Battlefield 3 (360/PS3/PC)

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

Anybody else seen this? Absolutely mental!!:

[Btang84]

Ha yes! Was going to post that earlier but wasn't sure how to put videos in a post. The "James Bond" edition from a while back was mental but this is on another level altogether. Just shows you how versatile the game really is.

[charlesr]

Even though it's been out for a week on the PS3, I've only had one or two goes on it and just played 3 of the new maps. The problem now is that people have seemingly deserted the game. Before, the servers were full and it was regularly 12 v 12 but that's dropped significantly and we can't be bothered to leave the game and make a squad, get into another server only for the next game to be near-empty once more.

Did have one go on Wake Island and that was mayhem. There are some disgustingly good Viper pilots around and they'll just stay in the skies for the entirety of the game. People are also finally spotting! Had some games when the mini-map was full of red arrows, hadn't seen that at all in the first month of play in the game.

Maybe just a PS3 thing? The 360 servers are wall to wall and loads of people are spotting and defibbing and generally working as a team.

[Rossco]

Nope, I've played this on 360 a good bit the last week with a full squad of my pals usually and it's been EMPTY. I honestly haven't seen one game that's been 12 on 12. It's ridiculous.

[EvilBoris]

I couldn't find a game that had 4 spaces on Wednesday!

['Press Start']

Anybody else seen this? Absolutely mental!!:

He has played Halo 3 online for sure!

[Matt]

I find loads of people bringing you back to life in the most ridiculous situations, but support guys tend to be idiots who don't drop ammo - you shout for it, you have the icon over your head, you run up to the guys and jump up and down in front of them. Nothing. Idiots.

Been having a great time with this. The B2K pack really shows how limited many of the BF3 standard maps are - they're BC2 maps, not BF maps BF maps need more possibilities. But then you hit issues in say Karkand that half the map is unexplored due to the limited player count, and fewer capture points (the villa has none, for example, so many players will never, ever see that area).

They're still wonderful maps and I am enjoying it so much. If I manage to pick up a bit of film work next year a new PC may well be on the cards

[stevie vip 99]

Hell yeah that's cool

[Matt]

Just like every BF game, the air vehicles are now ****ing up the game. A combination of people improving, the last patch making them more powerful, and the usual BF issue that engineers can repair things too quickly.

I don't think Dice know how to balance air vehicles. A strange thing to say maybe. When the game first launched, a single ground to air would disable planes, or take down the LittleBird in one. I felt it was a bit easy, but it was still new. The air bonuses weren't unlocked. Flare use could counter anti air, so it worked ok. Then they patched it and air vehicles can take a pounding. Even the Little Bird doesn't go down in one. Add Stealth so it takes much longer to lock on, and the very limited distance of both the lock on reticle and the missiles themselves, and people simply outrun them now. Duck behind a hill.

Last night a LittleBird just wouldn't go down. 2 of us trying, timing it to keep a constant stream. First shot would miss because of flares, next 2 we'd both hit. But there was an engineer on the side constantly repairing it. We just couln't take it down. A whole game like that.

The improved armour may work on the PC where there are potentially loads more people with ground to air, but with small 12 man teams you rarely get more than 2 trying to take out air vehicles.

And if you do manage it, the vehicles respawn far too quickly.

Sigh.

[nonny]

Yeah I don't like that they've nerfed engineer ground to air. The last patch did make it a one shot kill from MBTs on any aircraft but most tanks are more likely to be taking out ground targets and it still isn't easy to hit helicopters with the main tank gun.

I figured when DICE changed this they were aiming to prepare for people having all equipment unlocked and ground soldiers using the SOFLAM for quick lock ons but having engineers repairing literally on-the-fly is making it nigh on impossible to bring them down.

I'm sure it's something they'll be addressing in future. To be honest I don't think people are using the SOFLAM that much? I've only seen it used effectively on a few sessions.

[Matt]

Thing is, it was the same in BF2. A couple of engineers in a helo and you'd have a nightmare taking it down. I don't see why they keep repeating "this mistake" unless it's by design. So I'm not sure it is going to be addressed. In truth I think they need to differentiate different damage models between console and PC.

And if you do take something down with Stingers, the pilot and crew just jump out, denying you hard earned points. Always felt taking down a vehicle should be worth more than the 100 points you get (sometimes 150 if it counts the Disabled Vehicle points as well). Given the amount of time and work it takes.

SOFLAM may be great, but having tried it with a mate while I shot the Javelin, it wasn't particularly effective. Plus with only 12 players a side, a couple of which are in planes themselves, the numbers work

I've even had the tank not take down helos in one shot recently. This has happened on a couple of locations - main gun, hitting in a variety of places, and not always taking it down. Annoying. I've even shot people clean out of the transport helo with a tank round and not taken it down! Still, was funny seeing the ragdolls falling out

I'd like to see aircraft have to return to base for any repairs. Stinger lock-on either has to be halfed, or damage doubled. And scrap inflight engineers - you want to repair it, you have to land it first.

[EvilBoris]

I feel its the massive lack of coordination you need between players and classes that makes most of the features in the game so ineffectual.

[nonny]

Yeah that is an issue. I'm still pretty sure most players don't know all there is to do on each class in this. DICE really should have added tutorial videos for each role & equipment.

With the helos they shouldn't be repairable during flight. Simple as that. If you're damaged get out of range, land & repair. It was like that in BFBC2 and Vietnam. I feel it should be the same here and perhaps with the SOFLAM make it so that adds extra damage.

[Matt]

I feel its the massive lack of coordination you need between players and classes that makes most of the features in the game so ineffectual.

That is certainly a large part of it, but when 2 people working ground to air homing missles can't take down a tiny helo it's an issue with the balance as well.

You have a team of 12. So you may have 1 or 2 of your team in planes, or half of them in helos as well. The number of people needed to take that LittleBird down could be 4 people coordinating their Stingers. That's stupid.

Best fix I can think of - an onboard engineer can keep them flying, but only up to 20percent health. Hard to fly and one more hit will take you down. To repair more, you should have to land.

And reduce the engineers repair speed by maybe a third. And once you lose a plane, it takes 2 to 3 minutes to respawn, not 30 seconds.

[Kungfu]

So up and down tonight, quite a challenge with randoms but it makes me laugh how bad some teams can be. Somehow managed to keep my spm at 338. Playing without friends does improve your ability until you run into a skilled squad.