[Dracko]

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[Toptube]

I'm in early on the PC beta for BF4 and my stepdad is in on the PS3 version.

I'm currently installing AMD's latest beta driver, then I'm going to play for a bit.

will report back later, on both versions!

[Toptube]

quick impressions from PC version:

Shanghai Map is pretty damn good.

enemies die even more quickly than BF3, but recoil is way less of an obstacle. this is not a good combo.

also, the way your character moves seems to have less "weight" to it. also a bad thing. BF3 had an excellent sense of "body". That seems to be dramatically toned down.

This is a beta, so I don't have any expectations for image quality or how well the game runs. but just to cover the bases:

My performance on a 7870, 8gigs of ram, and a Phenom II hex core was fine (averaged in 40's and 50's), at high quality settings. I expect it will be better in the final game. My only real issue with performance was that randomly it would just tank to single digit FPS, then incrementally build back up to normal performance, over the course of about 5 seconds. It's a beta.

The map clearly has some unfinished areas, which is a stark reminder that this is a beta.

[Dracko]

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[Rud31]

In BF4 the BF3 noises becomes a clear fart noise.

Is that Olmos reprising his role from Battlestar Galactica?
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My Hawt Blog Vita Games

THERE ARE DEFINITELY WORSE VIDEO GAME PODCASTS

[notbov]

no one screams out how they're getting fucked in the ass over here, therefore I can no longer safely recommend BF4 as the top-tier broshootman

I also noticed that DICE didn't say anything about the AK 5C in their post-beta changelog, which they need to because that gun is straight up dumb and I love it

also, nextgen Collar Duty confirmed to look like slightly better CoD

(this is discounting the current neogaf blowup, which purports the Xbone version to be running at a lower res than the PS4, but which has no proof yet)
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[Toptube]

[notbov]

that was about the BF4 beta, where it seemed like a lot of the saltier language was gone on the US side and there wasn't a localized set of voices for the Chinese forces

I'm gonna miss defibbing someone back up while hearing "Take this you motherfucker!"
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[EU03]

So another Call of Duty launch has come and passed. Does anyone here even bother with CoD multiplayer these days?

Biggest change is that maps are absolutely enormous and sprawling. Apart from a few maps, there doesn't seem to be really defined lanes, though better routes will probably open up with more experience. There's also a crazy amount of verticality, so much that the new radar has vertical indicators.

Unlocking things sucks and is horribly confusing. Perks and weapons are not level-gated, but have to be purchased with squad points (CoD Bucks 2.0). But how you earn said points is not explained well at all. Prestiging is also strange and just feels forced into their Squad meta-game thingy.

The perk system is redone and also confusing. Many of the original ones have been splintered to like three different perks, and tiers are gone, making the only means of balancing the perks is to change their point values for the Pick 10. This just makes the expensive perks just feel overly restrictive. There's just other odd design choices to make the Create-a-Class feel "new", but not actually do anything significant.

Most people I've heard are likening it to MW2, with the lethality of the guns feeling similar (very fast).

However, I can't shake the feeling that I'm just always going to get shot in the back or in a blind spot; taking mid is almost suicide, and I just haven't learned all the nuances to the maps yet.

All the shotguns are useless and outclassed by everything else, like pre-patch MW3. They just simply don't work with most of the maps!

Despite my complaints, the core game is still there and still fun.
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[Toptube]

Unfortunately I am unemployed right now, so no BF4 for me, for awhile.

[DJ]

I actually beat the single player of CoDDog today.

Yeah, I know.

No, it wasn't really worth it even as an educational experience on how dumb this has gotten. Like maybe five of the 18 stages are reasonably fun for the 20-40 minutes they last, and that's about it. The rest are either offensively bad (the entire first third of the game) or completely forgettable (pretty much everything that isn't an "invade this base then escape" mission of which there are three in a row).

Oh well. At least now I can feel semi-justified in talking shit about this game because I've actually beaten it and really did go into it hoping it would surprise me by being halfway decent (like Black Ops 2 did after the shitshow that was Black Ops 1).



Yay, I guess.
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[nuttyevans]

Having a bit more fun since I started using the Marksman Rifles. The unlock system is needlessly confusing though

[Ymer]

So how is the the DOG then?
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[boojiboy7]

[DJ]

Here's what I put up on Steam about it:

I'm hoping we can look back on this game as the tipping point, when the oversaturation of growly military FPS games finally hit its peak and started to roll back.

The single player campaign is passably entertaining at best, and at worst it's just boring. The only interesting thing about it is how much it oscillates between the two.

The beginning sucks to an almost impressive degree. There's zero actual characterization, you're on rails the entire time, and the plot is ridiculous to the point of it basically being impossible to care about even if you genuinely want to.

The plot never really improves. The game, however, does.

