It’s been a while since I wrote something about Battlefield.. But here we are again.
In my opinion, since the last major patch came out, the game
has become much more playable. Things
are more balanced – M26 dart aside.. Oh and the M16A3 still having too lesser
recoil.. Oh and the MP7 being ever so slightly overpowered for a PDW... and a
couple of other minor things which need tweaking... But do you know what? I can and have started to enjoy the game much
more lately.
So we’ve also had the news about 2 of the expansion
packs. We’ve seen the trailer for Close
Quarters and there’s been a lot of negativity and some positivity about
it. My opinion on it is that yes, it
looks like DICE are continuing with the pursuit of those pesky COD players
(kidding!). But for all the ‘WTF is this
rubbish?!’ I’d say that you don’t have to buy it. It’s entirely optional, if you dislike it
that much, vote on your feet and don’t buy it, maybe email DICE or EA and make
your voice heard.. People power and all that! – I feel the need at this moment
in time to say that it doesn’t really seem like something I’d enjoy, being a
lover of the more open, larger maps.. But that doesn’t mean other people will
not like it.
But the real reason for me writing again is the almost
confirmed ‘Battlefield Premium Service’.
I’ve discussed DLC (Downloadable Content) before, linked here in case
you want to have a read;
I’m basically saying the same things again, but WHY would
people buy something that adds little to nothing new to the game apart from
having the map packs a week early and having a couple of skins for your avatar
and knife? May I remind you that you’ve
already bought the game once, it maddens me to the point of.. Well slight
annoyance I suppose, that publishers and developers feel the need to milk every
single last penny out of their customers when an incredible amount of the
customers are loyal fans, already familiar to the series because they’ve bought
previous titles.
I mean, DLC is not a new thing; it’s been around since the
Dreamcast, PS2 and Original XBOX days.
You’d think I would be used to it by now, but when you say that BF3 was
shipped with a 4 hour campaign and 9 multiplayer maps, it’s not
outstanding. I mean SOCOM Navy Seals on
the PS2 was released with a longer single player campaign and 10 multiplayer
maps and that was released in 2003..
Fair enough, if you pre-ordered, you got the 4 Back to Karkand maps for
‘free’, but again these maps were being played on in 2005, ‘re-imagined’ or
not.
I’m looking forward to seeing how much the ‘premium service’
will cost us down trodden, oppressed customers.. Back to Karkand is $15/£15 and
that’s one of 4 packs. If all the DLC
map packs cost $15/£15, by the time you will have bought them all individually
and bought the original game you will have handed over $120/£120! Pure speculation, but not done without its
homework, I assure you.
If you take into consideration that the Close Quarters map
back will limit the player count to 16 due to the small size of the areas used
to fighting then will it really be worth it? – We’ll have to see..
My final question is, when will it all stop? When will people realise that DLC is actually
a bit of a con? How much more can they
charge us in the future? How much
smaller will the core games become? How
much value for money are we actually getting?
If a quarter of the 5 million people who bought the game pay $30/£30
then that’s a lot of moolah. Where is
this money going? Back into developing a
truly great sequel? Is it going back
into the current game to finish it? I’m
not so sure.. What I do know is, is that there are a lot of people who would pay for some - dare I say it - MODDING TOOLS (Come on DICE.. even if you wait until you've unloaded all your DLC on us.. give us something!).
But do you know what? If X million-amount of people offered
to give me a lot of money for doing a
little work and then gave me a lot more
money for a little bit more work, I’d
take it. The only way it can stop is to
hit them where it hurts, by not handing over your pennies, or in this case
dollars/pounds..
How many people will do this on my advice? NOONE, because
I’m rubbish and microscopic in the grand scheme of things (Ouch.. My pride),
hell, I might even buy it if it turns out to be really good, but from what I
have seen so far, I’m not holding my breath.
But for the time being, I’m going to enjoy what’s already on offer.
If you’ve read this far, I hope you have a great day and I
hope you have fun on the Battlefield!
Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
Mr. C.
