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Other General Battlefield 3 discussion thread

Discussion in 'Gaming' started by Otis1337, 8 Feb 2011.

  1. smc8788

    smc8788 Multimodder

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    Man, EA are really doing their best to make me not want to buy this game out of principle. Don't get me wrong, I love most of what I've seen about the game so far (though I'm a little concerned it's just going to be 'another' BC2), but when publishers start pushing their own agendas onto games it really pisses me off. You've got Ubisoft with their batshit crazy DRM, Eidos with their region locking, and now EA trying to simultaneously take down Valve by pushing their Origin store and Activision by requiring the use of their COD Elite clone Battlelog. Neither of those things would be a problem if they were optional but no, they're forced on you.

    EA thinks they're only hurting Valve by removing their games from Steam, but they're also hurting their own customers. Steam happens to be the place I want to buy my games, so if I can't do that I may just not bother. I know EA has the right to publish their games wherever they want but when it's obviously a bid to take down a rival and push their own platform then it's not a good enough reason for limiting consumer choice over where they buy their games.

    /rant

    +1. Never thought I'd see the day when that happened.
     
  2. Krazeh

    Krazeh Minimodder

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    There's absolutely nothing wrong with the proposed web-based server browser. It worked like a charm in the alpha and meant that I could be ingame and playing far faster than I ever could in previous battlefield games, including BC2. It took no longer for the BF3 alpha to load and quit than it did for BC2 to connect and disconnect from a server using it's ingame browser. I have no doubt that Dice and EA are going to do everything they can to ensure that remains the case when BF3 launches.
     
  3. EvilMerc

    EvilMerc Minimodder

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    I just had a thought....

    If you're launching BF3 itself through this external browser, how are you going to get Steam overlay onto it? I'm assuming the external browser and BF3 are separate .exe files here but I'd say that was likely.
     
  4. [ZiiP] NaloaC

    [ZiiP] NaloaC Multimodder

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    The browser part has all your friends for gaming, so does the steam overlay really matter?
     
  5. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    way ahead of you. we'll only see during Beta.

    but keep in mind you can communicate via steam and add people to Battlelog before launching the game.

    although here's one solution:
    1. dedicate IE to battlelog, have Steam launch IE which homepage is battlelog.
    2. i know any game launched by a launcher will still have Steam overlay on it, so......
    3. BF3.exe launched by IE should work.
     
  6. EvilMerc

    EvilMerc Minimodder

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    Not all my steam friends play the same games as me at the same time, plus the web browser is very handy.

    @Wyx GTA 4's launcher didn't like steam if I recall correctly. If they really want to kick Valve (and us) in the nuts they'll make it unworkable.
     
  7. impar

    impar Minimodder

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    Greetings!
    Oh sh*t! Now you killed all my remaining hopes. :(
    How else would we keep track of friends?
     
  8. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    Ubisoft launcher works brilliantly for me in Steam, for AC:B.....

    im sure we'll find a way. it's not that hard :p
     
  9. [ZiiP] NaloaC

    [ZiiP] NaloaC Multimodder

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    Oh, please don't get me wrong, I understand that people have a much more comprehensive list of people on their Steam list than Origin.

    I'm looking at it in the sense that when I am playing BF3, I am personally not really interested in you're playing anything else, but want to see if people are playing BF3 as well.

    I never actually tested to see if the Steam "shift+tab" worked while I was in the Alpha. The Origin Overlay didn't work for me, but again, it was the Alpha.

    Anyways, we'll find out soon, but soon is just not soon enough! :D
     
  10. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    Origin worked fine for me. and i visited battlelog on it during game :eek: Inception Battlelog! :lol:

    so when's this public Beta starting?
     
  11. impar

    impar Minimodder

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    Greetings!
    Thats clever.
    But lets see, we add a browser to Steam as a non-Steam app to use Steam to keep in touch with gaming friends while we play a game that chose not to have Steam at all?

    So, we give even more "power" to Steam because of a non-Steam game? :hehe:
     
  12. [PUNK] crompers

    [PUNK] crompers Dremedial

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    Battlelog looks like a huge pain in the arse tbh, the game constantly minimising and maximising while I look for a decent server is the part I don't like.

    Either way the game will be awesome, just depends how much crap they pile on before you get into a server
     
  13. Dwarfer

    Dwarfer What's a Dremel?

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    But having to come out of the game to look in the web based server browser to go back into the game. What a waste of time and hassle!

