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  • Subject: Battlefield 3 - A Dumb Door's early perspective
Subject: Battlefield 3 - A Dumb Door's early perspective

*DISCLAIMER* I am well aware that this is a multiplayer game. However, this is a discussion of the CAMPAIGN'S flaws, not how exemplary multiplayer may be. If the campaign does not equip the player with the adequate tools to know what they're doing in the game, the multiplayer does not deserve as much credit as it gets.

On a whim, and thanks to low prices on things this holiday season, I decided to purchase Battlefield 3 for PS3. After hearing my friends, colleagues, various reviewers, etc. all gush and rave about how good this game is, I was expecting a good time. Especially so since I expected to play this with my friend. I was determined to enjoy it and have a good time!

About ten-twenty minutes into the campaign I shut it off and decided I was more interested in doing some cleaning of my house.

Why? Was it due to poor gun mechanics? Nope. Gun mechanics are perfectly fine. Is it because I didn't like the characters or dialogue? Well, aside from a lack of character development before killing everyone, it had nothing to do with that. Was it too intelligent and complicated for me? It's a first person shooter. I've been playing these since I was a wee 'un.

So what was wrong with it, you might wonder? Well, let me describe myself for a moment:
I play a lot of video games of many kinds. I play everything from casual puzzle games to the Halo series to Dishonored, to Assassin's Creed to Scribblenauts to Oddworld to Katamari to Quake to Unreal to Skyrim... Need I go on? Needless to say, I play a lot of games in my spare time. I also play a large variety of games.

Outside of the virtual world, I am a student, I am a part of the SCA, I am a civilian, I am a regular attendee of conventions of all kinds, etc.

Now, what am I not?
I am NOT:
A soldier who has spent a long time in basic training and on the field fighting
A war obsessed person who has dedicated years of my life studying wars
A person who spends every other waking moment shooting guns and learning every nuance about them
Clairvoyant
Telepathic
Omniscient
A Time Lord
A political genius
etc.

Keeping those factors in mind, Battlefield 3 irked me very severely. It expects you to be at least two or three of those things that I'm not, and has no reference to anything else I may have learned.

Now, at the surface, that's fine. I understand niche games. I play/have played a few of them. However, the thing that Battlefield 3 lacks? A learning curve, a sense of agency, and information. Battlefield 3 needs a tutorial, it needs to allow for some flexibility in objectives, and it needs to supply the player with information.

Who in the holy mother of gravy are the PLR? A little tidbit of info about who I'm fighting would be nice. Now let's pretend that I'm not a gun nut. Can this game at LEAST give a small bit of information about how to use the guns properly? A tutorial on the various weapons, vehicles, heck, even the flippin' CONTROLS would have been nice. Instead, we're thrust into this world full of tons of things that I have no idea what they are with no idea what I'm doing, being given a couple of instructions here and there without knowledge of how to execute them. This is not how you bring a new player into your experience.

Also, I was given an objective early on in the game. I was to defend a few people with a LMG at the top of a "wall" as they called it. I sat back and sniped people, then got it, and died immediately. I crept toward it killing all hostiles until I got there, then died immediately as I grabbed it. I rushed it, grabbed it, died immediately. Finally, I just refused to use it and sat back and sniped, completed the objective, and had to literally go, "What the heck, game? Why did you want me to do this if it only leads to my own self-destruction? This isn't the frikkin' Kobayashi Maru! Losing isn't the objective here, as I am forced to go back and try again each time!

I was also crawling through a dark tunnel with PLR troops searching out my fellow soldiers to kill. I encountered a rat. My first instinct? I pressed the melee button. No response. I hit the fire button. No response. The rat starts biting my finger, I sit there as a little scripted action goes on. Finally, I shake the rat off of my finger, I press the melee button, but just HAPPENED to hit it at the same time as I was supposed to press the fire button in a quick time event out of nowhere. Killed because of a -blam!-ing rat... Never had that problem in Dishonored (despite an infestation of plague rats). Every time I died in that game it's because I did something stupid, or just royally butt-blam!-ed myself through sheer incompetence.

