First some PC perspective following the recent server patches. The server patches have all but eliminated server-related crashes. I don't think I've had a single one in the past week. However, I still get pretty frequent client crashes, which seem to be at least partly map-related. I've yet to finish a round on Dawnbreaker. There are a few other annoying bugs as well - persistent rubberbanding that makes operating a vehicle next to impossible on some maps (Golmud and Hainan mainly), sound cutting out (Golmud and Dawnbreaker), some maps that are so broken that most servers have pulled them from rotation (Lancang Dam, Shanghai). I am enjoying myself for the most part though.

Agree with this to some extent, though I'll point out that good weapons were accessible very early in BF3 (M16 was the US assault starter weapon, M416 was the first Assault weapon unlock, for example) as well, and the most useful attachments were generally pretty early unlocks.

True dat. I have to say that starting with iron sights has always been horribly annoying, especially because they usually suck, so I'm not going to whine about starting with the Kobra on the starter gun (especially because the Coyote is now the #1 sight).

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I like this. Engis in BF3 were pretty much the ultimate class for anything other than pure infantry combat. Carbines were great anti-infantry weapons, while the PDWs are terrible at any range apart from OMGWTFBBQ close. So changing the primary to a more reasonable weapon balances the class IMO. However, by allowing carbines to be equipped by all classes, they made this change completely pointless. Almost no one uses the PDWs on engi once they unlock carbines. I feel like there should be some sort of penalty for equipping weapons outside of the class - maybe certain gadgets wouldn't be able to be carried?

Massed LAW fire is devastating, but a smart driver can usually survive since they don't really give mobility kills too often and do pretty low damage (21 max). It also only locks on to things directly in its path, so if you keep moving, you can evade most LAW shots. The most annoying thing about the LAW is the late lock tone. I actually prefer the RPG for its higher damage model and ability to give mobility kills.

Eh. I didn't repair tool vehicles very often in BF3, and it was something that I maybe saw once or twice per round at most. I don't think this is such a big deal.

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Completely disagree here. Play the singleplayer campaign to unlock the M249 and go to town. One of the best guns available. The airburst is pretty awesome either as a smoke launcher or for taking out pesky rooftop snipers, and I still get plenty of resupply points. Yeah, you can't play as the ultimate armor-demolishing deathmachine from the start, but you're not useless.

And I don't feel like my KDR has gone down much at all compared to BF3. It's a bit worse, but a lot of that is due to getting used to the maps and guns as well as dealing with crappy netcode.

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Really liking the upgrades to the recon class. It was the class that I always wanted to play in BF3, but I could never justify it because it was more or less useless. Now aggressive recon/spec ops (my favorite BF2 class) is actually a viable option.

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Be smart. Conserve your ammo. I run IFV with the regular cannon and TOW, and I've only rarely (mostly when I was just starting out) run out of ammo. It's more of an issue with the MBT, but then, hardly anyone ran anything besides LMG or HMG as their secondary in BF3. Your ammo does regenerate.

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Haven't tanked much and I haven't tried (or unlocked) all the weapons yet, but this seems fair (and more or less how things worked in BF3).

Agreed.

I'm personally a fan of thermal optics (always wished I could have gunner thermal in BF3), but yeah, the gunner HMG blows compared to BF3. I also miss seeing the active pulsing of the prox scan on the minimap.

Part of the problem with countermeasures is that currently 70-80% of locked on shots (even discounting LAWs, which may be doing this by design) only give you the firing warning right before (or even after) the shot hits, making deploying countermeasures pointless.
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Sort of addressed this already, but the IFV really shines once you unlock the TOW. The standard cannon is an anti-infantry weapon, and the TOW takes out armor pretty effectively - two TOWS, which you can fire one after another now, plus a half-clip of normal cannon fire will take out another IFV. Pretty much the same for tanks. If you're using MGs, switch the cannon for the AP cannon.

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I keep forgetting to test the 30mm cannon, but the 20mm is borderline useless vs air. They gave the AA a serious nerf compared to the Beta, where I was wrecking choppers left and right with it. I can now overheat the cannon on a single chopper and fail to take it out 99% of the time. No point using Zunis - you're anti-air, not anti-tank. The active radar missiles are stupidly overpowered anyways - I believe they lock on to any spotted air target.
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Really disappointed with the BF4 choppers as a whole. The attack chopper is the only vehicle that I consistently find myself out of ammo in, and I just can't seem to kill anything with the scout chopper. I can't fly jets for shit, so I don't even try.

