Battlefield 3

I'm enjoying what little I've played so far of the Karkand maps. I think for sure what Sudden_Death said about people feeling that the maps are smaller than in previous iterations will be very true--they were smaller than I expected, but I think the console maps will have more activity.

Conquest on console did have good fights and interesting vantage points. While the area might feel "not so big" the height of some maps were tall.

Wake Island definitely felt different for me than it did on 1943 and it only has 3 flags (I'm fine with that for 12 v 12).

The weird effect I'm seeing is that my session was late evening Pacific Time and I couldn't get into filled Rush matches anymore last night--really just Conquest games. Past midnight seemed to have less people. I don't know if there was a server reset or what.

Then again, it's Finals Week for a lot of colleges and universities.

The PS3 having early access to the expansion is a little awkward because I feel like I'm beta testing Back to Karkand--Battlelog doesn't have the Karkand assets up so I have stats of the battles but no graphics or even map names. Assignments are working on PS3, but aren't on Battlelog yet either.

That said, I personally really like the maps. But I'm not at all the skilled or battlefield hardened experience guy.

Anyhow, only a little time spent so far and the best person to gauge the battlefield experience would be Faceless.

Personal Map Thoughts:

Oman - Haven't played a full session yet.

Karkand - I am sure this is the map that's like a big construction area. I really enjoyed this map, I felt all roles could find something to do here but especially Recon and Engineers. Might end up being my favorite map actually. Can't wait to see Rush! And I swear, even the smallest things were put in place just to obscure the perfect angle away from you or your target...

Sharqi - Some really fun battles here. On console there was a fun rooftop spot overlooking the B flag, probably 2 at most should be up there, but it allowed us to watch over B (though it also put us in position to get picked off by Recon). Also, because the team enjoyed this spot too much (did cost us the match but the other team had clearly the best squad of the session), we had too much of the team on top of the roof at some point but then it made it all the more fun to see the enemy tank destroy parts of the building bit by bit (having less and less roof to stand on). This little moment reminded me a little of Bad Company 2 ^____^

Wake Island - With 3 flags the battles are more concentrated than some other maps on Console Conquest. Had interesting fights on this one, but I was getting torn apart by what I assume are real Battlefield Veterans. This might actually be my least favorite, but not for any technical reason--I just haven't spent enough time on Wake Island yet. Battles around the flags were infantry/tank but air support felt very strong if jets and helicopters knew what to do.

One more thing: I think the IRNV was rebuffed some. Maybe it was just more suited to the maps I played today but the IRNV felt cheezy good all over again.

Want to play Rush so bad on the new maps, but no luck last night.

 

Any clue when this expansion drops on XBOX 360? Also, how do the new guns feel? You can use them in vanilla BF3 levels as well right?

 

13th of December for the 360.

 

LIKE A BOSS!!

 

OMG wow that's like so amazing!

 

LoL A-Team music for that is epic :°D

 

haha i was about to post this same video

 

Oh yeah, friendly reminder:

Battlefield 1943 Redemption for BF3 PS3 Owners

 

Yay! Back to karkand maps are now out for 360& PC but my razer onza SE controller right trigger isnt working properly >:/, so I mapped the right trigger to RB2. Needless to say, since the RB & RB2 are so close together, I accidentally draw out my knife when I'm trying to frickin shoot.... FML right now. Like seriously, I play like a noob now. Oh wait... I am a noob! Argh.!

 

Looking for teammate to try out CITV station from tank unlocks. Also I've been playing alot of Jet lately. Anyone good with Jet here?

 

I'm pretty good in a jet but I get bored of it. Tanks are rapemachines. I went 24-1 on the french map single handedly in a tank before mw3 came out.

So yah I could see if I could help you with whatever. Gunna be playing more BF3 now hopefully seeing as the Karkand thingy is out.

 

Forgot if this was linked, but here's Battlefield 3 Weapon Data as presented by Symthic.

I know the Google Docs Spreadsheet was linked on this thread earlier (big thanks AnimalStaccato) and that was really awesome. it now links to this site as well.

 

Quick Update: Something that was patched recently but overlooked is that the Co-Op points requirements for weapon unlocks was drastically reduced.

For example: The KH2002 Assault Rifle used to require 126,000 points to unlock it. Now it requires 17,000 points!

Here's a chart that shows the old and new requirements.

And a nice reminder: For anyone looking to learn how to fly a helicopter, the second Co-Op mission is perfect for that!

 

I was wondering why I suddenly had all the co-op guns unlocked lol.

 

o.0 ... HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

 

Another short tip for anyone learning helicopter is to set controller setting to "legacy", so much better than default IMO.

 

Here's a neat article by Kotaku on Networking: How a Shooter Shoots.

A lot of other sources have touched base on this topic and I always find it interesting the various ways netcode is implemented with games.

 

I'm really enjoying the Rats Clan Royal Battalion videos!






And if you totally dug the soundtrack for the first episode, you can check out it out here. Solomon's Theme remixed by Instrumental Core. He also provides a link for a free MP3 download!

 

They say such cheesy shit. It's like they're in their own bad action movie lol. One of them is really good with a sniper though.

 

Have to admit, I really like Squad Rush mode!

Probably because my Battlefield obsession began on consoles, I'm a Rush fan.

Squad Rush is a 4 vs. 4 Rush Mode with 2 zones, each with 1 MCOMM.

Despite a lot of people playing without voicechat, I find it necessary if you really want to enjoy this mode (or at least if you want to win). So far I do like the placement of the MCOMMs also.

Usually the first zone MCOMM is in a pretty conventional MCOMM location for normal rush, but the second MCOMM is often a challene for attackers. In Grand Bazaar, it's "out in the open" in an alley in which the defenders could flank you from at least 3 angles. In Damavand Peak, the second MCOMM is located in the warehouse you have to basejump onto--and it's deep in the second floor of the warehouse--HOWEVER, you can blow a hole in the wall above a shipping container next to the building and try to get in that way for direct access. And there's a lot more examples that I like for second MCOMM challenges.

That said, this mode highly favors the Defenders. The low respawn ticket count puts attackers on their toes and they really have to get their crap together if they want to win in this mode.

Another benefit to this mode is how fast it plays, you'll be racking up score on ribbons frequently and typical sessions are very short--they often feel like 5-10 minutes.

If you have at least one other buddy you regularly play with (though I recommend a minimum squad of 3 friends/associates), give Squad Rush a try--it can be a great time!