Reviews - Battlefield 3 multiplayer impressions - rant included

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Forget the staid single-player campaign, the multiplayer is where it's at.

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Read more.

I was just thinking that BF3 is slightly meh when you play multiplayer on your own. But playing in a clan with Ventrilo makes it a whole different game, even if people are on different sides, as it just adds a bit more fun to it.

I also fell into the upgrade trap, wondering why my IR flare's didn't deploy to realise i needed the upgrade first :(

"... Xbox Live Party Chat"

See, you\'re part of the problem that creates that "stony silence" as well.

side note: The article has the platform as PC.

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Originally Posted by Terbinator

side note: The article has the platform as PC.

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That's a glitch in the system...fixing.

Used to have similar experiences during the HALO1 and HALO CE days. COD is a different type of game. Unless it's Search and dEstoy, I am all out for kills and being the one with the best K/D ratio

Good article! :thumbsup: (apart from one part) I particularly empathise with the bit about the every-man-for-him-selfishness that predominates - surely the games houses could start penalising "lone wolf" behaviour? At least the author managed to "clan up" in short order - for us folks who chose PC when everyone else chose console, it's not that easy. Seriously, I've never managed to play a "team" game - despite all the boasts from the game studios that their "matching" would make this easy.

I'll gladly raise a beer, (or three), to anyone who can solve this one. :woowoo:

And now to the "one part" I mentioned, to whit:

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Apart from the odd, loud-mouthed teen - usually an American cursing an English player for drinking too much tea or having bad teeth - players communicated during matches, talked tactics and flagged-up enemy positions to help each other out. ... In a short period of time, usually less than an hour or two, I'd be hosting a team deathmatch game with a full complement of England-based players, all wearing head-sets and all wanting to communicate and win.

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So basically you're saying that Scots, Welsh and Irish folks don't play this - or has Mr Williamson fallen into the US habit of saying "English" rather than "British? :mad:
(and before anyone accuses me of rabid Scots nationalism - I'm not, and this'd be obvious from the accent wafting across XBL or PC equivalent!)

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Originally Posted by Terbinator

"... Xbox Live Party Chat"

See, you're part of the problem that creates that "stony silence" as well.

side note: The article has the platform as PC.

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No, not at all. If there's other people with headsets plugged -which there hasn't been so far - then we'd soon all exit party chat.

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Originally Posted by crossy

Good article! :thumbsup: (apart from one part) I particularly empathise with the bit about the every-man-for-him-selfishness that predominates - surely the games houses could start penalising "lone wolf" behaviour? At least the author managed to "clan up" in short order - for us folks who chose PC when everyone else chose console, it's not that easy. Seriously, I've never managed to play a "team" game - despite all the boasts from the game studios that their "matching" would make this easy.

I'll gladly raise a beer, (or three), to anyone who can solve this one. :woowoo:

And now to the "one part" I mentioned, to whit:

So basically you're saying that Scots, Welsh and Irish folks don't play this - or has Mr Williamson fallen into the US habit of saying "English" rather than "British? :mad:
(and before anyone accuses me of rabid Scots nationalism - I'm not, and this'd be obvious from the accent wafting across XBL or PC equivalent!)

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You know, I'm really sorry about that - it doesn't come across very well.I'm actually half Irish, half English too! In fact, about a quarter of my friends list are Irish folk - they'll go mad if they read that! Point taken, my apologies...I was wrong!

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Originally Posted by Steven W

No, not at all. If there's other people with headsets plugged -which there hasn't been so far - then we'd soon all exit party chat.

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Yep, I'm not saying that wouldn't be the case, but would I give up party chat? Not a chance.

Taking the 360, i know the consoles used to (at least) come with a headset, so "everyone" has one. What dev's could do is pull an IW/MW2 and have a non-party chat mode - this worked ample for me personally.

Also, i did mean to say nice article. It's good seeing these in the gaming section addition to traditional news/previews/reviews. :)

I'm not sure if it's just chance, but after the initial level-rush people do seem to be sticking more with their teams now; I regularly have someone spawning on me and watching my back etc, and vice versa. There's still a bit of helicopter/transport hogging though, which I'll never understand as surely you would want to open yourself up to more points if you're playing the selfish game?

