Darren S
ClioSport Club Member
What has happened? Where did it all go wrong?
As an avid BF player from the original days of the BF1942 Tobruk demo, I've seen the series develop, evolve and progress over the years. The pinnacle (for me) without doubt was BF2142, where they balanced game progression with worthy upgrades. Standard kit was certainly decent enough, but to perfect your chosen class, you really needed the likes of the Pilum anti-armour rifle for the engineer or the Zeller-H for the recon/sniper. It was fun, intense and above all balanced in a way that I didn't think could be improved.
Then along came Bad Company 2. Not only did this have a really enjoyable SP campaign, but seemed to follow a similar ethos to how you progressed in BF2142. Map designs were great, though perhaps the biggest flaw with the weapons was when you progressed far enough to unlock the M416, that pretty much became your stock item. Accurate from the hip or scope, quick to fire and with decent damage - it did pretty much everything well.
The next inline was BF3 and this was where things started to derail somewhat. The controls were far more biased towards pad play (which doesn't work well being a life-long keyboard and mouse user!) and there was a worrying tendency towards the uber-unlocks. These allowed players who had played the game sufficiently to learn the map layout, the added bonus of equipping themselves with kit that was massively more powerful that the standard on offer. The gulf between pro and casual players started to emerge - the have and have-nots of the FPS world. The top flight grinding away for their next piece of kit while the new player got rinsed. Not a couple of times, but with cannon-fodder stats.
I was hoping BF4 would address this - dial it back somewhat to even the field and above all - make the game much more fun to play for everyone. It didn't. It felt more console-centric and with a hideous input method for PC players from the get-go. Though this has been addressed long ago - there are silly, stupid quirks that still exist to this day - having the 'R' key defaulting to pick-up weapons when the rest of the known universe has used 'E' for decades.
I've recently watched a few BF4 videos on Youtube and thought about having another dabble of BF4. It looked fun and maybe I misjudged the game in the earlier tries. Afterall, the putrid, fetid, steaming pile of puss that was BF1 online, must have come from good stock originally? The other benefit was having a much better PC now to play it on - so of course, all the eye-candy was set to Ultra for the definitive BF4 experience.
So I was set to go after the download and install. Only to see that I had yet another 14 gold battlepacks sat there, waiting to be opened. Really? So I go through those, shrugging slightly at the meaningless drivel of this bit for an MP7, this bit for an UMP-5, etc - config my inputs and have a dabble on the Test Range to get back into the feel of it. Tweak the input speeds a bit faster, correct a few defaults and it felt good. Turns out that I'm already Rank 30 from previous dabbles at it, but I have over twenty-six 100% XP boosters (plus others) that I can apply. Fooking lol. Deary me - OK, I'll go along with the BS and stick on a 100% booster for the next hour. Because as well you know, why just play the game when you can double your progression rate with a freebie plug-in?
First round - I get utterly nailed - as to be expected. I think I was on 5-14 for a K/D total but it was on one of those boring infantry-only maps that I never play BF for. BF needs vehicles - that's what always distinguished it from the COD alternative. Entering into a constant meat-grinder of subways and corridors to be killed again and again, gets very boring, very quickly. Second round, I find a SINGLE server running Rush Mode...... I click on it and join a squad - running up the first sand-dune to join my nearby comrades, only for the round to finish and be told that our side has won. I scored more points in that ten seconds than I did for the entire round before and by some voodoo of boosters, I was now Rank 32 (pssst.... does that actually mean anything?)
Staying on the Rush server, I start the next round afresh - choosing my preferred engineer class and wanting to damage the opposing vehicle tally in anyway I can. I watch on the 2D map a red tank moving at ridiculous speed - not only forwards, but backwards too, presumably to get repaired. In-between dying I manage to hit the tank on four separate occasions with the AT missile - the most damage scored? 9 out of 100. I man the fixed guns, kill a few opposition and repair my friendly tank that's doing the rounds. I hit other vehicles with similarly ineffective toothpick-against-a-brick-wall results and then have to call it a day, several minutes into the round.
Before quitting, I glance at the scoreboard. The round has 42 minutes to go (assuming the objectives aren't destroyed first) - but look at the scores...
This isn't skill. This isn't ability or general fun for all concerned. It's two different people jumping into tanks and exploiting not only poor game-design by EA/DICE, but also in-game choices that allow them to literally run amok through the map, almost impervious to anything thrown their way. This didn't happen in BF2142. This certainly happened a lot less in BF:BC2. All the while, the constant bitching, moaning, hackorz and general insults are like a constant stream in the top left corner.
I loved Battlefield. It was my default go-to game for years on a Saturday afternoon. Some games awful but the majority a right laugh, tense and properly entertaining. I've aged eighteen years since the first BF title and I'm certainly not going to sit here and say that my reactions are as dexterous as back then. But for me, what BF was and to some extent, what it represented for a long time has just whittled down to this hollow husk of game that is a sad semblance of what it was in its hay-day.
Please EA/DICE - just stop and think. You're driven by sales, by DLCs and 'add-ons' that status hungry players want. I get that - your bean-counters demand that. But don't forget what you're supposed to be providing for the mainstream player. You've a legacy to maintain - an expansive back catalogue of some great titles, yet you're ruining the core experience with meaningless tat whilst rewarding players so far up the leaderboard and bragging rights, to be pretty much unstoppable.
What BF6 will bring is anyone's guess. But if it's anything like the recent offerings, I'm out. And that is such a shame.
