No moar crappy posts plz

I honestly wouldn't have noticed what was improved over the previous version without side-by-side comparisons.

It's definitely Frostbite :D

I'm just turning all that shit off anyway.

It is. But it always is. A "new engine" from scratch is pretty rare. This is Frostbite 3.0. And really, I think they're leaping version numbers for the sake of marketing.

Still. If you watch some side-by-side comparisons it's a bit easier to see that it does indeed look a bit better.

LevelCap did a pretty good breakdown that includes a few side-by-sides: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRL6ivUFhVw

For record I hope BF kills their lame unlock system. In CoD it was great because things unlocked quickly. In BF2/3 it was grind grind grind. The only people who loved it were those dedicating 100 hours into the game and who love to grind. And they of course will defend it to any length, even downplaying the grinding and unlock advantages, because they dearly love the focus DICE gives them.

I have no love for unlocks, but you're wrong. The game is pretty fairly front loaded with the best equipment. The M16, until recently, was the most well rounded weapon in the game. The M416 is the first assault rifle unlock. It's also a great weapon. It's followed by the AEK, which is the best overall assault rifle in the game. And things do unlock quickly. We had this discussion in Halo 4, a much, much more grind heavy game. If you played, say, 25 hours of H4 you'd still lack important perks. You can't even start unlocking all of the specialization perks until level 50. And it takes 70 levels. Come on. That's some ridiculously busted pacing. Even if you bought all of the Doritos.

It takes 22,000 points to unlock the M416. I average 750 points per minute. That's like 15,000 points a round. It's faster than you think. It does not take hundreds of hours to unlock all the important stuff in BF3. The game does have nearly a hundred weapons though, so it may take a while to get them all. But.. that's quite a bit more variety than most games too--more than twice the count of BLOPS2.

Vehicle unlocks are a bit problematic, in terms of giving the noob an actual disadvantage. But the weapon grind is fairly well balanced. I didn't even use unlocks in BF2.

I do not like the focus DICE (THE GENRE) gives unlocks. And yes, I'm defending it because you are wrong :)

And now that I looked at your stats I'm angry that you never played Conquest. What the hell is it with folks and not playing Conquest? :D

Oh, a bunch of the expansion guns are unlocked via "assignments." I'm not sure that's better though. But technically they're achievable at any level. I think it probably took me around 100 or 150 hours to complete every kit. Note that every kit is at its maximum level of effectiveness long before that. At 25 hours your Engi and Assault kits are both pretty kick-ass.

Bottom line: The vehicle unlocks are the only ones that have much of an impact on balance. And that is a bit of a design flaw, since it makes vehicles prohibitive to brand new players. It's hard to achieve those unlocks if you're getting screamed at for wasting the Abrams or the Havoc. Then again, you probably don't want brand new player wasting the Havoc anyway.

I just want suppression toned down (or removed!), bipods nerfed, the netcode improved, and recon+support's gear to be re-designed/re-distributed. I'm actually a little more frightened by the things they will change or add than the things they won't at this point. BF3 doesn't need more of anything except focus. The game does have quite a few issues that will not be fixed by adding more layers of depth to it.

I agree with Acert. Some of the weapon unlock challenges are really annoying and a few of the weapons I want I'll never attempt.

And you have over 760hrs in BF3. That'd be about my whole Xbox Live career across both consoles and a dozen games.

But you're not behind. Pheathon. You have the best gun in the game. You're totally not behind in infantry unlocks. Not even a little. The only kit you haven't finished unlocking is Reacon, and you could do it in like an hour if you wanted to. If you compare it to other games in the genre, it's not particularly grindy. It just has the most stuff. Seriously.

Learning to play the game will get you a lot further than unlocks.

Now Tinks. You are behind. But you've barely touched the game and you're not at an actual disadvantage because of the unlocks. You're at a disadvantage because other people know what they're doing.

If you guys put a little effort into improving your game you'd unlock stuff a lot faster and you wouldn't feel behind.

It's understandable if you're not interested. But you're just plain wrong about it being a serious issue. You start with one of the best guns in the game. You quickly unlock all of the essential gear and the best gun in the game. I just don't really even understand where you guys are coming from here.

If you feel like your at a disadvantage in BF3, it's not because of your unlocks. Watch rivalXfactor's youtube stream and "learn2play."I know. And I've played thousands of hours of Call of Duty. And Quake/UT before that. That's why I know what I'm talking about.

BF3 definitely isn't my bag anymore, but I'm not arguing about disadvantages but the unlocking process for weapons. Compared to other games, getting weapons is a hassle.

Improving our game? That's another way of saying you suck right? Battlefield 3 has always been about terrain and vehicles and traversal and all that. That's probably why I loved Bad Company so much because they put a good focus on pure combat. Getting left behind at HQ didn't hurt you so much in BFBC. It's never fun running for 10mins just to be sniped once you arrive, especially with how huge the maps are in BF3. I guess improving our game would constitute joining a clan too, but ain't nobody got time for all that. Also I don't remember unlocks being a hurdle in Bad Company either.

No, because it's not meant as an insult. It's just the truth. If you improved your game you wouldn't feel "behind."

You're blaming the game for not being better at it instead of learning to play. But that's a separate issue/discussion. You've already said that in your opinion, this isn't about being at a disadvantage.

This is really a separate point than what Acert and Tinks are on about.Oh give me a break. You know you're welcome to play with me whenever you want. My clan doesn't even really play this game. It's me and sometimes Buzzard or Raven or Blake.

You have the same support system I/they do.

I will agree with that there are issues with unlocks to some extent. Mostly with vehicles (on the other hand, love the customization) and co-op. Forcing me to play co-op is a bit (very) lame. This entire discussion makes me feel a bit dirty, since I don't generally like progression in my shooters. But Battlefield hasn't quite gone over that line yet where balance is significantly impacted by these issues. That's what really gets to me, along with the design philosophy set forth by Call of Duty and its clones, which is to put an emphasis on individual enjoyment over the structure of a team based competitive shooter.

Can I also say.. woo.. we're talking about game design. And not books. I love it.

I started using other weapons more, just because I'm tired of scrubs crying about the AEK.

I have 30,000 kills with it (and 15k with the M16A3).. which just makes noobs cry. Because they perceive it as an unfair weapon. Which is pretty ridiculous in a game with full auto shotguns + slugs :D

I've been using the F2000 and KH2002 a lot lately just to mix it up. What is it about Aftermath that made you switch though? AEK + grip + heavy barrel = pretty much good in any situation.

I love the G53. Just the way it looks/sounds/feels. The ACW-R and MTAR are sorta the clear winners in that category, but they're both extremes (one is excellent at range, the other CQC).

Ah.. yes that makes a lot of sense. With the heavy barrel the AEK does pack a bit of a kick. It's very easy to control with the mouse though since it's pretty much perfectly vertical.

The M16A3 is just a joy in general.