As an aside, I don't use voice because I don't have a mic - although I do plan on buying a clip-on for my HD 595's (don't want to sacrifice that sound quality mentioned in the article with a 'gaming' headset!). I'm sure if you had a squad of four playing together with voice you could easily hold off a much larger, incoherent force of attackers from an objective.

it's going to be like this for a while until people get a feel for the game and open up their options equipment wise

once people get to around level 30-40 you'll see more teamwork happening...i hope so anyway ha

Spot on Steve. When you have a squad of guys wanting to work together there's nothing out there that can compete right now, not played the new COD yet admittedly but I've always considered COD almost a different genre, sub-genre at least simply executed in the same medium(FPS). I have actually caught my self sweating with the stress trying to hold a point while the buildings crumble around me and people scream out targets and directions, this is a rare and massive compliment as far as I'm concerned. When it all comes to together and you hold off that superior force with just a squad you feel like the star of your very own action movie. Absolutely brilliant gameplay, but I do feel the dev's could have done more to encourage it, lack of squad VOIP on PC is a travesty IMHO and while you do receive extra points I don't understand why the bonus isn't more significant than it is now. The best way to earn points is still all to often to hide in a corner camping by yourself or sit 500m from the battle plinking people. If this wasn't the case you could draw out more teamplay by simply making co-operation the most selfish thing to do.

As Mr Williamson stated with Xbox Live, I've encountered the "London Tube" situation.. where it is the done thing not to talk (on COD4).
Most people don't won't be insulted because of their accent/language etc.. so people just play it safe, keep quiet and play. Sad really.
I'll be interested to see if your theory is true after Xmas, when all the runners and gunners potentially go to MW3. I might treat myself to BF3 in the new year and try and be a vocal team player!

Hmmm I can't agree with this from my own perspective, aside from most of the first page. I find BF3 hugely underwhelming. It's a fairly static evolution of the BF series with glitzier graphics. There are just as many bugs as in BF2 - from my perspective - but as a team game it's so so SO much worse than BF2. WIthout a commander, it's every squad for itself and no communication between squads 99.9% of the time. With a squad size of only 4, you've got to split out your group of friends over multiple squads, which really sucks when there are 5 or 6 of you playing together.
It honestly seems that the only way to play this game nowadays is to just got for the points and/or kills for yourself. It makes for a ridiculous team game, but with scoreboards, stats and medals for the top 3 players (some of the less-good hangovers from previous games in the series), the emphasis is on player excellence, not team excellence. That leaves devoted team players like me feeling very isolated, and I find myself following this same mentality of being out only for myself. That's a game mechanic problem, not a player problem: players will always be idiots, a good game forces them not to be idiots about certain important things (like team play in a team game).

There are two good things I can say about it BF3, and while neither is revolutionary (Brink has both), they are definitely welcome features: the option of whether to accept a revive or not and actually seeing your legs as you jump over objects.

I'm relieved that the steam overlay works, because my gaming group of friends are all on steam, but not releasing the game on steam is the final straw for me. I will never buy another EA game after this atrocious effort.

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Originally Posted by The Hand

As Mr Williamson stated with Xbox Live, I've encountered the "London Tube" situation.. where it is the done thing not to talk (on COD4). Most people don't won't be insulted because of their accent/language etc.. so people just play it safe, keep quiet and play. Sad really. I'll be interested to see if your theory is true after Xmas, when all the runners and gunners potentially go to MW3. I might treat myself to BF3 in the new year and try and be a vocal team player!

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So are we now going to get a flood of garrulous Hexusite's on BF3? ;)

I've never used voice before. I've always relied on the Comm Rose and spotting. I do have a mic somewhere, what soft ware are Hexites using ?
TS3 ? Ventrilo ? Skype ? If you can give me a heads up, I'll be there.

I've been a gamer for over 30 years. Started in 80's ZX Speccy etc. I have to agree about the "I'm in it for myself stuff you" attitude. It can be really annoying at times. Fair enough ppl want the best weapons, perks etc... But what ever happened to team play, isn't that what these games are about.

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Originally Posted by Phage

I've never used voice before. I've always relied on the Comm Rose and spotting. I do have a mic somewhere, what soft ware are Hexites using ?
TS3 ? Ventrilo ? Skype ? If you can give me a heads up, I'll be there.

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+1 to this let me know and i will sort out.

On the gaming just for yourself issue I think its very much a maturity thing, gamers are getting younger, ( or I'm getting older...) and they don't get the bigger picture while gaming... The other night I ended up playing with 3 members of a clan and we where regularly ace squad and where miles ahead of everyone else.

I usually try and provide support as much as possible, usually reviving someone and then dying as I was more interested in providing support than killing the enemy that caused the death in the first place. I miss the good old days of battlefield 2 and battlefield 2142 where people played more as a team, even without a headset.
Nowadays I use skype to talk to friends instead of using the in game chat as the quality is usually better and you aren't offending anyone with swearing or ranting about how you've just died.

