THOUGHTS:BF vs COD & Battlefield 3 Beta

STOP! IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE DETAILS OF THE BATTLEFIELD 3 BETA AS WELL AS OVERALL BF TIPS, SCROLL DOWN!

October is here.. and aside from the awesome festivities that this month brings --like Oktoberfest, Halloween, and midterms.. Ok, not midterms-- It is also a time when blockbuster games release. Think of the fall season as what the summer season is to movie releases. Yeah, one can also count the winter holiday sales as part of this, but nothing really releases during the holiday season. Obviously, it's an important time for companies, but typically, blockbuster and hyped up titles tend to release before Thanksgiving and after the New Year. October in particular has many returning franchise titles as well as some new ones. The 4th sees the release of Ubisoft's Ghost Recon Future Soldier, 2K Games NBA 2K12 & The Darkness 2, and Id's Rage. Namco-Bandai's Ace Combat Assault Horizon drops on the 11th as well as Turn 10's Forza Motorsport 4, and Ubisoft's Just Dance 3. The 18th has Rocksteady's Batman Arkham City and Sony's Rachet and Clank: All 4 One releasing. Out of all these games releasing, the most anticipated and extremely hyped up game coming this month (and probably all year) is none other than EAs Battlefield 3 (October 25th). Not to be confused with Battlefield Bad Company and BC2, BF3 is a sequel to 2005's BF2 which was only released on the PC (with the exception of the spinoff Battlefield 2: Modern Combat..which paled when compared to BF2).

EA has been relentless with it's aggressive marketing campaign which aims to dethrone the current king of shooters, Call of Duty. They even stoop to extremely low levels by calling out the validity of Call of Duty and their very recent TV spot trailer with Jay-Z's 99 Problems and the rather humorous tagline "Above And Beyond The Call." Despite the low blows, it's only natural for EA (or any other contender) to go toe to toe with Call of Duty.

EA: trololo

Activision: okay...

On the flip side, Call of Duty has not changed it's core formula since Call of Duty 2. In fact, in terms of gameplay, it took a step back since the best COD game, United Offensive on the PC, had vehicles, and every COD game until MW2 had 64 players and full control over the servers. By the time MW2 released, the games lead development platform switched to consoles, in what was to become the best move Activision made. MW2 and Black Ops sold like hotcakes with Black Ops in particular becoming the highest grossing video game in history. A number of things went wrong with this.. the first thing is that they just about alienated the entire PC community with the removal of 64 players, and dedicated servers in MW2. The PC community retaliated by relentless circumvention of the security measures that were put in place to prevent cheating in multiplayer matches. Activision and developer Treyarch attempted to fix this in Black Ops with the re-introduction of dedicated servers, but because the code was so terribly written, and the account that Activision must control some aspect of your gaming experience on the PC side, the dedicated servers were all but broken. Another thing that places the validity of supremacy was the return rate of Black Ops. Yeah, it sold like no other, but a large number of customers also returned or traded their copies in for whatever reason.

EA and developer DICE took another approach and used their console developed Bad Company series as a testbed for a new engine called the Frostbite Engine. The main purpose of the engine was to create a destructible environment potentially eliminating a potential campers hiding spot (i.e sniper in the attic of a building? Blow a hole on the roof, or just take the entire building down.). With the amount of data and feedback from the Bad Company games, DICE started to create the 2nd generation of Frostbite to use in their next title, Battlefield 3. The result? Well, This:

