Be Excellent To Each Other

I cant see an existing thread for this so

Trailer :

http://kotaku.com/battlefield-4-trailer ... -460024313



17 minutes of footage

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/29360/bat ... index.html



http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/ga ... -4-preview

That does look rather lovely.
Launch PS4 title I suppose....

Playing battlefield 3 I could see how it was clearly superior to COD in a lot of ways, but I just just struggled to improve with the multiplayer. I didn't seem to be getting any better no matter how much I played.

It's on EA so I can't get it. They should go with a good games publisher.

I should be all over this but it's published by EA, so it'll be broken for the first month at least, and written by DICE, so it'll be buggy and they'll ignore any feedback from the players.

Plus, the single player stuff? Who gives a shit, really.

Looks nice though.

Me. I've developed a deep loathing of multiplayer due to Battlefield 3.

There are a few posts going over how disappointing the announcement is (despite the flashy graphics)

Joystiq :

http://m.joystiq.com/2013/03/27/editori ... lefield-4/

Rock-Paper-Shotgun :

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03 ... -new-news/

No one watched those 17 minutes and thought it looked fucking boring.

Me and the chaps have already decided we're not going to jump into this one at launch, for several reasons.

1) All the hackers will fuck off and play BF4. Unfortunately the hackers have taken over in BF3, unless you're on an actively administered server, it's basically a free-for-all for the hackers. Earlier on in the game's life it did look like Punkbuster and PBStreaming bans, in conjunction with DICE being vigilant in enforcing bans, might take care of the hackers, but alas it was not to be. Plus there's a sense that DICE aren't too focused on BF3 now, and are instead gearing up for BF4.

One of the things that struck me about Counter Strike Global Offensive last year, was the total absence of hackers. This isn't because CSGO was fundamentally unhackable, but because those playing the game were there for the GAME, it didn't appeal to hackers.

All the hacking wankers have totally maxed out everything in BF3, and they've all got their 100 gold eagle badges, and they're looking for something new to hack and fuck up for other people, they're welcome to fuck off and do that in BF4.

2) We haven't even come close to maxing out BF3. Since we all bought Battlefield Premium, we've all got every expansion, and some of them (such as Armoured Kill) we've barely even scratched the surface of. I'm sure that for folks who have nothing else to do but play computer games, it was possible to keep up with the pace of the DLC, but for those of us juggling gaming time with jobs and family and what have you, that's been impossible.

We're actually quite looking forward to taking our time to revisit all the DLC over the coming weeks and months and get some proper mileage out of all of it. There'll be no problem finding servers to play on (you can still easily find BF2 and BF2142 servers to play on, games which are six or seven years old), and by definition those still running and paying for BF3 servers after BF4 launches will be financially and emotionally invested in maintaining a tight ship - which is fine by us.

3) Like all DICE games it'll be broken in various amusing ways at launch, it took a few patches to get BF3 sorted out, particularly the weapons balancing, so we figure we may as well let the hackers and the early-adopters beta-test it for us.

4) By the time we come to buy it, it'll probably be in some sort of sale. Cheap things are good!

5 & 6) Are kind of linked. 5 is that none of us really feel that BF3 was much of an advance on BC2, and if anything it didn't offer anything as good as the likes of Rush on Valparisio. On more than one occasion we've found ourselves wondering if we'd have been better off back on BC2.

6 is that BF4 most likely won't be any advance on BF in terms of game or graphics. DICE are already on record as stating that BF3 on PC at HIGH/ULTRA settings was what their games would look like on the next-gen consoles, so there's going to be nothing relavatory in that regard. As for the game itself, as BF moves towards the yearly COD franchise model, we'd be amazed if there's anything revolutionary about BF4. We suspect more of the same, and possibly more COD-ified too.

So yeah, we'll definitely get on board with BF4 at some point, but not at launch.

What we'd be more interested in is BF2143! If there's a game that's really crying out for sequel, it's BF2142.

Latest trailer showing smartphone and tablet integration (along with a little more in game action)

Video already removed by user!

I have seen this tablet and smartphone integration elsewhere though, I mean, what the fuck is the idea with that?