Also, is it just me, or does this game have an obsession with obscuring my view with crap? Everything from too stark and unrealistic contrast to ridiculous levels of bloom to blurring so much I have to stop and wonder if I'm not watching a French New Wave era film. There is so much crap like dust, or maybe dirt, or who knows what constantly on my visor preventing me from seeing clearly, scratches on my jet obscuring more of my vision, dust in the air making it hard to see, darkness with no flashlights or anything of any kind preventing me from seeing, and need I go on? The game is just a mass of "NOPE! You're not seeing what's going on! Enjoy this amazing amount of detail put into the dust and lens flare instead!"

Far more work should have gone into making the game accessible in the beginning. Heck, as notorious as Dark Souls is for being hard, it slowly introduces you to concepts and makes it easy to understand. Just running through once or twice teaches you everything you need to know about an area, and then you can breeze through it executing it properly. Psychonauts is controller-snappingly frustrating at the end due to its difficulty, but by then, you've already mastered how to play the game thanks to half the game just teaching you how to play! God of War thrust you right into a big combat scenario early on, but it doesn't add anything complicated, and keeps things simple for the beginning battle, which is still a tutorial.

Battlefield 3 assumes you know everything going in, and that's where it falls flat. Until I gain clairvoyant powers and can see into the future, the game does not properly introduce the player to the game.

Am I putting the game down forever? No. Am I going to sell it back to the store? Nope. I'm going to play the campaign all the way through and see what else it has to offer before I make my comprehensive opinion. However, first three levels have NOT sold me on it in the slightest.

(BTW, those who will criticize me for not doing multiplayer, I played a few games of multiplayer, and the problems still persist.)

Feel free to dispute me, counterclaim, argue, agree, etc. to prove your point here about what YOU think about Battlefield 3.

[Edited on 12.24.2012 9:24 PM PST]

  • 12.24.2012 7:16 PM PDT

Per Audacia Ad Astra

Duly noted.

  • 12.24.2012 7:18 PM PDT

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  • 12.24.2012 7:20 PM PDT

Signatures are for little kids.


Posted by: A Dumb Door
I am NOT:
A soldier who has spent a long time in basic training and on the field fighting
A war obsessed person who has dedicated years of my life studying wars
A person who spends every other waking moment shooting guns and learning every nuance about them.
Me neither.

That's why I don't bother with any more 'realistic' FPS games. It's always a bunch of crap that glorifies war and gun culture in general. War sucks, I don't want to play it for fun.

  • 12.24.2012 7:22 PM PDT

What doesn't kill you, only makes you stranger

That was probably the best part about getting it release day. Everyone felt that way, and that's when the dedicated became the elite.

I won't lie, it doesn't get any easier. But you'll get better, and you'll learn how to do all those things it never tells you. Stick it out, play around with everything you can get your hands on. People might get upset, but you've got to start somewhere.

  • 12.24.2012 7:22 PM PDT

Scratches on the jet, dirt in your vision and all that makes the game more authentic at how everything could be. Different levels even have different looks on your arm like dirt and cuts. I highly enjoy that sense of realism.

Battlefield 3 isn't made for campaign though. Very buggy. Sound doesn't match visuals. But everything else considering details are very good. The game has the best audio ever.

  • 12.24.2012 7:23 PM PDT

OP is bad at vidya.

  • 12.24.2012 7:23 PM PDT
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t3hAvenger77 - XBL (BF3, ME3, Blops)
decla1mer104 - Origin (BF3)
Steam

You shouldn't expect much from the campaign.

I admit, I suck really bad during the first few weeks of the game. You'll learn slowly and you'll eventually get the hang of the game.

  • 12.24.2012 7:24 PM PDT

Posted by: juniorbandit96
Scratches on the jet, dirt in your vision and all that makes the game more authentic at how everything could be. Different levels even have different looks on your arm like dirt and cuts. I highly enjoy that sense of realism.

