I'm surprised this isn't more of a big deal. And before you say "OH, IT'S JUST A BETA, HURR DURR", it's only a month away from release. This game is done and in cert. with Microsoft and Sony. If EA put out old code of the game for us to play, that's kinda pointless. Not to mention if it is old code, it's a bad representation of a product about to be released.

Visuals

• Frame rate problems
• Severe color flashing problems (I've seen yellow, green, and red) on a regular basis

Sound

• Sound randomly stops working
• Hear things from far away, but not close by

Gameplay

• Players falling through/clipping on geometry on a regular basis
• Sprint can stop working for no reason
• Zooming can stop working, must switch weapons in order to get it working again

Also, the menu design is awful, and Squads never work.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I've also got issues with the stabbing animation, but that's not a technical problem. Stabbing someone is very unsatisfying, and when getting stabbed you have no idea what's going on until you see the knife in your face.

A lot of those problems aren't exclusive to the 360.

It's just a beta. Even if the printed discs contain this code, they can still day 1 patch it based on feedback from this. Also, BC2 had a lot of those problems in the beta version, and that was also just a month before release.

I haven't played it yet. But if this is the case its just one less game I have buy. . . and worry about having time to play.

@Jack268: This isn't just something you can patch, this is a "the entire game is busted" sort of thing.

I havent played enough of it to see a lot of those issues but ive noticed a lot of clipping on background objects. For example, on a window frame it looks like the frame is moving in and out of an object so its constantly disappearing. I have also seen the shadows update in blocks, its bad enough I can viability see the distance which it updates but its in massive blocks so its hard not to notice.

Im loving the gameplay but there are a lot of visual problems distracting me all the time.

EDIT: I change my mind. I just tried it on PS3 and fell through the floor 3/4 times in 10 minutes. I know its a beta and they are supposed to use it to find these issues but the game is out in a month and in certification just now (I would assume) so maybe they fix it in a day one patch but I dont know if they will. I had planned to pre-order it and purchase it on day one but because of this other games will have to come first and before I play it I will have to seriously look at coverage post-launch.

I really want to like Battlefield 3 and think the gameplay is great, but I have to be cautious and see if these technical issues get ironed out when the game is reviewed but it means that I cant see myself purchasing it day one anymore.

While playing as assault, I died and the default rifle switched to something I didn't have and it stayed the wrong rifle until the next match.

And right now it won't connect anymore.

I had a blast on 360. It had it's issues, but overall felt and played great. If you really think the final game will have the issues you mentioned... lol.

Its old code, the whole point of the beta is so if players find Glitches and imbalances they can eventually fix those.

Its not to test out graphics and if everything works. They have it working already, they are just looking for broken gameplay elements.

Ive been playing the PC beta and everything you listed is the same for PC.

I do feel though they should've never had an open beta because of topics like this which are all over the internet. Its just going to push people away who think the final game will be similar to this.

but like I said, this is just to find imbalances and glitches. Little things that make the gameplay unfair. Graphics, connection, and UI issues are irrelevant.

@ShaggyChu said:

Not to mention if it is old code, it's a bad representation of a product about to be released.

Is it a demo or a beta? It is a beta to test servers/etc.

I have been playing around with all 3 beta's and so far the PC > 360 > PS3. This is more about the controller to me but the visuals were fine and so was the combat. I mean, don't get me wrong, everyone is entitled to their observations, but I don't agree.

@ShaggyChu said:

I'm surprised this isn't more of a big deal. And before you say "OH, IT'S JUST A BETA, HURR DURR", it's only a month away from release. This game is done and in cert. with Microsoft and Sony. If EA put out old code of the game for us to play, that's kinda pointless. Not to mention if it is old code, it's a bad representation of a product about to be released.

Visuals

• Frame rate problems
• Severe color flashing problems (I've seen yellow, green, and red) on a regular basis

Sound

• Sound randomly stops working
• Hear things from far away, but not close by

Gameplay

• Players falling through/clipping on geometry on a regular basis
• Sprint can stop working for no reason
• Zooming can stop working, must switch weapons in order to get it working again

Also, the menu design is awful, and Squads never work.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I've also got issues with the stabbing animation, but that's not a technical problem. Stabbing someone is very unsatisfying, and when getting stabbed you have no idea what's going on until you see the knife in your face.

BEEEETAAAAAAA.

Its a damn Multiplayer beta. You can not bitch about most of this yet. This is what a beta is for. To find issues and fix them. ALL of those things you listed are things that can be fixed out of beta.

I've been in betas that were a month or two from release that were leaps and bounds worse than this. Maybe you should redirect that "hurr durr" inward instead of getting so worked up. I say this as someone who has no intention of buying this game.

@Jack268 said:

@ShaggyChu: Anything can be patched.

Doesn't the 360 have a 10 MB patch limit?

Beta.

Beta.

All of these issues are in the PC version, and the beta could be MONTHS old, they only need to test origin and server load probably.

@Jack268 said:

@ShaggyChu: Anything can be patched.

Doesn't the 360 have a 10 MB patch limit?

@nintendoeats said:

@Jack268 said:

@ShaggyChu: Anything can be patched.

Doesn't the 360 have a 10 MB patch limit?

I dont know the exact size but the patch's you get as you start a game do have a limit. There are ways around it though since games like BlazBlue put their patch's on the marketplace (for free) in the same way you would get DLC. I dont know if its required as much but Bad Company 2 has a similar system where you get a small patch as you load up but you downloaded a massive patch as if it was DLC (again for free) from the marketplace.

