Battlefield 3 review

After weeks of playing this game, I think it's time to bring on the review of one of the big guns of 2011 video games!!

Be warned: this will be a long-ass blog post.

I'm smoking hot. Literally.

Ever since I saw the Battlefield 3 Caspian Border trailer, this game has been on top of my must-buy games of 2011. And I'm pretty sure a lot of people agree with me that this trailer SOLD the game to many people: the epic music, the teams rolling out in the vehicles, the dog fights, the solid shooting, the knifing and dog-tag grabbing etc etc. It showed off the best multiplayer aspects of the game, 64 player combat!! Intense vehicular combat!! HUGE MAPS!! Weapons fest!! Unlocks fest!!

So did Battlefield 3 deliver?

YES.

Here's the breakdown for the multiplayer. The main attraction of Battlefield 3 is the multiplayer,if you're buying it only for Single-player...Dude. WTF?

Graphics

EA has been heavily advertising their FrostBite 2 game engine alongside Battlefield 3, they're really proud of it and after playing the game, I can see why. The graphics for Battlefield 3 is stunning, even on medium settings on my PC. Special mention goes towards the lighting effects, glare from the sun and Tactical Flashight attachments on weapons look extremely realistic. The environment is lovingly detailed and destructible to a certain extent. It's not as destructible as Battlefield 2: Bad Company 2, but it's still much better than a lot of games out there.

Too bad this only happens in the Single player mission, not in multiplayer.

The system requirements however, is rather steep. My GTX 560 Ti meets the recommended requirements only!! I had to run the game on Medium to accommodate so that it could run smoothly enough to play in multiplayer, hopefully, a patch would be out to optimize it even more. So if you intend to buy this game, I hope your rig is pretty powerful to run this game.

There are only a few generic models in the game, and after playing for some time, you will pretty much see all of it. But each soldier is lovingly detailed, as you can see the equipment they carry will be rendered in-game as well. You will be able to notice the scopes, the defibrillators and even the C4s carried by the player.

Environment wise, Battlefield 3 has thankfully managed to make the maps more colorfully varied than the dark and grey color scheme that is so prevalent today. Thank God for that. However, the game still primarily focuses on urban warfare, only two maps, Caspian Border and Canals, have any significant dense forest areas to fight in. I hope that they release more forest maps in the coming months.


Gameplay

Now, this is the most important bit of the game.

The game is really, really, REALLY fun. It really delivers on the BATTLE part, especially with a full 64-player map. Intense infantry firefights explode over vital objectives as pilots from each side try to gain air superiority and vehicles pound shells and bullets into the environment.

Tanks: Like Godzilla on tread-wheels!

The complete freedom in which the players are given to complete their objectives are part of what makes the multiplayer awesome. You could be raining rockets onto a tank in a helicopter, then quickly parachute out and start sniping at unsuspecting enemies; or you could drive a jeep with your friends, speeding behind enemy lines, capturing their objectives and silently killing them with suppressed assault rifles.

The weapons in Battlefield 3 are varied and using any one of them feels extremely satisfying; the kick from unloading LMG rounds into a poor unsuspecting sap is awesome, and the almighty C4 explosion that you just managed to plant on a defenseless tank kicks up dust, leaving a flaming tank carcass on the road. I especially like the new knife kills feature, Takedown. Takedown is when players attack their enemy with a knife from behind, and a special animation attack is performed, killing the target instantly. The attacker also gains the Dog-tags of the victim, although this serves nothing more than to show off your kills.

You look surprised.

Battlefield 3 comes with 4 classes: Assault, which provides healing and resuscitation to the team; Engineers, who repair vehicles and come with anti-vehicle arsenals; Support, who lay down a hail of almighty holy machine-gun fire and provides ammunition; and Recon, the sniping and/or scouting class, providing valuable information to the team and planting forward spawn points. Each class has their role to play on the battlefield, and good teamwork will ensure victory.

As with the previous games, Battlefield 3 has its leveling system, which is even more varied than before. Each player has a general leveling rank system, starting from Private First Class all the way to Colonel, which unlocks new all-class weapons and camouflage skins. Then each class has a leveling system, which unlocks class-specific weapons and gadgets. Each primary weapon itself has a leveling system, which unlocks accessories such as scopes, fore grips or suppressors. Heck, even vehicles have their own unlocks as you use them more often (IR flares, heat seeking rockets etc).

