After playing for a few hours theres quite a few things I like and HATE.
First off the notion that this is a BETA is complete and utter BS. Theres no way they are going to let this go on for 10 days and think they have any shot at changing code before the 25th. This BETA is for the release day patch. As others have said it is buggy. Way too buggy for a game at this point in its development if you ask me.
Flashes are annoying when moving fast. They are usually white. But if you're standing near fire the flashes are orange. It has serious clipping issues and it looks like you fall straight through the ground. I for one STILL cannot get the game to go full screen. I have the option checked in the settings. ALT+ENTER does not work. I can maximize this windows but I still get the title bar at the top and my task bar at the bottom.
I really hope that just like the game this is a testing period for battlellog (the game's social and server browser). Theres no waiting in queue for a server. You get the message its full and you just have to keep clicking it. If your friend is in a server theres no joining it to wait in queue while you make yourself a drink. After I stopped playing I believe chr0n0phage said they implemented a server filter. I was bitching all day that I couldnt filter out the full servers. Though it didnt really matter because when I sorted by server population it would still tell me a server that displays as 24/32 is full. They probably implemented the filter at the same time they unlocked caspian border.
You can start "parties" where you and your friends get a in a group. You can then join a game together. Half the time it didnt work. At this point trying to find a server with multiple open slots is next to impossible. This would seem like a good idea when the game comes out and there are 1000's of server to choose from. Did they not do a simple equation like.... totalbetatesters/32 = the number rush servers we should have? We were only able to do this once, but after we launched a party game we got onto the same team. I dont know if it does that automatically or not. However there is NO squad management. You are put in a squad and thats your squad. You can choose to leave the squad and then join another squad, but you dont get to choose which squad to join. It just puts you in one. We were never able to play on the same squad. Pretty stupid for a game that is so team oriented.
I was absolutely useless to my team until I finally got 10 kills with the M16 which unlocks the 4x scope. Theres alot of pixel hunting and the iron sights I thought were useless. Chr0n0phage said he was doing ok with the iron sights. And jerkoff Lilb always does good. Maybe I just suck. but after I unlocked the 4x my kd/r stayed above 2.0-4.0
I am absolutely thrilled that snipers are going to be useless. I hope they dont patch this out. Just a personal preference of mine. You will know the exact instant you encounter a sniper. Their "lens flare" is more like a spot light. You wont be able to hide as a sniper with what looks like some big ass light sitting on top of your rifle. I hate snipers anyway
Snipers get the knife treatment. Soon as I can get into the habit of pressing F for knife I'll be sneaking around shanking those jerkoffs every chance I get.
I really dislike the metro map. I cant wait to try caspian border. I doubt I'll ever play metro when the game comes out. Maybe it will grow on me. I cant even put my finger on what I dont like at this point.
What do I like? The obvious stuff!
The graphics are great. I can play on ultra with my GTX570 and it stays around 50fps. This is definitely NOT a console port. They were true to their word that this was being developed for PC's first and foremost. I thought BC2 had amazing graphics and detail but this blows it away. Something interesting to note is that the download was only 3.5GB. Something tells me we may be getting some higher res textures when the game releases. Maybe we wont see this type of performance.
The sound as someone touched on before is just as top notch. At first I thought they re-used some of the sound from BC2. But there are tons added. The effects are very good. At first I was overwhelmed. It sounded like there was just too much going on. There was never a quiet moment. I got used to it. I'm not sure if it was my setup but I couldnt tell if iI was getting directional sound. I heard all kinds of junk but I couldnt get any indication of where any of it was coming from. Maybe its in the options. Something to look into.
The game play is just as fun. It's slower and more tactical but its not boring. Always action. As I said before I felt useless until I unlocked the 4X for my M16. I'm still a little undecided about prone. I do think its needed but it certainly promotes camping like a mofo. Thats a problem until you start to learn the map. I cant tell you how many times i ran past a camper and died only to run past the same spot again because I didnt exactly know where I was when I died. After a few rounds that got better.
In closing this game is everything you expected from DICE. Its amazing. But sadly they have a metric crap ton of junk to fix by the 25h. Heres to hoping for a smooth launch!