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Boats are beastly indeed. I still prefer the TOW (or TV missile) over Zunis though. I'm torn on burst vs 30mm cannon.

 

Really? The only ones I can think of are Lancang Dam and Paracel Storm, though remember that I play on 24-player max servers. We have less vehicles in general, so boards like Flood Zone or Hainan Resort only have IFVs.

Interesting. I don't have the rubber banding issues on Golmud, though I definitely do on Dawnbreaker. Both maps are infamous, though, for the sound outages.

The M16 took a few patches to become the overpowered mess it was in BF3 (I had over 200 service stars :awesome), while the game also forced you to switch to the Russian AK-74M when you didn't have weapons unlocked. And the KH2002 was the first weapon unlock for the assault kit. I still laugh at the IFNV sight and heavy barrel with a KH2002 at the beginning of the game. Stupid range and kill-speed.

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I disagree. The PDW-R is one of the most powerful weapons in the game at this point, and the MX4 has a kill speed that beats out ANY other automatic weapon currently in the game. The only reason I'd touch a carbine is because I can then use it with all my classes.

Forgot to mention the lock tone. It's absolutely the most annoying aspect of the LAW. Still, 21 damage with two engineers means that you are near dead in less that four seconds. Half the time, tank drivers will flare too late and then be left defenseless. It's insane.

Repair tool deaths are far too common on the Xbox 360. Given how many more vehicles there are on the PC, it's unsurprising that they'd kill tanks far more often than infantry. My repair tool was my favorite means of killing tanks on the ground, even if I had an RPG. I'd critical hit the back with my launcher, run up on him while the driver is swinging around and repair tool ASAP. It does so much damage so fast that it only takes a second and a half to kill.

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Support isn't useless against infantry, but for me there's little incentive to play the kit unless you're running around non-vehicle game types. If you take a look at my stats, I really haven't given the support kit a chance in this game or others. It was never my class of choice, though, so I'm obviously just biased. The only time I played it regularly was when I could C4 a vehicle, it would stay on the tank even after the driver or gunner killed me, and then I'd blow it after respawn. Hilarious until they patched it.

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The hit box on DMRs are so strange, especially with the server issues. They should be accurate, but I've gone into servers with friends where they've stood still, I've shot four slow shots into their chest and the game only registered one or two of the shots. Unlike other BF games, though, I'm a monster with the sniper. I head shot all day with the very first sniper in the game, even if they're 600+ away.

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I tried the HE and TOW myself, but a smart IFV driver can easily dodge the TOW by using a building corner or the terrain. I have tried every combination I can think of. When there's an attack boat, IFV and two engineers all shooting at you at the same time, you're out of ammo after choosing one of the three to kill. Like you said, you need two TOWs and a half-clip to take out an IFV. IF you hit both TOWs, you will then have two and a half clips to work with for at least twenty seconds. Most likely you'll be critically damaged, so you can't run away to reload.

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The main map on Xbox 360 with a Mobile Air is Dawnbreaker. There's a tank, mobile air, one attack chopper and one stealth jet on each side. Because of this, you only deal with a chopper once in a blue moon. It's honestly easier to run around with stingers, set your Mobile Air up to take out infantry and tanks, and go to town. No doubt the larger number of air vehicles on the PC would require a completely different play style.
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Zuni rockets are really powerful on all vehicles, despite only have eight rounds in a clip. I find myself able to kill more infantry or vehicles with those than the hydra rockets, despite constantly running out of ammo.

Oh, and just for a second imagine when our game first came out. Unlike the PC, reloading dropped all the rounds that were still in the clip. Reloading a 30/90 to get that extra one bullet in the clip would drop your ammo to 31/59. We essentially had 66% of the rounds PC players did for all vehicles and weapons, unless we dumped ammo at everything we saw or perfectly counted out bullets to kill a target.

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I agree on the zunis for the attack boat. I used to solo a Viper on BF3 and destroy choppers, jets, tanks and infantry with the TV missile. I was so disappointed with having to hit a target multiple times that I didn't even realize it could fire one after the other, and that they're so easy to fly! Super fun times in the boat.