Gun nuts around the world just jizzed in their pants.

Battlefield 3 awards you with points for a lot of things you do: killing a single enemy nets you 100 points, neutralizing and capturing an enemy objective can net you 200 points and destroying a tank with the 2 occupants inside it can net you up to 500 points. This trickling reward system does a great job of providing gratification to the player as he completes objectives and kills. The great thing about this system is that it essentially makes sure that anyone can get top scores not just by killing, but by actually being "credit to team": Capturing objectives, healing and reviving teammates and repairing vehicles etc.

All in all, Battlefield 3 manages to provide an extremely fun multiplayer game. But make no mistake, it will be hard at first. Very hard.

You will die. A lot.
You will spend time looking at Killcams. A lot.
You will wonder if that is an enemy or a teammate in front of you. A lot.
You will crash that helicopter and jet fighter. A lot.
You will get run down by a speeding Humvee. A lot.
You will get blown up. A lot.
You will have a helicopter pilot hurt you with rockets then crash land on top of your Recon sniping ass. Hopefully will happen only once in your lifetime.

True story.

But once you get past those initial barriers, and starting learning to use your weapons carefully, earning more points, unlocking better scopes and developing better strategies...the game will suddenly be more fun than ever before. You start to die less and learn to pick your fights, and become less obsessed with killing, and be more focused on team effort.

THAT is when you realise...that the game is fucking awesome.

To put it in layman's terms: it prove to be one of the BEST online multiplayer experiences I have experienced thus far...


When it works.

@%#*(@$!!!

Now, on to the issues of the game. And boy...what issues it has.

First of all, I would like to let you guys know that, the game is indeed fun. And I've enjoyed myself immensely. But as of writing, there are various factors very intent on placing a gap between me and that joy as far apart as possible.

The main issue with the game right now, is the fact that its either crashing like mad for some reason (which actually did not happen that often until AFTER they patched the fucking thing) OR I'm disconnecting from EA Online for some other fucking reason.

I shit you not, I have officially seen this fucking error
more times than I have had sex as of 20th November 2011.

While I understand that developing a game is not the easiest thing in the world, this is one of the most highly anticipated games of 2011!! It shipped to MILLIONS of players, of which a significant percentage of them are now pissed off like hell (including yours truly) about this connectivity/crashing issue. It's not a weird-ass animation glitch or an off-mapped texturing, that's just something that can be ignored when you're having loads of fun. But when it actually prevents players from, you know, PLAYING, shit gets real, yo.

This is especially more appalling since to actually play Battlefield 3, you need to login via the Origin client (EA's own in-house digital distribution system), then go into Battlelog to actually get into the action. And apparently in the background, I'm also logged into EA.com, because according to the game for about 56,000 times, I get disconnected from it for some reason during playtime. So what does this mean?

Using the exotic power known as Google, I tried searching for fixes to my dilemma. I've updated Origin, re-installed Battlefield 3, updated my graphics card, lowered my video settings, increased my video settings, checked "Run as Administrator" for multiple programs, went to EA forums, went to DICE forums, and after a few days of hard work and the blood of a thousand sacrificial victims, I'MSTILLNOTSUREWHYICAN'TPLAYTHEBLOODYGAMEFORMORETHANAFEWMINUTES!!

On the other side of the wall were virgin n00bs waiting to be
penetrated in Battlefield 3, but I was denied that sick joy.

According to EA and DICE, they're working very hard to make sure the game is being fixed as much as possible. While I'm sure that they are doing that even as I type this, I cannot help but feel that in their attempt to beat Modern Warfare 3 to the release date, they had to sacrifice a few, erm, conveniences.

I know that so far, it's been a few paragraphs of ranting, but you have to realise that, well, I really like this game, and to have the rather shortsightedness on EA's part on not being able to handle the situation is a bit of a slap in the face. I bought the game, enjoyed it immensely for about 3 weeks, only to be unable to play proper matches for weeks up to this point (which is why I started writing this blog post now -__- simply because I actually can't play more of the game.)

