Battlefield 3 (Holy %#!!)

[Softball]

Check out this trailer for BF3, I'll be picking this up for sure. Looks ALOT like GRAW, but damn it looks good.

http://www.g4tv.com/videos/52441/Battle ... l-Trailer/

[Hammer]

the problem is that it is not milsim, and there are no real missions. we have never really gotten into that kind of game here.

now with that said, the ELH vets (myself included) did play this kind of game against other units all the time. i would love t have enough people involved to participate in a ladder type league. some people would just have to get over the pohbia of playing against other humans and getting beat/losing. it is OK. it is supposed to be fun. of course if you do not like it, that is OK as well.

also, the project reality crew will probably put together a good mod for this eventually.

[Softball]

I'm certainly open to Adversarial with BF3, as long as it's vs other like minded people and not 1337 kiddies. I watched the video (in HD) again today, and I see some similarities to GRAW, in a good way. I'll have to do some research, but I wonder if you can do the campaign MP COOP?

[Softball]

Received my copy of BF3 today, the install process takes a LONG time. Two DVDs = approx. 12GB installed. I'll report back once I get some time on it.

[BlackHawk*K]

hey all.

was curious how many of you guys were going to get this game.. ive been staring at it for some time now

waiting on Softball's take on it.

i havnt been gaming for quite some time. picked up Bad Company 2 a few months ago and its been sort of fun. but haven't been in a unit for ages, and its starting to sound like it could be a lot of fun again lol. if anyone here plays BFBC2 feel free to add me. my sig on that game is NorsekingK.

<S>

[PanzerMeyer]

The Battlefield series type of game play isn't my bag so I'll most likely be skipping on this.

[Softball]

My initial report on BF3...pain in the ass to get installed IMO. First you have to install the Origin client (ala Steam, Impulse, etc...), then the client DLs some files from the DVD and online (updates). Once the game is installed you have to setup Battle Log (web interface which the game runs through) and it gave me some problems due to some ActiveX restrictions I had set on my browser. Once BattleLog was setup, I started the SP Campaign; the other choices were MP and COOP.

Campaign started up with an intro from the unit the character you play as is in. The game play is basically a reflection of several missions (your character is being interrogated by CIA or some other government "officials.") your character went through and are played out by you, the player. I am about 4 missions into the campaign (last mission I played as a co-pilot / gunner of an F-18 Hornet). You are launched from a carrier but you don't control the plane, just launch counter measures, lock up targets, lase targets, and fire weapons. (See video link below). This mission was very reminiscent of the C-130 Spectre gunship mission in CoD, pretty damn cool.

BF3 F-18 Video

Damage:
The damage system is similar to Gears of War, where you take damage and you heal over time or in between mission chapters (I can't remember which); no health packs. Be forwarned: you will die A LOT during your tour.

Ammo / Weapons:
You do run out of ammo, so firing your weapons needlessly will hinder you. The good news is that there are ammo points (ala Left 4 Dead) to refill your ammo, and you can pickup weapons from downed enemies. There are some .50 cals that you can jump on during the campaign as well (unlimited ammo I believe). The campaign is very much scripted, and has sort of invisible walls (if you leave the battle area it will tell you and a timer starts counting down, probably to your death). But that is expected with a BF game. The MP is where the maps and limitations, per say, will make the game shine.

Graphics:
I am running an Nvidia 295GTX and the game automatically sets the game graphics to HIGH. Ultra is the highest. I did have to update my graphics drivers to the latest version to run the game properly (it told me so), so I did update my video drivers. I ran the game at 1920 x 1200 res, with no AA. Textures and most other settings in HIGH (default). The game ran very smooth on my Quad Core CPU (3.0Ghz, 45nm) and 295GTX, and I did not have any slow downs during the game play. Graphics in game are jaw dropping and near 3D rendering quality. Best military shooter graphics I have seen to date.

That's all I have for now. If you have any questions about the game, ask away and I'll try and answer them the best I can. I'll update with more info as I get the time.

[BlackHawk*K]

hmm i have been staring at the website all day lol. watching the videos etc.. i think i may go ahead and get this.. my GPU may be a little low (GTX 550) but i think it should work. im interested in the online co-op. that should be interesting too. living with 3 teens and work kept me from the online play for awhile. but since work got a little slow, i might have some decent time to put into a game

[Hammer]

well, it would be nice to know what is there for coop. do they have bots? or can you only play the campaign coop? unit play vs other units in a ladder might be nice, but i would really prefer a realism mod to do it in. anyone see if project reality is still around and will be addressing the game?

[Hammer]

oh, and very nice to see you around BH!

[Softball]

I'm a few more missions into the campaign, pretty damn cool / fun so far. I can see how this would be a blast in MP. Some of the missions were pretty challenging (I die a lot, heh) but I eventually made it through them.

MP COOP looks like it has some special maps, not sure if it's the campaign or not. I can't test it without another online player it seems. It won't let me start a COOP game solo, go figure.

Let me know when you pickup the game BH, I'd like to try the MP COOP as well.