 

Maybe that was a console thing; it was a co-op unlock on PC. I did love that gun though.

Haven't tried any other PDWs, so I was mainly going off the BF3 versions. And the MX4 even beats out the ACW? Maybe the PDWs make more sense on the smaller console maps, but I always feel like I need the added range for the 64p maps.

Yeah, don't much like the DMRs, but rolling with a carbine, motion balls, and C4 is tons of fun and I've had a lot of success with the bolt actions as well.

Going 2v1 is definitely way harder than it used to be, but I've learned to just run when I wind up in a worse matchup than 1v1. Most of the time, only one will chase you. You have to change your tactics vs BF3. Where you used to be able to sit there and slug it out, you now have to strategically retreat for reloads/repairs. It's hard breaking old habits :/

Definitely. Maps like Golmud can have up to 4 choppers, 2 jets, and a gunship on one side (provided no vehicles were stolen), so the AA is much more useful as AA. Plus, there's something like 4 tanks and 2-3 IFVs per side as well, so there's a lot more armor out there to deal with other armor.

 

You're right about the KH2002. It's been so long that I'd completely forgotten...

 

Too many bloody crashes with this game. I just decided to wait a couple of weeks, because I'm getting sick of losing my EXP (unlocks!) progress. I played a few games in a row today, so although things may have improved due to the latest patches, I've had too many bad experiences.

I've found that Recon has become my most played class by far, whereas I hardly played it in BF4. I suppose it was the Siege of Shanghai Demo that drew me into the class.

Overall, I'm liking the triple weapon attachments and the much better range of unlocks. It gives you far more flexibility. Actually I want x6, x14 and Range Finder on a sniper rifle. It would be nice if you could just pick any three rather than doing something realistic with underbarrel, sights and whatever the other one is.

 

You only lose your stats if the server crashes or if you rejoin the same server before the round ends. Server crashes are more or less fixed now, so you really shouldn't be losing anything. I usually just consider client crashes an excuse to take a break.

 

Was bought for me when we got it with the PS4 despite hating console FPS's. Threw Premium on it for the hell of it. So many bugs.

Single player, tried to go through it just for the unlocks, got tired of it crashing every hour, turned it off. Next day, game gone. Start playing from scratch, crashed, game gone. Hell with it, into multiplayer. Game's only crashed once in multi, but there are't problems we should be having on goddamned consoles with set in stone configurations, this is unforgivable.

Then there's the aiming. Alright, so I'm good on the computer in fps's, stupid me thought that should translate. Nope, my console aim is horrible....or I thought it was. 9 times out of 10 I see someone and start shooting first, I die. Don't get it. I can be sniped by a noscope engineer from quite aways away while he's running, but I can't hit shit. I found I was fighting the auto aim assist snap to so much, I was pulling my cone of fire all over the damned place.

Normally, I'll see someone, start hip firing, and then zoom to adjust, but it doesn't seem to work well. I dont get how a guy can fly around the corner and burst me to 0 instantly with seemingly no aim. Am I missing some aiming tricks for console? I have seen my gun go all over the place several times before, and I've gotten plenty of kills just running in and spraying and someone killing someone I wasn't aiming near, but its driving me nuts not to be better. Any tips for console aiming in this game?

Yet, I can go play Blacklight and do fair, but on BF4 I'm 4/10, 1/12, etc It's just stupid. I know some of it is my scopes and gun damage are shit, I'm still in the single digit levels, but damn.

 

I'm the same when it comes to console FPS games. Can't shoot for shit - the thumb sticks are just too different from WASD/mouse.

My impression after 100+ hours and 75 levels is that the gunplay still needs a lot of work. Some of that is because I spent so many hours on BF3, and they changed the way recoil works between the games (it's much less controllable now), but a lot is the latency between clients. I get shot around corners, through walls, and (seemingly) one-shotted far more than I ever did in BF3, and it shows in my stats. Towards the end of my BF3 career, I was averaging a solid 1.5-2 KDR while rarely touching vehicles. In BF4, I'm lucky to get 1 unless I'm in a vehicle.

I will say that I like the vehicle gameplay much better in BF4 though. Vehicles are more maneuverable, have a lot more options for gadgets/weapons/etc, and generally feel more balanced. The AA is just a teensy bit overpowered, but that could be solved with a buff to the attack choppers, which need one anyways.