    DICE say they're dedicated to the PC Crowd as WE ARE the people who are what makes DICE as a developer today best at War FPS MP games yet they're stabbing us in the back.... like Will says on The Ibetweeners...

    'Just put it in my back mate, right between the shoulder blades '

    It's not stopping me from buying it, but i can see this being a pain in the arse!
     
  14. MiT

    MiT Don't feed me after midnight!! nom

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    i always miss :(

    i need to get some friends (new to pc gaming).

    Can i add friends to a list somewhere then when the game is lunched i will have friends to play with? or can i just join a server and play with random people?
    Sorry for the noob question, real novice to pc gaming.
     
  15. [ZiiP] NaloaC

    [ZiiP] NaloaC Multimodder

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    Yeah, you can join games with friends in it, or if you prefer, you can just play on a public server and play with random people, it's entirely up to you.

    Some games will have a "Friends List" built into it, so that you can join them directly. Others, you can go through the Steam interface, or Origin Interface.

    What games do you have?
     
  16. Otis1337

    Otis1337 aka - Ripp3r

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    People worried about the browser thingy.. don't be, even in the alpha it ran smooth and responsive.. at least on google chrome for me.
     
  17. Dwarfer

    Dwarfer What's a Dremel?

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    Oh no, I played the ALPHA and the browser ran fine however I wasn't aware this is how they would have the full Retail edition. I was under the assumption it was a placebo.

    Giving Consoles a server browser & PC Players a web based browser is shocking!

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but am sure most people are complaining on this respect and not how it runs!
     
  18. Krazeh

    Krazeh Minimodder

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    And how else would you suggest they have provided a server browser on a console? I'm sure if they could have incorporated Battlelog into the console release in the same way as they have with the PC release they would have done.

    If you're correct (which I suspect you are) then it just goes to prove that people will whine and moan about the most inconsequential things. The web browser simply doesn't add any extra time or hassle to the process of connecting to a server and playing BF3. It doesn't even require you to minimise and maximise the game because it loads and quits quickly enough for you to be able to just quit and reload it every time you change server. It's not like you have to sit thru intro videos or go thru menus when it loads, it jumps straight into connecting and loading the correct map.
     
    [ZiiP] NaloaC likes this.
  19. Sloth

    Sloth #yolo #swag

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    Having the Steam overlay is huge. Even while playing a game there's always someone on Steam who's messaging me for one reason or another, being able to simply shift-tab during a [rare] death to read and reply to a message is a major convenience. No wait time alt-tabbing, built in browser means no wait/hassle having a browser open viewing links you may have been sent, and the ability to view your game through the overlay are excellent features.

    Auto-join type systems. Pretty common for consoles to have players simply enter in list of parameters then automatically match them to a server that fits.


    Personally, couldn't care less. PC players have a server browser still, just redesigned.

    Having not played the Alpha, my concerns lie with the system being an incredibly awkward and backwards way of browsing servers. Comparing the system to Battlefield 2, not Bad Company 2 which already ruined the server browser system, the Battlelog method seems to be nothing short of an annoyance. Why not work on building the Battlelog into the game via ingame browser? Battlefield 2 style: Hit escape and you'e in the main menu with access to the Battlelog.

    Just seems like most of the comments are "it's not bad" rather than considering what would be good.
     
    Last edited: 19 Aug 2011
  20. Krazeh

    Krazeh Minimodder

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    That's not a server browser tho is it?

    In what way is the system incredibly awkward and backwards? Or indeed an annoyance? You decide you want to play BF3, you browse to battlelog (which takes a matter of seconds), open the server browser (again another matter of seconds) and select a server which takes you fancy. So for a start you're browsing servers in less time than it takes to get to the main menu in most games.

    You then click join server, BF3 loads in the background (taking no more time than BC2 takes to connect to a server from the ingame browser), when it's ready it beeps to let you know and you can click play. Alternatively you can bring the game to the foreground while it's still loading and sit watching it load.

    Then when you decide you want to change servers you quit, it takes a few seconds to do that (again no longer than it'd take to dump you back to the ingame browser in BC2) and you select a new server from the battlelog browser.

    The speed with which the game loads and quits really made the issue of the server browser being outside the game inconsequential during the alpha and unless something happens that causes the retail release of BF3 to take longer to load or quit then it will remain inconsequential. This whole thing is nothing more than people, the majority of which appear to not even have tried the battlelog browser, complaining for the sake of complaining.
     

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