As an avid BF player from the original days of the BF1942 Tobruk demo, I've seen the series develop, evolve and progress over the years. The pinnacle (for me) without doubt was BF2142, where they balanced game progression with worthy upgrades. Standard kit was certainly decent enough, but to perfect your chosen class, you really needed the likes of the Pilum anti-armour rifle for the engineer or the Zeller-H for the recon/sniper. It was fun, intense and above all balanced in a way that I didn't think could be improved.
Then along came Bad Company 2. Not only did this have a really enjoyable SP campaign, but seemed to follow a similar ethos to how you progressed in BF2142. Map designs were great, though perhaps the biggest flaw with the weapons was when you progressed far enough to unlock the M416, that pretty much became your stock item. Accurate from the hip or scope, quick to fire and with decent damage - it did pretty much everything well.
The next inline was BF3 and this was where things started to derail somewhat. The controls were far more biased towards pad play (which doesn't work well being a life-long keyboard and mouse user!) and there was a worrying tendency towards the uber-unlocks. These allowed players who had played the game sufficiently to learn the map layout, the added bonus of equipping themselves with kit that was massively more powerful that the standard on offer. The gulf between pro and casual players started to emerge - the have and have-nots of the FPS world. The top flight grinding away for their next piece of kit while the new player got rinsed. Not a couple of times, but with cannon-fodder stats.
I was hoping BF4 would address this - dial it back somewhat to even the field and above all - make the game much more fun to play for everyone. It didn't. It felt more console-centric and with a hideous input method for PC players from the get-go. Though this has been addressed long ago - there are silly, stupid quirks that still exist to this day - having the 'R' key defaulting to pick-up weapons when the rest of the known universe has used 'E' for decades.
I've recently watched a few BF4 videos on Youtube and thought about having another dabble of BF4. It looked fun and maybe I misjudged the game in the earlier tries. Afterall, the putrid, fetid, steaming pile of puss that was BF1 online, must have come from good stock originally? The other benefit was having a much better PC now to play it on - so of course, all the eye-candy was set to Ultra for the definitive BF4 experience.
So I was set to go after the download and install. Only to see that I had yet another 14 gold battlepacks sat there, waiting to be opened. Really? So I go through those, shrugging slightly at the meaningless drivel of this bit for an MP7, this bit for an UMP-5, etc - config my inputs and have a dabble on the Test Range to get back into the feel of it. Tweak the input speeds a bit faster, correct a few defaults and it felt good. Turns out that I'm already Rank 30 from previous dabbles at it, but I have over twenty-six 100% XP boosters (plus others) that I can apply. Fooking lol. Deary me - OK, I'll go along with the BS and stick on a 100% booster for the next hour. Because as well you know, why just play the game when you can double your progression rate with a freebie plug-in?
First round - I get utterly nailed - as to be expected. I think I was on 5-14 for a K/D total but it was on one of those boring infantry-only maps that I never play BF for. BF needs vehicles - that's what always distinguished it from the COD alternative. Entering into a constant meat-grinder of subways and corridors to be killed again and again, gets very boring, very quickly. Second round, I find a SINGLE server running Rush Mode...... I click on it and join a squad - running up the first sand-dune to join my nearby comrades, only for the round to finish and be told that our side has won. I scored more points in that ten seconds than I did for the entire round before and by some voodoo of boosters, I was now Rank 32 (pssst.... does that actually mean anything?)
Staying on the Rush server, I start the next round afresh - choosing my preferred engineer class and wanting to damage the opposing vehicle tally in anyway I can. I watch on the 2D map a red tank moving at ridiculous speed - not only forwards, but backwards too, presumably to get repaired. In-between dying I manage to hit the tank on four separate occasions with the AT missile - the most damage scored? 9 out of 100. I man the fixed guns, kill a few opposition and repair my friendly tank that's doing the rounds. I hit other vehicles with similarly ineffective toothpick-against-a-brick-wall results and then have to call it a day, several minutes into the round.
Before quitting, I glance at the scoreboard. The round has 42 minutes to go (assuming the objectives aren't destroyed first) - but look at the scores...
This isn't skill. This isn't ability or general fun for all concerned. It's two different people jumping into tanks and exploiting not only poor game-design by EA/DICE, but also in-game choices that allow them to literally run amok through the map, almost impervious to anything thrown their way. This didn't happen in BF2142. This certainly happened a lot less in BF:BC2. All the while, the constant bitching, moaning, hackorz and general insults are like a constant stream in the top left corner.
I loved Battlefield. It was my default go-to game for years on a Saturday afternoon. Some games awful but the majority a right laugh, tense and properly entertaining. I've aged eighteen years since the first BF title and I'm certainly not going to sit here and say that my reactions are as dexterous as back then. But for me, what BF was and to some extent, what it represented for a long time has just whittled down to this hollow husk of game that is a sad semblance of what it was in its hay-day.
Please EA/DICE - just stop and think. You're driven by sales, by DLCs and 'add-ons' that status hungry players want. I get that - your bean-counters demand that. But don't forget what you're supposed to be providing for the mainstream player. You've a legacy to maintain - an expansive back catalogue of some great titles, yet you're ruining the core experience with meaningless tat whilst rewarding players so far up the leaderboard and bragging rights, to be pretty much unstoppable.
What BF6 will bring is anyone's guess. But if it's anything like the recent offerings, I'm out. And that is such a shame.
