Battlefield Bad Comapny 2 & Battlefield 3

[CastleBromVilla]

Xbox mate. Never used Bee.com either, only use ShopTo.net

Looks like you got a good deal though. Only thing is....you didnt get the avatar outfit

I'll be getting it from ShopTo aswell, the limited edition is £36.85, you get the DLC maps lapal mentioned, and you're pretty much guarenteed to get it a day early.

I'll also be getting it for 360, wouldnt get an fps for the ps3 unless i had to, such as Killzone, which is a ps3 exclusive. Mainly due to the controller. Don't do pc gaming other than Football Manager either.

12 players per side will be more than enough on consoles. I'd rather they cut the numbers than have games lagging etc.

It'll be interesting to see how this does in terms of sales compared to Modern Warfare 2 which is out the following week.

[The_Rev]

It will crushed by MW3 in terms of sales. MW3 will sell ten million copies, minimum. Dunno what BF3 will get.

And to echo what Sie is saying, BF3 on console and BF3 on PC will be completely different experiences. The PC version will have much bigger maps and more players within those maps. That changes the dynamic massively.

[Stu_The_Villan]

Its 32 players on console isnt it?? 32 is more than enough. If you ask me, 64 is too many. Lag would be a major problem, especially in a game such as this with so much going on and also the high end graphics.

The console version is the safer bet IMO.

None of this is true. If you can run it, the PC will absolutely be the version to play.

The thing is, the vast majority of gamers wont have a pc that can handle it and be lag free. Which is why the console is the safer bet.

If youve got the pc to play it then fairplay to ya.

[Phumfeinz]

Glad I built a new PC, this looks fantastic.

[wiggyrichard]

Looks like it will be just me and you Stu on the XBox!

[Stu_The_Villan]

It will crushed by MW3 in terms of sales

Im really not arsed with MW3. I probably will end up getting it at some stage, but theres just too many other good games out at the same time that i want to play more. If i need a COD fix i will just go back to black ops for a while. Ive only just recently forked out for the extra 8 maps so i want my moneys worth from that before i go and buy the next COD game.

Looks like it will be just me and you Stu on the XBox!

Fine by me matey! Dont forget Castlebrom as well!

[PieFacE]

Anyone know much about GFX cards?

Really want this game on PC but dont think my PC is good enough.

I've seen this GFX card and was wondering if it would be good enough?

Thanks for any help in advance

[Sie]

Impossible to say without taking your entire system specs into consideration and the performance you're expecting/wanting. You're not going to get much out of that card but it will run the game at the very least.

Just do a google search for "GTS 450" "Battlefield 3"

[lapal_fan]

For a lot of PC requirement help, click moi

Everyone is pretty friendly and the speak in simple terms.

[PieFacE]

Thanks for the link.

Think I may have to go and purchase a gaming PC for this as it looks so good.

I purchased BF2:BC on release and weren't keen on it at the time. Probably mainly as I was too into COD.

But as i'm bored shitless of the COD franchise I gave it another go last night. Found it quite refreshing to play and had a very enjoyable hour on it. I like the way everything is really team/objective based. Only problem is 'cos i'm still a rank 1 all my guns suck and everyone elses seem amazing.

Does it take quite a while to work through the ranks to get new guns and red dot scopes etc?

[wiggyrichard]

So is BF set the same as Cod? As in, like PieFace was aiming at, you have to rank up and at each rank you can buy different guns and scopes etc?

When people say more team based, what do you mean? Does being a lone wolf not work?

Never played the BF series, but like PieFace, very very bored of CoD at the moment. Instead of unwinding after a shite day, i get more frustrated playing the bloody thing!

[Sie]

There are usually unlocks for each of the classes in BF games these days. I've always found those unlocks are generally "playstyle" orientated rather than flatout upgrades - that is to say the 4th unlock you get isn't necessarily better than the 2nd. They add variation and utility to each class rather than more fire power.

It's more team based due of a multitude of factors too numerous to pick apart. It's just the way the franchise is tuned to play. As I said before, it's all about scale and that necessitates teamplay. The area you play in dwarfs what CoD's smaller arenas offer. Being infantry really is a fraction of what you'll be getting up to - you'll be operating tanks, manning anti-air positions, flying aircraft and driving jeeps, troop transports and boats. You'll be doing all of that with the aid of other players because a lot of the vehicles require more than one person to be the most effective.

This

was taken at Gamescom and gives a good idea of the size of the maps. It's of some guy just exploring rather than playing a round with a load of other plays so there's no battle going on btw.

Lone wolfing works in the sense that you can covertly infiltrate a base whilst the battle rages elsewhere. But such a task is always done with a larger goal in mind such as capturing the base so your team can use it and spawn there. Lone wolfing doesn't work if each individual member of your team is doing their own thing. A team full of lone wolf camping snipers will get absolutely battered. Coordinated Ops with players on a team all on the same wavelength are what win games in BF.

Ultimately though, just try not to compare CoD to the BF franchise. They're not the same game. They don't play the same and if a person wants to play BF in the hope they'll find the CoD experience buried in there, they probably going to be disappointed.