Battlefield 3 isn't made for campaign though. Very buggy. Sound doesn't match visuals. But everything else considering details are very good. The game has the best audio ever.
It didn't make the game feel any more authentic to me. The visual style feels like it pushed a huge amount into a visual budget without any mind to a functional budget. Sure, if I'm out in the desert, I'll get dirt everywhere. However, I'm in my living room playing a video game. There comes a point where less is more. Portal felt more realistic to me than this, and that was a sci-fi game with far less put into its graphics.

Although I will agree, visual touches applied to your limbs are quite nice. I appreciate them as I see them. The game should be exemplifying things like that instead of obscuring them.

[Edited on 12.24.2012 7:26 PM PST]

  • 12.24.2012 7:25 PM PDT

Dear tomorrow, Find some sensibility, Respond to emotion.
Dear Politician, Define sagacity,
All chances of survival are beginning to diminish.
Comedy is no excuse for our own blasphemies.
Mass media, Mass pessimism, Mass Denial.
My television tells me to panic, but I don't think I'll listen.
The apathetic force us to persevere, with their backwards priorities.

I thought the game was rather simple and easy even on Veteran. That's just me though. Perhaps you should try multiplayer, as the campaign is already known for being lack luster.

  • 12.24.2012 7:27 PM PDT

Posted by: IslocStarkiller
I thought the game was rather simple and easy even on Veteran. That's just me though. Perhaps you should try multiplayer, as the campaign is already known for being lack luster.
(BTW, those who will criticize me for not doing multiplayer, I played a few games of multiplayer, and the problems still persist.)I did try multiplayer. The problems persist, as I said.

  • 12.24.2012 7:28 PM PDT

Pure Insanity
The point of war is not to die for one's clan, but it's to make the other bastard die for his
Right before you die, there is always a chance to save yourself, sieze that chance and live to fight another day
The best way to kill someone is to fight them with the same weapons they use and make them know you are better than them, not because of superior weaponry, but because of superior skill.
Hidden in the shadows, Clothed in camo, Armed to the teeth. Hunting.

I never had any problem with anything you said. Nor am I any of the things you said you aren't.

To be honest, I don't see anything more than complaining about arbitrary things.

  • 12.24.2012 7:28 PM PDT

Posted by: PheonixofLight
I never had any problem with anything you said. Nor am I any of the things you said you aren't.

To be honest, I don't see anything more than complaining about arbitrary things.
Have you played any of the previous games in the series? Did you have someone help walk you through in some way? Did you research the game a bit more before release/you played it?

  • 12.24.2012 7:30 PM PDT
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Steam

Posted by: A Dumb Door
Posted by: PheonixofLight
I never had any problem with anything you said. Nor am I any of the things you said you aren't.

To be honest, I don't see anything more than complaining about arbitrary things.
Have you played any of the previous games in the series? Did you have someone help walk you through in some way? Did you research the game a bit more before release/you played it?
The previous titles (Battlefield 2 to be more specific) had a tutorial and bots.

In my case. Yes, no and no.


[Edited on 12.24.2012 7:38 PM PST]

  • 12.24.2012 7:31 PM PDT

Posted by: ThirstyAvenge
Posted by: A Dumb Door
Posted by: PheonixofLight
I never had any problem with anything you said. Nor am I any of the things you said you aren't.

To be honest, I don't see anything more than complaining about arbitrary things.
Have you played any of the previous games in the series? Did you have someone help walk you through in some way? Did you research the game a bit more before release/you played it?
The previous titles (Battlefield 2 to be more specific) had a tutorial and bots.
That makes far more sense to me. Had they incorporated even a fraction of that into BF3, I'm sure that these problems would have their volumes drastically reduced.

Also, a minor complaint: Why does this game constantly flicker the screen and cause distortion in the menus? It's rather annoying.

  • 12.24.2012 7:32 PM PDT

There's no way to get back experiences you missed.
So start right now today and risk furiousness for bliss.

The controls should be self explanatory. The control layout is basically the same as any other FPS out there so there's no reason to baby players telling them "pres (button) to reload/shoot/switch weapons etc.

