Battlefield 4 - First Impressions

ktulu123

As more & more players are receiving their BF4 keys were gonna need this thread. Those that are playing already, how are you finding it? What's your favorite map so far?

Paracel Storm is my fav at the moment

Dcully

Only played one round fully so far, on that prison map.
Played about 10 mins on the storm map but so far the game is better than id hoped.

BlitzKrieg

first impressions...damn thats a long preloading time.

wandatowell

Just installing now!

wandatowell

Nice!

Jim

Love Obliteration on Flood Zone.

Spear

Just on the off-chance that anyone cares about the single player...

it's the same generic, single corridor shooter you've played a thousand times before.

ktulu123

Im SHOCKED!

Dcully

Two game crashes so far

twinsen

Could someone explain how can you play now, since the game unlocks on Friday?

dreamers75

twinsen wrote: »

Could someone explain how can you play now, since the game unlocks on Friday?

Page 9 of the Where to buy thread.

Spear

Once it's preloaded/installed, you can VPN to somewhere it's already released to start the client.

EA do ban the use of VPNs to buy cheaper out of market copies, but they seem a little vague on using VPNs to unlock, sometimes explicitly stating it's fine, sometimes claiming it's not allowed. I doubt they'll do much once you've legitimately bought it though and have your money.

ktulu123

Don't know about the rest of the guys but I had a perfectly timed two day break to Korea

MajesticDonkey

Spear wrote: »

EA do ban the use of VPNs to buy cheaper out of market copies, but they seem a little vague on using VPNs to unlock, sometimes explicitly stating it's fine, sometimes claiming it's not allowed. I doubt they'll do much once you've legitimately bought it though and have your money.

They basically said they will be monitoring the use of VPNs to get into the game early, but won't take any action unless "something goes wrong". (they like that phrase, i.e. Battlelog).

wandatowell

T-Rex easter egg

ktulu123

If your playing it search: Gaellords, we've started the server up & are trying to populate it

heebusjeebus

Was just on Gaelords but it keeps crashing on me. Not sure of the cause.

Dcully

heebusjeebus wrote: »

Was just on Gaelords but it keeps crashing on me. Not sure of the cause.

Crashing for me too, large thread on reddit reporting similar.

ktulu123

I keep crashing out at the moment also, might just be my internet though

heebusjeebus

I see a lot of people were complaining of lag on Gaelords. I cant say I experienced it though.

Edit: I turned off the Origin client and that's looks to have fixed it.

ShadowHearth

Well, Played few campaign missions. Really like it. A lot better then BF3 for sure.


In SP it runs all ultra with AA turned off. Dont know what fps is but it is over 60 for sure.

Just one annoying thing. When Sound gets a bit high it gets all muffled... Really annoying. Is it a feature or is it a bug?

Stingerbar

very smooth fps, much better than beta

sounds are incredible, especially with 7.1 headphones on that underground "metro" style map

everything is so fresh and new, the teamplay is great, healthkits and ammo packs flying, groups of players assaulting areas, real band of brothers stuff for now

few bugs and crashes but ****ing great game so far

horgan_p

Tried to play multiplayer there , shocking lag altogether.
There again I was using a VPN so I dont think its an accurate picture.

KilOit

unlocked it with VPN but disabled it and it doesn't work anymore, kinda figured i just had to unlock it once and it'll stay unlocked without VPN

Stingerbar

horgan_p wrote: »

Tried to play multiplayer there , shocking lag altogether.
There again I was using a VPN so I dont think its an accurate picture.

Switch off the vpn

and just play normally, should work

Stingerbar

KilOit wrote: »

unlocked it with VPN but disabled it and it doesn't work anymore, kinda figured i just had to unlock it once and it'll stay unlocked without VPN

do it again, i had to do it three times then it worked

Nedved85

Installed it now - Didnt bother with the VPN - will sort that tomorrow - Had a go at the single player, runs on medium (just about) at 1920 x 1080 ==> Specs in signature. Still looks really good.. Think ill just wait till next years installment to upgrade/buy a new pc to start maxing out again :cool:

jumbobreakfast

First impressions are good, really liking this game

BlitzKrieg

Well after squeezing a few hours of joy I must admit I really am enjoying it.

