 since the beginning! It started after some patch broke it. I don't know if it was ever fixed in BC2 or not. But it's either a miracle that nobody in goddamn in-house testing encountered it, or it's pathetic that nobody fixed it, even after thousands of players saw it themselves.



Sigh. All this bullshit looks really weird when you look at it next to the fact that BF3 patches are supposed to be nerfing flashlight glare, adding car horns, and adding a new gametype. Albeit the gametype is only slightly different from Conquest but that's actually pretty good game support.

TBH I was more than half expecting the red/blue exploit to come back, so on that front, BF3 exceeds my expectations

I'm actually really enjoying this game on the xbox.
I really running around as support and blowing everything up with C-4 (My favorite class in any BF game is the one with C-4 ) and being able to pick up dropped blocks if I misplace them is nice.

It does seem though that some structures are counter-intuitively invincible, like a lot of concrete walls (most egregiously the ones surrounding the defender's first base on Damavand, which is otherwise my favorite map if only for the BASE jumping section) feels like I should be able to blow them up, but I haven't been able to yet with any amount of C-4.

[Dark567]

It does seem though that some structures are counter-intuitively invincible, like a lot of concrete walls (most egregiously the ones surrounding the defender's first base on Damavand, which is otherwise my favorite map if only for the BASE jumping section) feels like I should be able to blow them up, but I haven't been able to yet with any amount of C-4.

If there is a disappointing part of the game its this. In BC2, you could blow up anything and everything. A battle in a city could end up being a smoldering mess by the end.

[The Scyphozoa]

What's the "red/blue exploit"?

Also, you couldn't blow up ENTIRELY everything. Most notably, interior walls were indestructible, except when enough exterior walls had been destroyed to make the building collapse.

[EdgarJPublius]

The red/blue exploit was a long standing bug in the refractor2 engine (Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142) that allowed players on the enemy team to to make the name tag that appeared when you looked at them show blue (the color of friendly tags) instead of red (the color of enemy tags) so unless you were close enough to recognize their actual character model you'd ignore them (or possibly try to run up and throw them an ammo or med pack).

Pretty much every patch promised to fix the exploit but it just kept coming back until the Frostbite engine (bad company) finally wiped it out.

[voicedotter]

I need some help. My friends wants his comp to run BF3 better. I'm not sure how but if anyone knows how to get his comp to run it better here are the specs:
amd phenom II Xd core prosessor 925,
(4 G), 4096 DDR3, ATI radeon HD 4350 graphics
2.8 GHz processor
Desktop.

If anyone can help I would be grateful.

[Obby]

Definitely the graphics card. Does your friend have a budget?

[voicedotter]

I'll ask him when he is online.Do you think he needs a new one?

[Obby]

If he wants to run BF3 better, then yes, he does. The 4000 series is 2 generations old at this point, and the 4350 is at the low end of that generation anyway.

[The Scyphozoa]

I tried the campaign.

It's like the days of playing make-believe as a young child. Which, in videogame form, is unbelieveably boring.

"There's a plane over there! Shoot it!" "Okay I shot it! It's down!" "They're shooting missiles! Pop the flares!" "Okay I hit the button and the missiles are gone!" "Okay switch to targeting mode! Point at targets in the ground!" "Pewpew! Missiles hitting the ground!"

The opening sequence, essentially an interactive cutscene, is much more entertaining than the next four levels. Said interactive cutscene is also sloppily designed: You go through a train with a pistol. Eventually you pick uo a shotgun which you never get to fire, because immediately afterwards a guy jumps out and tries to stab you. You press a button which prompts your character to bend the guy over, grab the MP7 on his back, shoot the window and push him through and off the train. You then bring in the MP7, it disappears, and you are then holding an AKs-74u. Out of nowhere. The aforementioned MP7, shotgun, and pistol are gone, too. Later there is an AKs-74u on the ground that you fan swap your AKs-74u for. You read that right. How that even happens in the game's programming is beyond me.

