I was part of the Alpha Test last week. Technically everyone in it was under NDA, but there are a bunch of reviews and even videos posted, so @#$%& it, I'll post my thoughts.
For an Alpha it was surprisingly good. There were a few bugs and performance issues, but the game play beneath it was solid.
First impressions are awful because before you even start the game you have to dick around with EAs answer to Steam, which is Origin. EA have had a hissy fit with Valve regarding distribution of EA published games through Steam. Long story short, EA won't be using Steam for new games and have there own system called Origin. It's like Steam, but crap, and EA only. So you have to install Origin and download it through that (I guess buying a DVD copy will still be fine, it'll just link to Origin), then sign up for Origin. Then when you click Play it doesn't actually load the game, it sends you to a Battlefield site, where you can view the server list and such stuff. Yes, the in game menus are largely gone now, and it's all web based. Think iRacing style, but without the need for it all.
The down side to this is even the single player requires it (although you may be able to launch the game through the exe, I don't know, the Alpha was multiplayer only), and when the site goes down or into maintenence we're assuming you won't be able to play the game. At the moment the site is good to navigate, but a bit slow and buggy.
The up side to it (if there has to be one), is that it should cut piracy of multiplayer gamers, whilst not forcing some horrible DRM system onto the users. As usual sinple player will still be cracked, but less cracked copies online is always better for the end user, as there is less cheating. It would also allow EA to outright ban accounts which are caught cheating, something which would be up to individual server admins.
Despite the upsides, I'm not a fan of the system. You need Origin and the website, and your Friends list doesn't integrate between them at all. I added Ian Woollam on Origin, then had to do it again in the BF3 site.
The performance issues I had were not the normal ones, and I'm 100% sure they'll be fixed in the Beta, or certainly final release. I had odd stutters and frame drops in random points. Uninstalling the AMD/ATI drivers and rolling back to Windows default (yes, seriously) actually fixed it. Whether the performance issues were caused by the drivers, or the game, or a combination of both, remains to be seen. When the performance was fixed it largely ran OK, but with relatively low FPS and some random drops that you'd expect from an Alpha release. Really, it's better than expected in the performance department at this stage. I had to run it in med/low settings for now, but it looked rather good still. Better than Bad Company 2 looks, even on high. So really, the performance is excellent in context.
Sounds, are incredible. They always have been. Battlefield 2 had good ones for the time, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has brilliant sounds, and Battlefield 3 raises the bar again. The guns are all distinctive and the sound of your own gun is realistic and sometimes earth shattering. The sound of enemy guns varies depending on their location and your location. Snipers in the distance make the crack you'd want, and the bullets whizzing passed you make an appropriate and unerving sound. The sounds are basically 10 out of 10. Well, apart from 1 bug with the RPD (Russian Light Machine Gun) where it won't stop the sound of an enemy firing it. But it's a bug, so it'll be fixed.
The interaction with the terrain has moved forward a step again. You can now see your own feet, which apart from being some nice eye candy, helps immersion and once you get used to it, helps you find how to navigate stuff. As always with Battlefield and its destructive enviroment, things get a little messy when you've blown trees apart and lamp posts lie about the map randomly. You can get stuck on the tiniest twig. The legs help avoid that.
They've also added a prone position (lying on the ground), which wasn't part of Bad Company 2. Call of Duty players will be familiar with the drop shotting bastards, but it doesn't seem to happen in BF3. I'm not sure if its a better player base, or if mechanically something is going on to stop it. DICE have been pretty good at stopping stuff like quick scoping and I can't imagine they'll add prone without dealing with the drop shots it creates. But I'm glad it's in, because crawling around in bushes and alongisde small walls, with bullets bouncing off the wall and little bits of rock flying everywhere is fantastic. It really adds to the immersion and wow factor.
They've added a new feature, called suppressive fire. When you're getting shot at, your screen blurs a little. The more bullets coming passed you, and the closer they are, the more it blurs. Again it may not be strictly realistic, but like FFB in racing games, it's meant to substitite the feeling of something that cannot be replicated in game. It does this job brilliantly, and again adds to immersion, or more specifically the "WOAH, SH*T" factor of hiding behind a wall, with debris flying. If you are firing at somebody but not hitting them, and someone else kills them, you get a bonus for Suppressive Fire. If you hit them (but don't kill them), you get an assist like always.