But honestly, so far that is the one major factor that is killing the game, if EA and DICE can resolve this matter soon and in time for the Back to Karkand launch in December, they can still pull this one off.

There are other minor annoyances with the game, which in my opinion can be resolved rather easily once they're done with this major one.

Alright, so one of the minor annoyances I have found with the game is the re-spawn system. Generally you can either choose to re-spawn on your team, or choose to re-spawn on any one of the locations that your team has captured (Conquest mode). However, it seems that the system will drop you at the spawn point completely randomly, and it is entirely possible to re-spawn right in front of an enemy. With your back facing him. And you are complete unaware of his presence. Easy kill.

Hey, didn't I just popped up here at the exact same spot and got my ass stabbed just now?

It's a bit of a poor design in my opinion, I can perfectly understand if a player runs around and happens to encounter a single lone player and proceeds to slaughter the entire squad because they had the bad luck to all spawn on that one guy. That's just plain bad luck. This, on the other hand, can happen very frequently, especially for those on the losing end.

Another minor niggle is the supposed killcam; when you are killed, inevitably, by another player, the camera focuses on the player that killed you, giving you a glimpse of your killer and allowing you to plot the murder of him and his kin. My question here is what the hell is the damn point of it? It does not show you HOW he killed you but shows what he is doing AFTER killing you, namely either camping, reloading or just moving. Sure, it shows what equipment and accessories he is using and the dog tags, but so what? It's rather pointless information. It would've be alright if they had shown from his point of view as he continued to land a few kills, which could've at least served as a learning tool. But the camera is rather insistent on showing you the frontal close up of the generic face model of the soldier, refusing to let you examine his surroundings, which means in most cases, you have no idea where he is AT ALL when he killed you if you never actually saw him.

Only managed a 900 meter headshot? Slow day for me, must be Tuesday.

And for one reason or another, you can't access the menu at all during this killcam stage, only allowing menu access when you are ready to re-spawn. I don't about you guys, but I would rather have spent that time maybe tweaking my options instead of staring emptily at my killer for about 5 seconds. And by the time you get access to the menu and/or your weapon loadout, it is when you are ready to re-spawn, it seems like a waste of time when you can be out re-spawning and potentially save your squad or a conquest point, but instead you might be adjusting your weapon loadout to fit the situation.

It's a similar problem with the endgame summary. At the end of each round, you get a short clip of all the experience points you have gained for the classes you used, any unlocks and ribbons and medals you may have achieved during the round. That clip in itself works rather well in giving you a sense of achievement, especially if you have earned a lot of rewards.

I got this medal for blowing up a tank and my entire squad using C4s.

After reviewing your rewards, you get 30 seconds of doing absolutely nothing. Sure, you can see the next unlock for your class kits, rank and vehicle, see the scoreboard, and err...yea. You can't see the accessory unlocks for your weapons, nor can you examine other players, nor can you modify your weapon loadout, and once again, you can't access the damn menu (Do they have something against people accessing that?). It's essentially a big waste of time, while waiting for the next round to start. It's not an excuse to load the next map either, because after the timer drops to 0, you have to wait for the damn map to load anyway. If they allowed more flexibility for this stage, it would be for the better.

Then there are minor annoyances such as the Tactical Flashlight attachments, which for some reason, is fucking brighter than the sun even when OUTDOORS. Having it shone into your face it really looks like a mini sun covering 75% of the screen. And there is the jump over animation for players to go over obstacles: normally, you will just do a normal jump, but if you are moving forward and there is an obstacle (such as a low lying wall, or maybe a crate), pressing jump will make your character slide over the object without losing momentum. It's a nice little touch that adds to the soldier-feel of the game. However, its not perfect detection at the moment. Sometimes the animation will activate, but you realise that you're still standing in the same place, which can prove fatal if you were trying to escape other players and end up being stuck there for a split second, and then die in a rain of gunfire.

But, as mentioned, these are still somewhat minor design issues which can be fixed with bugs. The most important problem that needs to be fixed as soon as possible is the connectivity/crashing issue, which is standing in the way of players trying to have fun.




