Had the good fortune to start playing (and bad fortune, at the same time o.O) on the last day of an unlocks weekend.
Three best things for me..
Battlewalkers. Not the walking aspect so much as ... I don't actually know, I just don't care if I die, live, get attacked by horny unicorns... don't care. Too much fun to play around with.
Heartbeat monitor thang. BF2 should've had one, at least in Special Forces, because the tech has been around for quite a while already. Mine worked great at first, although it seemed to stop working on certain servers. Not sure if this was just my imagination at play or what.
Squadplay. People join squads, you just have to invite them. Zomg. Awesome. Fantastic. AT BLOODY LAST. I play for a) fun, b) winning the battle. I don't care if I get points while doing it, but if I can help someone else obtain a goal that helps the team - all the better.
I DON'T like the claymore thangs. The other day some guy spawned on a dropship tranceiver, leapt about hurling APMs, and then ran off before we could kill him. Needless to say the two of us unlucky enough to be capping the flag (rather than covering those capping the flag) were dead no matter where we moved. Seemed ridiculous. Otherwise, they're fun to avoid, and help keep you focused, so not complaining too much.
I don't like the APC grenades. They seem somehow inconsistent. I get killed by an APC hurling grenades at me, and I'm in a tank, something doesn't quite make sense. Those are anti-personnel grenades, not anti-vehicle. This much is obvious from the spread-pattern on firing. APCs should have to run from tanks, never the other way around, even if I'm only on half health. Not saying tanks should have higher hit points, but the grenades should only be effective if very precisely placed. Again, I think there should be some sort of random factor built into the damage of all weapons, to simulate those one-in-a-hundred/one-in-a-million type shots (like in BF2, if you hit the rotors in the right place, it should kill em, but never did - a random element would mean it would just pick a bullet sometimes that got into a particular hitbox and said, hey, I'm that critical hit dude, give me my nice shiny chopper kill, thanks!).
I don't like the ground aspect of Titan mode. There's a little too much room around the central flags, which really doesn't get used but serves as hiding places only for snipers. Since those are not infantry-dense maps, this seems entirely wasteful. If the maps were smaller, there'd be less textures, geometry shaders, etc etc to load, and everything would be a liiiittle bit quicker. Not much smaller, mind, the wide-open ground warfare underneath the Titans makes it a rather different game mode to the more generally tight, infantry-dominated Conquest mode - but in the interest of efficiency, they could be smaller.
Conculsionythang:
Generally speaking I like it. There are some issues, like a light assault rifle out-performing a light machine gun. Sorry, that makes no sense - don't care how accurate it is, if both fire simultaneously, the LMG (headshots, downstroke, or body shots, upstroke, either way - I don't mean pure body shots!) is definitely going to kill the other guy, even if he does get a killing shot on you. There are not enough instances of killing the other guy - but he kills you too. This shouldn't be rife, but statistically it should happen at least occasionally, and it's rare even with the vehicles.
The write-up in-game of the repair unlock needs to be rewritten; it definitely gives the impression of some sort of automated system for repair, which it quite clearly is not.
Infantry-dominated battles are nicely intense, require tactical thinking for supremacy, and offer plenty of cover. Nice. BF2 had far too little cover, was endlessly annoying that you had to run out into the open so damned often.
The major move forward, I think, is the fact that even dull-reflexed persons can think tactically enough to outwit those of you who shoot far faster. Just a little bit of caution suddenly goes a helluva long way, whereas in BF2 caution equally meant you'd get shot in the back by some guy who just spawned. The spawn points at flags/silos seem to be a little bit better thought out, so that they do not open immediately onto the flag, but instead can give the impression that the guy who just shot you might easily have sneaked into the flag compound/area from a direction you just couldn't keep tabs on.
The game allows for longer stretches of life, even if you do get shot at. This means you can often regroup, and realise that you just aren't concentrating enough - and improve yourself accordingly, rather than just an endless, seamless string of deaths discouraging you from learning the best way to play the game.
The major downside is not the Networked Battlefield, however. I've seen some people complain about that, but that level of situational awareness IS even-handed. If people with the most unlocks lead squads, their squad gets the benefit, which is fitting - the most experienced lead, and should, until others have the experience to do so as well. Nor is the heartbeat monitor omgwallhaxx0rz!. The active camo is hardly effective, and those with keen eyes have surely noticed that it's a big advantage to YOU, not the sniper, since he has to change weapons, aim, and shoot, while you just cackle at the silly dance he does while you cut him down with a Bianchi...
Teeheehee.
Yeah, overall I very much like it, huge improvement. But that said - they should've damn well got it right with BF2.
Also, IT IS NOT JUST A MOD. If you can't tell that from playing it - IE that there's been significant recoding on very many aspects of the game - then you are, I'm afraid, too ignorant of programming to comment anyway. No offense - but if you don't know it, don't spout it.
Also, can I suggest a Holography Distraction Projector that projects an image of a bikini clad woman holding a coke can, saying, "MMM, what a big weapon you have!"? EA could get some real advertising revenue on that, because I haven't even -seen- any in-game ads. Which shows how effective they are not. Nor have I rushed out in a frenzy to buy products, so the subliminal thing still isn't working... [/mocking of in-game adverts]
Last edited by Auqakuh2213 (2007-02-22 13:17:22)