Battlefield: Play4Free first impressions

So I got my key for the beta and have given it a go. Like in BC2 you have 4 classes to choose from; Recon, Medic, Assault, and Engineer. I chose engineer as usual. The only map in the beta is Karkand. Similar to the map from BF2. There are some minor changes as can be seen from the images. The above screenie is a new flag on the map. Its the area behind square on the way up to suburb on the bf2 map. Since I’ve only played the one class its quite hard to give an overall view on the game. OH YES… you create a soldier, and assign a class to that soldier. Which means you cant change classes in-game. So basically short of disconnecting to change soldiers and then reconnect, you just have to make do with what you have. As you level you get points which can be spent on various talents for your troop. Like unlocking a machine gun for your tank, climbing ladders faster, healing faster from health packs, etc. I can see how it would be pretty fun to play. Just that with the high pings to the international servers close quarters fighting is a no no. I’ve also experienced a problem that after firing both rpgs that I can’t change weapons. and am then stuck like that until I die, rearming also doesn’t help. This game is still in beta, so chances are that things like that will get sorted out. One of the big problems that I’ve experienced with the game surrounds the armour. The tank and apc go virtually unchallenged on these maps. They also don’t get onto the flag radius to cap, just sitting out of range and punishing everything in site with the cannons. Another downside was that each time you spawn, you load customizations for the players on the server. So at times there is quite a bit of loading to get through before you can get back into the action. The com rose is something similar to bf2, but quite a bit more awkward, making it a bit clumsy. And, as usual, nobody spots anything anyway. So basically it could work out if it were hosted locally. That wont happen due to services required for micro transactions ingame…. I leave you with a 3rd person (this is now viewable ingame by pressing ‘f’) screenie of me being out of action not being able to reload rockets are shoot anything.

Battlefield: Play4Free

Battlefield Play4Free Closed Beta starts November 30th

Set in the modern theatre of war Battlefield Play4Free is a first person shooter with realistic graphics. Battlefield Play4Free combines the very best of the Battlefield series – updates of the classic maps and vehicles of Battlefield 2, the definitive classes and powerful weapons of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and the addictive RPG-like leveling and customization system of Battlefield Heroes.

As the game’s title suggests, all of this available to players for free online, using the groundbreaking Play4Free model pioneered by Battlefield Heroes. Most impressively, despite the high production values, DICE is aiming to keep the game download size as close to 500MB as possible.

Like Battlefield: Heroes, Play4Free will make money from micro-transactions, although Salt is well aware that the majority of gamers “won’t want to spend a cent.” “As with Battlefield Heroes, the stuff we’re selling are weapons and clothing customisation items for the most part,” said Salt. “With clothes, it’s only if you want to look really, really badass. With weapons, it’s much more about balancing: this gun is really fast, but it’s got no grip; this one just looks really cool. It’s always a personal choice and it’s never going to unbalance the match.”