Battlefield 2042

[idiwa]

Anyone played the beta on PC yet? Most of the chat seems to be next gen consoles. 

[Valver]

1 hour ago, idiwa said:

Anyone played the beta on PC yet? Most of the chat seems to be next gen consoles. 

Yes, I've been playing on and off today on PC - AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, 32Gb RAM and a 3080 RTX

 

Performance is OK.  Not great, but OK.  I can hold 60fps at 1440p.  Graphics are in a significantly better state technically than they were in the Technical playtest, but still aren't great.  Everything looks a bit too bright, flat and lacking in detail.    Still plenty of bugs - being a passenger in vehicles is very very janky - aiming is almost impossible as a gunner in a tank, and helis have issues with the pilots seeming to be sitting outside the model.

 

The map isnt great, IMHO its too big, and without any focus points as was said earlier.

 

I still dislike the specialists.  Seeing 4 old-granny Falks running along just spoils the immersion.  And then meeting another couple on the enemy team, wearing exactly the same outfits, makes it ridiculous, and tough to work out who to shoot at it in the initial seconds.  By making the characters individual, its much more jarring that there are clones of them running around, than when everyone looked generic and there were lots of generic soldiers everywhere, but at least the two factions looked substantially different.

 

Overall, its in a much better state than the Tech test - but its still not polished enough.  And more concerningly its just not fun and "epic war" feeling enough in its current state.

 

I still think it needs major work and should be delayed another 6 months personally...

 

 

[Ry]

1 hour ago, Luseth said:

 

I am guessing you will be able to set your default + system in the menu's prior to joining a game i.e. how you customise your solder between games but nothing's confirmed so it will be a case of waiting for the new game i'm afraid

 

There has to be. If not the plus system will take up the full screen.There will be loads more attachments. My guess is that you can set 3 different attachments for each type. Scope, barrell etc etc (3x4)

[Count Buffalos]

26 minutes ago, Valver said:

I still dislike the specialists.  Seeing 4 old biddy Falk's running along just spoils the immersion.  And then meeting another couple on the enemy team, wearing exactly the same outfits, makes it ridiculous, and tough to work out who to shoot at it in the initial seconds.  By making the characters individual, its much more jarring that there are clones of them running around, than when everyone looked generic and there were lots of generic soldiers everywhere, but the two factions looked substantially different.

 

This. I think that the specialists are a terrible addition.

[Harrisown]

I do like the shooting in this, it’s still an absolute mess though.

 

Why can’t I change the chopper controls 

[fattakin]

Will it have console cross - play? as on xbox its dead already - ive played at 3 different times today and no more than 7 players, the rest bots.  Granted its during the day.  Its been nice tho as abut to get to grips with the slower pace. 

[moosegrinder]

Yeah PS5 and Xbox series will have cross play with each other, and Xbox one with ps4.

[carlospie]

I wonder how many preorders the beta had resulted in being cancelled. Must be a lot. 

[idiwa]

1 hour ago, carlospie said:

I wonder how many preorders the beta had resulted in being cancelled. Must be a lot. 

 

I'm not even going to bother with the Beta (PC). I'd rather wait for release and see how the reaction is day 1 as a finished title. If I play the Beta now I suspect it will just totally colour my judgement at time of release.

[Bonzai1888]

Quite enjoying it myself but aye, its super glitchy. I remember I did not order BFV until the day before release purely based on that Beta, it was horrendous, the dullest Battlefield I had ever played I said.

 

The amount of polish on the full release was incredible in comparison with the bare boned beta at the time, in the long run though, I never liked V as much as 1 though, the atmosphere in that was off the scale.

 

I will keep my fingers crossed that Dice will pull it out the bag again upon release.

 

 

[V3zna]

This is pretty good. Ultimately I’m a Battlefield veteran since 2 on the PC back in the day and have flip flopped between console and PC over the years. On my rig (2700, 2070 Super, 16gb ram) it doesn’t run too well. I am playing it on medium on an Ultrawide though but the fps are 60ish and it looks a bit bland. I had a much better time on PS5. Visually superior and it controls surprisingly well. The map was baffling at first but once I got the hang of it I really like the flow of it. They’ve certainly made significant changes to how a BF plays now. The classes system could be very interesting if it gets fleshed out. I’ve no pre order placed but on this evidence I’ll possibly get the PS5 version. 
 

Turning off cross play is ‘interesting’. Getting to massacre a load of bots is quite amusing.

[pinholestar]

I've put a good 10 or so hours into this now so my thoughts on it have solidified somewhat and they're decidedly mixed.

 

The beta is a glitchy, buggy mess and the last minute delay to squeeze the release in before Christmas set alarm bells ringing but I'll reserve judgement until we see what the final release looks like. If I had to put money on it though, and considering DICE's previous form, I'd be very surprised if this doesn't come in blazing hot.