[EdgarJPublius]

You can switch between the same weapon equipped with different accessories (I.E. different optics, flashlight, laser, fore grip etc.) though there's no actual visual indication of the difference between the weapon on the ground and the one in your hand until you swap them.

I like the sort of

Spoiler:

two soldiers on opposite sides have to work together to avert war

type story thing going on, but it's really poorly executed here. Especially the CIA/DHS/ASDF interrogation scenes interspersing the whole thing. It's like a whole game where every cutscene is the part in Mass Effect where the Council screws over Commander Shepard in favor of Sariss, only instead of being resolved by thrilling heroics, it's resolved by some guy you probably don't remember who supports every aspect of your story, but has apparently convinced your interrogators that you're a dangerous psycho-double-agent-russian-terrorist, showing up to help you hit a sweaty looking middle-aged bald guy over the head with a table-leg.

If they had condensed the whole thing and fit it into the chronological timeline of the game's story, it would have been a great 'raising the stakes' scene and the campaign story would have been bland but not that bad over-all. Instead, the interrogation scenes served to demolish the stakes and kill the tension whenever they showed up and completely dismantled what little coherence the plot had (Hey, I have a great idea! Let's have two characters the only point of which in the entire game is to meticulously point out every plot-hole, inconsistency, logical fallacy, implausibility and any other mistake or error in the plot, and then insert them into every other scene!, Yup, that's some damned good verisimilitude right there, no way it could go wrong!)

[big boss]

The patch for the pc seems imminent with long awaited bug fixes tactical flashlight nerf and a nerf to the irnv scope.

CEO of Dice speaks with gamespy

[Lostdreams]

Why would the IRNV scope need a nerf? It is only 1x, takes longer to aim, and the IRNV portion only reaches so far(you can't stand in mid and spot the whole map) and trees still obscure it. What's the problem? Now, a 8x version of the IRNV scope for sniping, that would be a problem.

Personally I see a lot more people using the 3.4 scope with heavy barrel and foregrip as a combination than IRNV and anything else, even in the desert levels where the IRNV is most effective.

Fuck that flashlight though.

[big boss]

Why would the IRNV scope need a nerf? It is only 1x, takes longer to aim, and the IRNV portion only reaches so far(you can't stand in mid and spot the whole map) and trees still obscure it. What's the problem? Now, a 8x version of the IRNV scope for sniping, that would be a problem.

It hardly takes on longer to aim than a normal scope, the sway imo hardly makes it harder to shoot for a skilled player especially at close range, and trees can obscure a person but you can still usually see at least their feet or arms because most foliage isn't so thick as to cover your whole body. Also people light up like xmas lights across the map there is no (reasonable) range limitation on it as far as i can tell. The reason you need magnified scopes is because its hard to see people, you don't need a magnified scope for the IRNV because its impossible not to see someone. Using a bipod on any gun I can consistently kill snipers at long range with guns that I shouldn't be able to do it with such as the G36C or any support gun.

On an unrelated note, the fact that Dice "switched" for pc to console games as their lead platform half way through development angers me. Its easy to see that most maps were not designed for 64 players, all the control points are huddled together in one spot and even though some maps are pretty big they still feel linear and have funnels and might as well not even be that large. The maps in BF2 were huge and varied and every game I played I usually ended up playing on different parts of the map, however in BF3 for example most of the fighting goes on around a few key points (hilltop and forest in Caspian Boarder come to mind). Also most maps appear to be designed for either rush or conquest not both (metro is a terrible conquest map unless your looking to rack up your rocket launcher or nade kills, Damavand Peak is obviously designed for rush they didn't even try to hide its linearity). Not to mention there isn't even squad VoIP when I believe the consoles have it.

I still love the game, I'm just tired of consoles holding back pc gaming. I want a AAA game that focuses on the pc damn it! BF3 could be so much more on the pc. Hopefully the old BF2 maps will fix some of these issues.
/rant

One final thought - Does anyone's screen on the pc flash green very briefly occasionally? It doesn't hinder gameplay its just annoying.

[Obby]

Mine does that, yeah. I figured it was something with the ATI drivers for my video card.