Unlike Activision and developers Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, who continues to use the same IW 4 engine (since Call of Duty 2) for MW3, EA and DICE used a completely new engine for BF3, and it's a technical beauty to say the least and it doesn't stop at my opinion. At E3 (aka game nerd heaven), BF3 was nominated for 81 awards and won 47 while MW3 won none. At Gamescom (aka European game nerd heaven), BF3 won best in show and had an average play booth queue of 3 hours as opposed to MW3 (no line). BF3 is a technical marvel that captured the hearts of critics and end-users well before release. In fact, Activision attempted to circumvent EA's fun by hosting a convention dedicated to Call of Duty, and while new information about their upcoming title was released, the attendance never sold as well as they wanted to. Despite that and all the praise from the community, I think that BF3 will not be enough to kick Call of Duty off it's high chair. The fact that Call of Duty is easy to pickup and play is reason enough to outsell BF3 this holiday season. The name alone prompts sales. Another reason (and a new development) is how DICE is currently running their highly advertised Open Beta (I'll get into detail about that one in the Beta section). It's should have been an extremely limited and closed beta. First impressions are lasting impressions and they failed to address that to the ignorant community (which is quite a few gamers).

Gamescom In Cologne

Despite what happens, these two games pretty much sealed the deal as to what defines this generation and it's fan base, and it's rather grim to tell you the truth. This generation showed a relentless amount of allegiances, fanboy-ism (blind and utter support for a game, franchise, or platform), and overall stupidity. If you play on Xbox Live, or PSN, you hear it every time you hear a screaming 8 year old kid on your headset (what are you doing playing a game like this anyway?). This generation also thrives on what is known rather than looking for innovation. Take Call of Duty for instance. Same formula since COD2, and they took steps backwards, yet everyone eats that shit up. It's ridiculous. I stopped playing habitually after Call of Duty 4, because nothing has changed since then. Yeah, you'll see on Black Ops every so often, but I can only take so much ugliness, jagged edges, and people who shouldn't be allowed to speak before I have to just turn it off (although Combat Training on Hardened is insane... trust me. I recommend regular unless you have the speed and accuracy of a mouse). 

This generation shall be forever dubbed Generation Derp.

Battlefield 3 Beta

Before I begin, do any of you even know what a Beta is? No? Well then, a beta is second stage in a software development phase and it is used as a testbed for a variety of different aspects of a program. The idea is to provide a source to layout the likes and dislikes of the program as well as glitches, and bugs so the developers can act on it. In the BF3 Beta's case, it's older build of the code (about a month old), and the technical purpose of this beta was to test the server backend and stress test the servers. Another thing to take into account is the fact that a lot of beta's are bound to have major graphic issues such as screen tearing, flashing, going into the map, etc. It happens. So what does the Average Joe think what a beta is? It's a demo. WRONG! Demo's are limited representations of a final product (code). Such examples would be the Forza 4 DEMO or if any of you remember, the Battlefield 2 DEMO. Demo = limited representation of final code. The BF3 beta IS NOT final code. This was stated well before the beta released. This was also restated today (3 October 11) on the official Battlefield blog and reposted on Battlelog forum.

So What's In The Beta?
Initially, the beta supplied 2 maps: Operation Metro and Caspian Border. Operation Metro is a linear style objective based map (or Rush) in which one faction has to destroy these objects called MComs. MComs just look like a piece of electronic equipment with a screen. The other faction has to defend the MComs from being destroyed. Failure to do so will result in the attacking faction advancing the map to another area and they have to jump that hurdle to get to the next, so on, and so on. Both sides are subject to ticket counters and the tickets represent how many respawns the attacking team uses. When the ticket counter reaches 0, the defending force wins the round. In this case, Op Metro has 4 different sections. Rush mode, in my opinion, is more of a console-centric mode which played well into the Bad Company series. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun mode to play, but I prefer playing the staple mode  of this franchise, Conquest. Conquest places two factions on a huge map, and the objective is to obtain and hold different bases (or flags) spread throughout the map. Obviously, the more bases you hold by the end of the round determines the winner. To be more technical, this is also ticket base, and it takes into account how many bases you're holding. You don't necessarily have to control the most bases by the end of the round, but if you held the majority of the bases for most of the match, you're going to win because of the ticket count.

Operation Metro (1st Section)

Operation Metro (2nd section)

While the console player is stuck with only Operation Metro to play (for now anyway..who knows), the PC players, and the early beta testers in particular, were graced with Caspian Border. Caspian is a Conquest map with 64 players, vehicles, helicopters, and jets. This is the way the REAL Battlefield is supposed to be played (of course, IMO). 

