Star Wars: Battlefront Beta Exposes The Game’s Biggest Flaw

Megalith

Megalith

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As someone who plays a game mainly for the story, I can see where this guy is coming from even though I haven’t touched the beta yet.

The lack of a campaign is more glaring and depressing than ever. The beta is great. Sure, there’s some balancing issues. There’s work to be done on the game between now and release next month. But that’s what a beta is for, to unearth these issues and fix them. But what can be done about a missing campaign? Because let’s face it, Survival just doesn’t cut it.
 
Survival was okay, less than i expected. I would have preferred more enemies with the need to fortify things (in a gear of war horde mode kind of way) and build up my weaponry.

Game is good though, I will enjoy it at release
 
meh don't know why people complain that much...

DICE has horrible campaigns, they are known for online PvP. Why would you want them to waste time on a campaign that you most likely would play once?

My opinion is that most games are good at one or the other, rarely have I played a game's online and campaign in anything close to equal play. Usually one or the other is a throw away "gotta at least try it" mode.

Also sort of chuckle when people complain about no server browser in a DICE game... They have NEVER gotten a server browser right, battlelog was their best and people still bitched that it wasn't in the game. When ultimately it was their best browser (in a browser lol) to date.
 
Megalith said:
The lack of a campaign is more glaring and depressing than ever.
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Wait, what? There is going to be no campaign? The battlefront series is one of the few games where I actually complete the campaign as I usually don't enjoy single player games. This makes me really disappointed, I was looking forward to this game. :(
 
dandirk said:
Also sort of chuckle when people complain about no server browser in a DICE game... They have NEVER gotten a server browser right, battlelog was their best and people still bitched that it wasn't in the game. When ultimately it was their best browser (in a browser lol) to date.
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Which has caused many people grief. In IE you can't used protected mode for example, that means battlelog requires people to lower their browser security to play their game. Not the smartest of options.
 
I was super excited for this game when it was first announced. I played the campaigns a ton on the older releases.

When they announced this game would only have online multiplayer my day one must buy turned into a grab it when its on sale a year from now if it's still alive.

Seriously disappointing to pay full price for a half of a game.
 
Battlelog isnt great but I can live with it. What I cant stand is the fact that there is no menu. I should not have to first join a game just to change my video settings or remap some keys.
 
Boring is an understatement

I played 30 min max, stopped.

All the weapons feel like toys, no impact, no meat.

Going to be forgotten faster than Titanfall
 
when Battlefront first announced that there would be no MP I was fine with it and actually thought DICE was doing the right thing because these type of game are all about the multiplayer...but after playing the beta I really wish there was a single player campaign...they really nailed the Star Wars atmosphere, visuals and sound effects and a story mode would have amazing
 
I liked it day 1, but here we are day 3 and there are already aimbots and hacks out for it...unbelievable.

Day 1 was fun, everyone was pretty new at it, even the first part of day 2. Learning the different things, flying, AT-ST, etc. However I logged on for an hour today with my daughter and it wasn't that fun after being repeatedly blasted by aimbots killing you from across the map. Spawn, die in 10 -20 seconds, rinse and repeat. Get blown out of the sky in 15 seconds while in a Tie Fighter or X wing.....fun time over.

This alone may be a reason not to buy it: If EA/Origin can't get a handle on that aspect there is going to be zero reason to get it. Too bad, love the premise and game while it lasted.
 
caramon said:
I liked it day 1, but here we are day 3 and there are already aimbots and hacks out for it...unbelievable.

Day 1 was fun, everyone was pretty new at it, even the first part of day 2. Learning the different things, flying, AT-ST, etc. However I logged on for an hour today with my daughter and it wasn't that fun after being repeatedly blasted by aimbots killing you from across the map. Spawn, die in 10 -20 seconds, rinse and repeat. Get blown out of the sky in 15 seconds while in a Tie Fighter or X wing.....fun time over.

This alone may be a reason not to buy it: If EA/Origin can't get a handle on that aspect there is going to be zero reason to get it. Too bad, love the premise and game while it lasted.
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Best solution for that is:

+ dedicated servers
+ spectator mode (demo recording helps too)
+ players/communities that care about keeping their server environment hacker-free

When the only option is a "play now!" button that sends you to a random server you can kiss any sort of policing goodbye. What a shame.
 
