So I got the early beta access and have been playing for a couple of hours with about 10 friends. After looking through the official forums there is mostly negativity and disappointment being posted about the game, and so I'd like to hear you guys' experience with it thus far.

So far the issues that people have seem to be:

1. The shooting feels off, somehow. People are calling it Medal of Honor 2.0. To me, it feels like you die to quickly and the game gives you poor, at best, feedback when you're being fired upon. Which makes the firefights become a matter of who sees who first, or constantly shooting players who do not see you, or vice versa. Reacting when being shot upon and quickly killing your attacker seems next to impossible as you die in 2-3 shots, not even considering how poor the game tells you that you're actually being shot upon. This is how it usually goes: You spawn, get a kill on some dude who was running not looking your way, then you see some small red clips on the side of the screen and hear some very faint shots hitting you and you fall to your side and die. Constantly. Over and over again. It honestly got boring after 30 minutes, because you do not get the feeling skill is giving you the kills.

2. The game launches through a facebook-y hub in your browser. Really, this isn't a huge deal to me, but having to launch Origin, your web-browser AND THEN start the game feels really unecessary and silly. If you want to change server you gotta quit the game and get back into the browser... I really just do not see the point of it.

3. You can't chose what squads you want to join. There is no squad list, you're just randomly placed in a squad with random people. Which leads to you usually not being in the squad your friend is in.

4. (Kind of a continuation of 3) The UI and menu system is just annoying in general. You can't access the menu when your soldier is dead, which it is a LOT of the time. And the whole menu system, picking a class and joining a squad - in short the entire UI - is a huge step down from Bad Company 2.

5. The chatbox is too small and has a font/color that is really hard to read. Feels like an afterthought. An easy fix, though.

6. The map you play is basically a bottleneck frag-fest with NO vehicles. I know, this is just a BETA and there is just this one map, but even the design of this map puzzles me. It has no battlefield spirit at all. It's a frag tunnel where you spawn and die quickly like you'd expect out of a COD game, which the COD franchise in all honesty does a lot better (because that's what it's main goal is). I really hope this is a test-only map and wont be in the final version of the game. If that was the case I'd be a lot more forgiving, because this map has absolutely nothing to do with battlefield. Battlefield is supposed to be about huge maps with different vehicles and many different tactics and ways to win. Not getting bottlenecked into a confusing spawn-die-spawn-die fest. If I want that type of gameplay, counter-strike or CoD got me covered and does it better.

So what I'm left with is the feeling that there is no good reason to play this over BC:2, where the gameplay and shooting isn't just a confusing bulletfest, or BF2 which has the full battlefield spirit. I will hold judgement until the full game is out, but this has been a huge letdown so far. I have about 10 friends who were all huge BF2 players, and we've been waiting for BF3 for such a long time, and it honestly feels like a confused game that badly wants to be Call of Duty, MoH and battlefield at the same time while trying to innovate by having this useless social-hub to launch the game from. I have an eerie feeling the end result will just be another generic shooter with none of the legendary battlefield series "feel" to it. I wouldn't expect to be bored after 30 minutes, and it wasn't just me. Infantry only battles on karkand in BF2 could be fun for countless hours, yet this managed to become boring before the first hour had passed.

So that's my impression of it so far. What do you guys think?

Negativity on a game's official forums on the first day of a beta?

WHAAAAAT

I always wonder how some people just suck at videogames and stop playing them.

My friends and myself are always on the top of the scoreboard in any competetive shooter we play. Call of duty or Gears of war or anything else.

So some people really lack the skills to be good in videogames?

1) Play strategic, use cover, hand out health/ammo, provide covering fire, etc. This is a battlefield game, not COD.

2/4) Have you seen the BF:BC2 UI? It is horrid. Using the browser works well, and in fact you don't need to start Origin to load into Battlelog.

3/5) bugs I hope

I think they're clearly trying to rope in the CoD players with the Op Metro map. The shrill calls of "It's a beta! Everything will be fixed in the full version!" are not realistic, as far as I'm concerned.

It's a demo, and they chose this small, sectioned off map, with no vehicles and 32 players to show off a Battlefield game. That is lame.

I won't be surprised if they release Caspian Border a few days into the open beta.

Also, from some of the HD beta footage coming out, it really doesn't look that amazing on PC. Some pretty mediocre textures, with Ultra settings enabled. Maybe it's just that map.

I only have had access to the Xbox 360 beta but I agree on most of what you said. I'm waiting to try out the PC beta on Thursday to see if I have the same issues.

So I got the early beta access and have been playing for a couple of hours with about 10 friends. After looking through the official forums there is mostly negativity and disappointment being posted about the game, and so I'd like to hear you guys' experience with it thus far.

The bullet damage is how it should be. It's how it was in the older battlefield games. It shouldn't be COD or BC where people take 5-6 rounds. You can go prone in this game, use it.

Interesting.. Is there any tie in of Squad leader objectives to the scoring system? Do you get additional points for completing orders/objectives?

I've heard general complaints from the Bomb-crew that Battlefield maps were too big ... swimming 5 min across the map etc, but the alternative of packing the players too tight is even worse, I'd try servers with fewer people.

