Battlefield Play4free

[Vreki]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

Ah, but thats how it started in BF:H.
Just appearel, nothing that affects the game they said.
But soon you could buy boosts that allowed you to gain their ingame currency faster (BEP? I don't recall the name), which again allowed you to buy more bandages so you had a better chance of surviving a fight.
And then came the Cash-only weapons.......


And then the extras got just a bit better over time, and maybe you also need to buy a boost or two so you could get bandages etc.?

[*FMJ*Power]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

took me one round to go 35-0 in a mig..........AA might be beefed up but the players ability to use it has dropped significantly.........The lag/rubberbanding is just so horrendous for me that infantry combat is pretty much impossible or simply a crap shoot....I've been sticking to jets but to be perfectly honest destroying someones fun by bombing the crap out them has stopped being entertaining..............ohh how i need BF3.

[Chris_Redfield]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

Honestly, after spending 100 hours in it, I can say that it's a nice COD4 substitute for me, but otherwise the game is sh!t and has abandoned the nr2 aspect I loved BF for- teamwork.

[MNToothpick]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

It's time to gather some early thoughts on Battlefield Play 4 Free. I have been playing for a while now and it is in open beta.

The graphics are pretty good in medium settings. I find that the graphics are fairly polished and more importantly run well on lower end systems (like mine). My current system does not struggle at all with my 8400GS card. It takes less modern hardware than Battlefield Bad Company 2 to play. Overall, the graphics are pretty nice.

The sound is also pretty good. Easy took the time to record some interesting background noises which add nice effects. Even climbing ladders is kind of loud and you can't help but wishing you were not so noisy. These are nice touches.

The game mechanics are pretty good. I find that the hit detection system seems very well done. Reloading takes a bit of time.

The player base seems pretty decent. The crowd is less serious than your typical DICE crowd, but more serious than Battlefield Heroes, owing to the environment. This is not to suggest Battlefield Heroes does not have serious players, but the overall Heroes environment lends itself to much more levity in general.

The game is not simply a Battlefield 2 remake. Easy added the tracer gun as well as the innovative deadman's trigger. It is a fusion of Battlefield 2 elements and Bad Company 2 elements with the simplicity of Battlefield Heroes style organization. People who want dedicated squad play and advanced team play elements will not find them in Play 4 Free. Like Battlefield Heroes, the lack of structure requires enormous player initiative when trying to balance your play style with the needs of your team. At times, this makes things difficult. For example, if you are a support class you can call for reinforcements and become a mobile spawn point. In theory, this would make you very useful in turning flags. In practice, I often find my reinforcements expiring prior to anyone spawning.

Game play is also hindered by the pay for advantage weapons sales. Battlefield Play 4 Free sells a wide variety of weapons. Some include advanced scopes as well as helpful modifiers. Play between pay to play players and free players will probably become more unbalanced over time. Owing to a recent promotional code, I was able to use some of these elite Weapons and I feel they may offer far more advantages than the statistics suggest. Earning points to rent weapons is easier-in Battlefield Play 4 Free, but some weapons appear to be unavailable. You can comfortably rent 500 credit weapons every day and probably still bank points. It is a bit of a pain to re-up on a daily basis and you don't want your gun to expire during a match.

I found some of the default weapons too nerfed to be useful (support class basically needs M16A2 and Engineer can benefit from MP7). It's unfortunate that game play is up for grabs in this way and it undermines the environment. There does not seem to be as much idling as there was in BF:H owing to the increased rate of credits earnings, but it is still a problem.

The classes are nothing extraordinary. The classes are medic, engineer, support, and recon. Battlefield Play 4 Free only provides each account with 2 character slots by default. As a result, I cannot properly evaluate the recon class. I have only 3 character slots- medic, engineer, and assault. Some people may be put off by the limited two character slots offering.

Game play is basically capture the flag based conquest maps. The team with the most flags gain points towards winning. Games are played with the winning team the first to 1000 points.

Unlike Heroes, the lack of dedicated factions means that you will not encounter the balance problems that plagued Heroes when there could be too few nationals or too few royals. In Battlefield Play 4 Free, players will be automatically team switched. This is great for balance, but can be frustrating when a team that is losing suddenly rage quits and you are switched. I wonder why they don't prohibit team switching at 80% of the game, or perhaps provide some additional credit/point compensation to players that are auto-switched.