[Kick]

So on a whim I just decided to use the IRNV scope on the SCAR-H as engineer.

Holy crap, it's so nice. It makes it ridiculously easy to find targets just chilling in the brush and whatnot. I had always wondered how people found me so easily when I did that, and now I know. It makes people, mines, and support packs show up bright orange, vs. everything else being various shades of dark green.

I use the IR scope almost all the time now, it even seems a little too good in my opinion. Recently, I've been using the IR scope on the M16A4 and it is deadly. I can easily acquire targets and neutralize them just as fast.

[SurgicalSteel]

Does anyone else have trouble spawning into the jets on Caspian Border sometimes? There'll be an empty jet and I'll select it to spawn into and it'll drop me like 20 feet from it, and someone else will spawn into it. I guess I could just be slow selecting it, but for some reason it seems to happen much, much more frequently on Caspian Border.

[big boss]

I never have had that problem with the jets, but then again I also don't use them much because I can't figure out how to fly them properly.

On an unrelated note, More EA bullshit. People have been getting banned from all their origin games from getting their accounts banned on the fucking forums, thats ridiculous we as paying customers buy licenses to play their games then they take it away. It amounts to stealing in my mind. When will companies stop fucking over their customers, I'm getting fed up with shit like this.

[hendusoone]

Mine does that, yeah. I figured it was something with the ATI drivers for my video card.

It's not a driver glitch. It's a problem with the game itself. It happens on all sorts of cards from both ATI and nVIDIA.

[Lostdreams]

I never have had that problem with the jets, but then again I also don't use them much because I can't figure out how to fly them properly.

On an unrelated note, More EA bullshit. People have been getting banned from all their origin games from getting their accounts banned on the fucking forums, thats ridiculous we as paying customers buy licenses to play their games then they take it away. It amounts to stealing in my mind. When will companies stop fucking over their customers, I'm getting fed up with shit like this.

Fuck individual game forums. If I want to learn about the game I'll read a wiki or visit a top info site. If I want to socialize I'll do it in chat or on skype/ventrillo/teamspeak with friends. Game forums hold only garbage.

[SecondTalon]

I never have had that problem with the jets, but then again I also don't use them much because I can't figure out how to fly them properly.

On an unrelated note, More EA bullshit. People have been getting banned from all their origin games from getting their accounts banned on the fucking forums, thats ridiculous we as paying customers buy licenses to play their games then they take it away. It amounts to stealing in my mind. When will companies stop fucking over their customers, I'm getting fed up with shit like this.

Fuck individual game forums. If I want to learn about the game I'll read a wiki or visit a top info site. If I want to socialize I'll do it in chat or on skype/ventrillo/teamspeak with friends. Game forums hold only garbage.

Sure, but .. also irrelevant.

If I'm an absolute asshole to people on the EA run Battlefield forum, ban me from the EA run Battlefield forum. Banning me from Battlefield 3 is... completely fucked up.

[Lostdreams]

Sorry, I didn't link that all together.

With the exception of the "tech support" and "guides about the game" sections, every game forum I've ever been to has been just a bunch of players calling each other out on shit that goes on in whatever game it is and being asshats in general. I'm not sure what the tolerance level is on the EA forums but I've seen people get banned from forums because they got pulled into a flame war, trolled, or whatnot and cursed or did some other minor infraction that wouldn't get you banned on a normal day but they got group banhammered with a bunch of people in a thread. It also happens when the mods "have a bad day", since they all can't be levelheaded all the time. Basically it fosters an environment you're more likeley to get banned in and considering it is EA, I wouldn't at all be suprised if they tighten the rules to ban more frequently just to get money.

[big boss]

Sorry, I didn't link that all together.

With the exception of the "tech support" and "guides about the game" sections, every game forum I've ever been to has been just a bunch of players calling each other out on shit that goes on in whatever game it is and being asshats in general. I'm not sure what the tolerance level is on the EA forums but I've seen people get banned from forums because they got pulled into a flame war, trolled, or whatnot and cursed or did some other minor infraction that wouldn't get you banned on a normal day but they got group banhammered with a bunch of people in a thread. It also happens when the mods "have a bad day", since they all can't be levelheaded all the time. Basically it fosters an environment you're more likeley to get banned in and considering it is EA, I wouldn't at all be suprised if they tighten the rules to ban more frequently just to get money.