[wiggyrichard]

Thanks Sie.

Excited by this now!

[lapal_fan]

Just to reiterate Sie's great post.

It is more about team play than COD. You sprint at your peril. It's a slower (sometimes!!) paced battle rather than a race to get to 'X' amount of kills to win the game.

You get points for more than killing too I.e. Assisting with motion spots if you are a sniper, reviving people if you are a medic, giving people ammo if you are playing as assault or repairing/destroying tanks if you play as an engineer.

There are 3 squads of 4 in each team, but that doesn't mean if you lose your squad you're useless, you can help other squads as well.

There are 2 main game modes (doesnt sound like much, but there is plenty), they are Rush and Conquest.

In Rush, it's attackers vs defenders. The attackers have 'tickets' which are spawns. You have 3/4 sets of 2 Mcom stations to blow up. But you have to do them in order (A,B,C,D). The defenders have unlimited spawns and you have to defend the Mcom stations. This mode is generally a bit harder/more fustrating than Conquest, because it's gotten to the point where people are proficient at defending their bases.

Conquest mode is all out war over 3/4 bases which your team has to try and capture and hold. Obviously this means the opposing team tries to capture them as well and you battle the opposition for these bases. Once you have captured a base, all of your team (12 people) can spawn from it to defend that point, or continue to push the other forces back. The maps in this mode range from long thin linear maps, to large wide open maps. This creates variety in each of the maps with different tactics becoming more useful/useless. On the larger maps for instance, using flanking vehicles is a wise choice if your team are struggling and getting pushed back to their own base. Finally, the game starts and each team has X amount of tickets (spawns) the team who hit zero first is the losing team.

About the unlocking system.

You start with pretty decent guns in any one of the four classes. Getting kills with each class with unlock attachments for your current gun which you dont have to use, unlocking new guns or depending on the class you are using at the time, unlocking specialist equipment to use as that particular class. An example is for the Medic. To begin with (lvl 1) you have medic packs which you can throw to your team mates to help them heal, when you get so many kills, you unlock defibrillators which can revive dead team members (not just your squad remember).

As you get kills with any weapon, depending on the class you use (you can use any class whenever you like) then you will be awarded points for that class, which unlocks items for that class. I.e if I use assault and get 10 kills, that will give me 500 points for the assault class. If I then switch to engineer and get 10 kills, I will be given 500 points for engineer class.

The level up system is not linked to the upgrade system and is largely there so it tallys up your entire score, regardless of the class you use.

The game is also different from COD in the way it is balanced. It takes more shots to kill someone. It takes 2 (unless head shots or short distance) shots for a sniper using a bolt action rifle, 3/4 from a semi rifle, 5/6 shots for an assault rifle, 4/5 for a LMG (machine gun) and 5/6 for a full auto carbine/uzi gun.

There are also 1 shot kill shot guns etc, but you obviously take a hit in the reloading/shooting speed.

With regard to the 'lone wolf/rambo syle'. Because the maps are so large, if you do sprint down roads, gullies, into enemy territory, you will most likely be spotted or shot. Also, because it takes more bullets to take someone down, you can really kill more than 3/4 people max without reloading, meaning if you do sprint into trouble, more than likely you are going down.

Of course though, just because you choose Sniper doesn't mean you can only camp. You can actively help your team but spotting the enemy (pushing select on the pad when your sights are over the enemy) (this also works for any class). You can level buildings (or tanks) with C4, should you choose it. Or you can call in Mortar strikes over enemy bases/tanks.

If you start running out of ammo either get to an assault class team member and ask him for ammo (select when looking at him) or use fallen team mates/enemies guns which you can pick up (doesnt matter if they are the same class as you, you can use anything you pick up).

Thats all's I can think of right now, if you have anymore questions, let me know.

[hogso]

Here's a nice hands-on preview from GC, for both the 64 player conquest and 4v4 Team Deathmatch

Battlefield 3 Conquest and Team Deathmatch hands-on preview – top gun

GameCentral reports back on the 64-player madness of EA’s stunning new first person shooter, as well as a sneak peak at an eight-player Deathmatch massacre.

Did we mention Battlefield 3 was the best looking video game ever? We’re sure it must’ve come up at some point, but it really does bear repeating - especially after getting to play it with 63 other people in a massive free for all of jeeps, tanks, helicopter gunships, and jet fighters.

Yesterday we got our first hands on with the console version of the game and although it did look very impressive, it’s nothing compared to the PC version. Not only are the graphics incredibly detailed but the realism extends beyond just visuals to a fully destructible game world, amazing lighting and unparalleled scale.

It’s also only on the PC that you can play with a full 64 players, with the limit being reduced to 32 on consoles. At Gamescom EA has set-up 64 mega ninja PCs for the public to come in and play, and armed with our handy queue-skipping press pass we were able to jump right in.

