I haven't owned a Battlefield game since 2. I played a little of 3 and it seemed cool at the time.

Playing it again, I did have to adjust my approach. After playing Overwatch recently, this is so much more open and you're so much more vulnerable. You're also really at a disadvantage if you don't play in a squad, because enemy squad members can just spawn off each other. But once I remembered this I started playing a bit better.

I've been enjoying it so far. There seems to be a good balance of winning and losing points so that one team is never completely shut out. Being able to spawn in aircraft and on the back of aircraft is great and get's you back into the action much quicker. Getting ground kills while in an aircraft feels like a huge victory to me, so when it happened I was very excited.

Had some more of the battlefield ridiculousness where I shot someone off a horse and the horse ran me over. Or when I was quietly crawling with a teammate and a jeep comes out of nowhere, runs the other guy over, and then vanishes like nothing happened. Also it looks and sounds very nice on PS4.

I did start having an issue joining games here in UK. It worked fine before around 19:00 but sometime after that the only way I could join games was by going into the server browser and joining a game with a waiting list. Weirdly there were lots of empty servers and by the time I stopped the waiting lists on the handful of populated servers was at around 90 or so people queuing.

The old timey objective names and squad names are one of the best parts!

Duff Squad!

I have to say I was disappointed when I heard the news about 24 player Rush but honest it feels way better than 64 player Rush. I still think BC2 had the best with 32 but I am suprised by how much I like Rush in the smaller scale.

Conquest needs same changes though. Basically high player count Domination at the moment. Very little reason to hold anything.

I agree with this. I usually like to defend in BF too and it feels rather useless. It's also a problem that gets worse for me when I play on this Beta map because the map terrain varies so much. If I'm an Assault with an SMG as I like to play so far, I sure as hell don't want to be in all the wide open areas of the map. I end up sticking around C a lot but defending is not worthwhile, as you say.

On a somewhat related note: had a super annoying match tonight where a lot of the other team were snipers and it made the map unbearable. I was constantly getting sniped and my team sucked, so we could never get any of the points that weren't in the wide open areas. So constantly I was just running towards points as an Assault and getting sniped. It was miserable. I never have had sniping be so awful in BF before. Now that hasn't been my case through most matches but this really stood out to me as something I never had seen to this level in BF.

@jjbsterling: the problem with TF2's movement is the map design. TF1 still has the best movement in any game this gen in large part to the map design that takes advantage of the pilot's abilities. Something TF2 lacks with its more open maps. It was so incredibly fun to chain moves together in TF and dart around the map. I always found the movement in BLOPs3 a lot clunkier and slower than TF.

Does anyone else feel underpowerd constantly? My favorite thing about playing as an engineer in 4 is how often I felt like a death machine.

And what are the best ways to fight vehicles as infantry in this game?

@csl316: My best options against vehicles is being Assault and using the Anti-Tank Grenade and the.... Anti Tank rifle? I forget the exact name on that.

The trick with the anti-tank grenade is to get close. They don't go far. And if you get close and throw one right into the side of a tank you will see just how much damage they can do. The difference really is drastic. Against the landship tanks if you get an anti-tank into the side tracks of one you should instantly disable it. A second will destroy it.

The anti-tank rifle gun thing is an unlock. You need to be prone to use it and it doesn't do crazy damage against the heavy tanks but it does solid damage from good range. And it does work against armored cars and the like and you can even use it against buildings to blow up walls. I also shot a dude off a horse with one which was dope. Even if the damage isn't great, you get like 5 shots so that's nice.

Also, you can even trade out your normal grenade for a Light Anti-Tank grenade to have even another option. There are also AT mines but I haven't used them yet.

@artisanbreads: Ok, I've been playing support since I figured assault was just infantry combat. Guess I'll give it a shot tomorrow.

The alternate grenade options are extremely extremely handy. Smoke grenades do wonders to avoid snipers and are basically mandatory for Rush. The light At nade also deals 20 damage to tanks and if you are support you can resupply your own so basically have an infinite amount.

@mems1224: I haven't played the original Titanfall in a very long time and even though it was on PC, while I play Call of Duty and Battlefield on console, I'll still agree with you that its movement is probably better than Black Ops 3. The first Titanfall, for as much as it didn't have much staying power personally, I loved everything about how the pilots moved. For me, I don't think its the map design that made me dislike what Titanfall 2 was doing. I think the basic movement of what I played of the tech test (which was only the first weekend, mind you) felt very swimmy and felt like my pilot was moving out of my control too much. Black Ops 3 is definitely slower but I feel like the movement is very tight. Whenever I mess something up in Black Ops 3 9 times out of 10 it's user error and I just didn't feel the same way with my brief time with Titanfall 2.

Boy I wish I could play this, but every single time I make the attempt, the servers are down.

Been playing some on PC. I've not played shooters in years and especially not on PC. I had some fun but I had a lot more fun with Bad Company 2 on 360. It's so hard to see the enemies in this game. In BC2 you could spot them with the back button and they would get an arrow over their head. I've not found any button on the keayboard that does that in this game.

@dagas: There has been spotting in every Battlefield game up to this point as far as I know; is there no spotting in this game?

@kasaioni: you can still spot in BF1 but they toned it way the fuck down. Even if you clearly see the enemy or tank in the distance you can't actually spot them unless they are super close. At least that's been my experience so far.

It feels like they wanted to tone down everyone's situational awareness. Spotting is toned down and enemies that fire don't appear on the map anymore

Q is the key to press to spot. Spotting has a closer range yes but it's still there for everyone. I think part of the reason it went that way is because the Scout/Sniper class or whatever it's called is really based around spotting. The Spotting flare and Spotting Scope they have for example allow for spotting in an area and then spotting at long range.

Also, yes smoke grenades are fantastic still. Like you say @hayt especially for Rush.

That kinda sucks, spotting is great for terrible players like me to feel useful. Granted i could just play the scouting class but i don't like being stuck to one type of character in games. I think this game is great, and I will likely pick it up on pc and play with a gamepad so hopefully they still will have the beginner servers for people who just want to have fun or learn the game and arent' too up tight about your bad K/D etc.

Maybe this was discussed before, but there is a map were I spawned with no guns, every time... Maybe it was a beta thing, or something in the mode description that I missed, but there are few gaming experiences more frustrating than playing a FPS where apparently everyone else was armed and I didn't even got a knife.

This is a bug that I have run into as well. It seems random to me. There is also a bug where vehicles can vanish while you are in them. Those are the two worst I have seen.

I have found gas grenades to be the most useful thing in this game. Kills suckers who are pinned or just stubbornly hunker down, and puts folks into a frenzy to book it. Gas grenades and shotgun are my go-to when it comes to doing a little cleaning at C and B.

Been enjoying the game so far, but damn do I wish medics would do their job and heal or revive folks.

Yeah I'm hoping that gets better.

Frankly, I think a lot of it has to do with the weapons. They are giving them a snipers weapon (not THE sniper weapon, but still a long range weapon) so it's a lot of guys that just hang back and try to pick people off and yeah they don't give a fuck. I think the changes to the revive system don't help either though.

If I was DICE I would go back to '42 style and make the Medic have the SMG. The Assault class has all these anti-tank weapons and to me that makes more sense with a more long range kit.

I'll have to try those gas grenades. The shotgun seems pretty good too. The Heavy version seems like it has some range. I've still been using the standard Assault MP18 Trench. Great hip fire and can work to medium range.

I'm having a similar experience having played a lot of DOOM and Overwatch as of late. It's kind of making the beta feel like a drag to play to the point where I'm considering not picking it up.

@artisanbreads: Hell, I wouldn't mind them just going back to the BF 3 or 4 system and giving the assault the medic tools. I actually don't mind the medic set up, some of the rifles seems pretty good but I think there is another issue that lies in the UI. I understand the frustration of never being revived so I do it as much as I can but I find it hard sometimes to find downed soldiers.

I think the "request medic" button is in theory a good idea but in practice a detriment to being efficient. Nothing sucks more than being revived and instantly going down again but at this point I don't think anyone is requesting revival. I wish it would show all downed friendlies and maybe put an emphasis on the people who are requesting it? I don't know maybe it already does that but if it doesn't it doesn't seem clear enough.

But my overall impressions are very positive, I wish I downloaded it on PC cause the ps4 frame rate gets iffy in some high action situations. I haven't played a battlefield since 4 which I put a lot of time into and I really like the new setting and direction. People keep labeling it as just a reskinned BF4 or Battlefront but I don't think that's true at all. This game just feels different, the pacing, some of the weapons and the vehicles. It's pretty cool, this game may have taken the spot where Titanfall 2 used to be on my buy list.

@sackmanjones: Someone mentioned this earlier in the thread, but it kind of seemed like they had it figured out in BF4 (I believe it was) where, as the downed player, you could just deny a revive if you wanted with a button press. Seems like a better solution than what they are doing.

Personally I like there being a Medic class with how the game operates but to me it makes way more sense for the medic to be a guy in the thick of the action. Since there's no assault rifles here, I feel like most people who just want to pick some dudes off in that kind of medium range way will go medic and very possibly give no shits about reviving or healing anyone. It is early so we will see how it goes.

And agreed on this feeling different. To me, as I previously mentioned, it feels like '42 a lot, as well as older BF games. That's a great thing.

I don't know if it's this map in particular or if I just haven't played a BF game in a long time but there is a whole lot of camping involved in this game. People crouching in corners or waiting in windows where you don't even have a chance to react. If you have a semi-auto weapon like the medic rifle then you should probably not bother going into any area with buildings in it because 9/10 times you won't win that fight against the automatic rifle.

7 flag maps in Battlefield are vehicle maps for infrantry the best use of your time is to focus on the two flags in the middle either capturing or defending on Sinai Desert that's C & D if you don't own these expect people to be defending inside buildings, the medic rifle is the best gun in the beta in a fair fight you can and should be winning 1v1 vs assult.

@thepanzini: what is a fair fight? If someone starts shooting you with the assault class rifle then you will not have time to whip around and squeeze off the clip to finish him unless you're a headshot savant.

Either way I'm not sure what you're talking about in regards to map capture strategy, but all I know is that in other recent competitive shooters the bulk of my deaths were from encountering another player and not shooting them accurately enough resulting in my death. In BF1 a majority of my deaths were from rounding a corner and dying or spawning on a squad mate and dying or simply getting shot out of somewhere, and dying. I'm not engaging in combat as often as I'm simply being shot at from afar. That might be the "real battlefield experience" but it's not a super fun one. Just to reiterate, I have played a ton of BF in the past so I know how the gameplay structure looks like, I just don't remember it ever being this one sided before.

@humanity: It sounds like BF is just not for you anymore. This is what it was always like. It's not Halo. You get the drop on someone and they're probably done for. The maps have lots of area to cover and nooks and crannies to hide in. I have made a living in BF sneaking around and getting the drop on people across the whole series.

@artisanbreads: maybe so. I remember loving the series and loving how open ended the maps were. I just don't think any of that magic is here and I keep trying to see what people are excited about. BF1 seems like their most basic, barebones release since BF1943, and everyone seems to love that about it which is so perplexing when that was the main criticism for Battlefront. Either way I guess I'm done trying to get back into it. As a huge fan of the series from way back when I was thinking maybe I could get back into it since everyone seemed so pumped about this despite my complete lack of interest in the setting, but no point in trying to force it. I'll just do a Gerstmann and say this is one of the weakest entries in the series right next to 2142, in my opinion anyway, and assume my opinion is the only right one. Plenty of other shooters coming up in the near future that I am genuinely excited about so hey I get to play those while others get to enjoy this - everyone is happy.

Exactly. I don't get anything out of Overwatch and I don't get much out of all these "you have a jetpack" sci-fi shooters so we all have something.

And I'm all for depth, but as for progression, in the last CoD games I played with all sorts of progression stuff I had what I wanted about 3 hours in and then rode that all the way through the rest of my time with the multiplayer. Didn't even ever see the appeal of prestige.

Although on that front there is a lot of customization and unlocks not in the beta here so we can't really judge that yet.

That's why I'm really happy about BF1 though is there was no game that felt quite like this in a while, with dialed back mechanics, slower tactical pacing (besides when those insane BF moments play out, but those stand out because the rest of the game has a slower, tactical pacing), and a historical setting.

For me there is nothing more frustrating then playing a Halo type shooter, trying to be tactical, flanking or sneaking up on an enemy and then even after I hit them multiple times they turn and manage to kill me first. Just goes to show different tastes on this stuff. To be fair I have had one round of this beta I played where snipers drove me a nuts in a way I have never quite felt in a BF but otherwise it's been classic BF, especially feeling more like the older entries in the series with the more recent trimmings.

@humanity: C'mon really a fair fight? Look as mdeic if I see the guy first or at the same time I'll put good money on winning that battle vs assult, at range even with my back turned I'd call it 50/50. People don't randomly camp in buildings there in the same ones over and over again half the buildings never get used. Learning spawning and map hotspots is the art of battlefield some people just don't have the patience's BF1 is no different than any of the previous games in this regard.

@artisanbreads: Yah totally - game variety is a beautiful thing where we all come out on top in the end. Eventually someone ends up making that perfect game just for you and it's magical.

Game looks great and sounds awesome, just find all the weapons not fun to use.
they all either lack punch or just way to much recoil for the lack of damage they inflict on a per shot basis.

perhaps harcore mode will be better, but so far I am not really enjoying my time with any of the guns in this game

Terrible beta.

I could never spawn with a weapon despite making sure I had a full load out (others in the in-game chat were complaining of this as well.) Sprinting was nonfunctional, and in fact I moved at a crawling pace when standing. Sometimes my gas mask would trigger when exiting vehicles and it would not let me take it off. Entering vehicles caused my perspective to flip the fuck out, making it so my POV would be forced a few feet outside of the vehicle while jittering. UI in general was just buggy. These issues persisted over a few different games.

I'm really hoping this is a super old build of the game because it is not promising.

Played some more and still really enjoying it. Rolling around with a squad is a lot of fun, especially in the 5-seater tank. You really don't want to play a lone wolf unless you're sniping.

I'm still not great, but successfully pulling off a bayonet charge or bombing an enemy vehicle from the air both feel amazing.

I'm still having a good time.

I wish I could play the beta, but all I get is "failed to connect to EA online"... sigh

@stressedoutcat: yea, it's a beautiful game but those guns suck ass. They're really limiting

Finally got first overall in a match. Was a little over 2/1 K:D so not amazing there but I managed to do a lot of work on the objectives. Super fun.

Anyways, I think I'm done even though I'm really loving it. The weapon bug does crop up and annoy me occasionally and otherwise I just don't want to burn out on the map. I'm already very sold on this game and I am just patiently waiting to grab it on release.

The cavalry is fun as hell but it's a little clunky sometimes, feels like the horse will get stuck on anything. Also sometimes It jumps incredibly high over walls and sometimes it wont jump over small stuff like barbwire

Also really impressed with the animations in this game

@atomicoldman: considering the game is out in a couple months and they've already addressed that multiple things have been fixed, you can probably rest easy that these major, obvious bugs will be fixed on launch day.

Seems pretty great so far. I had a few laggy games yesterday, but this morning has been really smooth.

Thought it was sorta rad they started you off with no guns and you had to maybe pry them off a dead corpse or find them - till I realized this was probably a bug and you weren't suppose to start off with no weapons.

@sackmanjones: it's still Battlefield and it's still Dice. The game is riddled with bugs now, which is kinda worrying knowing the reputation of the previous games.

Which is why I'm kinda dunno about the game yet. The setting is cool with its more clunky vehicles and weapons and when it plays like a normal game, it does play well and I've a lot 'cinematic' moments too. But there's still so much jank in the game and the map isn't that great either. If the full game ends up in this state, I will not get it which is a shame.

My biggest issue is the general bugs and jank of it all, second would be all the balance issues. I get its a beta, etc. but BF4 basically destroyed any credibility DICE had for me in terms of releasing a working multiplayer game on day 1. The map in this beta is generally pretty awful. Either you're in the thick of it all at C/D, or you're doing the most boring thing in BF games which is running 500m to the next objective; its just too flat and open for my taste. I don't need another Metro/Locker but these types of maps are always my least favorite. Outside of that, I think the Cavalry melee is just too strong and the fact that you can put on one of the armored "Elite" soldier pickups and then get on a horse is kind of ridiculous. It turns you into an incredibly sturdy threat with all the speed you could hope for, with a pretty great primary gun and a OHKO melee that you can spam forever. Getting used to the bullet travel time has taken a lot longer than I would have liked and so many of the guns feel painfully inaccurate at anything other than spitting distance. I haven't figured out the "right" way to use them yet I don't think. Other than all that though, I really enjoy it. I'm interested to see the other available weapons as well. Having what seems like most of your class be built around variations on the same 3-4 weapons is a pretty odd choice, I'm curious if it'll pay off.

For those talking about the Medic guns, you can switch a few of them to full auto if you really need to clear a building or prefer the full auto type. Granted one has 10 rounds and is strip mag loaded and so full auto is pretty inefficient, but it can save you in a rough spot.

@two_socks: @gundogan: @sackmanjones: Battlefield bugs, glitchs and jank go hand in hand. Battlefield 3 had a notorious buggy beta but launched relatively smoothly on the other hand BF4 beta had no serious issues and died after it luanched you can never tell with Dice, but Hardline and Battlefront released without a hitch. I suspect BF1 will have a decent launch but most of the jank and balance issues will remain.

Never forget the BF3 beta

Reading this thread about bugs and I haven't ran into any! I guess I've gotten lucky. I don't think Conquest is good on the current. On the other hand, Rush is fucking awesome. I really like what they did with the classes. It's really refreshing to play a game without the movement of Titanfall or Call of Duty.

Any indication on how long this beta will be up?

I think it's up until the 8th i'm not sure.

I'm liking the beta so far. I really like the open map with very little vegetation and other stuff, it makes spotting and killing dudes easier than in bf3 and bf4.