Ran with Ktulu and the gang in gaellords for a bit and I am happy to see I suck a lot less at BF4 then I did BF3 starting and I've enjoyed pretty much all the maps so far.

Then joined my clans server where they opted to run all the rush versions of the maps and *wow* the rush version of the maps are ten times better then the bf3 versions, some of them (Locker, Paracel storm and golmud railway) may even be better then the bad company 2 rush maps.

Anyone wanted to compare *destruction* needs to play the golmud railway rush map, you can level most of the buildings in the map and its an intense uphill fight most of the way, might even be one of those rare rush maps that would suit 64 players, cause its big, wide and open and the buildings get levelled very quickly.

But Floodzone conquest is probably my favourite so far. Something about how open it is for flanking but not actually sparse makes it a joy to play. The rush version is a bit more frustrating but picks up in the middle.


Really liking the game overall. It's just a lot of good quality fun.

Blinked_Missed It

Quick thoughts after a couple of hours.

Pros:
Graphics: Stunning graphics in parts. The storm waves in BF4 make the ripples in BF3 look like a someone farted in a paddling pool. Its night and day. Wind effects are similarly astounding. Frame rates on BF3 & BF4 are similar for me on an iMac i5 3.1 with ATI 6970m 1gb (mobile variant). This is in spite of the fact its significantly better looking overall. If you don't have a 2k pc you may want to start tweaking using this BF3 guide which still appears to be relevant as if you can't run highres on a map with heavy foliage jaggies will leave you at a disadvantage moreso than in BF3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxB01hwMouU&list=FLCef5HP4DyVvDOVddFoAaLQ&index=4
Audio Awesome. Late night so I can't pump it but the positioning of bullets and chopper engines in 5.1 is perfect. Better than BF3. You can hear the heli's hover above then swing around you without looking up. It limits their ability to ambush to the same extent as they did in BF3. Get some 5.1 or 7.1 headphones or speakers.
Game Balance. Much better game balance between infantry and machines. IE less realistic but its going to stop the heli-heads from ruining everyones game (caveat, see below).
Camping prone in a corner is harder. When a player lies flat tucked into a corner the game pushes them out to take into account their legs can't pass through the wall behind them. Sounds minor but makes camping harder.

Cons:
Hit Effects. WTF are they doing with the hit effects. IMHO its a major step back and makes BF4 look like its trying to be MW. It looks childish & is seriously turning me off. Would love to see a mod to disable this.
Targeting: Just from firing wide and it being recorded as a hit the targeting seems off to me. Its far too forgiving & needs to be tightened up. Again too MW for me.
Crashes: I'm on a Korean server on the opening day so if you expect it to be perfect your dreaming. 7 matches 4 crashes, 2 in game, 2 on exit. Battlelog records it as a stall and asks the player to kill BF4 with Task Manager. Since they know about it, they'll get to fixing it. Just don't expect perfection yet or go nuts when your 50 kill no deaths round doesn't get saved due to a crash.
Heli's. Repair-tool infantry are still allowed to hang on to heli's constantly repairing making it hard to have a fair game. This needs to be modified to maintain game balance. A bit pissed DICE didn't stomp this.
Weapon customisation screens: Major step back in terms of usability imho. Too many clicks and drop down menus to get your weapons sorted. It looks like a flash site. A really polished one but you can polish a turd all you like its still a turd. If a player clicks to select an option the menu should branch off in a way that doesn't make them chase the drop-down. BF3 had a better system or simple left right selection. This is overly complicated when you want to get back into the game asap.
Effects: Going to get flamed for this but beware BF4's beauty. Its very effect heavy. Your choice if you like it but for example I've had a couple of occasions where blizzard effects obscured an enemy almost until you were on top of them. Probably like real life but if he has his effects turned down he might see you 1st. Your choice if its positive or negative.