The map being used for the demo is the Caspian Border one, first glimpsed in the new trailer released earlier in the week. It’s a mix of light forest, rolling fields and some small concrete installations – with what looks like heavy shelling going on in the background, with huge plumes of smoke and flames spoiling the otherwise picturesque look.

We ended up on the side of the Russian army, up against the forces of Uncle Sam, and of the four basic classes we vacillated between Assault (a good all-rounder who also carries a number of med packs) and Recon (who has a sniper rifle, ideal for such a huge map). We did see plenty of other people running around as Support and Engineers though.

We did on our team, anyway; the obvious problem with playing on such a large map – even with so many people at once – is that it’s actually very hard to find anyone else. And yet within the space of just one go you already begin to get a feel for the choke points and main corridors of attack.

Like any Conquest map you’re trying to capture and hold a series of control points, for as long as possible. So even if you don’t know where the enemy is their currently controlled areas are clearly visible via the onscreen displays.

The other main aid to traversing the terrain is the huge number of different vehicles, with the expected range of jeeps and off-roaders handling extremely well over the dirt tracks and occasionally rocky terrain. The tanks are able to trundle over almost anything, and smashing through barriers or crashing down trees is the prefect demonstration of Frostbite 2.0’s destructible terrain.

Only the bigger maps like this get jet fighters though, and they were one of the main draws at the Gamescom preview. Thanks to a misspent youth playing F-15 Strike Eagle and other MicroProse flight sims we took to the controls instantly. As a result we were happily circling around the map shooting down helicopters like flies and prompting ourselves to ‘do a barrel roll’ every time someone locked onto us with their own missiles (at the time we weren’t clear who this was, but we were later informed it was probably engineers with a surface-to-air missile launcher).

Although we did prang a couple of helicopters, we found the jets perfectly easy to control as long as you don’t start throwing the mouse around like you were still moving about on foot. Steady, graceful turns worked out very well for us – even as other complained about not understanding the controls and crashing instantly.

But a single 20 minute go on Conquest is like your first attempt at riding a bicycle - you shouldn’t expect any spectacular stunts and it all gets exponentially easier the more you practice. Unless your next try is a race against Chris Hoy that is, which in a Battlefield 3 sense is exactly what happened to us.

We weren’t supposed to see the Team Deathmatch mode at Gamescom, since it was only meant to be for Battlefield community members who had proven themselves in competition. But a friendly PR manager wrangled a go for us and two other UK journos – which seemed a great idea until we realised we would be playing against some of the best players in the world. Not only that, but it was us three and one community guy against a team of four veterans.

The resulting carnage was as predictable as it was clinically executed and for the first few minutes just setting eyes on one of our attackers was treated as a braggable achievement. The map we were playing on was Operation Metro, the urban Parisian level we’d first played in Rush mode at E3.

We weren’t all that impressed with it the first time round but without having to rush (sorry) through it, its charms became more obvious. Most of the tall townhouses can be accessed on multiple floors and burnt out buses (some sort of explosion seems to have occurred recently) provide perfect cover – and hiding places – in the otherwise exposed main roads.

With still not a kill to our name we began ganging up and finally took down an opponent in a three-way crossfire. The small assist score reward was greeted with a roar of self-mocking triumph, proving, as always, that how good you are at video games has no bearing on how much fun you have playing them.

After being shot for the gazillionth time we tried to keep reminding ourselves of this truism, until we decided to switch tactics and start stalking our fellow teammates. We reasoned that this would at least allow us to see where the attackers were, as our allies were turned into Swiss cheese, and although we did get in a few kills this way we have to admit our cowardice was still no shield against players who actually knew what they were doing.

Even a mode as generic as Team Deathmatch illustrates just how different the approaches are between Battlefield 3’s considered, team-based tactics to Call Of Duty’s lone wolf instant action. In an ideal world there would’ve been no name-calling or petty competition between the two at all – but we’re increasingly convinced that the question of which is better is no more sensible than comparing the proverbial apple to the non-proverbial cumquat.

What we will say, though, is that first person shooter fans are going to be in seventh heaven this autumn - and that Battlefield 3 offers amongst the best action the genre has ever seen.

Formats: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: DICE

Release Date: 28th October 2011

[lapal_fan]

OMG I THOUGHT IT WAS ONLY 24 PLAYERS ON CONSOLES. 32 IS GREAT WOOHOO!!

[wiggyrichard]

Cheers Lapal...much appreciated!

[Sie]

OMG I THOUGHT IT WAS ONLY 24 PLAYERS ON CONSOLES. 32 IS GREAT WOOHOO!!

I'm not convinced that hands on is accurate. Only less than a month ago did DICE officially announce that consoles would have a maximum of 24 players due to limitations. There's nothing anywhere else in the press saying they've boosted that number.

Source

[hogso]

yeh I noticed that discrepancy aswell. As Sie says, pretty sure it's going to be 24 - unfortunately, as I'll have it on console too. I plan to buy a new PC next summer though, so will hopefully get the full experience then

[wiggyrichard]

Why is PC so much better than console?

I play on XBox and dont think i could so the whole mouse keyboard thing?