 

Went back into Bf3 for abit last night on the PC and was just mowing folks down. Swap right back, and 10-25 in BF4 on console, lol. Just so different. I've never had a squad work together either, unless it was family together it's just crazy.

 

More or less my experience as well. It's too bad 90% of the servers left are 1000+ ticket grindfests and most of the players are immature fuckwads, or I'd play more often.

This is the case on most servers for PC as well. Fortunately, there are some out there that push teamplay pretty heavily, but they tend to use 3rd party solutions like Teamspeak. Getting anyone to talk over the in-game voip is like pulling teeth. Odd that it's hard to get people to talk on console though - maybe it's a PS4 thing?

 

I dunno. I know right now the headsets are absolute shit that are bundled in with the console, and the bluetooth ones don't work yet, so maybe that has alot to do with it.

I know after tonight I'm never getting in another goddamned chopper again. Something like 100 helo's over a 12 hour grind session, and I only saw maybe 3 or 4 pilots that could fly without almost insta crashing, or ones that would land. Majority of the time we'd get in a helo, they'd fly full speed, and then the pilot would kamikaze jump out at the last second. Such a waste =/

 

Yeah, maybe.

90% of helo pilots suck on every platform. Doesn't help that the only one that's worth crap now is the Littlebird/Z-11. Attack choppers get demolished by everything, and transports are still deathtraps (though they can take two rpgs/tank shells now before blowing up). But get a littlebird up with two reppers in the side seats and you're damn near invincible. You can eat missiles all day, and even the AA will have trouble taking you down. The only thing that can get you is the one-shot rpg/tank shell kill. Plus the 25mm guns are beastly.

 

Yeah, I've gotten some practice time flying them thanks to the air superiority missions. I'm still garbage in the planes though, there's not enough control of the speed. On consoles it seems like they have a cruise control and you can't drop the plane's speed low enough to give you time to line up properly without constantly circling back around.

I wind up not being able to sight things quick enough to take them down with the air to ground jet, and air to air the planes take forever to turn even when doing 180 flip around to change direction and tail someone. Practice maybe. I'm approaching level 20, have most stuff for the kits unlocked, but I have shit unlocked for weapons. My Assault is still using the basic assault rifle unlock, with a 2x zoom reflex scope, silencer, stubby grip. Similar for my other classes. Even my Recon, I have the second unlock sniper rifle, but it's a 6x zoom with mil dots. The base one has less range, but a 6x/14x variable zoom, which I find way more helpful. Only at the range you need 14x, apparently the bullet just vanishes. I've not had shots hit that should've at 400, like entire clips full on stationary targets. So much rage, lol!

 

I've got this love/hate thing going with BF4, I spend most of my time struggling to get it to work without lagging or disconnecting or crashing or some combination of the three. But when it does work (on PC) it works quite well in my experience.

I've gotten rather lucky in that most of the squads I've been in are capable of coordinating over VOIP, or simply following the squad orders.

My main gripe is that people have a tendancy to believe that they are some kind of elite sniper and all go for the long rifles to plink away at each other from 300+m. It's great when it's the enemy team doing it (I get lots of kills counter-sniping) but when a platoon's worth of men are milling around on rooftops taking potshots at people, they aren't taking the objective.

Anyway, Midknight. Does the console version have the Firing Range (training room) option in the 'Play Now' menu? I ask because the PC version give players access to a test area where all the vehicles and all heavy weapons (Barret 0.50cal, USAS12 frag...) are availible for testing. It's quite useful when you're trying out new control configurations and getting used to vehicles.

-SK

 

Yeah it's got a test area. Ungodly small, and would be nice if it was filled with bots, but yeah, it's got it.

 

It's important to note that if you are shooting from the hip and zoom in, or start shooting while the gun is still aiming down the sights the fire will not be accurate to the sights. It will continue to fire as if you are shooting from the hip. Make sure you aim down the sights fully before firing, especially with LMGs.

Improved my play a LOT.

 

Yeah this about made me fling the controller through the window when I figured it out. I'd miss people a few feet in front of me while I started spraying while sprinting and mash zoom. On the other extreme though, the aim can be broken at times if you've got a few seconds to deal with recoil. I've turned into a damned decent pistol sniper.