There are problems but its still a great game and this is only one map.

Anyone having problems connecting at the moment?

@ShaggyChu said:

I'm surprised this isn't more of a big deal. And before you say "OH, IT'S JUST A BETA, HURR DURR", it's only a month away from release. This game is done and in cert. with Microsoft and Sony. If EA put out old code of the game for us to play, that's kinda pointless. Not to mention if it is old code, it's a bad representation of a product about to be released.

Visuals

• Frame rate problems
• Severe color flashing problems (I've seen yellow, green, and red) on a regular basis

Sound

• Sound randomly stops working
• Hear things from far away, but not close by

Gameplay

• Players falling through/clipping on geometry on a regular basis
• Sprint can stop working for no reason
• Zooming can stop working, must switch weapons in order to get it working again

Also, the menu design is awful, and Squads never work.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I've also got issues with the stabbing animation, but that's not a technical problem. Stabbing someone is very unsatisfying, and when getting stabbed you have no idea what's going on until you see the knife in your face.

this isnt a "demo" its called a "beta"

I believe someone said that the 360 version is the Alpha version of the PC. So yeah, it probably has some issues.

A game should not be put out like this and patching is just a crutch. That said, I really think a beta should be ready to go, with just performance issues for online stuff, lag and such and gameplay issues, balancing stuff. Not collision detection.

I have no doubt that Battlefield 3 was rushed so they could get out in front of MW3. Disappointed.

Beta is for testing servers (which are down ore something)

Demo is for showing off a game about to come out

HHHHHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

β

BETA == demo in this console age.

@Vinny_Says said:

Beta is for testing servers (which are down ore something)

Demo is for showing off a game about to come out

That used to be a concrete definition but its been show in the past few years that company's are willing to abuse the term "beta" to mean a demo they can protect from as much criticism. Its a sad thing and I wish it was a concrete definition but right now its hard to be sure what is a beta and what is a demo. Regardless of whether its a beta or a demo the have shown us a month before release an incomplete game, though you can say "its a beta" its hard not feel worried about paying for the full game in less than a months time.

I hope these issues are resolved by as it stands ill be keeping my money until I hear post-release that these issues are fixed.

After reading all these responses, it would be pretty funny if none of these problems were fixed in the full game.

i played this on the PC and had none of these problems, just luck i guess

It's just a Server stress-test. Plus it gives their marketing Behemoth some geographical numbers to crunch.

Yeah it was pretty terrible... With only one month left to go I don't see how they are going to fix it in time. I'm pretty sure BF3 copies will get made and be shipped within the next several days or so.

I may be canceling my pre-order.

Alpha Beta, Beta Alpha.

@dirkfunk said:

I haven't played it yet. But if this is the case its just one less game I have buy. . . and worry about having time to play.

Yes because a beta is a final representation of a video game, this is the main reason beta's are invite only and you have to agree to a non disclosure act. The whole purpose of a beta is to play a buggy ass game so they can work on the faults and make sure the final product is polished. From what I played at E3 and what I am playing now the game seem's a bit buggier, I am wondering if they included all of the code they were having issues with into the beta so they would get feedback on how much that affects your experience.

This is probably the main reason the controls are locked from more customization they it looks like you're allowed to do.

@lclay: Yup

@BrewLegend said:

@lclay: Yup

Me too, buy I'm going to go play Gears and trust that my fellow bombers will let me know when you can actually get into a game.

lol at the comments, the game is a month away. It's ridiculous to believe that this thing is supposed to take on the role of a legitimate beta at this point, so don't be fooled by the stupid beta tag on the title screen. My only guess is that this has to be some old code of the game which in that case is also ridiculous because it makes the game look bad. Oh well, just going to have to wait and see.

A lot of those problems aren't exclusive to the 360.

that's because it's meant to be played on PC

The case of people falling through map holes turns out to be that servers do not adjust geometry height maps between rounds. Dig a hole with strong explosives around stage 1 point B as a defender, when it's over and it starts over with yourself at the attacker, if the hole is right - dive in under the ground and proceed to.. ugh..

Feels like they tried to optimize some server code and loadtimes to make it break in that way.

Wish ya'll could taste the glory of the Caspian Border that we play on PC. The PC version is a different game from the console BF3 (got the PS3 open beta going), and when you leave Metro and enter CB, it against becomes an entirely different game. Runs flawlessly on my soon all-three year old computer.

@DonPixel: Word. The only problem I have in the beta is sometimes the sprint stops and sometimes I'll randomly go into the ground.

It IS just a BETA.

you simply couldn't play Bad Company 2 BETA on PC using an AMD processor and they only fixed it on the final build.

@DonPixel: Word. The only problem I have in the beta is sometimes the sprint stops and sometimes I'll randomly go into the ground.

Frostbite 2 has the ability to be patched a ton on the server side. (i.e. they can do tons with this game that will never require a patch install by the user) In fact, the texture clipping bug on Metro will be fixed server side.

I expect they are mainly looking at network issues and widespread glitches, I haven't played the beta yet but would not be surprised if the final game plays way better. It's dice we're talking about with EA trying to overtake MW...they're going to give it everything they have.

People keep saying it's a beta but we're a month away from the release date. Can this build be that old ?

Beta runs great on PC, I've had none of this. I can only assume that what some are saying is correct, that being that the 360 version is the equivalent to the Alpha release on PC. I didn't play the Alpha, but I do know many players experienced some of the issues you've mentioned.