Thursday, November 10, 2011

Battlefield 3 - Smash and Grab or Shoot to Kill?!

While most of this week I had been playing a load of Dragon Age, I had seemed to find some time for one of the new FPS's on the market (no, not Modern Warfare 3), Battlefield 3. By now I'm sure many of you know about my love for the first person shooter market (along with the MMO side of things), but BF3 seemed to hit me in the face with something I was not expecting at first. It was called - realism.

Many of the past battlefield games (to me) did not seem to have the level of detail and immersion that this one has, where you felt like you were on the front lines fighting for your life. Though it probably does help that I am now using a new 7.1 surround headset - but with that matter aside, I still felt like there was a whole world at stake when I launched the game and headed into the conflicted maps that the game presented.

Multi-player in this games seems to outshine its single player counter part (at least it did for me) as there are some very interesting "perks" , if you will, that you can only acquire from doing missions (via co-op) or just by killing your friends and enemies in a multi-player setting.

The weapon leveling system is great, at almost feels like an off shoot of Counter Strike in some sense (I know someone will probably flame me for that), and the other abilities that come along with it such as faster sprint speeds, larger ammo pouches, and the squad bonus variables all seem to fit in quite nicely.

On the other hand though - I feel somewhat gimped when equipping some of these "special perks" and not ones that directly effect your weapons and damage output or the way your weapons "handle" (for lack of a better word). Yes, I do realize that there are a significant bonus that each gives - but the slots they take up seem to almost hamper you in some way.

Let us take for example the Assault / Medic class, which I tend to play most of the time. If you decide to equip something like a grenade launcher to your specific weapon, you do lose the ability to carry med-packs, which could be a hindrance in some case, and could also reduce the amount of points you acquire on certain maps. So, it basically means that instead of tossing your kits on the ground and supporting your team with some much needed heals - you basically are only viable for reviving people as a worst case scenario.

Reviving people gives 100 or so points per, but in my mind - I personally believe that tossing med-kits with the combination of reviving seems to be one of the best ways to score points if you are on a map that seems a little "bogged down". Yes, there is the ability to change your "kit" once you arrive in game and go over the situation, but for those who like to shoot - I believe they may just shoot and fire the 'nades to their little hearts content.

Which leads me to this point, the "noob canon". It almost seems like anyone who has a rocket launcher or a 'nade launcher just fires them willy nilly at any enemy on the map and then will take an untimely death just to reload when appropriate. It is a cheap way to score points in my opinion - but since the weapon is there, people feel the right to use them (which is their right), but for the level of "realism" the game has - I don't see why there needs to be an unprecedented use (and over use) of these types of weapons at any and every chance someone seems to get, all for the sake of a few hundred points.

I'm sure things will change in the future, and those who do this will find better ways to spend their time in game (like maybe using a gun for once), but to me, it is a little ridiculous. I have always love Battlefield (and I still very much enjoy this one), but there are a handful of "bad eggs" who are spoiling the batch. Only time will tell to see what the outcome will be of such things - though it most likely will not change, I can only hope it will.

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