Unfinished: Battlefield Hardline Beta 02/03/2015

I found the previous beta to be thoroughly enjoyable. Looked great, played pretty well, overall good package. Not a huge fan of the setting but I was going to pick it up.

This new beta looks like hell (especially on PC) and plays poorly. The .50 cal machine guns in the chopper feel and sound like full auto pellet guns. No "oomf". Only gun I've enjoyed so far is the fully auto Glock. Everything else looks and feels like shit. Not sure what the hell happened since June 9th of last year but it was NOT for the better.

Goddamn Jeff is such a criminal!

This game is the best

This looks (or Jeff makes it look) like incredible dumb fun.

I'm really liking the game it's running well on PC (as of this beta). My only complaint is that rocket launchers aren't part of loadouts anymore so instead you have to pick them up from specific spots on the map.

edit: On a side note it is really fun to drive around with "sound of da police" blaring and 2 dudes with assault rifles hanging out of the windows

I don't get that level of hyperbole, everythings either the best or the worst. While it's not the best looking game in the world it pretty damn far from "looks like ass". But maybe that's just me still not jaded by this type of graphics considering that I grew up in the C64 era when cops and robbers games looked like this

And that was impressive

(also I'm old *sigh*)

That said I'll pass on this game, unless they release it with Jeff as an announcer going copscopscopscopscopscopscops!

I really appreciate the soundtrack in this game

@jeff You joke but UK cops did blare Sound of the Police out of a police car

Is it just me, or does that gun model around the beginning look incredibly dated?

ADD: The FPS

this entire game makes me EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE

@tajasaurus: Technicality no down boo over?

I was playing the beta as a Cop and I shot a Criminal and my guy shouted, "YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!" so I think this game is a-okay.

I can't believe they wanted to document themselves doing all these illegal activities. Then again, it wouldn't be the first time.

2human, muthafucka!

@gaftra: technicality no down boo over?!

@tajasaurus: Wait, technicality no down boo over?!

Respawns, Immidiatelly blows up. Yep, this is Battlefield alright

@fzackm: Rebinding the chopper controls makes it super intuitive too.

First, clear all the chopper navigation controls, then add W and S as throttle up and down.
Yaw right and left as right and left with your mouse. Pitch up and down as pitch down and up on your mouse, or invert those if you prefer.
Roll right and left as A and D, to level out while turning.

Now you have basically "FPS" controls for the chopper, makes flying super easy, and you'll even be able to shoot people while flying.

Worst mod ever


I changed my mind....this is just effin retarded

Hotwire is the coolest thing in there and you played it for all of one minute.

I think it would be hysterical if this game somehow became a runaway success. Like what EA wanted Titanfall to be.

@octaslash: That city map is one of three maps in the beta. It looks a lot better than it did in the last Beta.

You know what? I've bashed the idea of this game since its announcement. Turns out while playing the beta and watching this video, the unlock system seems pretty sweet compared to having to rely on random-ass battlepacks to unlock certain attachments or camo. I might actually buy this and play it in lieu of skipping most of BF4.

Even as someone who actually really liked Battlefield games (but admittedly feels incredibly bored by them now), and given recent events, this game makes me feel really uncomfortable - so much so that I can't help but wonder how stupidly tone-deaf the people who are making and marketing this game are.

Knew going into this Jeff already came in with a judgement on the game, but at least he wasn't completely negative in this.

Really disappointing they didn't show off the stuff that is more unique and new to the series. Like say Heist Mode on the small Bank map or more of Hotwire. Instead you show the token battlefield stuff for two rounds.

@heatdrive88: You realise this game has been in developement for years and the marketing has probably been planned for nearly as long as that if not even longer? Blaming the developers or PR people for not doing a total 180 because some black kid got shot by a cop 18 months into their dev cycle is ridiculous.

This game is pretty fucking good besides the poor netcode. Hotwire is probably the most fun new FPS multiplayer mode that has been made in a decade. It's a real shame giantbomb felt the need to show the yawnfest that is conquest instead of the more interesting bits. Obviously that's what needs a 45 minute video because no one know what conquest is right?

*weary* Is it possible to go through an entire video without a wrestling reference anymore?

@xmrsunshine: Oh I'm aware of that. A 180 degree turnaround isn't what I'm asking for either - I still recognize it's a video game that has invested money/assets, and it is the property of a business.

I don't know what I'm asking for, to be fair. Maybe some empathy or cognizance/awareness of the current timing of the social issues isn't a bad place to start. It's a shitty place to be in and shitty timing, that's all.

Of course cops would yell "COPS! COPS! COPS! WE'RE THE COPS!" that way they always get around the always-have-to-tell-you rule

Tactical shooter is exactly the genre cops vs robbers should be, though. Either that or payday style wave shooter, but that only works because it's vs AI. Battlefield is a completely wrong fit for such a game either way.

Can't we all just get along?

Jeff turned into Vinny for this Quick Look.

Seriously, man. Your love for Battlefield might not warrant being this flippant.

This is Visceral-ass Visceral. The ones who made that company's best game to date, Dead Space 2.

Also, I don't get the critique about the story being about "militarized cops bending the rules". Why is that tonally weird? Sounds like a lot of American media and storytelling to me. Like, an imperial fuckton, SPECIFICALLY in American media and nowhere else.

Man, Jeff's really killing it in this QL. Cops!

The game actually looks pretty good too, might have to give the Beta a shot.

@straightgrizzly:

Where did you see the microtransactions?

Maybe I was not looking in the right place, but I do not remember seeing MT when I played the HL Beta yesterday.

Are you sure you are not confusing MTs with the ability to buy Battle Packs, or whatever there called in HL, with in-game money?

Personally, I can't even consider getting into this specifically because of the dissonance between Battlefield type gameplay and the theme of cops vs criminals. The cops with infinite access to weaponized helicopters is just half of it. I also can't get over the part where some kind of criminal gang would send 800 members, in waves, into a location just to try to shoot everyone there and "capture" the place. It's also not very police-like to be allowed to shoot to kill on sight purely because someone's obviously not on the same side as you are, before they've even done anything, as far as you can tell... I mean, what kind of crazy scenario is this? Oh right, it's a war scenario. Except one of the countries consists entirely of cops and the other consists of people that cover their faces at all times and swear a lot.

Sure, some of the other modes make a little bit more sense, what with stealing money and all that... But then you run into the unnecessarily symmetrical gameplay where the cops are trying to get to the money first so they can "secure" it or whatever, and the victory condition for the law enforcers is to keep the majority of the money safe. Not, you know, stopping the goddamn criminals. They don't matter, as long as they didn't get away with most of the money!

Just makes no sense. The gameplay and theme don't match at all.

They will be for sale with real money at release. Just like how BF4 had them, if my understanding is correct. They are not for sale now because everything will be wiped.

@beachthunder: That Dead Space patch made me realise that I'd definitely get this day one...if it contained necromorphs...and was set on a space station...and was single-player only.

Sigh, I miss 2008 when DICE were making Mirror's Edge and Visceral were making Dead Space.

Amen

Holy shit, Jeff's story about the "RPD" shirt and jury duty, and then just yelling "cops cops cops we're the cops" was hysterical.

@Jeff, you goddamn criminal. This Quick Look was hilarious. Thank you.

@the_ruckus: Lol The Kids Seen them 4 times. there still going for it even in there sixties.

@paulunga: Well, you know, because of, um... Ferguson, Missouri?

I actually, literally lol'd.

GHETTO BIRD IN THE SKY