Aix. said:
Best solution for that is:

+ dedicated servers
+ spectator mode (demo recording helps too)
+ players/communities that care about keeping their server environment hacker-free

When the only option is a "play now!" button that sends you to a random server you can kiss any sort of policing goodbye. What a shame.
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The problem I have without dedicated servers is not the cheaters, just the average intelligence of your player.

I'll admit, I'm hypercompetitive. I prefer to win first over my own kdr. But like every other objective based game so far, it's become one team which wants to win, and the other team, which I'm almost inevitably put on every single time, where 3/4's of the team wants a good kdr over winning, and I'm one of the sole people going after the objective. The escape pod game mode, I think I've only had 2 games out of 20+ where the losing team had more than 2 points.
 
Wait....

I noticed there was no campaign in the Beta, which was expected.

But are you saying that there is no campaign at all? Is there at least something my small child can play without having to go online? He still plays original Battlefront. Split screen is really fun for us playing Co-Op mode.
 
MrWrong said:
Battlelog isnt great but I can live with it. What I cant stand is the fact that there is no menu. I should not have to first join a game just to change my video settings or remap some keys.
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How often are you honestly changing those things? Just go to the training ground if you don't feel like sitting there in a real game being useless while you nail settings down.

Battlelog is pretty great and I don't see how anyone can conceivably not like it. You pick a server, it starts loading the game in the background, you switch in when it's done and you're hitting the ground running.

Not sure how you can get much more elegant.
 
MrWrong said:
Battlelog isnt great but I can live with it. What I cant stand is the fact that there is no menu. I should not have to first join a game just to change my video settings or remap some keys.
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socK said:
How often are you honestly changing those things? Just go to the training ground if you don't feel like sitting there in a real game being useless while you nail settings down.

Battlelog is pretty great and I don't see how anyone can conceivably not like it. You pick a server, it starts loading the game in the background, you switch in when it's done and you're hitting the ground running.

Not sure how you can get much more elegant.
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I would rather be able to change video settings while in game to see what my GFX card can handle. Otherwise, you load a game, set max settings, load MP server, then your game crashes out or your FPS is under 30FPS cause your GFX card cant handle it. So you would have to change it again.

Also, since I been playing BF for a while, I like in game key mapping. When it is a new BF game, I run around and push keys as if I were playing a previous model....then realize thats where my actions should be bound to. Kinda weird huh?

Back to the Flaw...I would be in to buying this game now if it had Co-op Campaign.
 
Totally love the games so far. Im having a lot of fun playing it, graphics are fantastic and runs smooth as.
 
Battlefield doesn't need a campaign since the game is built on multiplayer since the early days of 1942. I've always said that they should just concentrate on making the multiplayer to the best of their ability and concentrate on that. Singleplayer games are fun, but my friends and I only play the campaign once just to complete it and never touch it again. As for this battlefront news, I welcome it and would rather have them make the multiplayer top notch by dedicating all of their time and resources to it than to a one and done campaign mode.
 
Cinematics, scripting, narrative, voice acting, gameplay systems integration or modification from multi-player, getting approval from a shitload of IP stakeholders, the more rigorous testing required, and just the sheer expected scope of an FPS single-player campaign is enough to make any studio want to beg off building one if they don't have to.

Combine that with the fact that only a relatively small percentage of your customers will even fire up a story-driven single player mode in an FPS (or RTS), more coffin nails.

Different prospect if the game's meant to be a single player FPS experience first and foremost, a la Bioshock or Half Life, but even then you've got the problem of generally poor sales (unless you're those two particular titles) compared to a multiplayer FPS with the same (or lower) budget.
 
Game is pretty good. Graffics, audio and atmosphere are amazing. However, it bothers me that it's so unbalanced for the rebels on the Hoth map. For a multiplayer only game and being one of the maps used(we assume) to generate sales, it sure is dicked up. I sure hope everything isn't this unbalaced and messed up at release. The players spawns and bonus spawns in fixed locations are just...bad.

I'm still buying it though. The star warsy parts are amazing. I will miss a single player campaign seeing how well done the atmosphere is.

P.S. I hated battlelog too. So glad it's gone.
 
From my time with it, ths game is yet another BF/COD clone skinned for Stars Wars. Not my cup of the, and seeing there's no campaign (which is likely the only reason I would have considered it), it's a no-go for me.
 
