Battlefield Bad Company 2

[cool breeze]

This game looks pretty incredible.

Single player pacing is crazy fast and it feels more scripted than MW2 at times.  Though, because the pacing is so fast, nothing last too long.  That means bad stuff is done quick and the same goes for the good parts.

[Eel O'Brian]

awesome, just got my first system freeze

[fistfulofmetal]

i was a little quick to say all the performance issues were resolves. that program definitely helped, but it's still has performance problems that i really shouldn't be having. oh well. it's not too bad.

game is pretty fun so far.

[cool breeze]

what are your problems? I have everything at max except shadows (at medium), d3doverrider instead of the native v-sync, 4xAA/4xAF, HBAO off.  It is between 55 and 75 fps, most of the time hovering around the higher number.

also, the MW2 joke was a bit tame

being able to change fov is great, btw.  It does have some problems when I tried what I normally do (85), but 75 looks right and doesn't compromise the feel of the game for the extra screen space.  Default was 55.

[ManaByte]

There are a couple MW2 jokes so far.

There's the "pussy ass heartbeat monitor" one and the "snowmobiles are for sissies" one.

[Stoney Mason]

Does this game have leveling up or weapon modifying like in CoD?

Yeah. It has gadgets and specializations which are perks. You can get red dot's and acog's for the guns. The better guns unlock as you play like in COD. The M16 for instance is the last assault rifle that gets unlocked.

[ManaByte]

I love that you can change your loadout in between spawns. Like if you unlock a weapon while playing you don't have to wait until the end of the match to try it out. Hard to go back to the CoD system after that.

[Stoney Mason]

I put in a good number of hours this evening. A lot to like. Some things I didn't like.

+ Weapon unlock stuff adds incentive. And being able to get things like the red dot sight and such are crucial for me. One of the reasons why I didn't play much of the original.
+ I like how in conquest some of the maps have different number of bases. I thought they all had 3 but then once I played some of the others I realized they can have more (well at least 4 that I've seen). I like that some maps are smallish and some are big. I generally like them a lot more than what I remember from the original.
+ I like how some of the maps have some really interesting layouts for how to reach certain points. I've already found certain favorite "secret" routes I like to take to reach certain bases that a lot of people don't use. Makes you feel clever
+ I like rush a bit more than I thought I would. I didn't care for it in the original but for some reason I'm enjoying it a bit more here. Probably because I have the option to play it now when the mood strikes me. That was the case in the first one down the road after they patched in conquest but by then I was playing it a lot less. When I was playing it, it was the only mode available in the original and I got really sick of it. Same as in the demo. But it turns out when I get the option of being able to choose to play it only when I want to and not having it forced on me I like it more.

-Still don't like back button as the spot button
-Matchmaking has a tendency to not fill up the games and not balance them numbers wise. I was often either on a team that had way too few people or way more than the other team. And it stayed that way the entire game.
-If you play by yourself you can get stuck on no squad and the look for squad feature is useless in that regard. It won't find anybody either because other people are in full squads or because no slots are available. This becomes an issue because not playing in a squad is a big detriment in this game unless you are a sniper or something since you can respawn on people.
- Knifing still feels like crap and often random

I probably won't get around to the campaign until the Weekend.

[fistfulofmetal]

what are your problems? I have everything at max except shadows (at medium), d3doverrider instead of the native v-sync, 4xAA/4xAF, HBAO off.  It is between 55 and 75 fps, most of the time hovering around the higher number.

frame skipping. when things get hectic the game starts to stutter. my character juts forwards slightly when i'm moving around. it's not low frames because it feels responsive, but the skipping bothers my eyes. i don't get this problem for any other game, except for BC2 beta that is. that said, it's better than it was in the beta and the game booster helped as well. i'm still looking into my setup to see if there's anything I can do, but I think it's just due to the game being poorly optimized for the PC.

[ManaByte]

Oh man. Was just on Panama Canal and there was a guy in the top floor of the building overlooking A. I could see that he had an RPG armed and the next thing that happened was that the whole wall exploded and he got a suicide Idiot fired into the wall

[cool breeze]

MW2 joke #2: snowmobiles are for sissies

both jokes so far seem related to the E3 footage, and saying stuff from MW2 is for wussies.

[demi]

Evilbore BC2 weekend, lets do this

[AdmiralViscen]

This game is fantastic.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

I tried like a half dozen times last night to connect to an online game but it came up empty everytime and I know there's a shit ton of people out there playing it.  Hopefully I'll have better luck this weekend.

Still having a blast with the single player campaign though.  I've read people bitching about it but personally i think it's one of the more fun FPS I've gone through in a long time.  I had to play last night with my 7.1 headphones on 'cause of all the unholy fucking noise that comes out of my theater system when I'm playing it.  People are starting to complain. lol

Said it before and I'll say it again - best sound design ever.

[cool breeze]

I finished single player last night and thought it was enjoyable.  The ending section is bad (without spoiling anything, imagine if FF13 was a shooter) but the rest was pretty fun.  Compared to MW2, I think I enjoyed it more.  MW2 has better set pieces, I just prefer the single player combat in BC2 by a large amount.

[Eel O'Brian]

i'm not enjoying sp as much as i thought i would, standard complaint i have about these types of games regarding not being able to clearly see where grenades/explosives are coming from until it's too late

[Eel O'Brian]

yeah, i'm leaning towards not liking this game, i'm certainly not enjoying it much at the moment

there's this mission where you have to down two choppers with this mounted rocket launcher while your team holds off the enemies on foot, one of them even tells you "i've got your six"

problem is, your team doesn't have your six, as i've been killed a couple of times by foot enemies trying to concentrate on the choppers while my idiot teammates were standing within spitting distance

and the choppers themselves tend to hover out of the range of the mounted rocket launcher

it's unnecessarily frustrating

also, i don't understand the point of even having a team when 95% of the enemies focus on me with their near-perfect aim

hopefully the mp is a world-beater, because for me sp is starting to look like a bust (even though i find the settings and characters and actual gunplay awesome)

[Tucah]

Really tempted to pick this up. Would it be worth it if I do it solely for multiplayer and I generally suck at FPS? I've always been terrible but I still really enjoy them. Only online shooters I've really played has been TF2 and various Halos.

[Eel O'Brian]

i was in the beta and had a lot of fun, and as anyone here who has played with me can attest i suck at fps mp games

you have a lot of room to play it your way in battlefield games, up close and personal or ranged and methodical

i just don't care for the sp (i don't hate it, though), but i'm apparently in the minority there

[Stoney Mason]

I got around to putting in some time in the campaign. It's fun. It's not the second coming or anything. It's fairly easy so far and I'm playing on hard. I'll post my thoughts after I beat it.

[cool breeze]

I don't think anyone is saying the single player is incredible or anything.  I have a lot of the same complaints eel has, but I found it enjoyable regardless.  I never really like these types of games, but I usually can find entertainment for 5 or so hours.

The thing about the squad mates being useless really bothered me, actually.  sometimes they would run in front of me, blocking my shots, and other times I'll be reloading and they don't even provide basic covering fire to suppress the enemy.  Sometimes it even feels like me and the enemy are shooting bullets while these clowns have airsoft guns.  Correction:  I'm shooting bullets, the enemy is shooting/throwing rockets/grenades.  At times there are few checkpoints and dying from a single grenade shot gets really annoying.  It's not like "oh, you weren't taking cover" because they already ravaged that cover with the three rpg guys and grenade spam.

But all in all it was entertaining, and the pacing was fast...for the most part.  I never felt like I was stuck doing something I disliked for more than a few minutes, except that final stretch at the end.

[Eel O'Brian]

Maaaaan, I just had an AWESOME series of multiplayer matches.

The opposing team, THE EA SERVERS, were all talking shit like, "Searching for games, please stand by."

And I was all like, "You do that, buddy,  I'll be ready for your shit. BRING. IT. ON."

Then they were all like, "We couldn't find any games, please try again."

And I was all like "Okay, okay, I'm gunning for you now, we'll see who comes out on top at the end, motherfucker."

So we went back and forth like that for fifteen minutes (SO TENSE!) until I became overwhelmed by the excitement and went back to work just so I could calm down.




this game was so worth the money

[Tucah]

Fuck it, will buy soon. Anyone playing on PS3?   

If so, add me, tucah on PSN too.

[demi]

Finally, BC2 is here. I hear Squad DM is the hotness. You'll probably find me there.

[Stoney Mason]

I don't think anyone is saying the single player is incredible or anything.  I have a lot of the same complaints eel has, but I found it enjoyable regardless.  I never really like these types of games, but I usually can find entertainment for 5 or so hours.

The thing about the squad mates being useless really bothered me, actually.  sometimes they would run in front of me, blocking my shots, and other times I'll be reloading and they don't even provide basic covering fire to suppress the enemy.  Sometimes it even feels like me and the enemy are shooting bullets while these clowns have airsoft guns.  Correction:  I'm shooting bullets, the enemy is shooting/throwing rockets/grenades.  At times there are few checkpoints and dying from a single grenade shot gets really annoying.  It's not like "oh, you weren't taking cover" because they already ravaged that cover with the three rpg guys and grenade spam.

But all in all it was entertaining, and the pacing was fast...for the most part.  I never felt like I was stuck doing something I disliked for more than a few minutes, except that final stretch at the end.

It's a roller-coaster shooter. Roller coast shooters to me are sort of defined by the highs and the lows. I generally prefer these style of shooters compared to other shooters outside of maybe something like Deus Ex which is fairly rare. It's fun so far. I haven't had any real crazy high's but then I haven't had any crazy low's yet either. The first Bad Company was sub-par campaign wise. This seems about more in line with with what I expected there. It's a linear shooter with a bit of openess when you start the combat. Good Roller Coaster shooters are like a tightly edited film. You enjoy the holy shit moments and they leave before they wear out their welcome and have nothing new to show.

[ManaByte]

Haters can suck it. Best multiplayer shooter hands down.

[Eel O'Brian]

who here has hated it, manabyte

[The Fake Shemp]

Haters

[Eel O'Brian]

i hate those guys

[Herr Mafflard]

steam files unlock tomorrow 

[cool breeze]

I don't think anyone is saying the single player is incredible or anything.  I have a lot of the same complaints eel has, but I found it enjoyable regardless.  I never really like these types of games, but I usually can find entertainment for 5 or so hours.

The thing about the squad mates being useless really bothered me, actually.  sometimes they would run in front of me, blocking my shots, and other times I'll be reloading and they don't even provide basic covering fire to suppress the enemy.  Sometimes it even feels like me and the enemy are shooting bullets while these clowns have airsoft guns.  Correction:  I'm shooting bullets, the enemy is shooting/throwing rockets/grenades.  At times there are few checkpoints and dying from a single grenade shot gets really annoying.  It's not like "oh, you weren't taking cover" because they already ravaged that cover with the three rpg guys and grenade spam.

But all in all it was entertaining, and the pacing was fast...for the most part.  I never felt like I was stuck doing something I disliked for more than a few minutes, except that final stretch at the end.

It's a roller-coaster shooter. Roller coast shooters to me are sort of defined by the highs and the lows. I generally prefer these style of shooters compared to other shooters outside of maybe something like Deus Ex which is fairly rare. It's fun so far. I haven't had any real crazy high's but then I haven't had any crazy low's yet either. The first Bad Company was sub-par campaign wise. This seems about more in line with with what I expected there. It's a linear shooter with a bit of openess when you start the combat. Good Roller Coaster shooters are like a tightly edited film. You enjoy the holy shit moments and they leave before they wear out their welcome and have nothing new to show.

yeah, like I mentioned, I'm don't like roller coaster shooters as much as others.  I prefer more open games that let you tackle each situation how you want to, and even the games like Halo that strike a balance between the two game types.  Like, I'll use MW2 as an example here, but there is a section where you run down a hill towards the end of the game and I must have died on that one stretch two dozen times because the checkpoint saved when I had a bad weapons.  I had to play it their way until I finish it.  I like being in open games where if one approach fails, you can fall back on another, and because those are my choices, they have more of an impact on me.  Again, just my personal preference and I do enjoy all types of shooters.

as for the highs and lows of Bad Company 2, I can say that the highs were when the game opened up a bit.  You could be shooting through buildings to pass through, climbing on the roofs and sniping, things like that.  The lows were the sections where they literally shuffled you through a narrow corridor, and again, this is the worst at the end of the game.

This is also a very personal complaint, and it's that it didn't feel that much like Battlefield to me.  I never finished the first game's campaign, but I remember it letting you jump into vehicles whenever there was one.  This game feels more like MW2 where it's shooting section and vehicle section.  Though, I will say that they did a good job at training you how to use a lot of the vehicles for when you play multiplayer.

[demi]

This game is wowza. So much foliage.

[Kestastrophe]

oh lawd, gots mine in the mail today

[brawndolicious]

Still having a blast with the single player campaign though.  I've read people bitching about it but personally i think it's one of the more fun FPS I've gone through in a long time.  I had to play last night with my 7.1 headphones on 'cause of all the unholy fucking noise that comes out of my theater system when I'm playing it.  People are starting to complain. lol

yeah, they should have made War Tapes the standard setting though.  The game has a good balance in being linear and scripted but still letting you figure your own way through, unlike BC1 and MW2 which were at opposite ends of that scale.  It's just when you hear bullets popping and echoing while you blast your path through houses.  Only problem is that I'm nearly done with the game and I still haven't picked up a single SMG (for the 50 kills achievement).

[Tucah]

Bought it, playing right now (on PS3). A ton of fun, even though I'm rather terrible. My teams are also rather terrible, I've won like 1/5 games so far. Still an awesome game though.

[demi]

The sound is pretty beast too.

[demi]

Knife and Shotguns suck dick in this game. WTB smooth as butter MW2 knife

[cool breeze]

Get the shotguns with the alternate ammo type.  Anything with a circle reticule means you have to be way close.

[ManaByte]

If you own any other BF game, goto http://veteran.battlefield.com to unlock your M1.

[The Fake Shemp]

And do what?