The bullet damage is how it should be. It's how it was in the older battlefield games. It shouldn't be COD or BC where people take 5-6 rounds. You can go prone in this game, use it.

1) Play strategic, use cover, hand out health/ammo, provide covering fire, etc. This is a battlefield game, not COD.

2/4) Have you seen the BF:BC2 UI? It is horrid. Using the browser works well, and in fact you don't need to start Origin to load into Battlelog.

3/5) bugs I hope

It's the spiritual sequel to a game nobody wanted to see ever again.

...I am of course talking about MOH.

The beta map is terrible. I thought they might have let us try a different one for the beta but I see very little changes from the Alpha.

In my opinion, they should have pulled a COD and stuck to the same engine and improved upon in-game features. Bad Company 3 would have been most welcome on consoles.

@Kohe321:

1. I don't understand what you are trying to say here. If you get flanked from the side and die then its totally your fault, if a guy sees you but you don't see him then obviously he has an advantage and he will probably kill you, that's how firefights work. As for the "being shot upon" thing I think its very well executed in BF3, I mean what indication you need ? if you are being fired upon you can hear bullets passing by, enemy muzzle flashes are huge compared to previous BF games, sniper scopes reflect light when a sniper aims for your head, and your screen gets blurry whenever you are being fired upon. If tha'ts not enough indication for you then I am sorry , you have a terrible map awareness. Also the bullet damage is just fine.

2. I can understand why people would hate this Facebooky server browser, but its actually very good. You can join a server and still continue to use your computer while the game loads in the background. For me the whole launching the game + joining a server process is much faster than in BC2.

3. You can totally select squads.

4. I think the menus are alright.

5. I agree , the chabox kind of sucks.

6. I was disappointed that they used the same map for the beta. I actually like this map because it focuses more on infantry. The underground part of the map is a more CODish, but the beginning and the end are very different and require a different playstyle.

The bullet damage is how it should be. It's how it was in the older battlefield games. It shouldn't be COD or BC where people take 5-6 rounds. You can go prone in this game, use it.

I don't get Dice they talk shit about COD and yet they bring COD shitty features into the game like Killcam,regen health,barely any weapon recoil ect.This game will be more like BF2 but still they dumbed it down they even said the commander mode would be to hard so they didn't put it in wtf.This is what I hate about most FPS these days there afraid to give players a challenge.

The purpose of dedicated message board on the video games website is to bitch/moan/complain and literally be the worst of the worst when it comes to critiques.

I just want to be able to mute players.

Freaking 10 year old British kids fighting with the mic on. I kept on dying because I couldn't concentrate.

from what you said, people are walking around blindly across open fields. you never mentioned taking cover, working with and advancing with teammates. everything you said was just you wandering off by yourself (granted the squad with friends didn't work)

People complaining about dying too soon are just being bitchy. 

What worries me is it looks like a camp fest with people just hiding in prone.

@Edin899 said:

I always wonder how some people just suck at videogames and stop playing them.

My friends and myself are always on the top of the scoreboard in any competetive shooter we play. Call of duty or Gears of war or anything else.

So some people really lack the skills to be good in videogames?

I don't think "lacking the skills" in a game makes it bad, in fact if it's really a good game I'll still play it despite my skill level. I think OP dislikes the game because he dislikes it, not because he "lacks the skills".

A lot of people seem to be saying it plays a lot like medal of honor

I had to pop on hardcore mode on BC2 because the players were far too bullet spongy. Sounds like this is an improvement.

@benpicko: I never had that problem in the alpha. To me, it felt like Battlefield on a smaller map, and I am completely fine with that. I know larger maps will be in the final game.

A lot of people seem to be saying it plays a lot like medal of honor

The choice in map definately seems like an attempt to get CoD players into Battlefield by starting them off with something they're familiar with in a free demo. People who already like Battlefield just kind of have to deal with it and live with knowing more is coming.

People are just too used to simplified COD games where you can run around take 6 bullets and keep going. This game takes more patience, you need to be more careful in this game. You can't just run out into the open and expect to get anywhere. BF3 is more like BF2. Some people just want another COD it seems.

@squirrelnacho said:

People are just too used to simplified COD games where you can run around take 6 bullets and keep going.

@squirrelnacho said:

BF3 is more like BF2.

Go play BF2 and then come back. I'll wait.

@DonPixel said:

@SirPsychoSexy said:

A lot of people seem to be saying it plays a lot like medal of honor

It is sad but true right now, they need to fix hit points and recoil IMO.

what recoil ? the recoil seems fine.

Is there any info on how tanks play in multiplayer? How much armour, secondary weapons and so on.

@Zatoichi_Sanjuro said:

@squirrelnacho said:

People are just too used to simplified COD games where you can run around take 6 bullets and keep going.

@squirrelnacho said:

BF3 is more like BF2.

Go play BF2 and then come back. I'll wait.

Already have, since about 2005.

woooow...i extremely hope you people bitching don't ruin this game. Spoiled brats trying to turn this into something it isn't like Call of Duty or BC2.