Don't know if this is the same video but I watched it and thought it looked really shit, even though they were trying commendably hard to make it sound not really shit.

http://www.techspot.com/news/53372-batt ... ailed.html

Yes same video and while i dont care about the integration part you do get to see more in game stuff and the engine running which looks impressive

TBH I thought it looked just like BF3

Basically I'm on a bit of a downer with EA at the moment, after the absolute clusterfuck that was Sim City, the mere sight of them pimping out the DIGITAL DELUXE EDITION of BF4 on Origin at €70 just pisses me off.

That's the last time I pre-order anything of theirs, basically. As per my post above, all my usual playing crowd are determined to sit BF4 out, wait until it's been out a while and all the worst clangers are fixed, and buy it when it hits its first price reduction.

We're still caning the arse out of Hardcore Squad Rush on our own server and it shows no signs of getting old, we just chuck an extra map into the mix every so often to keep it fresh.

Well me and the chaps have all got this now, and for the full super premium edition through Origin it cost me NINETY-FIVE FUCKING POUNDS - I nearly spat out my mouthful of wine when the cost came up on screen. (It was 110 euros in Origin, which didn't seem as 'real' as the £95 they nabbed off me through Paypal on the purchase screen.)

Haven't had a proper session with it yet, just been getting all my controls sorted out and graphics options and all that shit, and having a play around on empty servers with the tanks and helicopters and suchlike and blowing shit up, the destruction engine is pretty fucking incredible it must be said.

Unfortunately my PC just about runs out of puff with it at 2560x1440 and hovers around 40-50FPS unless I drop down to a mixture of MEDIUM-HIGH settings which I can't be doing with, so the engine has clearly evolved since BF3.

However at 1920x1200 I can ULTRA it out and maintain a pretty steady 60FPS, even when there's a load of shit going on, so I've gone for that instead, my monitor handles non-native res output pretty nicely so it's not too bad.

Quite impressive that what is a distinctly mid-spec PC by current standards can easily outgun the 'next-gen' consoles, (my CPU is five years old and my current graphics card (or one of equivalent power) can now be had for about £170-£200), since the XBone is running this game at 720p and the PS4 can only manage 900p.

I'll report back on the actual game after tonight, as me and the chaps have got a full session booked in, kicking off at 9pm.

Had a great session on this last night, we stuck to our own server (16 slots, Conquest map rotation) as we're still getting to grip with the maps, weapons, vehicles, and the whole thing really - and didn't want it to be too manic.

It's more of the same on one level, but there are lots of tweaks and improvements that for my money make it a better multiplayer game than BF3 was.

Amazingly for an EA/DICE new release, it all seems to work just fine, didn't have any crashes or server problems or anything else all night.

It's gob-smackingly gorgeous, even at my slightly gimped 1920x1200 res, and the destruction engine is to die for.

Very much recommended!

After the mess that was BF3 I'll wait until this settles down before making any kind of commitment.

To be honest I think Bad Company 2 was the peak for single player and multiplayer. It was just pretty much flawless, with a nice line in Shane Black style writing for the campaign. Then I played a chunk of BF3 single player and got annoyed as to how it was chasing COD's hoo-rah! grim-future war and had lost the satire and action-romp affection of Bad Company 2.

And, I don't know why, but BF3's gunplay just seemed dinkier and less satisfying. Tiny cursors and feeble seeming guns and little specks shooting at you. Objectively this probably wasn't much different from Bad Company 2, but I don't know... it all seemed beefier and funner back then.

Bad Company was the best single player campaign; BC2 was the best multiplayer. Battlefield 3 was so disappointing in comparison.

Just read a bit about the campaign and it turns out they were arsed. Again. At least CoD, although still shamelessly being all about the multiplayer, puts some effort into the other game modes and can still manage a half-decent campaign and Zombies/Extinction to keep you entertained.

For those undecided at the moment Amazon's community marketing manager (who posts a lot of the deals to various websites) has said that they will have the PC versions of BF4 for sale on Black Friday at $29.99 so around £18

http://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/comme ... 99/cdedljk



(the thread is actually because they put Payday2 up for $9.79 by accident which is what it will be down to in the sale and then corrected it back to $17.99)

A superb session on this last night, we had seven of us on our own server and a few randoms turned up to fill the rest of the slots. (Maxes out at 7 per side at the moment so it's not too chaotic, we're still finding our feet with the game.)

Unfortunately I got my tags taken for the first time but I did manage to get three sets in retaliation.