[brawndolicious]

Knife and Shotguns suck dick in this game. WTB smooth as butter MW2 knife

They are a good secondary in campaign.  Especially the USA12

[Stoney Mason]

Is there any way to create multiple classes with the same weapon with different specializations in a class without having to go in and switch it every time before you spawn? Or Even multiple Assualt classes with different weapons with different specializations would do I would guess...

[ManaByte]

And do what?

You need an EA account linked to your gamertag. Each game registers a different way and the CD key ones aren't working. But Battlefield Heroes is free so that's one that anyone can get immediately.

[GilloD]

Pc Version is fucked 4 ways from Sunday. Takes forever to find a server. My ping is always >300, which I thought was a result of trying to play from Korea, but EVERYONE's ping was > 300. Trying to do Random Matchmaking either crashes the game or says "Cant find server check internet settings"

[GilloD]

Found some sub <100 servers, but I cant connect to ANYTHING. It just tells me to check my network settings. OR it pops up a "Waitin.." dialog and then does nothing. Or it just crashes.

good jon. wtf is a beta for if the final product is worse?

[GilloD]

lul. Despite releasing the game in Korea, there's no contract with any Korean hosting co's to allow someone to rent one of thier BF2 servers in this country.

Fuck this, I'm done paying for broken games. Every now and then I have some kind of fucking mental seizure and decide that it might be a good idea to pay for games again. And it always blows up on me.

[fistfulofmetal]

^^^^ Sounds like it's issues on your end. No latency issues over here at all.

And do what?

You need an EA account linked to your gamertag. Each game registers a different way and the CD key ones aren't working. But Battlefield Heroes is free so that's one that anyone can get immediately.

lame that cd keys aren't working. i have the complete 1942 box set (with Vietnam) right here with a bunch of valid cd keys.

so what do i do after i've confirmed the information?

[ManaByte]

Once you have a Veteran rating of 1 you get the M1 next tine you log into the game.

[fistfulofmetal]

figured.

[GilloD]

^^^^ Sounds like it's issues on your end. No latency issues over here at all.

And do what?

You need an EA account linked to your gamertag. Each game registers a different way and the CD key ones aren't working. But Battlefield Heroes is free so that's one that anyone can get immediately.

lame that cd keys aren't working. i have the complete 1942 box set (with Vietnam) right here with a bunch of valid cd keys.

so what do i do after i've confirmed the information?

Everyone on every server I've been on has had a ping of 300+. Also, I finally managed to get into a game, play the whole thing, rack up like 600 pts and then at the end it KICKED ME and I got 0 points towards my totals. Fuck this game. I'll login next week and see if it gets bette. I wish Steam had a RETURN button.

[GilloD]

lul/ Dice is telling people to use Favorites, but Favorites DONT WORK. I cant ADD ANY.

[GilloD]

TodayI cant even login into EA.com or whatever to see a server list. This is fucking ridiculous

[demi]

the SP is so wack compared to MW2. I'm falling asleep here.

[cool breeze]

I tried to play earlier online but it wouldn't even let me log in.  Online is busted for sure.

also, the ping in the server list is a lie. for a 15 ping server, I was getting around 80 in the game.

for all the dedicated server outcry over MW2, so far that game had a better online experience than this.  At least I could play that before lag and dropping players became an issue.

[GilloD]

I tried to play earlier online but it wouldn't even let me log in.  Online is busted for sure.

also, the ping in the server list is a lie. for a 15 ping server, I was getting around 80 in the game.

for all the dedicated server outcry over MW2, so far that game had a better online experience than this.  At least I could play that before lag and dropping players became an issue.

Agreed. I never had a lag issue in MW2. I cant even play BF2. Good jon ea.

ALso, I should have Googled before I bought. EA closed up their KOrea offices and shut down all of their official servers here last month. They also canceled any Korean orders. Everyone had to get it from elsewhere. So why sell it in this region? ugh.

[Stoney Mason]

On the console side the MP seems to have stabilized in that I can get into games now all the time and I'm not being dropped from games a lot like I was the first few days, although I guess the weekend will be a big best of that. The lag varies. Most of the time its pretty solid but occasionally I'll get into a laggy game. Outside of the first few really bad days though the lag situation has improved quited a bit.

I stink but I'm having a lot of fun. Close to unlocking the M16 for the assault class which seems like the best gun. I'll probably finish up the campaign tomorrow evening and post my thoughts on that.

[drew]

why in the fucking fuck do you live in korea of all places again?

[GilloD]

I finally got into a good < 100 ms game. I racked up a shitton of points! we were about to win! and my laptop battery died because I kicked the plug and didn't notice.

I'm cursed!

Also, it's weird that EA closed up it's Korean offices. All the other Battlefield games are HUGE here

[fistfulofmetal]

the game isn't giving me the m1. the veteran thing doesnt work.

[ManaByte]

Worked for me.