More about the upcoming new map and details of the new character:
Sponsored by Razer? lol
The rumor is that there’s another year of BF2042 content coming.
Been playing this a bit again lately. Still seems pretty fun and the classes definitely make it feel more like “Battlefield”. The newer maps are pretty good and I really think the game would have been received better if they were in it at launch instead of the ones that were.
Out of curiosity, does anyone play with with a controller or are most people playing on PC? In the past I’ve always played on PC, but this time I’ve been playing mostly on Xbox. I have mixed feelings about the controller and kind of feel like I’m playing with a handicap. The bit of auto-aim in the game makes close-quarters combat seem ok, but it seems like any medium or long range shooting is significantly more difficult.
I’m on PC and exclusively M and K. I even fly with it but mostly choppers. I had 27 flag caps last night in the little bird. One man back flag wrecking crew. I just basically flew a figure 8 pattern between 2 capture points and lasted half a round before dying. Had to be very annoying to the other team. Some sniper finally shot me outta it, prolly hacking 😉
@DaveLong is a big controller guy for fps iirc. Maybe he has some tips on setting it up.
I switched from mouse and keyboard to controller with Halo back at the turn of the Century. There are things you do better with the controller than MK players and things you do worse. Ultimately, the tradeoff is usually sniping in a game like Battlefield where you’ll be slightly poorer once you’ve practiced a lot.
Where you gain a significant leg up IMO is in vehicles and at short and medium range. That said, Battlefield has quirky configuration that you should investigate to make sure you’re not handicapping yourself.
Unless they’ve changed it recently, by default the Battlefield control setup for controller enables “Acceleration”. That means turning left and right or looking up and down increases in speed as you tilt the stick. It’s… awful… and you should turn it off. There’s a slider in 2042 IIRC that you just set to 0 for no acceleration and you’re good to go.
Less quirky and more preference, but a good one IMO, is to also have your sensitivity set higher for left to right movement than it is for up and down. Typically, you want to turn quickly but not adjust your aim height nearly as much when moving quickly through a map and aiming at players. It’s much better to have a steady vertical motion with little deviation while you spin around in a flash. I set my sensitivity probably at a 2:1 ratio horizontal:vertical.
Another really important tip for Battlefield specifically is you do NOT need to Aim Down Sight (ADS) all the time. In fact, much of the time within about 20-30m, you really shouldn’t, especially in that 5-20m range. It’s wasted time, can thrown your aim off, and you need to pull the trigger ASAP. Battlefield weapons are just really great at hip fire, and you can kit them to be better at it, but don’t really need to too much. Just do it. Get in the habit of shooting people without pulling the left trigger (or bumper if you flip those buttons). You will get more kills.
DAVE EDIT: As an aside to this, Battlefield accounts for your body position while shooting. If you are standing, you are less accurate than when you are prone. Ideally, you want to move, then fire, then move, then fire, or just plain set up prone in cover and let that LMG cook!
By the same token, when you start getting attachments for the guns, use the ones that make vertical recoil as little as possible. The less you have to account for recoil with any control device, the more accurate you will be. A rule of thumb for all WW1, WW2, Modern and even Future FPS games like Apex is to prioritize minimizing Vertical Recoil and Maximizing Bullet Velocity on all SMG, AR, LMG, DMR style weapons. By doing those two things, you will make your life much easier as your bullets will travel the closest to a straight line, as fast as possible, with minimal requirement from you to pull DOWN on the stick to keep shooting straight. You can practice this by shooting a wall in game and looking at your bullet pattern while firing a full clip.
That brings us to Jack’s video from yesterday…
Yup, Battlefield makes it easier to control recoil on controller compared to mouse and keyboard. Some people will get upset by this, but as Jack states, it’s just plain easier to control recoil with a mouse.
Finally, I use the highest setting for Aim Assist in Battlefield 2042 but some people don’t like it because they think it’s too magnetic to players. They feel like it can throw you off when players cross behind one another… things like that. I don’t think it’s that big a deal tbh.
As with any of the above, personal preference plays a role as does simple practice. I was a good/great mouse keyboard Quake player back in the late 90’s. I played a ton and had tons of practice. When I picked up an Xbox controller to play Halo at @Mike_Cathcart’s place the first time, I was pretty lost, but then he created a still legendary match of King of the Hill that lasted for what seemed like hours with about 12 of us playing via LAN and by the time that was over I was comfortable and within the last 20 years I’ve gotten pretty damn good and can wipe the floor with lots of kids even though I’m 51. It just takes practice and not being hard on yourself because man, it’s Battlefield. Yer gonna die a lot. And if you’re not dying a lot, it’s because you’ve learned to play Battlefield well… use cover all the time… run away when you can’t win a fight… move to create a flanking attack… hip fire often… throw smoke to cover your movement… etc.
Thanks for the advice. I tweaked my settings a bit like you suggested and seem to be doing a little better. I guess it’s just going to take a little while to get used to.
Sure! Practice is huge, and just kinda try to enjoy the process because if you get better at Battlefield, you will be better in every FPS you play. It’s a game that really rewards using cover and staying alive. That’s a skill that translates to every other shooter.
Notes for the next big update.
Here’s an overview of what’s new:
- New vault weapons: AEK 971, RPK-74M & MP443
- IBA Armor Plate Overhaul
- Chat Improvements
- X6-Infiltration Device Improvements
- OV-P Recon Drone Improvements
- Specialist Mastery Progression Alterations
Yes, when I first got the xbox last year, and was trying controller it felt awful. Once I got the settings right for me it felt much better.
I also made use of the bot mode to try changes to settings out, and see how it feels without the chaos of a live round.
I’ve been playing a bit lately, but still getting wiped by PC players. For comparison, I went back and played some Halo Infinite multiplayer the other day and did fine. I will try tweaking the controls some more, but I really wish they have some kind of controller-only game mode. I know you can turn off cross-play, but there aren’t that many Xbox players in my region.
Jack had a good video yesterday about one of the added weapons. I’ve been playing this off and on the last couple weeks and enjoying it quite a lot. It’s definitely the game everyone wanted it to be now IMO.
I didn’t have enough time to unlock the gun last night but I’m not too far from doing so. Looking forward to trying it out.
They’re finally working on getting attachments and skins onto the vault weapons.
Once you unlock those weapons for use in 2042, it becomes a pretty obvious omission. Most vault guns aren’t the best but the AEK in particular is really solid as seen in Jack’s video up above.
Season 5 trailer. For whatever reason the lore is that this takes place 5 years after the time period of the launch story. I’m not sure anyone cares about 2042’s lore at this point.
So, the game fast-forwards to a time when no one is playing it anymore because EA has launched several more Battlefields in the interim and the 2042 servers are being shut down? Sorry, I didn’t watch the trailer, just guessing.
No, no, no. It’s called New Dawn. It’s five years in the future when nobody remembers Battlefield 2024. It’s like a New Dawn man.
The game is really good now. You should give it a try.
Agreed been playing it a ton lately. I was tongue in cheeking cause it really is a New Dawn, nudge nudge wink wink. That’s as close to calling it a reboot as they were willing to get. It’s changed a ton and mostly for the better. They wish they had launched it in this state for sure. I’m prolly biggest BF fan on here so YMMV but I love the state the game is in now.
I’ve played a lot in the current season. I really like what they’ve got now. It feels like Battlefield. I also think they figured out that the 128 player modes are best with the focused modes like Rush XL. Blowing up those M-Coms with piles of defenders, massive smokescreens, and waves of guys on foot going toe to toe is pretty damn exciting.
It’s a really nice change of pace from Call of Duty.