Just my 2 cents. Please don't flame me as anti-BF for the criticisms. Its the release version & its 4.20am. Time for another game.

twinsen

After 2 hours of gameplay, I am not sure if it is what I expected to be. Might need few hours maybe to adjust.
For the moment I am getting my ass raped all the time.
Also for some reason framerate can go from 90fps, down to 30. Very annoying. Downloaded new ati beta drivers, to see if it helps.
Graphics are nice, but expected they are going to be better.

fl4pj4ck

Spear wrote: »

EA do ban the use of VPNs to buy cheaper out of market copies[...]

since when? bought my BF3 and Premium in Mexico

edit: actually bf3 in russia, premium in mexico

wandatowell

Loads of indoor action with plenty of scope for playing out in the sunshine.


love it so far!

battser

Just wondering lads, if anyone on a hd6950 or equiv could post up their impressions and performance that would be much appreciated. Won't be getting to play it till Monday.

fl4pj4ck

6950 with unlocked shaders here. played comfortably at high with intel 4670k, I've heard the performance is improved in final version, will play tonight hopefully

ShadowHearth

I played some more multiplayer too last night and Optimisation is just.... WOW. It really looks so great and you dont need dual Titans to hit 60. Looks like I am scraping upgrades plans this year again. No need

TerrorFirmer

Can get into the game, but every server is showing up as empty, not sure what's going on. Hmmm.

Here's the game running on my ultrawide monitor. Looks fantastic, framerate is only average though, not sure if I can believe people who are saying they're running at high-ultra on single GTX580's, 6950's etc, I've a GTX590 and just wandering around an empty map is 30-60fps, with 64 players I would expect that to be seriously taxing.

TerrorFirmer

Hmmm, my performance is terrible. I seem to be CPU bound, FPS stuck at about 40fps with drops to 15-20fps, doesn't matter what settings I use - and thats a 32 man server. Surely even a 6300 @ 4.2ghz is better than this.....

battser

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I played some more multiplayer too last night and Optimisation is just.... WOW. It really looks so great and you dont need dual Titans to hit 60. Looks like I am scraping upgrades plans this year again. No need

What spec?

@Terror you need to customize the settings on lower end spec. There are lots of things to try which will help out.

TerrorFirmer

I really would have thought an Fx6300 and GTX590 would be good for high-ultra. I know the 590 is, but I didn't expect the performance from my 6300 to be so bad with an overclock.

mozattack

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

Then joined my clans server where they opted to run all the rush versions of the maps and *wow* the rush version of the maps are ten times better then the bf3 versions, some of them (Locker, Paracel storm and golmud railway) may even be better then the bad company 2 rush maps.

This sounds great, I love Rush so very interested in hearing reviews of it.

One question; how does Rush work for PC players? There is conquest small and conquest large but is there rush small and rush large - wondering how the number of players are capped etc?

BlitzKrieg

mozattack wrote: »

This sounds great, I love Rush so very interested in hearing reviews of it.

One question; how does Rush work for PC players? There is conquest small and conquest large but is there rush small and rush large - wondering how the number of players are capped etc?

rush is standard 32 players on pc, but you'll get the odd server that will push it up to 64 (on bf3 anyway) though the map is not designed for it and end up with some clusterf*cks like metro.

Dcully

Had great craic on GaelLords lastnight, was in a squad with Ktulu and a few more i recognize from boards.
Nice server lads, added to favourites!

TheTacticsGuy

I've preloaded it and can't wait until Friday so what VPN software are ye guys on about?

Blinked_Missed It

TheTacticsGuy wrote: »

I've preloaded it and can't wait until Friday so what VPN software are ye guys on about?

Follow these instructions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaaRDv8wvZY

Burgo

Doesn't have to be a korean network, the games out in america now. I just use tunnelbear its pretty straightforward.

TheTacticsGuy

Burgo wrote: »

Doesn't have to be a korean network, the games out in america now. I just use tunnelbear its pretty straightforward.

Are there european servers available to connect to or do you have to connect to US?

horgan_p

Theres a few euro servers

TheTacticsGuy

horgan_p wrote: »

Theres a few euro servers

Just checked, there are loads of active BF4 servers in Europe

ShadowHearth

battser wrote: »

What spec?

@Terror you need to customize the settings on lower end spec. There are lots of things to try which will help out.

2500k 8gb ram gtx 680. It ran like a dog in beta, now it is flawless.

TerrorFirmer

I did a FRAP benchmark, and according to that the max, min, avg is somewhere around 60, 32 and 48 on high-ultra - but when I'm actually playing the game, it feels like about 20fps, its so sluggish, and it keeps spiking to what feels like 3 or 4fps for a split second - no idea what's going on. :mad: