Certain modes have less or no players. That is true. The main modes of Battlefield though? Conquest. Operations. These always have a majority of players and they are not “Deathmatch games”.
Yea, but you are a hardcore multiplayer shooter guy with a crew, and i’m just a dirty console peasant playing pick up games.
Honestly though i just hate any kind of Deathmatch style of game, and prefer Star Wars Battlefront 2 for it’s much more solid front lines. The longer I can keep my back to a wall, the happier I am. But this doesn’t mean BF I or V are bad, just (probably) not for me.
That’s the thing, I don’t often play with my crew in Battlefield. I join a game, join a full squad, and then play the effing objective same as everyone else.
How do I upload clips from Xbox to Youtube? I’ll show you what my experience is like ;)
Yeah, my experiences have been along the lines @DaveLong describes. Mind you, I don’t usually play BF I or V much any more, though occasionally I install it. But when I did, the main modes were well populated, and I just joined rando squads and did ok.
As to feel, I’ll grant that WWI is a tough sell unless you’re doing the sim sort of approach, where everyone is perfectly happy to master the art of bold-action rifle marksmanship and digging trenches in the mud. For a mass-market game, you need a bit more fluidity, and you need carrots (weapon progression) to dangle in front of people. And at least the weapons they do use were, it seems, all used in the war, albeit many of them later in the conflict.
The fortress type assaults are the most WWI-ish thing about the game, and those IMO are really cool, the Italian stuff in particular.
It’s really just the pace of things. I have a few bugbears, and getting shot seconds after spawning is just not for me territory. For whatever reasons the old Battlefields felt far less twitchy and fast paced. This doesn’t mean they’re bad games. EA has got the Battlefield style game down pat at this point. But i’m probably in more War of Rights (god, that name) territory at this point.
I don’t know what the player base is like, but perhaps something like Hell Let Loose, or Post Scriptum which are kind of along the lines of a WWII Squad.
Did anyone try the Venice Unleashed stuff for BF3? It looks like it is mostly dead at the moment, which is a shame since it was just in December when it launched.
Tannenberg is a WWI shooter that is far more authentic feeling than Battlefield 1. Mostly bolt action rifles and period-correct weaponry. The devs seemed to really care about the period. There is no running across the top of a zeppelin with automatic rifles. That said, the online multiplayer may not solve some of the problems you are running into in Battlefield even though it is very objective focused. Tannenberg (like Verdun before it) does offer full offline play with bots. You can setup a full match with 64 bots if you wish. I’m guessing the bots are not the smartest most nuanced coded players, but they might give a rough approximation of human players and gives one a decent chance to learn the game in a no-pressure situation.
There is also the more recent Beyond the Wire, but I don’t own that one and haven’t played it so I can’t comment on the experience.
I have been powerfully intrigued by Verdun/Tannenberg/Beyond the Wire, as WWI is one of my historical interests, and there are not many games centered on that epochal conflict. I have never tried these games though. Perhaps I should.
I keep waffling on if I should get BF V as it is on Steam sale now. I used to like BF games. I enjoyed BF1942 and 2142 a ton. The Rush modes of Bad Company were awesome. But I think you are right. Another frustration is definitely the time to kill.
People talk about vehicles or game modes and how that somehow makes BF into CoD (or not). What makes BF feel like CoD to me is that time to kill has dramatically dropped over releases such that the franchise definitely has a CoD-like balloon shooting gallery feel in comparison to older BF games.
Still, I have really fond memories of BF1942 and hunting tanks with panzerfausts. Is it worth it to get another WWII BF in for $15? @DaveLong has me curious about the Breakthrough mode.
BF1942 is one of my favorite gaming memories. I typically have stayed away from PvP massive multiplayer games because my twitch skills are low and I am not part of any crew/team, etc. but I spent a lot more time in that game than I should have, and I still have very vivid and specific memories of certain situations in the game.