Caspian Border

So as I said, not many people got a chance to play Caspian. They only had 10 servers up in total (4 in the US only!), and everyone around the country was trying to get in. Because of that, lag was heavily present at certain times, but I was able to get some playtime in without much hiccup. This map is HUGE! player clutter was to a minimum and there were plenty of action to be had. During my playtime, I was just exploring and testing things like mowing down a concrete building with the AA guns, attempting to destroy the massive tower that was in the middle of the map (failed to), and shooting down aircraft. It's sad that EA/DICE didn't just leave this map in the open beta because this better represents what's in store for us come October 25th. Anyway, I'm going to let some of these pics speak for the map. It was a blast to play while it lasted.

Caspian Border

For you aircraft savvy type, that is a F/A-18E Super Hornet

A building used to be there..

My LAV AA, and a AH-1Z Cobra

Water..just water.

Comparing..

So you may be thinking that I'm dominantly PC, right? Well yes, but that doesn't mean that I won't play on console. For the purpose of comparing multiple aspects, I downloaded and played ALL versions of the game. So how did it all stack up?

Graphics

Of course, the PC version dominates this category. It's using DirectX 11 and it shows well in my pics, as well as the videos that Dice released. Many technical aspects are very present (I won't go into it, but any tech savvy folk would know what comes with DX11) and surprisingly, it doesn't hit my frame count that bad. I can run Ultra settings at 30 - 40fps (1920 x 1080 or 1080p) with my first gen Intel i7 CPU, but I know i'm going to keep it on High setting since I have about 60fps. As for the console version, comparing them to the PC is futile. Face the facts, fangirls. It's futile. Unfortunately, Battlelog doesn't have a screenshot feature like it's older cousin Autolog (for Need For Speed), so I couldn't do side by side comparing. My comparing is solely based on what I seen when I played and what was used to render the game. Technically, the PS3 is the dominate version over the 360. It wasn't by much, but it is the dominate version. The PS3 version is using more PC-centric post processing that may not be noticeable when you're casually playing, but they are there (tech stuff such as MLAA). I haven't seen too many frame slowdown, but I have seen graphic glitches for both versions. As far as which version is sharper, it would be the 360 version, but that's only because they upscale all their games to 1080p. Now before you rant to me that the 360 version is better because of that, hold your tongues, because both versions are rendered below 720p. Yeah, you heard me, BELOW 720p. In order to keep all the foliage and other items in the game, Dice had to take about 8 lines (4 on the top, 4 on the bottom) of rendering off of both versions to keep it running fine for the consoles. Remember, Battlefield 3 is a PC developed game, and it had to be ported to the consoles (not the other way around like Bad Company, MW, etc). Things were sacrificed in order for the game to run decently on the consoles. Another issue with the 360 version is how heavy the contrast is. I don't know if it's just the HDR, but it's extra dark in some places. This is only a minor issue since the end user (that's you) should be adjusting their screens accordingly. Overall, both versions are fine...unless they're compared to the PC version. 

Nope, you're not getting this clarity on the PS3/360 version. Fact.

UPDATE! Here is a comparison video of all 3 versions! TO SEE THE FULL CLARITY, HIT THE FULL SCREEN BUTTON AND SET IT TO 1080P

 

Gameplay / Experience

Comparing the gameplay is merely based on the community, and all three are different. All 3 have problems.. If you are playing on the PC, it's typical BF antics. Elitists. Glitchers. Hackers. It doesn't take away from the experience, but they are present. Sometimes the best solution is to just Alt+F4 and not deal with it. We have 100 servers to choose from. The PS3 and 360 versions are heavily (but still manageable ) filled with Call of Duty style players. You also have to deal with people in your squad talking. Unless you're playing in a party, I typically plug in my headset and set it aside. It's not so much the annoying little kids that ruin my experience. In fact, I haven't heard too many of them. It's the little older teens and 1st year college folk that ruin it. They complain and cry just as much as they post crap on the battlelog forum. Anyway, a number of players play Op Metro as if they're playing Nuketown on Black Ops. They don't arm any MCom's, they camp in the bushes, and did I mention that they whine over the mic/chatbox? Typically, I have to live with it on consoles, but for the PC, it's not too much of a problem.

