Battlefield 2042, your beta impressions.

[Frindis]

In light of the PC Gamer article " The Battlefield 2042 beta reminded me why I love Battlefield" I wanted to ask what you think about the beta so far and If you have not played the beta yet, are you going to?

Been around 9 years since the last time I played a good Battlefield game, so I was curious how this one would fan out. For starters, I have to say it was extremely annoying to navigate around trying to find out how to even start the bloody game. Ubisoft, Xbox game pass, Steam, EA Play links and unlinks, a smorgasbord of disaster to happen...which it of course did, with people on different platforms unable to access the beta, me included for some time.

When I finally could play the game, it was not too shabby. Yes, bugs off course, and for some strange reasons, my keyboard led lights did not work while playing the beta. Shooting felt pretty good, especially using the sniper (my favorite) and the ability to swap attachments on the go was pretty cool and I used it a lot when I got the hang of it. The sound when you hit a perfect headshot is most satisfying. I wish there were more weapons to choose from though, but at least we could play around with some of the class perks. The robot dynamics thingy was adorable and the grappling hook is very, very well done. I used it a lot moving from one part of roofs to another, defending multiple sides within seconds.

Graphically the game looks very nice, especially the lighting, and small details like light reflecting in the puddles of water stand out. Environmental effects are a bit hit and miss, as some buildings/vehicles are not being destroyed properly and there is missing bullet penetration on objects.

Overall I'm having a decent experience, though I have to say I am a bit skeptical about them making the release date with a more or less finished game. There is still A LOT we have not seen and with all the stuff being sold at E3, I think it is healthy to just be a little skeptical. Am I going to preorder the game? Nope, if I have learned anything from CP2077 is to never, EVER blindly trust a AAA company again, even if it is clad in shiny armor and with a big halo on top of the head. Show us a game that is made for gamers and not for making the shareholders happy with a fast release date, loot boxes, or cut content. Time will only tell, but I do hope they give it their absolute best for the fans.

 

[McStabStab]

I am having fun with it, but there are definitely caveats that I'm confident will iron out by release day. To start, yes the menus were pretty clunky just to get into the game. You can tell there's going to be a whole character cosmetic / loadout section later but for now even adjusting settings was a pain because of the way they have the colors and highlighting set - it's hard to tell what settings are on or off when hovering over them (it inverts the colors basically).

Once in the game, conquest is a tough mode to start out with because the players are REALLY spread out over the massive map (although probably good for beta testing because I would assume this mode is the most resource intensive). To add to that, everyone is getting a feel for the game and still playing around. Half the time I wasn't fighting anyone, I was just exploring the different areas and seeing what I could blow up in the environments, including of course the big rocket.

Pinging and squad orders either weren't working or my squad leader wasn't using them. I really enjoyed the way they did squad orders in BFV to earn points for supply drops or airstrikes, so hopefully that gets smoothed out to help motivate players to work together. This goes with my last note about people kind of doing their own thing at first to feel the game out, I don't think squad orders were first on their mind.

Controls still feel pretty floaty. Vehicles don't control very well (notably planes and helicopters) and enemy vehicles appear to move irregularly, almost teleporting from place to place. Parachuting feels awful compared to Warzone. I get it in a game like BFV where you're supposed to have a WW2 era jump pack, but for something more modern I still felt like a stick in the wind.

On the plus side, totally gorgeous game, loved the verticality of the levels, sound design was decent, and it ran like absolute butter on max settings. After playing last night I revisited some of my BFV clips to try to compare a bit. I thirst for the chaotic, violent pushes for control points, the weighty movement of the tanks and aircraft, and the clear markers and voice commands for squad communication that I know will come to in November.

Also not sure why people didn't like the tornados in the alpha tests. Maybe they were more frequent but I only saw one in four matches last night and it was cool to fight around.

Gonna jump back in tonight and play a few more rounds, still having fun with it!

***DAY 2 REPORT***
Ok so actually I got way better at flying the helicopters - still not thrilled with the feeling of the jet but for some reason the helicopters seem to click when I'm in first person mode. People started actually playing the objectives in my game today so it was less of a smattering of people across the map. Control point battles have been, at the most, 5 v 3 infantry and a vehicle.

Still no one is using the squad orders in my games. Need to start a squad to see what it's actually like.

Still having a blast, tonight we ride again!

***DAY 3 REPORT***
Well still having fun but after 6-7 hours of playtime the bugs are really starting to get annoying. I blew up a truck only to have the minigunner on top (engulfed in flames in the destroyed vehicle) gun me down five seconds later right before the wreckage despawned.

The aircraft rubberbanding is horrendous. If they can’t fix that it may ruin the game for me. Let’s see what progress happens between now and release.