Playing Battlefield 3 on the PS3

Would it be beneficial if I, or someone else, created a thread so everyone can get the same VOIP software running and get everyone else added into their lists?

I know we've already got the Battlelog thread, but have you actually tried to use the voice system on that? :laugh:

(Would probably be better if someone with a bit more forum dominance created the thread...)

I know what you mean by the stoney silence, I've been playing Gears3 on line and unless I'm playing with friends you usually won't hear a thing (and not because they haven't got mic's) the only time I did hear anything was when someone had indian (at least that's what it sounded like, it was a bit garbled) music playing in the background.

I must say, I tend to stick to my own TS server....especially considering the language I use!

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Originally Posted by Hoonigan

Would it be beneficial if I, or someone else, created a thread so everyone can get the same VOIP software running and get everyone else added into their lists?

I know we've already got the Battlelog thread, but have you actually tried to use the voice system on that? :laugh:

(Would probably be better if someone with a bit more forum dominance created the thread...)

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+1 to this. See Mad Aussie above as well.
I nominate......<counts to 10>.....Singh400 or IronSights oe Shaithis.

When a decision is made, I'll be on. :rockon:

The old timers may complain, They just need to 'step up' to the game, Leave behind thier assumptions and idea of What games used to be like in the old days, And Learn this game from New, all the spotting, the new techniques and adapting to new Skills. This is one of the best Games out there, Well done to the guys n girls who built it just shows how much efforts gone into it.

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Originally Posted by Jace007

The old timers may complain, They just need to 'step up' to the game, Leave behind thier assumptions and idea of What games used to be like in the old days, And Learn this game from New, all the spotting, the new techniques and adapting to new Skills. This is one of the best Games out there, Well done to the guys n girls who built it just shows how much efforts gone into it.

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Have you ever played a tactical FPS using voice properly? If you had you wouldn't be making comments like that. It takes the game to a whole new level.

I'm sure that a lot of effort has gone into the game but there is a lot of it that is very shoddy.

...and before anyone says anything I am actually enjoying the game within it's limitations.

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Originally Posted by blueball

Have you ever played a tactical FPS using voice properly? If you had you wouldn't be making comments like that. It takes the game to a whole new level.
I'm sure that a lot of effort has gone into the game but there is a lot of it that is very shoddy.
...and before anyone says anything I am actually enjoying the game within it's limitations.

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Answer to that first sentence is "no" in my case - what I'm not getting is why folks are talking about having to use "other" VOIP software - excuse my obvious ignorance, but I thought the games themselves came with some method for gamers to communicate? Yes, I know - this kind of question makes it obvious that I am/was a console gamer.

Anyone care to take a minute or two to enlighten a heathen? (apologies if this is slightly off-topic)

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Originally Posted by crossy

Answer to that first sentence is "no" in my case - what I'm not getting is why folks are talking about having to use "other" VOIP software - excuse my obvious ignorance, but I thought the games themselves came with some method for gamers to communicate? Yes, I know - this kind of question makes it obvious that I am/was a console gamer.

Anyone care to take a minute or two to enlighten a heathen? (apologies if this is slightly off-topic)

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on PC there's no central hub system; each game runs independant. a friend in BF3 won't be a friend in MW3. so gamers use a seperate program to track their friends no matter what game they're playing (and to talk to only the people you wanna talk to)

Battlefield 3 is the most over-hyped and underwhelmoing game i have ever played!

I admit that visually it is far superior to Battlefield 2, but that is where it ends.
- Gameplay
- Action
- Squads
All better in BF2.

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Originally Posted by Jace007

The old timers may complain, They just need to 'step up' to the game, Leave behind thier assumptions and idea of What games used to be like in the old days, And Learn this game from New, all the spotting, the new techniques and adapting to new Skills. This is one of the best Games out there, Well done to the guys n girls who built it just shows how much efforts gone into it.

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Old timers?
I'm nearly 40 and still play to a good level.
I have also been to Quakecon (late 90's) and our team came 3rd in the global Return to Castle Wolfenstein tournament there! Got beaten by the yanks in the semis, and beat the germans in the 3rd/4th place play off.
AMD sponsored us, and gave us our PC's to take.

This 'old timer' will still take down most :D

"Nearly 40" ?
I'm nearly 50.

Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill.

This game was fun for like 50hours then gets a bit old

49 here