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So, what's the conclusion?

As far as I'm concerned, Battlefield 3's online gameplay is one of the most fun I've had this year so far. The graphics are awesome, the gameplay is solid, and the numerous unlocks will keep players engaged.

It's just very disheartening that disconnects and crashings are keeping players out of what may be one of the best built multiplayer shooters we've had in a decade. Especially more so since its barely been 2 months since the game has been launched.

My advice? Don't buy the game yet. Let EA iron out the bugs, and once the game is stable...

THEN buy it.
Have fun.
Shoot n00bs.
Fly high.

Adios, kids.

Team Fortress 2 Part 2

And I'm back with the remaining 5 classes for Team Fortress 2, without further ado, let's jump straight in with...

The Pyro

The close-ranged gimp-masked pyromaniac is very dangerous up close, but lacks reliable long ranged weaponry. Has decent 175HP, and average movement speed.

The Pyro's primary weapons are stronger the closer you are to the target, the only problem is getting within range of the victims and not dying in the progress. The flamethrowers are also capable of setting fire to multiple targets (although other Pyros cannot be set on fire), so its possible to deal significant amount of damage to them and let the afterburn burn them to death.

While the Pyros are mostly an offensive class, they're very useful as defensive classes as well, especially when working together with the Engineers. Their primary weapon's alternate attack is a compression blast. This airblast enables them to deflect any incoming projectiles back at their owners: grenades, sticky bombs, rockets, flaregun projectiles, huntsman arrows and even the rockets from Sentry Guns! The airblast can also be used to extinguish multiple burning teammates and push enemies away, disorienting them and make it easier to be taken down by your teammates. The airblast can also be used to perform impromptu rocket jumps: by airblasting the rockets down towards their feet, they can jump and then use the force of the explosion to propel forward. Just like a Soldier.

By far the most important task for Pyros is Spy Checking. With a small puff of flame, disguised or invisible spies will be set on fire, and be revealed to the whole team, keeping an Engineer's buildings safe from their sappers. Defeating Erectile Dispenser Dysfunction before it happens.

My custom loadout:

Mpphhh mphh mphhhh mphhh mhh!

• The Degreaser - Weapon switch speed is increased by 65%, its almost instantaneous. But the afterburn damage is 4 damage per second instead of 6, which makes a rather big difference in getting kills if you were relying on afterburn.
• Detonator - Fires a flare which ignites enemies. If the enemy was already on fire, the detonator will inflict mini-crits (a step down from the Critical hit of the basic Flare Gun), but has an alternate fire which, well, detonates the flare in mid flight, creates a small explosion which ignites nearby enemies.
• Axtinguisher - I feel like Jack Torrance everytime I whip this out. It inflicts Critical Hits on burning enemies, so when coupled with the quick weapon switch, it's a guranteed 2-hit kill on most classes. However, it deals 50% less damage on non-burning targets.
• Party Hat - It's party time!

The Medic

Ze German Doctor with a penchant for assisting in homicide. He's a mad doctor who likes to experiment on human beings, with the healing as the side effect.

The Medic is a primary asset of any team, and experience has taught me that a team without 1 or 2 capable medics are doomed to lose very badly to another team which has a good medic or two. Has 150HP, just slightly above the minimal threshold, and has slightly above average movement speed.

His primary role is, duh, healing his teammates. He can also overheal his targets (unless equipped with the Quick-Fix), leaving them at 150% HP, increasing their hardiness in battle. His special ability is his ÜberCharge, whose activation effect depends on the type of medigun equipped:

• Medi Gun - this weapon's ÜberCharge release grants the Medic and his target 100% invulnerability for 8 seconds, but still susceptible to knockback from explosions and Pyro airblasts. Extremely useful for clearing Sentry Gun nests.
• Kritzkrieg - ÜberCharge release grants the Medic and his target guranteed Critical Hits for 8 seconds. Very useful when paired with a good Soldier, Demoman, Heavy and in certain cases, Pyros. Also charges ÜberCharge 25% faster.
• Quick-Fix - ÜberCharge release grants the Medic and his target a 300% heal rate, and renders them immune to stuns and knockback. The heal rate and ÜberCharge rate is increased by 40% and 25% respectively, but it is unable to overheal. It also enables the Medic to run at the same speed as the target (only if the target is running faster than the Medic's own movespeed).