We've already binned off normal mode and play exclusively in hardcore, the 'bullet sponge' characteristics of the soldiers when being shot by the weedier guns is just ridiculous in normal mode, hardcore sorts that out.

Amusing fuck up of the evening was one of my mates somehow managing to drop his M2 Slam anti-tank mine INSIDE OUR HELICOPTER instead of, y'know, in front of the enemy tank - and since it was hardcore it blew us up.

We're also starting to get a few key unlocks now which is opening up various tactical possibilities (out of the gate I'd say the default loadouts for the various classes are as underpowered as they've ever been, which is rather annoying), plus getting some proper skills with the various vehicle types and so on.

There's one map on a tropical archipelago where an ocean storm comes in during the round, the weather effects are properly stunning, trying to get out to one of the boats on a jetski became a fearsome proposition, as I found out the hard way, smashing through the massive waves and frequently being totally submerged.

It takes a lot to make me go 'ZOMG WOW' at graphics these days, but BF4 all ULTRAed out certainly manages it.

You can do everything in this clip, including getting the battleship to run aground during the storm, and then use its cannons to lay waste to the islands, and the game really does look like this.

Campaign thoughts:

1) Shiny.

2) Next-Gen corridor shooters will be very wide corridors masquerading as outdoors.

3) Oh look I'm slowly walking around an aircraft carrier waiting for something to happen. I haven't done that since Gears of War 3 and shed loads of other games.

That is all.

More thoughts:

4) I have no idea what is going on in this "story". "We're the only ship left, boys" - says gruff commander "Really, when did that happen? Where's the rest" - everyone. "We're going to assault the airfield now" - more gruff commander. "Do'ya mind telling me why? Oh, I've already been stuck in a boat with a black man who doesn't like women. Great. Is that a plot thing? Sounds like a racial stereotype. Oh, I'm assaulting the beach. WHY AM I DOING THESE TIRED WARFARE THINGS!?"

5) "Destroy 5 helicopters" I thought we'd done with this crap in CoD 3. Plus, it's boring. 1 helicopter, 2 helicopter, 3 helicopter... bored now.

You'd enjoy it more on PC, Sat.

Or if you drank three bottles of port and played it with your pants on your head.

I'm looking forward to that particular write up, Cras.

But they will only be outdoors due to the missing building that was supposed to have a corridor. Damn missing building.

Why on earth is anyone playing the single player campaign in a Battlefield game?

I thought there was a law against that sort of thing.

You get some multiplayer guns unlocked if you play the single played campaign.

Totally not worth it.

Just play hardcore then all the guns are deadly, as they should be.

I absolutely cannot do BF in anything other than hardcore mode these days.

I'm very much a hardcore player by choice too, but I'll play normal if others are.

Hardcore really needs a fucking compass though...

If you rent your own server you can tweak all the backend settings to suit your preferences, (not just the obvious stuff like game modes and map rotations), so we run ours hardcore, but with the minimap on, for example.

Can you rent servers for the console versions too? I thought they were bringing in dedicated servers for all platforms for BF4?

You can't rent yet but I expect they will bring that in later. Which is a shame, as that is what ruined BF3...
I really don't want control of the game I'm playing handed to an egotistical 14yr old.

Just add good servers to your favourites, job done.

I ended up with a really solid favourites list for BF3, could always get a good game on a well admined server (usually a UK one) running a map and/or mode that I liked.

I'd have thought that a BEEX server was a bit of a no-brainer for the regular crowd here.

Having our own server for BF3 really gave the game a last hurrah for us, as we went totally mental on hardcore squad rush.

A guy named Irish whose personality trait is "angry woman hater". Genius EA and Dice!

6) It's too bright with lense flare, flashes, screen rocking, water and wind and what not going on. I swear, at times, you have no clue who is shooting you or what you're shooting at. It's fucking ridiculous.

7) A-HA HA HA HA. Here's a guy I should know from the last forgettable story. AHA HA HA. Seriously, has anyone remembered that car crash! You presume too much, Mr developer.

I think I'll compile these into a mega-post when I'm done. Just, y'know, 'cause. And effect.

9) Tank battle? AGAIN. They're so fucking dull. Tank on Tank action must be the dullest thing in the universe.