Now here is something that plagues all 3 versions: Recon. First of all, many folks don't know how to play recon. They don't spot. They don't cover folks going for the MCom. They always try to quickscope. THIS IS NOT CALL OF DUTY! STOP IT, NOW! This is team objective based. You're not an Army of One. Quickscoping doesn't work. It's not laser tag either. Gravity is accounted for! Camping in the bushes as an attacker doesn't help the team....at all.

Tips and Advice

So, this is for you Call of Duty players jumping ship. Follow them and you can dominate while winning the objective:

• As I said up top, stop trying to quickscope! It doesn't work here. 
• If you're a Recon in the attacking team, move up! Especially if your team has armed an MCom. You become an asset when you're in a position to send bullets downrange and defend the MCom from being disarmed.
• You can't hide no more. Notice the glare downrange... that's you through an opponents eyes. Another reason why this is not Call of Duty. There is actual skill required to dominate with a sniper rifle
• Learn to use iron sights. Hitting the Customize button will send to a menu where you can set up your weapon. Take the scope out of the equation. Use the iron sights. Not only will that eliminate the glare you produce with a scope, it forces you to keep moving and get close, if anything, arm the MCom.
• Recon's have Mobile spawnpoints. Use them, if you can get close to an MCom. Drop one, and your squad can spawn with you. Place them in an obscured area and a covered area because you'll be spawning standing up.
• For Assault, remember, you're the medic too! If you're not rushing or defending the MCom, you can drop health boxes and heal everyone around you.
• If you Assault folks have defibs, don't be a dumbass and revive folks in the middle of a corridor with 3 enemies shooting downrange. You'll probably give that guy another notch in their k/d as well as you dying yourself. Be smart about reviving.
• Engineers! You can cause the most havoc in the game! The setup makes you extremely mobile and you carry the rocket launchers If you see 3 enemies down a corridor, snap shoot an RPG downrange! If someone is hiding in a building, or behind certain walls, chances are that the wall is destructible. Take the cover out of the equation.
• Support. Use the bipod on your LMG. It's not there for looks. Using it can significantly increase accuracy. 
• Unless you're suppressing a target, send short bursts down range. Infact, if you're able to, switch the fire mode to semi. More control = more kills (press V for PC, Down on the D-Pad for console).
• Every situation is different. Check and change you configuration as you see fit. i.e close quarters may be grounds for using guns like a UMP, PP2000, or M870.
• While we're on configurations, accessories within the gun should also change according to the situation. If you're in a wide open field, use a laser sight to keep your position low-key, but you're still able to hinder your enemies vision. If you're in dark areas, equip a tact light or use a pistol with a light. The lights are blinding and you can get your kills that way.
• Suppressing is not just a term in this game, it's an actual effect. Send bullets downrange and you can blur the opponents vision and if used correctly, another person can rush that position and take out those pesky campers who won't move up.
• Some buildings can be used to your advantage. if you have someone on the ground level of a destructible building, shoot above (Engineers) the person and watch the rubble crash onto the enemy. 
• When knifing, you press and hold the fire key to see the super funny and satisfying knife kill (and dog tag yanking).
• For all classes: Gravity is present in this game. This is not laser tag like Call of Duty. You have to account for bullet drop:

Bullet drop....learn it, noob!

• Lastly, DON'T WORRY ABOUT YOUR KILL/DEATH RATIO! That doesn't matter in Battlefield games. Getting the objective done will win you the match.

Have fun! The beta runs into the 13th, and it's open and free. Download it, play it, report the bugs.