The only map they supplied was Paris Underground in Rush mode (4 playing areas, which the attackers have to push through one at a time by setting explosives). It starts off with a park land area. Fairly hilly, but very open. 2 explosives need to be set by the attacks to progress. The first few days of the map were fine, when everyody was still learning. This section is the first part and meant to be easy to get through, which it was at first. But by the time the Alpha ended a week later, it was a stalemate every round, making it dull. The map is actually too open, leaving too many open areas to progress through. Snipers down the flatter area on the right tend to cover the bomb locations too well. The attackers also get an APC style vehicle, which has an anti-personnel cannon on it. If used smartly it can change the flow of the map, if used badly, you're dead in it before you even get to your objective.
When that's done they move into the underground which is based on two tunnels with destroyed trains in them, and the platform area. This was one of the most fun sections of the 4. Hiding out in the destroyed trains and behind debris, in partial darkness, firing down a long tunnel. It sound be a horrible bottleneck, but more often than not it wasn't. The defenders cover isn't as good, making it harder to defend, allowing the attacks to progress up the tunnel. There is also flanking routes in access paths and vents, but they spit you out into horrible areas. This is clearly by design, because it stops the flanking routes from being too effective.
The third part of the map is the underground station, but its progressed upstairs into the ticket stall and shopping area. Lots of medium height walls, and 2 main esculators the defenders need to cover (and a couple of minor, dangerous flanking routes again). The immersion in this section as a defender was incredible. Glass shattering, bits of tiles being blown about, incredible firing sounds echoing in the building. The game play of the game is great as it is, but these effects take them to another level. It isn't some generic eye candy for the sake of it (like the Rocket taking off in Black Ops multiplayer), the graphics in this serve a purpose.
The fourth part of the map was rarely gotten to. It's outside in the street after the subway station, and I never really learned it. 2 bomb points accross several streets which are littered with cars and other such cover. You can also go into neighbouring buildings, which are useful for both attackers and defenders. The twice I played this part of the map, the bombs were set very early. Either there were some rather hidden flanking routes, or we just didn't cover well. Either way, that section seemed a bit easy.
The downside to the current map is that apart from trees and some walls, there isn't much in the way of destructive terrain. BC2 does it very well by allowing you to blow holes in walls, bring down buildings and what not, but this map isn't suited to that. It is still there, it just isn't as big a part of BF3 yet as it was in BC2.
Most of the guns in the game you'll know from other games. The old favourites like the M240 SHAW, M16, M4, AK47, AK74 all make reapperences, and are accompanied by newer weapons like the MP7. You can have 3 attachments per gun, which are upper attachment (scopes), front attachments (barrels, silencers), and lower attachment (bi-pod, M203 grande launcher). The guns also have different firing modes (single shot, burst, automatic), which vary from gun to gun. So far the guns all felt rather balanced, with my personal preference being for the Russian Light Machine Gun.
The classes have been mixed up since Bad Company 2 and I'm not sure I like them. The Assault class is now your medic. They come with your standard rifles as well as a medic pack and a defib unit. The Engineer comes with a sub machine gun or rifle, a repair tool (for your vehicles), and an RPG (or similar device) for taking out enemy vehicles. The support class comes with a Light Machine Gun or Rifle, and ammo. You can place ammo boxes beside team mates who reload from it. Your dickbag snipers are still your dickbag snipers, who sit miles away, not being part of the team trying to pick off one or two people a game for the Kill:Death ratio. Having Assault and Medic mixed into 1 is a bit odd, especially after playing Bad Company 2...but we'll see how it goes. Either way, it forces you to work as a team for a bit, because Assault will burn through ammo almost instantly (2 or 3 clips), and you'll need Support there to supply you with more. Assault has the ability to revive a downed team mate (as long as they haven't respawned). When they do you are revived but have to accept the revive to actually do anything. This stops you being revived into the middle of a massive battle where you will almost certainly die again.
Overall, I think this is a proper Call of Duty killer, especially for those who enjoy team work. I'm not saying public servers will work like a well oiled machine (bitch, you crazy?), but like BC2 there is certainly more emphasis on team work than Call of Duty, which is very much run and gun.
I'm sure I had more to say...but I've forgotten stuff I think. Any questions, just ask.
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theRacingLine.netSportsCarArchives.comEdited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2011 10:06AM by DaveEllis.