From what I read in your post it kinda seems that you're just bad at the game. (I mean no offense) What kind of tutorials would you suggest for a game where pretty much all you do is run and gun? I think the game did a fine job of telling you where/what your objectives were and there was really no confusion on my part.

As for complaining about the obscuring of view, I didn't find it a problem at all. I thought it was quite a nice effect and added a bit of realism (lol) to the game.

Anyways, most people bought Battlefield 3 for the multiplayer. Battlefield was never known for it's story. Hell, Battlefield 2 didn't even have a story. Multiplayer is where this game shines. So IMO if you want to experience what Battlefield is all about this is what you should be playing, not the campaign.

  • 12.24.2012 7:32 PM PDT

In memory of those fallen in the defense of Earth and her colonies.

March 3, 2553

They did explain who the PLR is by the way, you've got to pay attention.

My experience of it is it tries to give you a more realistic setting of a soldier, none of this CoD "I am teh best fighter and my destiny is to gun down thousands of well trained soldiers with ease.

I didnt 'love' the campaign - it was very average actually. But it was certainly better than something Call of Duty produces.

[Edited on 12.25.2012 1:41 AM PST]

  • 12.24.2012 7:33 PM PDT
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Posted by: A Dumb Door
Also, is it just me, or does this game have an obsession with obscuring my view with crap? Everything from too stark and unrealistic contrast to ridiculous levels of bloom to blurring so much I have to stop and wonder if I'm not watching a French New Wave era film. There is so much crap like dust, or maybe dirt, or who knows what constantly on my visor preventing me from seeing clearly, scratches on my jet obscuring more of my vision, dust in the air making it hard to see, darkness with no flashlights or anything of any kind preventing me from seeing, and need I go on? The game is just a mass of "NOPE! You're not seeing what's going on! Enjoy this amazing amount of detail put into the dust and lens flare instead!"
Welcome to modern video games. Enjoy your stay.

[Edited on 12.24.2012 7:33 PM PST]

  • 12.24.2012 7:33 PM PDT

I make a living of selling my body, and I don't mean sex.


Posted by: A Dumb Door
Posted by: PheonixofLight
I never had any problem with anything you said. Nor am I any of the things you said you aren't.

To be honest, I don't see anything more than complaining about arbitrary things.
Have you played any of the previous games in the series? Did you have someone help walk you through in some way? Did you research the game a bit more before release/you played it?
Yes, no, no.

Wasn't any help to me though from how different it was from BC2. I still got the hangaround to it though after awhile.

[Edited on 12.24.2012 7:34 PM PST]

  • 12.24.2012 7:34 PM PDT

Pure Insanity
The point of war is not to die for one's clan, but it's to make the other bastard die for his
Right before you die, there is always a chance to save yourself, sieze that chance and live to fight another day
The best way to kill someone is to fight them with the same weapons they use and make them know you are better than them, not because of superior weaponry, but because of superior skill.
Hidden in the shadows, Clothed in camo, Armed to the teeth. Hunting.


Posted by: A Dumb Door
Posted by: PheonixofLight
I never had any problem with anything you said. Nor am I any of the things you said you aren't.

To be honest, I don't see anything more than complaining about arbitrary things.
Have you played any of the previous games in the series? Did you have someone help walk you through in some way? Did you research the game a bit more before release/you played it?


I have played both Bad Companys, BF3, and some arcade one that I can never remember the year in the title. But my first time playing BF:BC 1 did not include anything complaint worthy like what you have stated, nor do I feel BF3 was really all that different in those ways that you are complaining about.

And no, I did not research it, nor did I have anyone help me.

I am not saying you are wrong in your opinion, but still, regardless of whether or not I was new to the series, your complaints still seem arbitrary.

  • 12.24.2012 7:35 PM PDT


Posted by: A Dumb Door
Posted by: juniorbandit96
Scratches on the jet, dirt in your vision and all that makes the game more authentic at how everything could be. Different levels even have different looks on your arm like dirt and cuts. I highly enjoy that sense of realism.

