Battlefield 3 Update Includes Paid "Shortcuts"

are you guys seriously calling this game "extremely grindy"?

on the issue of kits / balance;

The only time that upgrades for me made enough of a difference that I could not counter with skills, is the scout helicopter, laser painter + laser guided missile is unavoidable without ECM, which is the last upgrade on the scout chopper. so if you go up against someone who has laser painter + laser guided missiles, you have to take them out before they can lock on you with the painter, which is all of 1 second. :p
 
I paid for the shortcuts yesterday and played for a little last night. The vehicle upgrades made me actually get in the vehicles instead of instantly getting shit kicked and skipping them all together.

The rifle upgrades didn't make a huge difference but the other class specific items made a massive difference in the way I played(javelin FTW). Anybody that says having all the unlocks give a negligible advantage is obviously full of poo.
 
I cringed when I saw this. GG Dice/EA for catering to all the whiny CoD and/or console players. What's next on the horizon? You buy a game, then a few months later you can buy a file that finishes the games for you? Man up and unlock items and complete the game like it's supposed to be.
 
I paid for the shortcuts yesterday and played for a little last night. The vehicle upgrades made me actually get in the vehicles instead of instantly getting shit kicked and skipping them all together.

The rifle upgrades didn't make a huge difference but the other class specific items made a massive difference in the way I played(javelin FTW). Anybody that says having all the unlocks give a negligible advantage is obviously full of poo.

I bought the Recon kit, because I don't really care for playing that class and unlocking everything.
 
I cringed when I saw this. GG Dice/EA for catering to all the whiny CoD and/or console players. What's next on the horizon? You buy a game, then a few months later you can buy a file that finishes the games for you? Man up and unlock items and complete the game like it's supposed to be.

Hey so were you this upset when they did it for Bad Company 2 or are you just doing it now to be one of the cool kids?

http://www.battlefieldbadcompany2.com/kit-shortcut
 
I cringed when I saw this. GG Dice/EA for catering to all the whiny CoD and/or console players. What's next on the horizon? You buy a game, then a few months later you can buy a file that finishes the games for you? Man up and unlock items and complete the game like it's supposed to be.

I'm pretty sure the unlocks are "supposed to be" bought, hence why they made them so grindy. They make it grindy to encourage people to pay to unlock them rather than having a well balanced unlock system that encourages you to actually play to unlock. I think they'd much rather people be paying to unlock than playing to unlock. COD actually has a pretty good unlock system IMO, unlocks come pretty fast and steady and you don't feel disadvantaged for being a low rank (at least the CODs I've played, never played much MW2).
 
Hey so were you this upset when they did it for Bad Company 2 or are you just doing it now to be one of the cool kids?

Nope, I stopped playing BC2 before they did it. I stopped playing because I reached the max rank, had all weapons and accessories unlocked and had about 80% of all the medals/ribbons/achievements completed. There wasn't much incentive left to play. Which brings me to my point below...


I'm pretty sure the unlocks are "supposed to be" bought, hence why they made them so grindy. They make it grindy to encourage people to pay to unlock them rather than having a well balanced unlock system that encourages you to actually play to unlock. I think they'd much rather people be paying to unlock than playing to unlock. COD actually has a pretty good unlock system IMO, unlocks come pretty fast and steady and you don't feel disadvantaged for being a low rank (at least the CODs I've played, never played much MW2).

The unlocks aren't "supposed" to be unlocked, they are supposed to be earned. Otherwise, what is the point of playing the game? If you don't have a next rank to get to, or a new ribbon to earn, or a new gun to unlock then why play? Just to have fun? Sure, but you can do that with any game. This is just lame ass consumerism. EA/Dice said, "ohhh, we can make more money off the same product by selling the things you can already get in the game for free." And the idiots will buy. It's just like the fad thing to do now is to take the third movie of a trilogy and split into two separate movies, just to sell more movie tickets. The best part is, most of you that are OK with it are exactly the CoD noobs EA/Dice are catering to. Face fact: CoD is a spray and pray free-for-all game where as BF3 and BC2 are a skill-based games that require teamwork to win; two things CoD noobs have no concept of. So, all the CoD players that wanted to try BC2/BF3 thought they were too hard and cried about it. EA/Dice decided to sell the unlocks for BC2 and the CoD noobs jumped all over it and EA/Dice decided to do the same with BF3. You people that think paying for the unlocks is cool are the people that need everything spoon fed to you. :rolleyes:
 
The unlocks aren't "supposed" to be unlocked, they are supposed to be earned. Otherwise, what is the point of playing the game? If you don't have a next rank to get to, or a new ribbon to earn, or a new gun to unlock then why play? Just to have fun? Sure, but you can do that with any game. This is just lame ass consumerism. EA/Dice said, "ohhh, we can make more money off the same product by selling the things you can already get in the game for free." And the idiots will buy. It's just like the fad thing to do now is to take the third movie of a trilogy and split into two separate movies, just to sell more movie tickets. The best part is, most of you that are OK with it are exactly the CoD noobs EA/Dice are catering to.Face fact: CoD is a spray and pray free-for-all game where as BF3 and BC2 are a skill-based games that require teamwork to win; two things CoD noobs have no concept of. So, all the CoD players that wanted to try BC2/BF3 thought they were too hard and cried about it. EA/Dice decided to sell the unlocks for BC2 and the CoD noobs jumped all over it and EA/Dice decided to do the same with BF3. You people that think paying for the unlocks is cool are the people that need everything spoon fed to you. :rolleyes:

I was going to respond to this but there's too much fail that logic can't possibly prevail, its overwhelming my senses.
 