 

With that said I do think the core gunplay, movement and vehicles (apart from the Godawful default flight controls) are solid. There's fun to be had here no doubt, and when you're in a squad that's actually working together there's that unique Battlefield magic that no other game provides, but boy is it struggling to break its way through some really dubious design decisions.

 

I initially thought the map design was really good too and it's certainly a step up from the big open fields of nothing that typified a lot of BF5 maps, but after extended play I think I was a bit too premature in my praise and it's revealed itself to be mediocre in a lot of ways and it doesn't flow well between objectives at all. How much of this is down to Conquest being the only available game mode is difficult to say because that mode always suffers from the frequently aimless circle zerging between objectives and as I said yesterday I'd love to see how it plays on Operations/Breakthrough. Over time people tend to understand how to best approach and take objectives on specific maps as well, so you have to allow for the fact that right now everyone's a clueless, headless chicken just trying crazy shit out. 

 

The more I play it though the more convinced I am that the move to 128 players is ultimately pointless if they've made the maps so gargantuan to compensate. Considering that this is the third smallest map in the game I really struggle to see how the even bigger maps are going to provide a compelling and engaging experience. There's way too much meaningless and broadly featureless dead space between objectives with absolutely fuck all going on in them. Next time you die and are on the respawn screen have a look at the clustered distribution of player icons and you'll see what I mean.

 

Remember Hamada from BF5 and Albion from BF1? Their big boast was that these were the biggest Battlefield maps ever and they were both the shittest in their respective releases, so for them to have taken those as their starting point is a strange and worrying decision. Bigger is not necessarily better and if by doubling the map size you halve the compelling fun to be had at any one moment then it's ultimately a pointless endeavour that only serves to dilute the overall experience.

 

The biggest and most glaring problem of all though, and the one that seems to be foundational to the entire game's design is the change from classes to 'Specialists'. This has 100% been done to appeal to the CoD Warzone crowd and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's completely fucked the emergent teamplay that only Battlefield gave rise to in such a fundamental fashion that I'm amazed it wasn't picked up during development and consigned to the dustbin.... unless, that is, it's entirely intentional because it'll enable the game to be monetised to high heaven with battle passes, cosmetics, skins and new Specialists released every few months.

 

The class system was a fundamental cornerstone of previous Battlefield games that enabled and encouraged clearly defined roles, engagement ranges and tactics dependent on what the situation and your current squad composition required. Now you have a very loosely defined mish-mash of entire platoons of identical looking Grapple Boys on both teams hurtling and sliding around everywhere with zero incentive to actually consider how they're contributing to their team's objectives other than racking up kills. Sure, a well-coordinated squad that's communicating can still synergise to a degree, but nothing like to the same extent as they could in previous titles and the game certainly doesn't incentivise it.

 

Who's carrying ammo or heals now? You have no way of knowing. No one waits for revives because there's no longer any onscreen indication of how close a medic is because... well there's no such thing as a dedicated medic now. Granny Healgun is a waste of fucking time.

 

There's a tank raining hell on us, do we have any engineers/assaults on our team to take it down? Who knows? Maybe Grapple Boy here is running a rocket launcher, maybe not. There's no visual indication to help you strategise or plan your attack or give you any idea of what your team or your opponent has at their disposal and the game absolutely suffers for it.

 

I'm not against change but I just don't think it's an improvement in this case and they could have removed the restrictions on weapon choice while still retaining the class system. That way you'd have the best of both worlds but they've gone all in on what is essentially a 'Create Your Own Class' approach of generic heroes that does away with the rock, paper, scissors balance of the well-established Battlefield class system and leaves that aspect feeling very diluted.

 

The core gameplay of shooting other people and jumping in vehicles is decent enough and there's definitely fun to be had and the potential for something great but there are some glaring issues that I sadly think are fundamental to its entire design and threaten to undermine the whole thing. Something's just off about it and, even allowing for the typically reactionary denizens of online gaming communities and the fact that it's a beta rather than a full demo, I'm clearly not alone in being distinctly underwhelmed by it at this stage. By any measure the reception to it has not been great.

 

At this rate I can see myself playing Halo over Christmas and New Year and checking this out when it hits GP Ultimate/EA Play in 6 months or so. Based on what I've played so far I'd give it a disappointed 7 when I was hoping for a triumphant 10.

[Mr.Crowley]

I'm just disappointed that, yet again, BF disappoints at destruction. At one point, a whole building seemed to magically heal itself, the panels just reappeared. Of course, the frame of the building was indestructible, I think I've been more impressed by the carnage in Farcry 6.