The middle of the game is far and away the best part, where you do a series of "Invade this base, blow shit up, escape" missions. At this point the maps widen out and there's less of a feeling of you being herded from place to place so you can rotely stare at the next explosion. These missions actually get legitimately fun, although it has less to do with good level design and more to do with the fact that those kinds of missions are just inherently fun in and of themselves, and well suited to arcadey shooter games. One of Half-Life 2's standout levels is the assault on Nova Prospekt; Modern-day Wolfenstien's best level by far was an assault on an underground Nazi base; hell, even Quake 1 was full of these kinds of levels. They're just fun to play, and thankfully those missions in Ghosts stand up as being quite fun, if not exactly super-memorable.

Things ramp up in bombast near the end of the game (which is saying something considering this game has an impressive explosions-per-minute rate even on its slowest levels) and it dumps a lot of variety as the narrative starts to urgently jerk around to different people in the same stage, so at the very least the final stages aren't as dull as Act 1, but they do bring back the funnel with a vengeance. The final stage, while technically very impressive to look at, is almost literally a straight line from point A to point B; admittedly this is because you're on the back of a moving train, but it still means there's only one direction to go and only one way to do it.

The Multiplayer...Well, it's Call of Duty. What do you want me to say. Did you play pretty much any of the other ones? It's more of that. Whether this is a bad thing or not really depends on whether you like that kind of thing. Honestly, modern-day CoD is basically what Counter-Strike/Day of Defeat was back in '99-2002, and Quake/Goldeneye/Whatever before that -- I played the hell out of Counter-Strike back in the day, so it's hard for me to hate on the CoD MP. It's either a scene you're into (in which case you already own this game) or it isn't (and you may spend a lot of time mystified as to why it's popular). Either way, you don't need me telling you anything about it.

Final Verdict: If you don't have it already (read: You don't care about the MP), wait for a deep discount. Otherwise pass. It's not the worst thing ever, but if you really want to play a Call of Duty game for whatever reason, just go for Black Ops 2. It's a much better in virtually every way.
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[shrugtheironteacup]

[shrugtheironteacup]

$2 was too much.

redbox give me my money back
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[parker]

Thing wasn't even worth pirating.
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[shrugtheironteacup]

I guess there's a slo-mo breach + shoot in space.

That's worth a buck maybe.
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[sponkmonkey]

[Dracko]

It does seem like they mostly phoned in some of Infinity Ward's oldest tricks and dropped the globe-trotting shenanigans from Modern Warfare 3 or the more colourful locales of Black Ops II, let alone any of its experiments with the linear shooter form. I would say Black Ops II is the most interesting Call of Duty since the first Modern Warfare, and worth playing if you can still appreciate the series mechanically.

Do the two vehicle missions stand out? The tank one were you attack a megaweapon straight out of Ace Combat seemed okay (They could never get away with fictional countries, could they?). Seemed like the Federation Day stealth mission was one of the better ones too, after they managed to wear out All Ghillied Up's welcome through extensive repetition.
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[shrugtheironteacup]

In Federation day one of the starting weapons weapons is equipped with a strobe attachment that I could only turn on in the room in which the game prompted me to turn it on.

It is one of the less tedious All Ghillied Upish takes of the last few years but it's still full of dumb immersion-destroying details. Liked the solo portion of The Hunted more.

The tank level is better than the helicopter level but it all felt like padding.

STANDARD BLOCKBUSTER MID CREDITS SEQUEL TEASER was hilarious.
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[Dracko]

[Iammadmak]

http://kotaku.com/doom-co-creator-john-carmack-leaves-id-software-1469878905
Carmack leaves id games to focus on work at Occulus VR

[mauve]

there's part of me that thinks that's a great thing for id, though.

i mean, don't get me wrong, i think carmack is an absolute genius when it comes to programming and technology. but he's not really much of a game designer and technology isn't driving game dev so much as tools are now.
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twit

[Toptube]

[Mr. Mechanical]

[Toptube]

Apparently, BF4 has been a pretty big mess on all platforms. But probably worst of all, for the PS4. Lots of crashes on all platforms, weird lag and stuttering, and the PS4 didn't even have usable 64 player conquest until a patch which happened in sync with the Xbone launch. The mode was there and accessible, but you reportedly couldn't get into any games or something. and as the series consistently known for some of the best sound in the industry-----the sound is often glitchy or whole effects missing entirely.

Looks like DICE played a little too much rush on this one, eh? ; )

[Toptube]

I caved and bought BF4 (pc) since it was only like $20 yesterday.

[Toptube]

It was pretty nice of EA to have BF4 silently import your key bindings from BF3.


The lighting in this game is nuts. Anyone who claims BF4 looks no better than BF3 is a dummy.

[Toptube]

So overall, this game is much easier to play than BF3 is. Which is a mix of good and bad.

I haven't played a ton yet, no assault class or recon class. But here are a few standout good/bad things:

good: rocket launchers reload about 3 times faster and have less bullet drop. (this sounds lame, but with the emphasis on armored vehicles and choppers, this REALLY needed to happen.)