I was going to respond to this but there's too much fail that logic can't possibly prevail, its overwhelming my senses.

Simple minds often can't comprehend simple concepts. Tis a shame. But go ahead and pay for something that is already free. That will show 'em!
 
Simple minds often can't comprehend simple concepts. Tis a shame. But go ahead and pay for something that is already free. That will show 'em!

Yeah, coz I'm totally gonna buy it, that's totally what I've been saying in this thread :rolleyes:

\sarcasm
 
You mean a simple concept like playing a game for fun? :D I put 800 hours into BC2, and it only took 25 or so to unlock everything I ever used.

Fun is just a buzzword used when someone doesn't have any other reasons as why to why a game is good.
 
Folks, instead of feeding the trolls in here, please use the report post button!

 
Ok, so instead of people hacking to get unlocks like they do now, they now have a more legal means to pay for them. Makes perfect buisness sense, and honestly I'm surprized it took them this long.

Buisness wize, this seems very simmilar to some of the free-to-play models many games have gone to, only now you get to also buy the base game at full retail price as well as all the micro addons and or pay for shortcuts that many free to play for models work off of.

Overall it sounds very profitable, and I would start expecting this on any future games of this type has this seems like it has the potential to make a good amount of money for the devs/publishers.

I miss the old shooters that didn't bother with this xp / unlock crap. I like just having everyone having everything from the get go and relying solely on skill, not how many hours I've grinded, but that just me. Anyway I recognize a money sink when I see one, I for one will not be playing these types of games. But to each his own, and if you like these kinds of things, who am I to tell you that you shouldn't be able to pay and play?

I recognize this will only incourage more of the same games down the road from the big devs, but sadly, nothing I can do is realy going to change that at this point. Making games for them is a for profit entertainment buisness, and well, wheather I like it or not, they are going to do things to maximize that profit. They stopped making games that were fun long ago, and sadly me bitching about how the grass was greener the past isn't going to bring those days back.
 
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Really sucks that you put your hard earned money in time in the game and new people can just come in and buy the guns instead of having to play to get them. This sucks but what can you expect from EA
 
Really sucks that you put your hard earned money in time in the game and new people can just come in and buy the guns instead of having to play to get them. This sucks but what can you expect from EA

How? BF3 is about skill , not over powered weapons. If someone simply doesn't have the time to dedicate to unlock everything they want , then why not offer a way to do so?

As long as it doesn't unbalance the actually game play I couldn't care less. BF3 doesn't stick you with anything that you can't excel with at level 1.

Its a minor issue , yes its EA nickle and dime'in people but you can simply choose to take your time and unlock things at a regular pace instead.
 
bleh one new weapon in tf2

$9.99

by valve

Not really relevant given the fact TF2 is free to play. That is my problem here, I already paid $45 for BF3, then I had to grind a bunch of BS unlocks, now they offer to give me those if I am willing to double my investment.

I get business models, they are different and they come with good and bad, but BF3 is a case of only taking the bad part of every business model, you dont get the good parts.
 
Not really relevant given the fact TF2 is free to play. That is my problem here, I already paid $45 for BF3, then I had to grind a bunch of BS unlocks, now they offer to give me those if I am willing to double my investment.

I get business models, they are different and they come with good and bad, but BF3 is a case of only taking the bad part of every business model, you dont get the good parts.

It wasn't always F2P, and the Mann Co. store was introduced before it became so.

Entirely relevant. In fact, BF3's system is arguably better since the unlock system is clearly laid out for people who want unlocks, instead of TF2's "drop shit randomly" mechanic.
 
I miss the old shooters that didn't bother with this xp / unlock crap. I like just having everyone having everything from the get go and relying solely on skill, not how many hours I've grinded, but that just me.

I agree with this. If endless grinding for unlocks was non-existent, none of this would even be an issue.
 
Entirely relevant. In fact, BF3's system is arguably better since the unlock system is clearly laid out for people who want unlocks, instead of TF2's "drop shit randomly" mechanic.

I haven't played TF2 in awhile (got sick of it and all the trading/item garbage turned me off entirely) but I remember that some of the weapon unlocks used to be based on achievements, like kill a guy with this thing X times, or do this stunt X times, etc. I remember because there were special maps where you could easily grind out unlocks fairly fast.
 
Yes some of the unlocks in TF2 you can get either through achievements or drops / trading. You can also just set your computer in a server and farm drops once a week.