Casual player and Stars Wars fan here. I don't see the point in DICE trying to create some alternate Star Wars history for the sake of a single player campaign...

Been having fun with the game so far (strangely addictive somehow to me) and am looking forward to the full list of maps and game modes. Finding myself jumping into Drop Zone more than Walker Assault. My only frustration so far has been using turrets and vehicles. Seems too hard to stay alive while using them (especially turret powerups) given the frenetic nature of the game. I haven't had any netcode issues, crashes, or technical issues at all so far. Will be picking this up on release for sure.
 
I played probably 2-3 hours of it on PS4. Visuals are awesome! Audio is nice! Keeping it as close to the movies is spot on.

Will I pay $60.00 right away from playing the BETA...nope! From what everyone is saying the spawn points are brutal, it can get unbalanced very quickly, and the guns do feel lacking in the hitbox department.

I may pay $40.00 unless reviews totally blow this out of the park and videos posted online otherwise change my mind.
 
Decently fun. For +/- $45 over at GMG it seems worth it IMO.
 
Unfortunately with no single player and several issues with the underlying MP setup, it will be a no go for me. The card system is complete crap and with no joystick controls, so are the vehicles and fighters. The visuals and audio are great but it is almost unplayable with my gaming style. For example, I have always used mouse wheel to change weapon selection and you cant do that with the cards which makes them useless to me.
 
Bamboo said:
Game is pretty good. Graffics, audio and atmosphere are amazing. However, it bothers me that it's so unbalanced for the rebels on the Hoth map.
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What are you, a revisionist?

The rebels lost at Hoth man, just get over it.
 
I'm of the opposite camp. I hate when I developer spends time on a single player campaign when I'm buying the game for multiplayer, like wise. If I'm buying a game for singleplayer, say one of the Farcry games, I'd rather them not spend time on multiplayer at all. Because trying to spend limited time and resources on a checkbox always ends in some under delivered pockmark on the whole thing.

At least in my mind, I'll spend hundreds of hours in the multiplayer experience but maybe only double digits in a basic single player campaign, if it even has enough content. DICE games geared toward multiplayer, probably closer to 7 if they even attempt a single player portion.
 
Can't get on same team as my friends. So yeah. Fun but no buy until that gets changed.
 
Played the beta... game is tons of fun when there are lots of people playing on the map. Graphics are pretty awesome, gameplay is solid for "beta" and will require tweaking, etc, we all know that. I'm fine with no single player, but I expected it to be multiplayer only.

That being said, I'm not buying a full price game when Fallout 4 is so near. Fallout 4 will be my gaming life for a while. Luckily, that means by the time I'm ready for something else, e.g. Just Cause 3 or Battlefront, they'll likely be cheapish.
 
spaceman said:
Can't get on same team as my friends. So yeah. Fun but no buy until that gets changed.
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I haven't had any problems with this assuming you create a party before joining a game. Sometimes if you join your friend's game there are no empty slots on his team and you wind up on the opposite team - is that what you're referring to?
 
Crotan said:
I'm of the opposite camp. I hate when I developer spends time on a single player campaign when I'm buying the game for multiplayer, like wise. If I'm buying a game for singleplayer, say one of the Farcry games, I'd rather them not spend time on multiplayer at all. Because trying to spend limited time and resources on a checkbox always ends in some under delivered pockmark on the whole thing.

At least in my mind, I'll spend hundreds of hours in the multiplayer experience but maybe only double digits in a basic single player campaign, if it even has enough content. DICE games geared toward multiplayer, probably closer to 7 if they even attempt a single player portion.
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This is kinda my thing too. For years people have been screaming at DICE to just drop the SP campaign from their games because either nobody plays them, or people play it once and never look at it again. I know SP campaigns are a big part of marketing to the younger demographic on consoles though, which is why series like COD will probably always have them.
 
Its biggest flaw is its fucking shite, the depth of a puddle, the hero gimmick is utterly retarded. Suffers from the standard dice issues of you pounding away on an opponent, then he hits you once and you die, oh and can;t forget spawning into random deaths because the enemies are all around your spawn point....

Graphically and in audio terms it does a good job but its a good showcase of graphics don't make a game. More of a headless chicken simulator from what I've seen so far. I'm sure it'll sell by the bucket-load because of the movie coming out about a month after this launches but it just seems to be a game catered to the lowest common denominator.
 
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