[djbhammer]

Pre order cancelled for me. It’s just got too many rough edges at the moment and I would rather wait for them to deploy the inevitable patches over its release before jumping in. The UI definitely needs an overhaul, it’s an absolute mess. Halo Infinite is in a much better state so that will tie me over for the coming months.

[Bonzai1888]

Tried the PS4 beta on my PS5, was quite impressed with how it looked, movement was fast and fluid, although, I did find aiming felt a bit more sluggish.

[Count Buffalos]

I’ve just tried again, it’s absolutely awful. 

[Dave White]

Had no bugs amazingly  and although on paper I should be all over this as always with a new BF. 
 

im just not arsed, bottom line is it’s not PUBG which like any battle royal you get one life and that’s it. The risk and reward and dopamine hit just done compare. 
 

Like COD I’ve moved on and feel this is just the same capture A B A C A D.  And it doesn’t have anything new in fact the movement mechanics are worse and feel so sluggish and a massive backwards step from V. And that crouch slide spam is stupid. 

Based on past BF launches I can’t see this being finished in 4 weeks and why show an old build? 
 

Character models are a joke and I can’t tell whose who half the time. Where is the destruction? 

 

 It doesn’t feel like a massive progression and still the vehicle controls are just dumbed down with no skill needed. 
 

I craved a modern BF but actually I don’t know if I’ll bother. 
 

see you on Erangel. 

[Harsin]

The sentiments on here are echoed on every single place you look on the web. EA have to be pretty nervous. I imagine Dice will be going through some major restructuring if they put out 3 big budget flops in a row.

[Valver]

 

[macosx]

Yeah on that Beta, the map was bland. Too much running around and no getting it till I see all it’s got to offer, which with the usual bugs may be some time.

 

More interested in Recon Frontlines than this tbh.

[instasis]

15 hours ago, pinholestar said:

I've put a good 10 or so hours into this now so my thoughts on it have solidified somewhat and they're decidedly mixed.

 

The beta is a glitchy, buggy mess and the last minute delay to squeeze the release in before Christmas set alarm bells ringing but I'll reserve judgement until we see what the final release looks like. If I had to put money on it though, and considering DICE's previous form, I'd be very surprised if this doesn't come in blazing hot.

 

With that said I do think the core gunplay, movement and vehicles (apart from the Godawful default flight controls) are solid. There's fun to be had here no doubt, and when you're in a squad that's actually working together there's that unique Battlefield magic that no other game provides, but boy is it struggling to break its way through some really dubious design decisions.

 

I initially thought the map design was really good too and it's certainly a step up from the big open fields of nothing that typified a lot of BF5 maps, but after extended play I think I was a bit too premature in my praise and it's revealed itself to be mediocre in a lot of ways and it doesn't flow well between objectives at all. How much of this is down to Conquest being the only available game mode is difficult to say because that mode always suffers from the frequently aimless circle zerging between objectives and as I said yesterday I'd love to see how it plays on Operations/Breakthrough. Over time people tend to understand how to best approach and take objectives on specific maps as well, so you have to allow for the fact that right now everyone's a clueless, headless chicken just trying crazy shit out. 

 

The more I play it though the more convinced I am that the move to 128 players is ultimately pointless if they've made the maps so gargantuan to compensate. Considering that this is the third smallest map in the game I really struggle to see how the even bigger maps are going to provide a compelling and engaging experience. There's way too much meaningless and broadly featureless dead space between objectives with absolutely fuck all going on in them. Next time you die and are on the respawn screen have a look at the clustered distribution of player icons and you'll see what I mean.

 

Remember Hamada from BF5 and Albion from BF1? Their big boast was that these were the biggest Battlefield maps ever and they were both the shittest in their respective releases, so for them to have taken those as their starting point is a strange and worrying decision. Bigger is not necessarily better and if by doubling the map size you halve the compelling fun to be had at any one moment then it's ultimately a pointless endeavour that only serves to dilute the overall experience.

 

The biggest and most glaring problem of all though, and the one that seems to be foundational to the entire game's design is the change from classes to 'Specialists'. This has 100% been done to appeal to the CoD Warzone crowd and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's completely fucked the emergent teamplay that only Battlefield gave rise to in such a fundamental fashion that I'm amazed it wasn't picked up during development and consigned to the dustbin.... unless, that is, it's entirely intentional because it'll enable the game to be monetised to high heaven with battle passes, cosmetics, skins and new Specialists released every few months.

 

The class system was a fundamental cornerstone of previous Battlefield games that enabled and encouraged clearly defined roles, engagement ranges and tactics dependent on what the situation and your current squad composition required. Now you have a very loosely defined mish-mash of entire platoons of identical looking Grapple Boys on both teams hurtling and sliding around everywhere with zero incentive to actually consider how they're contributing to their team's objectives other than racking up kills. Sure, a well-coordinated squad that's communicating can still synergise to a degree, but nothing like to the same extent as they could in previous titles and the game certainly doesn't incentivise it.