Another oddity is the lack of any attempt to regulate bunny hopping at all. You can jump and fire your weapon if you choose.

The leveling process is slow but doable. The current open beta cap is level 20. You should be able to reach level 20 without too much work. This gives you 19 skill points to upgrade your character. The skill trees are somewhat clumsily organized and seem to require some very questionable skills selections with the current level caps. I appreciate the attempt to make players make choices about their skills, but sometimes, you feel like they are really drawing out any attempt to get a useful skill by adding marginal skills as pre-requisites to good ones. This will be less of an issue if they raise the level cap. In my experience, hard choices mean that skills which are necessary for flying and advanced vehicles skills are low priorities for me. This means I cannot, with most of my characters fly or utilize secondary vehicle weapons or defenses. This seems a little odd given the fact that vehicles normally play a fairly large role in Battlefield games.

A lot of players will be happy that they can get a Battlefield experience for free with relatively low hardware requirements. Easy does have a strong history of not requiring the latest hardware when creating its games. However, as more players adopt elite weapons, parity issues will emerge that make the game less enjoyable. Currently, the game only has 3 maps, although a fourth map will be released imminently.

Anyone who has the hardware for Bad Company 2, will not likely find much reason to play Battlefield Play 4 Free as it offers fewer maps, less structure, and may, in light of sales, cost more if you invest in elite weapons.

As the game is still in open beta, many flaws still exist, but it is certainly worth a look if you don't have the latest hardware.

[jimykx]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

It's time to gather some early thoughts on Battlefield Play 4 Free. I have been playing for a while now and it is in open beta.

The graphics are pretty good in medium settings. I find that the graphics are fairly polished and more importantly run well on lower end systems (like mine). My current system does not struggle at all with my 8400GS card. It takes less modern hardware than Battlefield Bad Company 2 to play. Overall, the graphics are pretty nice.

The sound is also pretty good. Easy took the time to record some interesting background noises which add nice effects. Even climbing ladders is kind of loud and you can't help but wishing you were not so noisy. These are nice touches.

The game mechanics are pretty good. I find that the hit detection system seems very well done. Reloading takes a bit of time.

The player base seems pretty decent. The crowd is less serious than your typical DICE crowd, but more serious than Battlefield Heroes, owing to the environment. This is not to suggest Battlefield Heroes does not have serious players, but the overall Heroes environment lends itself to much more levity in general.

The game is not simply a Battlefield 2 remake. Easy added the tracer gun as well as the innovative deadman's trigger. It is a fusion of Battlefield 2 elements and Bad Company 2 elements with the simplicity of Battlefield Heroes style organization. People who want dedicated squad play and advanced team play elements will not find them in Play 4 Free. Like Battlefield Heroes, the lack of structure requires enormous player initiative when trying to balance your play style with the needs of your team. At times, this makes things difficult. For example, if you are a support class you can call for reinforcements and become a mobile spawn point. In theory, this would make you very useful in turning flags. In practice, I often find my reinforcements expiring prior to anyone spawning.

Game play is also hindered by the pay for advantage weapons sales. Battlefield Play 4 Free sells a wide variety of weapons. Some include advanced scopes as well as helpful modifiers. Play between pay to play players and free players will probably become more unbalanced over time. Owing to a recent promotional code, I was able to use some of these elite Weapons and I feel they may offer far more advantages than the statistics suggest. Earning points to rent weapons is easier-in Battlefield Play 4 Free, but some weapons appear to be unavailable. You can comfortably rent 500 credit weapons every day and probably still bank points. It is a bit of a pain to re-up on a daily basis and you don't want your gun to expire during a match.

I found some of the default weapons too nerfed to be useful (support class basically needs M16A2 and Engineer can benefit from MP7). It's unfortunate that game play is up for grabs in this way and it undermines the environment. There does not seem to be as much idling as there was in BF:H owing to the increased rate of credits earnings, but it is still a problem.

The classes are nothing extraordinary. The classes are medic, engineer, support, and recon. Battlefield Play 4 Free only provides each account with 2 character slots by default. As a result, I cannot properly evaluate the recon class. I have only 3 character slots- medic, engineer, and assault. Some people may be put off by the limited two character slots offering.

Game play is basically capture the flag based conquest maps. The team with the most flags gain points towards winning. Games are played with the winning team the first to 1000 points.

Unlike Heroes, the lack of dedicated factions means that you will not encounter the balance problems that plagued Heroes when there could be too few nationals or too few royals. In Battlefield Play 4 Free, players will be automatically team switched. This is great for balance, but can be frustrating when a team that is losing suddenly rage quits and you are switched. I wonder why they don't prohibit team switching at 80% of the game, or perhaps provide some additional credit/point compensation to players that are auto-switched.

Another oddity is the lack of any attempt to regulate bunny hopping at all. You can jump and fire your weapon if you choose.

The leveling process is slow but doable. The current open beta cap is level 20. You should be able to reach level 20 without too much work. This gives you 19 skill points to upgrade your character. The skill trees are somewhat clumsily organized and seem to require some very questionable skills selections with the current level caps. I appreciate the attempt to make players make choices about their skills, but sometimes, you feel like they are really drawing out any attempt to get a useful skill by adding marginal skills as pre-requisites to good ones. This will be less of an issue if they raise the level cap. In my experience, hard choices mean that skills which are necessary for flying and advanced vehicles skills are low priorities for me. This means I cannot, with most of my characters fly or utilize secondary vehicle weapons or defenses. This seems a little odd given the fact that vehicles normally play a fairly large role in Battlefield games.

A lot of players will be happy that they can get a Battlefield experience for free with relatively low hardware requirements. Easy does have a strong history of not requiring the latest hardware when creating its games. However, as more players adopt elite weapons, parity issues will emerge that make the game less enjoyable. Currently, the game only has 3 maps, although a fourth map will be released imminently.

Anyone who has the hardware for Bad Company 2, will not likely find much reason to play Battlefield Play 4 Free as it offers fewer maps, less structure, and may, in light of sales, cost more if you invest in elite weapons.

As the game is still in open beta, many flaws still exist, but it is certainly worth a look if you don't have the latest hardware.

You still cant change classes on the fly, and to me that's a damn big FAIL

[Vreki]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

You still cant change classes on the fly, and to me that's a damn big FAIL

I think that is because they want us to buy stuff for each character, instead of having one multi-class main.
Not that it makes it less of a failure, of course.

[(BG)Patton]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

i just got this game yesterday becasue i was getting bored of bc2 and homefront, and i actually enjoy it. i do not understand why there seems to be a huge overall lack of skill in this game, but i found that nobody was using cover, or radar, or even aiming properly becasue i was in the top 3 players from the first round on. also, there is a tremendous lack of teamwork and nobody drops ammo or health for anyone but themselves.

i think its fun still becasue i am pwning level 20s with elite (bought) weapons with my level 6 crap guns. fun stuff really.

[stilla-killa]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

I was thinking about giving this one a go again.

[Vreki]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

Me too, I know they have gotten a new map since last I tried it.

[stilla-killa]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

What is your name on there Vreki and I will add you?

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

I tried to give it a go again but it now crashes my browser instead :/

It ran well on the Beta.

Crunch

[stilla-killa]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

Well I tried it during lunch. To much lag! Or maybe it was my wireless internet connection lol. Who knows but didn't really have much fun with it. For some reason I had more fun with Combat Arms.

[Vreki]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

What is your name on there Vreki and I will add you?

"Vreki" I think, I am not completely sure how their friend system works.

[Vreki]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

Well I tried it during lunch. To much lag! Or maybe it was my wireless internet connection lol. Who knows but didn't really have much fun with it. For some reason I had more fun with Combat Arms.

I got lag too, not surprisingly since it placed me on a server in Japan.

[Vreki]

Re: Battlefield Play4free

I have been playing it again for a couple of weeks, and I must say that it is actually quite good if you just want a causal game of BF light.
Sure there is lag and "n00bs" a plenty, but it is strangely relaxing. Maybe because there doesnt seem to be any persistent stats tracking, so who cares if you got steamrolled in a round.
A decent number of maps too.

The weapon balance is a bit wacky though.
Take a look at the already devastating USAF-12, and then compare with the Cash-Only version:



I bought it with som Battlefunds I had left from BF:H, since there is a 30% discount on Elite weapons this weekend.
Not only can you easily mow down 3 men at once in CQB, but the large magazine allows you to kill enemies from quite some distance.

But wth, it is my overpowered noob-gun now