My custom loadout:

Eins, zwei, drei... Ugh, I do not think we brought enough body bags.

• Syringe Gun - with Strange properties that record the amount of kills, it's the only Medic primary weapon I have which I haven't smelted down into parts yet >_>
• The Kritzkrieg - ÜberCharge release grants the Medic and his target guranteed Critical Hits for 8 seconds. Very useful when paired with a good Soldier, Demoman, Heavy and in certain cases, Pyros. Also charges ÜberCharge 25% faster.
• The Vita-Saw - Lowers health by 10HP, however, I can retain up to 20% of my previous ÜberChargeon death, so the time taken to gain ÜberCharge is significantly reduced in between lives.
• Gentleman's Gatsby - Giving the Medic a sense of elegance while he saws through your bones or assisting in cremating you alive.

The Demoman

The black Scottish cyclops is a master of all thing explode-y, he's another versatile class like the Soldier, with even more extreme firepower, but lacks pinpoint accuracy. His melee attacks are also ridiculously strong, perhaps due to his Highlander ancestry? He has decent health at 175HP, but has below average movement speed.

Unlike the other classes, the Demoman has two equally powerful weapons, the Grenade Launchers and the Stickybomb Launchers. His grenades can be launched over obstacles and bounced around walls to hit their targets; whereas his stickybombs can be placed around in hidden areas, or launched towards enemies to form a cluster of them, and detonated together to create a massive explosion. His stickybombs can also be used to perform Sticky Jumping. It's similar to Rocket Jumping, but can go further and higher at the expense of more HP, giving him mobility similar to the Soldier.

Though classified as a Defensive class, the Demoman is perfectly capable of offensive attacks, but takes more skill as his grenades do not launch fast enough to be pinpoint accurate, but its explosion radius is large enough to deal damage over a wide area. His stickybombs on the other hand are perfect for setting up ambushes and traps, when the enemies walk within KABLOOEY range, they explode in a shower of gibs. The stickybombs are also vital for keeping enemies from capture points and Payloads, either killing them outright or make them waste their time trying to destroy the stickies with bullets (only bullets can destroy stickes, such as miniguns, shotguns and pistols)

My custom loadout:

"Oh, they're goin' ta have to glue you back together...IN HELL!"

• Grenade Launcher - with Strange properties that record the amount of kills, my favorite tactic is to lob grenades at chokeholds, bottlenecks and at sentry encampments. Nothing brings more fear than a rain of 'nades.
• The Scottish Resistance - Compared to the default Stickybomb Launcher, this unlockable weapon can place more stickies, carries more ammo, and the alt-fire detonation only detonates the stickies that you are aiming at, as compared to detonating all of them at once with the default one. However it takes 0.8 seconds longer to arm, making it less effective in direct combat.
• The Ullapool Caber - Its basically a grenade, on a stiiiiiiiiiicccck. The first contact will detonate, dishing out a lot of damage, then leaving its remains, dealing low damage. I only use this as a last resort at close range. Seriously...sane and sober men would THROW it at his enemies...
• Saxton Hale Mask - Because I can. 

The Sniper

The rugged Aussie outdoors man cum assassin. Don't ever mistake him for a serial killer. Just like the snipers from other FPS games, the Sniper excels in hanging back from the rest of the team and picking off other players with Headshots (the only class with this ability). 

At extreme long ranges, a good Sniper will make short work of any class with a fully charged headshot. In fact, a fully charged headshot will kill any enemy that is not invulnerable. But he is very vulnerable when caught in close or medium combat, as his secondary weapons and melee weapons are horribly inefficient for dealing with enemies. He is a favorite target of the Spy as a Sniper will rarely notice a Spy sneaking up on him, and deliver a backstab or being shot to death by his revolvers.

He has 125HP (150HP if equipped with Darwin's Danger Shield), has average movement speed. The movement speed isn't too much of an issue since he is the type of class that usually stands further away from the battlefield anyways.