My brother and I played Bad Company together as a sniper team. I know, everyone hates snipers in these games, but we worked hard to help squads take and defend “flags”, acting as recon and doing a ton of spotting, taking out enemy trying to sneak up on them or rush them, taking out opposing snipers, etc. We had squads that asked us to stay with them because they appreciated that we made life easier for them. I am just not as quick and skilled with closer combat. When I played military MMOs and try to play as a standard assault type member of a squad, as little time as I have to play, I feel like a total newb all the time running into all of the people who play seemingly 24/7 with every weapon and every item you can earn killing me very quickly. Since I play these games when I get time and not very often, I’m much more comfortable being a “loner” because I don’t want to be the weak link in a squad of accomplished players. I love the sniper role, but it feels like snipers are universally hated.
That said, I’m tempted to jump into any WWII shooter, so I may find a way back into the BF world. I’m not really interested in sci-fi type shooters, so the new BF doesn’t hold an interest, but perhaps BF V wouldn’t punish me too badly.
I also suggest looking into Enlisted. It has a lot going for it so far and has a BF vibe set in WW2 and is playable now including Western and Eastern fronts.
That seems to be an interesting title. I’ve watched a little bit of streamers playing, but basically you control a squad?
Other ww2 shooters at the moment are Post Scriptum and Hell Let Loose, but I think they are geared towards the milsim type gamers (not positive though).
Enlisted looks interesting; I watched some streams today. I definitely like the squad idea and even the squad management seems kinda neat. However, the financial element (or massive time drain to die to whales as you level) of the War Thunder model is a big turn off.
I’ve played a bunch of Enlisted and if you don’t like fast time to kill, you do not want to play Enlisted. It’s mostly one bullet, one death.
BFV is not quite so bad unless you get sniped, which obviously is always possible in any first person shooter with sniper rifles. That said, again, if anyone wants some tips or playstyle things you can do to avoid that, LMK. And if you can’t beat 'em, just join 'em like @JeffL did.
One thing I think all of you should consider with Battlefield is it is truly YOUR experience. Don’t let other people tell you what’s fun or not fun. BF is all about the sandbox. Sure, I avoid planes mostly because I’m not that great in them, but if I get a hankering to try again, and I can get one, I do it! It’s my game too. I’ve become pretty adept at tanking and went 15-2 with a Panzer IV last night. The two came when they finally knocked me out on the bridge on the Twisted Steel map when I had no infantry support. It was one of the best times I’ve had in videogames if I’m totally honest, because I earned those kills and that streak just by playing a couple hours here and there to get better at tanking.
There will always be players that frustrate you in any online game. Don’t let 'em get you down. Just have fun!
Yeah, I played some bf4 for the first time in about a year last night. The first couple of rounds were pretty brutal, and I’m using a different mouse+keyboard set up than last time so had some troubles. Ended with one decent round (for me anyways) so hopefully it won’t take too long to get back into it.
That’s about how long it takes IMO. You need a round or two to basically warm up and get back into the groove. I’m always on controller anymore so what I really need is a frickin’ RTX 3080 to smooth that out a bit, but good luck to me.
I know some people don’t particularly like that there is no matchmaking in Battlefield, but I think it’s a huge plus. Certainly some players are gods, and you will struggle to stop them, but most players fall way lower than that on the scale, and if you happen to play with a guy like Silk or JackFrags or whoever, just marvel at their skill, you know? You’d never be in a game with that guy in Warzone unless you’re the best of the best, and to me, that kind of sucks. I’d like to have even the slimmest shot at knocking him out!
BF4 takes the longest to adjust to because of how they did the character models in that game with their lack of color. Spotting is more difficult. The good thing is the spot system is closer to BF1 than BFV so you do get a lot of info from other players and can relay info to them yourself with spotting.
I love jumping in Golmud and tanking though. That never gets old. MBT on an open plain. All day long in BF4. I love playing both Panzerstorm and Provence, saddling up a Tiger or a Sherman, and go rolling through the fields in BFV. Good times.
I got kicked out of a squad by gravity once. :)