From what I've read on the bf3 forums someone got banned for saying "e-peen". And another for saying something along the lines of "if you install origin your selling your soul to EA". Infractions that aren't ban worthy in the least, come on your on the forums for an M rated game some crude language should be allowed...

[Stellazira]

For an M rated game that's dropping foul language in trailers and in the game itself... why are they banning people for saying things that they hear while playing the game?

I've been playing on the PS3 since Origin isn't going on any of the computers and haven't had any game-breaking problems. It's sad that the campaign sucks in story, gameplay and just freezes temporarily... but I suppose I didn't get it for the campaign. I was just hoping that since BC2's campaign was enjoyable the least they could do was make BF3's decent. I guess a mediocre campaign was too much to ask for.

Anyhoo, I absolutely LOVE the tanks. Just love them. I can't fly jets to save my life though.

[big boss]

Once again EA proves they are douchbags.

Sigh...

[mind404]

So. I stated earlier I'd probably drop out of BF3 and back to MW3 because that is where my friends are playing. Tried that and BF has ruined me for CoD. So now all my people are either playing MW or Skyrim.

Any 360 BF3 players still playing? Need a squadmate?

[The Scyphozoa]

I'm on Xbox 360. TheScyphozoa115. Wouldn't mind a squadmate. You should know that I'm only on on Sundays. And not every week, either.

[SurgicalSteel]

I'm on the 360 as well, but I'm not very good. My name is M and P 15, I'm on every few days in the evening mostly.

[adfes]

BF3 is $30 today on origin.com...

Black friday only...

[eculc]

so, back to karkand...

I personally don't have it yet (due to being an xbox user) but I've heard that the destruction level is WAY up from the base game. again, I can't speak for anything not on the xbox, but at least for me it's been kinda...disappointing. I hope it's true.

also: wake island, with jets? the only time I've been on wake island was in 1943, and I didn't have any jets or helis or anything.


now, thinking about the game as a whole: I have an Idea on how they could fix some of the vehicle camping:

make it so you can't spawn in vehicles. maybe the APC/IFV, so that people could use that as a mobile spawn point. but that would cut down almost all of the jet/heli camping.

[The Scyphozoa]

1943 had jets, so I don't know what you're talking about.

[Obby]

so, back to karkand...

I personally don't have it yet (due to being an xbox user) but I've heard that the destruction level is WAY up from the base game. again, I can't speak for anything not on the xbox, but at least for me it's been kinda...disappointing. I hope it's true.

also: wake island, with jets? the only time I've been on wake island was in 1943, and I didn't have any jets or helis or anything.


now, thinking about the game as a whole: I have an Idea on how they could fix some of the vehicle camping:

make it so you can't spawn in vehicles. maybe the APC/IFV, so that people could use that as a mobile spawn point. but that would cut down almost all of the jet/heli camping.

I guess you didn't play Battlefield 2...

Wake Island had jets in that game. And they also didn't allow people to spawn in vehicles, and the vehicle camping was way, way worse in BF2 than it is in BF3.

[Dark567]

Wake Island had jets in that game. And they also didn't allow people to spawn in vehicles, and the vehicle camping was way, way worse in BF2 than it is in BF3.

Yeah, I am fairly certain the vehicle spawning was put in specifically to reduce camping, and it has to a limited extent. I much prefer it this way then the way BF2 did it.

[eculc]

I wouldn't really consider the planes in 1943 to be jets. also, no helis.

and no, I never played BF2. (I know, how blasphemous and all that. )

[big boss]

They nerfed the IRNV, HOW DARE THEY now we all need to rely on our eyes! Ohh and nerf to the tac light as well, I know this is old new but I haven't been on in a week.

Also +1 for fixing green flashing screen glitch finally.