[BlackHawk*K]

hey Softball,i got the game and i agree with your statements so far. my player name is VoidHawkK.

the MP of the game gets irritating like most parts of the BF games i have played.. you start low rank with only 1 weapon. and its not the best one of the bunch. meanwhile everyone else has played longer and has better weapons..the good news is, you can swap your kit with a dead soldiers so that CAN help that.

i like BF3 over BFBC2 in the fact the helicopters are no longer the omnipotent vehicles they were.. ground troop engineers now have a stinger missile for aircraft (YAY!!)
there are a lot more additions and mods to the weapons.. the downfall for the mods is that you have to earn them threw kills PER WEAPON. meaning if you unlock a mod for 1 weapon, they dont blanket over to other weapons even of the same type.
the graphics are awesome. although it does stress out my GTX 550 ti graphics card. i had to turn the fan on to manual and all the way up to keep it cool enough. and i am playing with low settings at this point and it now seems stable.
the vehicles seem a lot more balanced in this version of the game.. yes, you can do a lot of damage with a tank if done right. but a few engineers can take them out no problem if done right. the same with the other vehicles. in fact i enjoy sniping jeep drivers quite a lot, and the good 5-10 seconds it takes for the gunner to figure out what happened is priceless. especially if get to snipe him too lol

for the people who like a more realistic feel. they do have a hardcore mode. it does not have minimap,health indicator,ammo indicator, 3d spotting, or kill cam. and on some servers it seems like it takes less shots to kill. but then, they also had this on BFBC2.

i actually have been enjoying this game more then BFBC2, once i got used to the differences. the only thing i dont like is the matches dont seem long enough. 500 tickets seems to go by pretty fast. i primarily use recon (sniper etc) then engineer. but have been playing medic some latly and it seems to be a good choice and think maybe i should of started with that instead lol.

well thats my 2 cents at this point.

[Hammer]

is project reality going to do a mod for it?

[BlackHawk*K]

i dont know. havnt seen any mention on their website. the most current news i could find is about Arma2 and they did something with BF2 in August.

[BlackHawk*K]

just an update about this game.. ive played it quite a lot in MP.. so far i have no friends.. ( yea sad.. but im ok with that lol ) so havnt tried the MP co-op yet. i think this game is a lot different then BF2 threw BFBC2.. the feel is different and the graphics engine is MUCH better. i may get the expansion, mainly because i do get tired of the limited amount of MP maps..

Pros.
so far, they have done a few patches, and balances to try to get a more realistic specs on some of the weapons. and so far, ( do you note a hint of doubt this will last threw out the games lifespan? hehe) they seem to be listening to the 'wish list' forums and working on implementing it into future game patches.

it seems a lot more realistic.. for example.. breathing while using a 6x and above scope, makes the cross hairs move. you use the 'sprint' key to hold your breath in able to steady the scope.
another thing that i like about the BF games that they of course included in BF3, is the bullet drop. ive played a few other games like this, and most of them, while some have the "fire cone" ( where the more you fire the more spread out your shots are because of recoil) they are pretty much hit where the cross hairs are, not taking in account distances. yea gravity sucks, but its there ;) to me, this makes this game a bit more about skill. especially using the Recon (sniper) setup.

cons.
this game is not a sim by any means. i mean a spawn beacon?? yea im sure that happens in RL... and im not really impressed with the whole Origin setup to play the game.. ive had some problems with updates. i bought the game online. so i had to download it.. its now 15 gigs. and each time i get a update, i have to basically re-download the whole game and install it again. ( thankfully i have high speed cable) its not supposed to work that way. its supposed to just update the game with additional DL. but for some reason it dosnt work for me, and i have read a few complaints about it on the forums about it as well. the whole Battlelog thing is ok i guess. in a lot of ways, it reminds me a Facebook for Battlefield. i have one person i befriended while playing so far. and i get updates on things he did as well as my achievements. so it is kinda cool i guess. but if your not into it? in not sure you can turn it off.

for those of you who defiantly like the more realistic feel of the game. do the hardcore servers.... especially with friendly fire. if you had a server, you can actually setup the preferences to your liking, things like how many bullets it takes to kill a person. and many other options. if your looking for a totally realistic infantry ( with tanks, jeeps, jets, heli, ect.) sim, then unless you can control a server and figure out how to set it up to be the most realistic as possible, then this game may not be for you.

if you enjoy this type of game, but want one that you have to develop some skills to be effective, then i think its worth a shot. to be honest, while i have played a few other combat games, ghost recon, call of duty, ect. i have mainly played the battlefield series. so there are probably quite a few games out there i really dont know about. for me, the game is challenging and fun. ( challenging is the most important part. ) i enjoy games where a certain amount of skill is involved and this seems to fill that for now.

anyhow, thought i would update after playing a bit ( now rank 38 with a nice 2090 sniper kills lol ) if you get the game and if you want to, my BF3 game name is VoidHawkK. please feel free to add me to your friend list.. i dont have any voice chat setup. but i did get another headset so would be willing to DL and setup it up to play. ( kids got a hold of my old one.. got to love them...i guess..grrr )

[Hammer]

BH,
does it have a dedicated server that comes with it? do you know the requirements on that?

have you found any realism mods for it yet? it may still be too early though.

[Hammer]

BH, sent you a friend request via Origin. hlfritz i what i think it wil show up as.

SB, what is your Origin ID so I can send a friend request?

[BlackHawk*K]

Got it and accepted hammer.

hope to see ya on the battlefield sometime soon..

im been doing some team/squad deathmatch.. kinda interesting.. good to go play with weapons on and see how they effect other players etc. will tell you strait up it may be a good idea to get used to dying a lot with MP.. at least till you get some decent weapons unlocked and some unlocks for them.. i am a bit surprised though, some of the first weapons you get seem to do a decent job. especially after you get the 4x scope attachment or the IR scope.
i havnt done a lot of Rush games so far. i generally do conquest .

but i have to say, i have been saving my co-op missions for you guys here on RL gaming just in case.. so if you guys are in the mood send me a message.

[Hammer]

BH, are you up on teamspeak? just grab the latest client and connect to the server. the server info is in the servers forum, let me know if you cannot see it.

i have a friend that will do the coop missions, and we will have to see if we can peel SB away from SWTOR for any amount of time.

[Softball]

I believe it's "zoftball".