Battlefield 3 isn't made for campaign though. Very buggy. Sound doesn't match visuals. But everything else considering details are very good. The game has the best audio ever.
It didn't make the game feel any more authentic to me. The visual style feels like it pushed a huge amount into a visual budget without any mind to a functional budget. Sure, if I'm out in the desert, I'll get dirt everywhere. However, I'm in my living room playing a video game. There comes a point where less is more. Portal felt more realistic to me than this, and that was a sci-fi game with far less put into its graphics.

Although I will agree, visual touches applied to your limbs are quite nice. I appreciate them as I see them. The game should be exemplifying things like that instead of obscuring them.

Not only visuals, but characters. Their way of speaking adds tension to the game overall. When I heard Campo's voice crack at the first firefight in Operation Swordbreaker saying "Everyone! Light that building the -blam!- up!", I was sold.

11:15

[Edited on 12.24.2012 7:42 PM PST]

  • 12.24.2012 7:36 PM PDT

Battlefield is multiplayer only

  • 12.24.2012 7:39 PM PDT

Posted by: A Billfish
The controls should be self explanatory. The control layout is basically the same as any other FPS out there so there's no reason to baby players telling them "pres (button) to reload/shoot/switch weapons etc.

From what I read in your post it kinda seems that you're just bad at the game. (I mean no offense) What kind of tutorials would you suggest for a game where pretty much all you do is run and gun? I think the game did a fine job of telling you where/what your objectives were and there was really no confusion on my part.

As for complaining about the obscuring of view, I didn't find it a problem at all. I thought it was quite a nice effect and added a bit of realism (lol) to the game.

Anyways, most people bought Battlefield 3 for the multiplayer. Battlefield was never known for it's story. Hell, Battlefield 2 didn't even have a story. Multiplayer is where this game shines. So IMO if you want to experience what Battlefield is all about this is what you should be playing, not the campaign.
Let me count the problems that I encountered in the first three levels that I can count off-hand:
1. The game assumes you know that you should follow an unsaid squad protocol
2. The game does not teach what your allies look like versus civilians versus hostile troops
3. The game does not inform me that it lacks a proper stealth mechanic for AIs
4. The game does not teach how to go prone early enough, as I was killed several times just trying to crouch behind cover before finding out I could go prone. (You may count this as my lack of being able to play, but this was in the first couple of minutes. I discovered crouching by accident by this point.)
5. The player is not given an adjustment period to get used to what aiming and firing will be like. Every game is slightly unique in this respect, and that initial firing at melons, or hats on sticks, or what have you is perfect for tuning the player briefly to what it will feel like.
6. It does not teach what grenades on the ground, flying toward you, or anything else will look like initially.
7. It does not teach what is/is not destructable by small arms, scripted sequence, or big weapons.
8. It does not explain many of the terms it uses.
9. It does not show what a bunker will look like from a jet flying overhead
10. It does not give enough practice in using equipment and various items available to you.

Those are just ones I remember off-hand. All of this would be solved with some early tutorials, or even by making the first couple of encounters extremely easy, or similar. Instead, it just throws the player in headfirst hoping the player can swim without even asking.

  • 12.24.2012 7:40 PM PDT

**Devil's advocate of the Flood. My posts may or may not represent my personal opinion, I just enjoy disagreeing with people. None of my posts are representative of the official view of the Navy or any government agency.

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I've got a fan!

Don't bother with the campaign, it's obvious they did not put much effort into it and it's really just a disappointing mess. BF3 exists for the multiplayer, which has an even more crippling learning curve.

The campaign is a tutorial for multiplayer.

[Edited on 12.24.2012 7:42 PM PST]

  • 12.24.2012 7:41 PM PDT
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Astronomy FTW

Tubas Represent!

I think these guys do a pretty good job of explaining what your feeling.

GO TO 3:10 IN THE VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWFzFsHc75U&feature=share& amp;list=UUCODtTcd5M1JavPCOr_Uydg

[Edited on 12.24.2012 7:43 PM PST]

  • 12.24.2012 7:42 PM PDT