 

Who's carrying ammo or heals now? You have no way of knowing. No one waits for revives because there's no longer any onscreen indication of how close a medic is because... well there's no such thing as a dedicated medic now. Granny Healgun is a waste of fucking time.

 

There's a tank raining hell on us, do we have any engineers/assaults on our team to take it down? Who knows? Maybe Grapple Boy here is running a rocket launcher, maybe not. There's no visual indication to help you strategise or plan your attack or give you any idea of what your team or your opponent has at their disposal and the game absolutely suffers for it.

 

I'm not against change but I just don't think it's an improvement in this case and they could have removed the restrictions on weapon choice while still retaining the class system. That way you'd have the best of both worlds but they've gone all in on what is essentially a 'Create Your Own Class' approach of generic heroes that does away with the rock, paper, scissors balance of the well-established Battlefield class system and leaves that aspect feeling very diluted.

 

The core gameplay of shooting other people and jumping in vehicles is decent enough and there's definitely fun to be had and the potential for something great but there are some glaring issues that I sadly think are fundamental to its entire design and threaten to undermine the whole thing. Something's just off about it and, even allowing for the typically reactionary denizens of online gaming communities and the fact that it's a beta rather than a full demo, I'm clearly not alone in being distinctly underwhelmed by it at this stage. By any measure the reception to it has not been great.

 

At this rate I can see myself playing Halo over Christmas and New Year and checking this out when it hits GP Ultimate/EA Play in 6 months or so. Based on what I've played so far I'd give it a disappointed 7 when I was hoping for a triumphant 10.

 

God this, so much this. I just talked to my son about it before I read this.

 

Lack of classes, loss of so much comms/situational awareness is just catering to the CoD crowd. I'm frustrated I've pre-ordered at this point, there's a lot riding on these other game modes right now. 

[Simmy]

I take back the praise from a few days ago - I've gone from pure joy and elation to not being arsed to even start up the "beta". I just can't be arsed, it's so boring!

 

The graphics initially wowed me but it now actually feels like Ace Combat graphically - up high it looks really impressive but when you get too close to the ground you can see it's all just the same building over and over. It's really weird and looks cheap.

 

 

Will not be pre ordering.

[rafaqat]

48 minutes ago, Pelekophoros said:

 

God this, so much this. I just talked to my son about it before I read this.

 

Lack of classes, loss of so much comms/situational awareness is just catering to the CoD crowd. I'm frustrated I've pre-ordered at this point, there's a lot riding on these other game modes right now. 

i’m frustrated that you’ve preordered a digital game. Stop handing cash over blindly!!!

[rafaqat]

People saying it’s just like BF4 still excites me.  I loved it.  But sounds like I’ll be giving a try on the EA trial and then seeing if it gets better over the first few months after launch.  Was looking forward to a rllmuk squad up.  Will do eventually. Just not at launch. 

[Harsin]

We've got a gajillion players in matches and our maps are the size of the Australian outback are things that publishers love to crow about at conferences and in promotional materials because they sound impressive on a purely surface level. But I find it rarely translates to fun. This is supposedly one of the smaller maps in the game and there's still acres of boring wilderness between actually interesting parts of the map and getting to the actual firefights starts to feel like commuting more than a enjoying a game.

[Waggo]

9 minutes ago, Harsin said:

This is supposedly one of the smaller maps in the game and there's still acres of boring wilderness between actually interesting parts of the map and getting to the actual firefights starts to feel like commuting more than a enjoying a game.

Totally this especially if you spend 5 minutes traipsing over to the action, and then some cu*t snipes you before you even get a shot off.

[Minion]

Wow this is terrible, what a shame.

[cavalcade]

I love this thread - you have some absolutely beautiful detailed multi-paragraph posts of the good and bad points of the beta, with well structured points and fantastic writing. And then immediate follow ups with one liners saying it's shit

[smithstock]

I think the post from @pinholestar pretty much sums up my thoughts, really well said. 

 

I haven't got a lot to add other than that, after skipping I and V for the most part, I was looking forward to jumping back in with the amazing old gang @RickyDVT @Dave White @FuntimeDave among others. It's always been more fun as a group, but I'm also still curious about the tracer dart after being a menace with that in the BC2 days. 

 

Not sure if I'll pick this up on launch, but if they do the equivalent of the "spring patch" for BF4 - it could be night and day in terms of a difference.

[instasis]

58 minutes ago, rafaqat said:

i’m frustrated that you’ve preordered a digital game. Stop handing cash over blindly!!!

 

Soz boss