+/- overall, there are still probably too many vehicles.

good: you can now drop two ammo packs at one time

bad: ammo packs dissappear rather quickly. I feel like I'm constantly re-placing them.

good: explosive items like claymores and anti-tank mines persist even through your death. I think mines did anyway (in BF3), but the overall is that explosives you place hang around longer.

bad: with the constant emphasis of adding more accessories, add-ons, and perks, you can now do things like have both a short range dot scope and a longe range scope at the same time, on one gun. I'm sure that's possible in real life. But for videogames, man, it ruins a lot of balance. even more than ever, you can pretty effectively kill at most distances, with just about any gun. I REALLY wish there was a way to play with simplified kits. It would do tons to deepen the gameplay and re-emphasize team play. Because yet again, this is a solo man's multiplayer game. BC2 where are you?

*also, your equipment loadout screen is a veritable time sink. There is just way too much stuff there. I dunno how they will ever hope to balance this game.

+/- BF3 had a large emphasis on recoil. It made the game difficult to pick up and play. But overall, felt really good and made the PC side a deeper game. On the console side however, it was too much (in my opinion). BF3 on consoles is really damn difficult, due to heavy recoil emphasis and not very good adjustments for sensitivity for aiming. I was always fighting the controls.

BF4 dramatically lessens affecting recoil and instead emphasizes bullet spread over distance. You might be thinking well there would be bullet spread with recoil emphasis anyway. Yeah, but since the recoil is tamed, the game is easier to grab and go. less depth. bullet spread can only go so far. As such, most guns are much more predictable to fire. It feels like rainbow six or the older ghost recons. Health also seems to be lower. You die pretty damn fast. BF3 was fast, this is fast in a different way. What it really ends up doing is making long distances easier to shoot over. and short distances are more about who gets the jump. whereas in BF3, you really had to know what you were doing to plink at long distance and close quarters were very percussive, due to the recoil. You really had to keep your composure at short distances in BF3, otherwise you'd have a lot of dumb and dumber moments where you outline your enemy, but don't actually hit them. I havent played the console side of this yet, but I imagine it is much more playable. due to these changes.

It would be really awesome if they'd let each game be it's own thing and custom tailor the feel of the controls to the platform (PC/Console).

+Jets seem to have less ability to track soldiers. in BF3, jets could mop up on soldiers. Which was stupid.

[Toptube]

In BF3, it was a REGULAR occurence that a chopper would survive most of a game or even a whole game and rack up tens of kills. and there was little anyone could do about it, because handheld rockets and AA was a joke and the choppers could just flare at any time. and there weren't enough gun placements to do the job. If a team got two choppers, I would usually just leave the server and go to another game.

In BF4, there should be much less occurrences of invincible choppers. AA vehicles are way more effective and ground troop ability to mark choppers for rocket launcher lock is much easier. I also think that the amount of evasive flares/chaff is more limited.

[ArOne]

Despite getting BF3 for a tenner ages ago I've only put about an hour or so into it but I only just started as a few guys I knew started BF4 just so I'd know what they were talking about. I didn't have that great a time either because I came in to late or I'm just to used to TF2's visual language and always having most the information I need to know why I got killed and can make a note of. My short time with BF3 I felt mostly clueless and could never really tell what I was doing right or wrong.

Fastforward to last week and I picked up BF4 for 25 bones and I've managed to have a decent time of it. I still have some problems with knowing what are the right motions but I manage to not be a complete yutz. Been mostly sticking to assault so I can be supportive with medkits and revives. Been having some fun with the shotgun attachment in place of the defib when my team density is low and there are alot of corners to be aware of.

Sent you an origin friend request toptube. I'm RealPT1.
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[Toptube]

BF4 premium (all current and future DLC for one price) for $40.
http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-BF4P/battlefield-4-premium

*note, you still have to buy the base game separate. If you got the $20 deal the other day however, that would make the total package $60!

[notbov]

BF4, for all it's technical misgivings, is a better game than BF3 because it has the SRAW

guiding rockets to victory

okay, maybe also because air vehicles are actually mortal
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[Toptube]

The SRAW was in BF2!

It's really nice for shooting helicopters!

[Toptube]

BF4 patch today made worse every single problem that was claimed to be fixed by the patch.

It even gave me issues I'd never had, before.

[Rud31]

BF4 for the PS3 definitely looks like crap compared to BF3. Also they completely moved all the controls around in a way that feels like trying to put a full keyboard on a controller as opposed to how nice BF3's scheme felt (and no you can't just all change it back.) Also lots of graphics problems and the interface suckkkkssssssssss. Oh and if a sever is full it says "NO COMMANDER SLOTS AVAILABLE" and not that the server is full. A big freaking mess.

Will keep playing it for a few days, don't think we're going to stick with it.

They clearly said fuck it in favor of the 4one versions.
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My Hawt Blog Vita Games

THERE ARE DEFINITELY WORSE VIDEO GAME PODCASTS

[Toptube]

[Toptube]

I wonder if DICe snuck some fixes in today, with the opening of China Rising to all players. I played a lot today and had ZERO issues. Friends I played with had issues getting into one server, but that was it for their own issues.

[Toptube]

Cross post: