A full and very comprehensive critique of Battlefield 3

EA and DICE’s’ jewel in the crown.  This was their AAA hit, released in October 2011.  It was released for all the major next generation platforms (PC, PS3, 360) and has sold fairly well (11 million).  Its trailers created a big buzz in the gaming world; demonstrating large open maps, gun play which looked exciting and varied, vehicular combat including jets, helicopters, tanks, jeeps and the most awesome looking knifing action in any game to date. 

The Battlefield community was extremely optimistic about the game, which is – or is meant to be - the true sequel to the PCs very own Battlefield 2, released in 2005.  Console gamers were excited to hear they would also be able to lay their hands on BF3 which would be the first BF title since BF Bad Company 2 was released in 2010.  DICE made a lot of promises to the community, some of which they didn’t and still haven’t deliver(ed). 

The game was brought forward in time to compete with the upcoming Activision title; Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which was guaranteed to be a monster hit like many of the other CoDs before it.  This is the first thing I think EA (more so than the helpless DICE) called wrong.  There was a limited Beta released on Console and a slightly more fulfilling one for PC (It gave them a 64 player conquest map to play with), but none of which gave DICE enough time to iron out all of the bugs/glitches in any version.  The community knew this,  and called out for DICE to loosen the leash a little more and give the community slightly more time/options to run the game through its paces.  DICE didn’t listen – whether this is because of time constraints or because they flat out refused is something only they will ever know. 

The game is finally released to the masses and sells well.  Reviews are high, but not as high as they would be for the CoD which was being released a couple of weeks later.  With the release, within hours the first problems were being reported.  360, PS3 and PC users were complaining of the game crashing their systems.  Console users were complaining of the screen intermittently flashing blue when certain actions occurred.  This was a problem which DICE ‘fixed’ whilst the game was in Beta.  The PC users were complaining that even though their game supports 64 players (compared to the 24 of the consoles), that their maps were exactly the same size, thus making them small, tight, clogged up messes.  There were still various bugs within the game; including dying for absolutely no reasons and it being labelled a ‘bad luck’ death.  Certain guns were overpowered compared to others, making most of the guns completely redundant.  Attachments were overpowered, such as the Infra Red Night Vision scope, which could see across the entire map, highlighting enemies like a firework in the pitch black sky.  The community gave this feedback to DICE’s forums and were met with, ‘We’re patching the game soon’.  This is all well and good, but when the patch came, all 2.5gb of it, it really made you wonder what they were actually patching..

The Bad Luck deaths were still occurring, the destruction had been toned down since the Beta (still is on the initial maps!), certain attachments were not only required, but essential to be on par with everyone else playing (Fore grip, silencer anyone?) and some guns were made unplayable (G3).  Worse still was the VOIP (Voice Over IP) on all platforms still didn’t fully work (still doesn’t!) meaning you can’t really work as part of a team – something which DICE are adamant is the key to playing the game.  PC users were/are still moaning about the map sizes often citing that BF3 ‘isn’t a true BF2 sequel – It’s Bad Company 2.5’ and they’re right.  Modding tools will not be released for this game "for the foreseeable future"(??), which is a travesty in itself as many of the best BF2 maps were community or user created and are still being used.

I think we have to ask why they (the modding tools) are not being given to the community.  I can understand their decision not to at the moment (money stupid!) – but to never give them out will really damage DICE’s reputation as being the good guys of the developing world – if – that is; they haven’t damaged their reputation enough since BF3’s release.  The odd thing is, is that they built that reputation by listening and actively communicating with the BF community.  They have listened and acted before, why not now?.. Oh hang on.. That’s right, EA own them now, silly me.

Giving the community these tools so soon after release would mean that EA wouldn’t earn any money from DLC (Downloadable Content).  But I hear you say ‘They’ve already given us the "Back to Karkand" content for free!’ to which I reply ‘Yes, you’re right, but if rumour is anything to believe, those maps should have been released with the rest of the game in October..’  Again, we will never know the truth, but the Karkand content, which are re-mastered maps from BF2 do play very well.  They are the first set of DLC for BF3, with gamers who pre-ordered the limited edition copy getting it for free.  Those less fortunate, unfortunately have to pay for the 5 maps included within it.

Some of DICE’s’ staff have also left the company now, to work on other projects.  It will be interesting to find out whether their successors are willing to take into account the communities pleas.  It has to be said however, that some of these pleas’ do make you think they are just whingeing about not being very good, but that’s the potential difference a great community manager could make. 

New patches are being worked on – albeit very slowly so far – but at least DICE haven’t given up on the game – yet.  You see, the thing is, at the core of this game, it is a very good game.  It could still be DICE's' best game, if they listen.  What DICE need to do, is treat consoles and PC’s as separate entities.  PC’s are much, much more powerful than the consoles, which are now 6/7 years old.  It is not fair to give them the same product when the PC is capable of so much more.  Yes, there are slight changes in the map sizes, flag counts etc, but even these aren’t enough.  There are more than a few willing, intelligent people in the BF community that can give excellent advice.  A few things such as; 6 man squads, larger maps, more player control, more options, the ability to mod the game (when it is appropriate), getting rid of client side hit detection and more (another blog perhaps?).

For consoles and other miscellaneous problems; dedicate a team to get rid of lag input (PS3 only), get rid of client side hit detection, let players go into empty servers to practice flying helicopters/jets, fix the VOIP, balance the guns, balance the attachments, let squads go into games together, even if it's an empty server - it will fill up, fix match making, fix people switching teams during the middle of the game, let us quit the game between rounds, increase destruction (enable ground deformation) and make it the best game this game could be.

As I have previously said, there are a lot of customers out there who want to like the game, but can’t.  It’s close to being great, but DICE’s’ laziness and unwillingness to fix the core problems are holding this title back from being great. 

Console users can understand having only 24 players and smaller maps, well some of us can.. But give PC gamers what they deserve, they’ve waited 7 years now for a ‘true’ BF2 sequel, they deserve it. 

If you’ve got this far, thank you and I hope you have a great day,

Thanks for reading, any comments or feedback is appreciated,

Mr.C