My custom loadout:

• Machina - A relatively new weapon made when Deus Ex: Human Revolution was released. On a full charge, it does 15% extra damage and can penetrate the first target. So its possible to kill two people with a full charge. However, every shot is a tracer shot, revealing your location to other Snipers and Spies, and you can't shoot when not zoomed in.
• Jarate - with Strange properties that record the amount of people I doused with this. It's a jar of piss. No, really. You can cover multiple enemies with it, and all damage they receive will be mini-crits. It can also put out burning teammates.
• Bushwacka - Crits whenever it normally mini-crits. Good combo with Jarate if you're caught in melee combat. Douse the enemy in Jarate, and whack away. However, it increases fire vulnerability by 20%, which is kinda moot: if you're caught in close range by a Pyro, you're pretty much screwed anyways.
• Larrikin Robin - with unusual property, this one has a sunshine effect on it. 

Why is he Blue and not Red? Obviously its the Red Spy
disguised as the Blue Spy...Or is it the Blue Spy who is
disguised as the Red Spy who is disguised as the Blue Spy...?
Ah crud.

The Spy

The chain-smoking backstabbing bastard from France wears a nice suit is very polite while he backstabs you or shooting you in the face.

Out of all the nine classes, the Spy's playstyle is generally the most difficult and hardest to master. While disguised as the enemy team, he can backstab anyone for an instant kill (bar those who are invulnerable of course), but he loses his disguise in the process; he can also go invisible and hide so for a better killing opportunity.

A good spy is the bane of any team, but particularly so for a few classes: the Heavy is very slow, and while using his minigun, he becomes even slower and is generally focused on the fight in front of him, leaving him open for a backstab; the Medic, also generally focused on his healing target, leaving him open for a backstab as well; the Sniper, while scoped and focused on killing targets far ahead of him, rarely realizes when a Spy is right behind him, stabbing him in the back; and, last but not least, the Engineer, as he can place sappers on his buildings to disable and slowly destroy them, leaving the Engineer vulnerable for a short time. In the worst case scenario, the Spy can take the Teleporter while disguised and telefrag whichever poor sap that was standing on the other end.

But as I have mentioned, the Spy is very difficult to play, as the Spy has baseline health at 125HP. most servers do not have friendly fire on, so everyone will shooting at their own teammates, to see if they're the spy. Furthermore, enemies can't walk through each other, so if the enemy bumps into you, and realise they can't walk through, they will know that you're a Spy. And an invisible Spy will also become slightly more visible if an enemy walks into them or damaged by them, thus giving you away for a short time. Pyros are a Spy's worst enemy, as a small puff of flame from his flamethrower will set a disguised/invisible Spy on fire, blowing his cover to the enemy team.

My custom loadout:

Gentlemen?

• The Diamondback - 15% damage penalty, but stores 1 critical hit for each building destroyed with his sapper attached, doesn't have to be the sapper destroying it, as long as it was destroyed with his sapper attached, it will give 1 critical hit.
• Your Eternal Reward - A unique knife for the Spy, upon a successful backstab, the Spy immediately takes on the disguise of his victim. It is a silent killer: the victim's body won't appear, and his death won't appear on his teammate's killfeed, and there's no backstab sound as well. This is a very strong weapon in that you won't draw attention to yourself like the other weapons. However, the huge drawback is that you can't disguise normally at all. You can only disguise as the one you backstab, making the initial kill harder to procure.
• The Cloak and Dagger - This watch will render the Spy invisible indefinitely as long as he is not moving, but the watch consumes more energy while moving compared to the default watch. However, it has twice the energy regeneration rate, so as long as you're not moving very long distances, it should be fine.
• Fancy Fedora - For the handsome rogue that is the Spy.

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Phew...that was another long article, but I've finally finished covering all nine classes from Team Fortress 2. Of course, this was just a short summary of what the classes can do. In a few months time, new weapons might just render the information here obsolete (I hope not...I spent a lot of time writing these...)

For more detailed information on the game, visit the Team Fortress 2 wiki.

And now please excuse me, I have to start on playing more of Battlefield 3. Hopefully I can write about it in due time.

Adios kids.