The shooting is peeerfect. It takes skill. It has recoil. OMFG. I have to use bursts and I can't just hold down the fire button? Dear lord make it stop! Way better than BC2 which felt sluggish. Way better than CoD which you just hold down fire and run around spraying your gun. It is slightly reminiscent of Medal of Honor...something about it feels familiar. But in a better way than that game. Infantry in BF games was always the weakest point; never felt right...well they finally got it right.

The map? The most impressive thing about the beta. The scope is huge. Starting out in a park followed by going down into a subway system and then up into a city where you can go in many of the buildings instead of being blocked off from all of that like you would be in every other game. The destruction was amazing as well...watching buildings crumble when they got hit by rockets.

Animations, don't really need to say much about them. Simply stunning. First game where it felt like I was actually hitting the ground when I fell off a ledge....a real sense of weight.

I'm tired of FPSes for the most part (you might be able to tell). This game sparked my interest...thank goodness. Too bad I can't enjoy it in it's best form; on PC.

Subway section is the toughest, most games i'm in the attackers get stopped after the park.  Sorta the same thing happened in the Alpha trial....

@DonPixel said:

@SirPsychoSexy said:

A lot of people seem to be saying it plays a lot like medal of honor

It is sad but true right now, they need to fix hit points and recoil IMO.

what recoil ? the recoil seems fine.

No one should listen to anyone's opinion of the game until it goes public. Then people can judge for themselves based on pure subjective experience, not the opinions of a random internet user. Sorry that you had a bad experience though and hope it gets better for you.

Been playing the beta myself and unless I am stupid, I haven't found much wrong with it. I mean, most of the crap people are bitching on the forums about are things that just make it feel like a different game to me. That is the wall that Dice will have to overcome with BF3, they marketed the hell out of this thing and fans decided to make their own assumptions of the game and are falling flat on their face because they expected something that was never mean't to be delivered.

Playing the Beta has not made me even think about regretting my purchase, if anything it has boosted it and made me feel like it is the game I will be playing for years.

Well, consider my hopes dampened for the time being, I'll try it myself on thursday.

@DonPixel said:

@Liber said:

@DonPixel said:

@SirPsychoSexy said:

A lot of people seem to be saying it plays a lot like medal of honor

It is sad but true right now, they need to fix hit points and recoil IMO.

what recoil ? the recoil seems fine.

The lack of it, right now is basically CoD's recoil (none)

PC beta has more recoil than bc2...

I'm honestly just excited about the single player. I have no patience when it comes to multiplayer games so COD style is more my bag.

@DonPixel said:

@Liber said:

@DonPixel said:

@SirPsychoSexy said:

A lot of people seem to be saying it plays a lot like medal of honor

It is sad but true right now, they need to fix hit points and recoil IMO.

what recoil ? the recoil seems fine.

The lack of it, right now is basically CoD's recoil (none)

PC beta has more recoil than bc2...

People complain about a beta? Never ...

Remember when everyone was talking about how horrible the Bad Company 2 demo was? Yeah, it was just like this.

Can someone answer me this. Do the maps have a bunch of points you can attack and take or is it like a straight line from one attack point to the next?

I'm happy to see performance has increased significantly since the alpha, but I am disappointed that they still don't have any audio feedback confirmation when you get a kill (you have to look at the bottom of the screen and look for the 100 points amid lots of other action updates). I also find the map to be a bit frustrating. In a resolution of 1920x, it may as well not exist, because it is so far down in the corner.
 
As for general play and map behavior -- It's hard for me to judge based on just this one map that we've been playing in alpha and beta.
 
I definitely feel that most of my kills are random and luck and not because I'm doing very well. It also feels like I am always in the open, no matter where I am. In a building. On a top floor. In a bush. Under a bridge. It never ever feels like I'm actually in cover, for some reason.

First of all its a beta so we can expect some changes, mabye not on launch day but perhaps afterward. Also I'm going to reserve judgement till I get to play it in a few days

First of all its a beta so we can expect some changes, mabye not on launch day but perhaps afterward. Also I'm going to reserve judgement till I get to play it in a few days

Looks like nothing changed from the Alpha then.

To be sure I'll have to try the beta for myself on Thursday.

Well, it is in beta still.

Oh, the other thing I do hate is that there doesn't seem to be a simple way to change your settings. I just wanted to launch the client and edit the visual settings to make sure I had them setup optimally. The only way to do that seemed to be to launch Origin, launch BF3 from there, which launches Battlelog, which I log into, then select a server, which launches the BF3 client (once it is able to find an open server), then go to Settings while in the game. And of course, you can't get to the Settings option in the menu when you're dead. Only when you're alive. So you have to sit there unable to defend yourself in a game you aren't ready to play just so you can tweak your settings. And, then, if someone comes along and kills you while you're working on your settings, it kicks you out of the settings and back to the menu, so you have to spawn again and then try and get the settings locked before you are killed again.
 
That part is, frankly, kind of fucking ridiculous.
 
@mastrbiggy said:

Looks like nothing changed from the Alpha then.

@Branthog:

Agreed, basically I'm just trying to temper my expectations and trying to make my decision about it before I even get to play it.