The bigger point is that at no point in the history of TF2 was the the value of the game. In question, right from the start the orange box was less than BF3 alone and shipped with 5 games. And those games are all well known quality games. The price of the game dropped quickly, there was never "DLC", there was never a splitting of the community, and the weapons are generally side grades, where as in BF3 many are strait upgrades. Many of the expensive items in TF2 are nothing more than cheap items with fancy addons like strange, or unusuals with nothing other than different names. I spent 50 cents on TF2, and BF3 was 100x that price. Even if TF2 was a garbage game it still would have been a good value to me.

You see the point is that Valve was moving forward with TF2 adapting the model to be a good value and still make money. BF3 with EA/DICE is moving backwards, what wasnt the hundreds of millions you made on the game enough? No, we have to keep making the value worse instead of better. We have to keep adding more stuff to buy that fractures the community like DLC. Just wait till BF4 if you dont believe me watch what they do with grinding and upselling techniques. Between BF and COD they are slowly pushing gamers to accept a new normal where it cost you over $100 to play a game.



My point is clear and I stand by it, EA/DICE go pick every single business model out there and they include the money making parts of it but ignore the value parts of it. Eventually it just adds up to too much. If you absolutely love BF3 and it is what you play pretty much all the time, $100 for all the crap is not horrible. But if you are like most people and me you play more than 1 game, you dont want to drop that much on the game.
 
Nobody's making you pay for this stuff; Valve finances additional TF2 development by selling hats&co. and EA finances it by selling DLC and "shortcuts".
 
Nobody's making you pay for this stuff; Valve finances additional TF2 development by selling hats&co. and EA finances it by selling DLC and "shortcuts".

I'd rather have them release new games (*cough* HL3 or Ep3 *cough*) than add content to the same game ad infinitum.
 
Nobody's making you pay for this stuff; Valve finances additional TF2 development by selling hats&co. and EA finances it by selling DLC and "shortcuts".

No but if you do not pay for the DLC then you cannot play with your friends who did pay for it. This is not the case with the F2P models where everyone plays together. DLC and especially day 1 DLC is bad it divides the community and weakens it. Companies that do this are missing the point, they are just trying to take a single product, and divide it into many products to increase the price. They are not funding future development. LOL really who could even say that? the BF3 franchise chops out games almost as fast as COD, pretty sure they have plenty of cash from the first week of sales to fund the next game that will come a mere year later. On the other hand with TF2 you have a game that is 4 years old still getting development.

Like I said this is about value, come back in 4 years and let me know if they are still adding content to BF3 guys.
 
I haven't played TF2 in awhile (got sick of it and all the trading/item garbage turned me off entirely) but I remember that some of the weapon unlocks used to be based on achievements, like kill a guy with this thing X times, or do this stunt X times, etc. I remember because there were special maps where you could easily grind out unlocks fairly fast.

Used to be, as in about 2- 3 years ago.
Like I said this is about value, come back in 4 years and let me know if they are still adding content to BF3 guys.

How have they added content to TF2 in the last 4 years? They allow modding which is great, but otherwise allowing you to pay for in-game unlocks and hyping some wanky halloween/christmas fuckfest is not really a huge charity.
 
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http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Item_timeline#June_23.2C_2011_Patch_.E2.80.94_.C3.9Cber_Update

This is a timeline of what they have added. You can get all opinionated about if you think these items are worth it, but the game is now free and they are still adding content.


You can still go into special maps to farm achievments and weapons, at least that is how it was late last year the last time I played TF2.

Also modding and your own dedicated servers are a plus. That is a big point. Making a F2P game makes it hard to have custom servers, valve is figuring out what will work. There is absolutely no excuse for not allowing dedicated servers and custom maps in a strait up full retail paid game like BF3, that is unless you decide you can soak people from rehashing the maps from the previous game for another $15.
 
http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Item_timeline#June_23.2C_2011_Patch_.E2.80.94_.C3.9Cber_Update

This is a timeline of what they have added. You can get all opinionated about if you think these items are worth it, but the game is now free and they are still adding content.

Users are adding content, Valve are then releasing other creatives' ideas as their own, as is their regular business model. Great that people can mod of course, but not exactly like Valve is going all-out by going "sure, that looks cool, thanks for designing and modelling it, we'll get the one modeller and one texturer we still need for this stuff on it to give it a spit-shine".
 
^ ROFL So true.

Not really relevant given the fact TF2 is free to play. That is my problem here, I already paid $45 for BF3, then I had to grind a bunch of BS unlocks, now they offer to give me those if I am willing to double my investment.

I get business models, they are different and they come with good and bad, but BF3 is a case of only taking the bad part of every business model, you dont get the good parts.

Funny, I remember paying $20 for TF2.
 
The simple solution is to do away with unlocks. They add nothing of value to a game and only serve as a mechanic when the gameplay itself is lacking. In BF3's case, there were only 9 maps that shipped with the game.

Grinding for unlocks is not fun. Give us the tools and let us see what we like/don't like in whatever combination we want. I shouldn't need to get 100 kills or whatever with a weapon to use a certain optic I want. Gameplay, substance over unlocks.

Of course, the whole point of unlock systems was to progress down this route. I thought everyone would have seen this coming a few years ago. It will likely get even worse in the next few years. $60 for the game, and then a few months later the community will get torn in half through multiple DLC packs.

Though the game is still fun... just not as fun as it could have been.
 
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