10) Mind you, that tank battle showed off some of the worse respawning enemies I've seen in a game. Y'see you get the infra white thing so you can safely ignore the ludicrous flash lighting and can see the enemies appearing right in from of you. Literally right in front. Maybe less than 5 yards. It's a terrible section.

Oh, it's Omar! Tch.

I thought the campaign was really decent, played it on hard and there were some great levels with enough freedom to choose different approaches. Never really been one for giving much of a toss about the story in an FPS, without exception at every cutscene I just sit there hammering at the buttons in case I can skip it.

Finished! Yay! That was arduous to complete even at 5 hours short. It was dog shit. Utter dog shit. It doesn't make any fucking sense to me. The "storyline" just, well, I'm gob smacked at what dross it is for the Next Gen.

Having a character that doesn't talk is one thing but having characters pretend you're not there is just insulting. Like you never picked until last at a football game or you're networking but no one wants to talk to you. You're at the edge of the conversation watching two (or more) talk with no ability to get into the conversation. The more I think about it, the more I think the game could have existed without me.

And why is the game terrible at recording whether you actually shot someone? You know what is utterly fantastic about CoD - when you shoot someone and you're on target it hits them. EVERY TIME. Here, I was shooting through a gap about 3 foot wide and the bullets were going but not hitting anything. It was like they were caught on the scenery but DICE knew it was a shoddy build so they took out the effect where bullet hits wall cause it's too difficult to sort out the collision detection. And not once - FUCKING LOADS OF TIMES. LOADS. I'm angry about it. It's irritated me that the fundamentals are so shonky.

And not only that, but in the multiplayer as well. I swear, if I'm sniping (and you get the freaking worse one out the box so sniping is a painful progression) you have to stand up and away from everything around you to get a decent shot off. Not in CoD; CoD knows when I'm right cause the "however old"-build was solid from the start.

Also, blue is the new grey. Or brown. Whatever was the new black was. It's blue, blue, blue.

The end was ridiculous an' all. Fuckity fuckwits. Think they can sell me a load of ... *mumble mumble* ... etc.

Garbage.

I'm getting a bit pissed off with my shit weapons, as much as I love the game I'm just not playing it anything like as much as I did BF3 so I'm not getting many unlocks, so I'm finding myself going up against motherfuckers who are totally tooled up to the max in everything (not just guns but all the vehicles and helis as well) - so there I am with my weedy fucking RPG that does 25 points of damage, trying to pop caps into the arse of tanks with super reflective armour and IR scanning and fuck knows what else.

Now I know that for BF3 they brought out unlock packs, including a 'master' unlock pack that unlocked everything for all classes and vehicles, (which I didn't need as I'd unlocked everything normally anyway), but the sooner they bring that shit out for BF4 the better, because I'll be all over that motherfucker like a cheap suit. (I think it cost about £20 for BF3, which I could live with.)

I really couldn't do that, for me the BF games are just as much about levelling up and collecting new guns and shit to play with, as they are about playing the actual game....

I know what you mean and it does feel a bit cheaty, but outside of our regular Saturday night session, I'm basically not playing the game at all, and three hours per week just ain't enough playtime to unlock much of anything!

It doesn't help that I can't play the game when AE Jnr is around due to the game's content, and she isn't upstairs until 9pm most evenings, and even then I'm not tending to find myself in a 'Battlefield mood'. (Preferring a bit of pinball or or Starcraft 2 or NFS Most Wanted before sticking a film on, usually.)

When BF4 was new I was holding my own really well, because everyone had all the same rubbish weapons, but as the weeks have gone on I'm looking at what I'm getting killed with and what I'm going up against (and my relatively poor scoring) and realising that I've well and truly lost the arms race.

Playing hardcore levels the playfield to an extent, but not enough I'm finding.

What do these new guns do that the earlier ones don't? The only thing that's irritated me so far in the multiplayer is the standard bolt action sniper rifle which is a bit gash. I need a semi-auto one to practice with. Presumably the assault rifles and LMG'a are like CoD where you pick the one you like but they're all much of a muchness.

http://symthic.com/bf4-stats <<< Have a play around with this site to see some of the differences.

Some of the later unlocks are pretty potent, not just the weapons themselves (increased damage and accuracy, less recoil, bigger mags, quicker reloads, faster fire rate etc) but also the various attachments and add-ons for them.

It's also down to the map and role as well, so you'll tend to choose a weapon and accessories based on what you're doing. What's a great gun for one map and mode may be totally ineffective on the next map/mode.

The vehicles are arguably even worse, if you go up against a fully pimped out tank in a 'basic' tank, you're going to get absolutely reamed.

DICE tweak the weapons over time as well, so we tend to keep an eye on the patch log to see what's being changed, for example for a while early on in BF3 one of the machine guns (can't remember the name now) was ridiculously good if you bolted an IR scope and the extended mag onto it, but then DICE nerfed both the scope and the gun itself and it became effectively unusable.

Gah, I may have lost patience with this now.

Usual Saturday night session with the chaps but by fuck I was feeling the burden of having shit guns and shit tanks and shit helis and shit everything else. I don't rate myself as a super-uber FPS player, but I'm not fucking bad, back in the days of the old CS rankings I tended to hover between the top 1% and top 2% of worldwide players.

The thing is I bought the MEGA SUPER DIGITAL DELUXE PREMIUM version of BF4 which cost nearly a hundred fucking quid! And I'm thinking to myself, why do I have to fucking grind out the good guns? Why do I have to grind out all the extras for the vehicles?

It just got tedious towards the end of the session, yes we could still work well as a squad and yes I could contribute, but even the tightest unit is going to find its members in a 'one on one' situation on a regular basis, and that's where I kept coming off second best, and time after time I'm looking at the killcam screen and I've been killed by a Level Billion player with absolutely fucking everything unlocked on the best gun for their class.

Strategy and tactics will serve you well to an extent of course, but the feeling of being continually outgunned really got on my tits tonight, and I've been playing Battlefield games since forever - so either I'm getting old and shit, or the sands have shifted a bit

Because everyone got in a rush to copy CoD rather than produce a suitably balanced multiplayer. Annoying isn't it?

Of course, now that they can charge for removing the unbalanced grind, you can expect to see even more of it.

Yeah I did have a bit of a rant about it on Teamspeak tonight (Absolute textbook definition of First World Problems, I do realise that )

Minus the ranting, my points were that Bad Company 2 was the last Battlefield game that got it totally right, BF3 was the first 'CoD-esque' treadmill release and BF4 is that multiplied by a hundred.

The perfectly and exquisitely balanced Battlefields of the past seem like a horribly distant memory now

The most infuriating thing about it is that I now feel like I'm going to have to drop £20-£30 on the BF4 unlock package when it's inevitably released, despite the fact I've paid the bastards the best part of £100 for the fucking game already.

Finally got my eye in with this bugger after the disappointment of last week's session.

Had a chat with one of the chaps on Monday and discussed what the best way to get in the game was, he suggested just thrash the Hardcore Domination mode, as that's tight infantry maps, very fast pace, no vehicles, and crucially, lots of kills. (Kills = unlocks for your guns and more guns. Getting points through other means just levels up your soldier and scores class points.)

So I did very specific search criteria on Hardcore Domination, Operation Locker map (just about the only map I already had a decent feel for), lots of tickets and decent game round length, and for some indication that it was an actively admined UK based server.

Managed to find a fine candidate that runs Operation Locker 24/7 Hardcore Domination, 32 players, 1000 tickets on a 60 minute round length - perfect. UK based was the icing on the cake.

It was hard work at first, but soon managed to get a good chunk of unlocks for the AWFUL starting assault rifle which made it less awful, plus by opening Battlepacks I was able to get other stuff too. By the time I unlocked the M416 even the starter gun had been pimped out enough to make it usable, but I nonetheless it was straight onto the M416 (and back to iron sights), which is one of the most versatile guns in the game.

From there onwards everything went a lot smoother, I now have the M416 almost fully unlocked with all the attachments I need, plus I've unlocked a load of other assault class stuff too, so I have an entirely viable assault class soldier for the next session.

Still pissed off with DICE for implementing a grind requirement in the first place, but I'm over the hump now and having fun with the game, which is the main thing - plus I'm intimately acquainted with every inch of the Operation Locker map, probably about as well I know Dust2, Italy and Aztec in CS, which is saying something....

Platoons are on their way for BF4, which is nice.
I'm not entirely sure what they give us, but I do know that you need 4 people from the same platoon playing at the same time to level your platoon up.

Anybody else on PS4 who is a regular BF4 player, we have 3 who usually play together a couple of times a week but need a 4th

T.