GrossKopf
01-29-2010, 05:44 AM
Just my initial thoughts on the BC2 beta. I only have about an hour play time so far but I figured I'd go ahead and post what I thought of it so far.
The first and most important thing to remember is that this is a beta. There are bugs that will (hopefully) be fixed before it goes retail. Netcode will be optimized, graphics engine will be tweaked and the video card manufacturers will probably release drivers that promise improved performance soon after the game is released, or maybe even for the beta. If you want a good comparision, get the BF2142 demo and play it and you'll see how a game progresses through patches. The demo is very buggy.
Graphics and effects
The graphics are nice. I was surprised that it seemed I was getting no video lag (only connection lag) with my GTX-260 OC card on medium settings. I've found that in most games the difference between high and medium were hardly noticable unless you are looking at two screenshots side by side or if high affords extra effects like weather (moving clouds/shadows, etc).
The smoke/explosion effects are wonderful. When a shell hits near you, bullets riccochet near your head or some other explosive event happens near you, your audio is muffled and your vision is blurred. It's very battle-tastic. Explosions and impacts create smoke clouds, as they would in real life, obscuring things for both the attacker and the attackie. This makes fighting in armor even more challenging, as when your shells impact near their target, the target may become obscured so that you can't just spam them with any real accuracy. It also gives infantry, if they survive the barrage, a chance to escape in the smoke.
Destructable environment
When COD 4 came out with it's material penetration, I loved it. Finally I could shoot at a wall or edge of a door that I knew the enemy was hiding behind and I could get a kill. I was always annoyed in BF2 and BF2142 when someone hid behind a wall and I was pelting it with tank shells and it didn't affect them.
BC2 does penetration/destruction the RIGHT way! Different munitions affect each material differently. For example, in the US Intervention mod for BF2, they introduced destructable buildings for BF2, but every weapon could eventually destroy a building with relative ease. In BC2, it seems that shooting a wall with a gun will have little more effect then putting holes in it and the walls seem to dampen the effect of the bullets. Fire a tank at a wall or use a nade launcher at it, and it'll blow a hole in the wall. Splash damage inside, such as a nade launcher through a window, seems to do less damage to structure than a direct hit. You can shoot out doors as you approach a building, making entering them in a hurry lots of fun.
The only negative I've seen in this aspect is that the size, shape and location of the destruction seems to be fixed. In other words, you can shoot a building with two tank rounds and blow out the wall, except for a thin piece of wall between the holes. The best way to explain this would be for anyone that has played BF2 and seen the "blown up" bridge on Mashtuur City. You can still walk down the middle of that bridge.
I have yet to see a building collapse, as we did in the videos, but I am sure it's possible.
Bullet drop
The game has bullet drop. This is something I really liked in Red Orchestra: OstFront. If you were in a tank and you wanted to engage an enemy that wasn't in close range, you had to compensate for bullet drop. Now, I have no idea how realistic the drop is, if it's accurate to real life, but it definately adds a new element to engaging far off targets.
Classes
I'm kinda disappointed in there only being 4 classes. It makes for a limited selection, but I'm hoping the low number of classes will be balanced out with the unlocked weapons. I'm hoping smoke grenades are part of the unlocked weapons because in on the beta maps, it seems that snipers abound.
Maps
The map system is nice. Although the beta only has one map, it plays in Rush mode. This is an attack/defend mode where one side attacks and another defends. There are two tactical computer systems that must be destroyed. If they get destroyed, the defendants must fall back to the next part of the map, which unlocks, to defend two more positions. This continues until the last one is gone. Unlike BF2/BF2142, you can't go behind enemy lines and wait for the first two positions to be destroyed. I am looking forward to the other modes as they are introduced, but with this Rush mode, I may be reluctant to play the old "conquest" classic game mode.
Overall
It's very nice. I am looking forward to the final release. Not much more I can say on that.
The first and most important thing to remember is that this is a beta. There are bugs that will (hopefully) be fixed before it goes retail. Netcode will be optimized, graphics engine will be tweaked and the video card manufacturers will probably release drivers that promise improved performance soon after the game is released, or maybe even for the beta. If you want a good comparision, get the BF2142 demo and play it and you'll see how a game progresses through patches. The demo is very buggy.
Graphics and effects
The graphics are nice. I was surprised that it seemed I was getting no video lag (only connection lag) with my GTX-260 OC card on medium settings. I've found that in most games the difference between high and medium were hardly noticable unless you are looking at two screenshots side by side or if high affords extra effects like weather (moving clouds/shadows, etc).
The smoke/explosion effects are wonderful. When a shell hits near you, bullets riccochet near your head or some other explosive event happens near you, your audio is muffled and your vision is blurred. It's very battle-tastic. Explosions and impacts create smoke clouds, as they would in real life, obscuring things for both the attacker and the attackie. This makes fighting in armor even more challenging, as when your shells impact near their target, the target may become obscured so that you can't just spam them with any real accuracy. It also gives infantry, if they survive the barrage, a chance to escape in the smoke.
Destructable environment
When COD 4 came out with it's material penetration, I loved it. Finally I could shoot at a wall or edge of a door that I knew the enemy was hiding behind and I could get a kill. I was always annoyed in BF2 and BF2142 when someone hid behind a wall and I was pelting it with tank shells and it didn't affect them.
BC2 does penetration/destruction the RIGHT way! Different munitions affect each material differently. For example, in the US Intervention mod for BF2, they introduced destructable buildings for BF2, but every weapon could eventually destroy a building with relative ease. In BC2, it seems that shooting a wall with a gun will have little more effect then putting holes in it and the walls seem to dampen the effect of the bullets. Fire a tank at a wall or use a nade launcher at it, and it'll blow a hole in the wall. Splash damage inside, such as a nade launcher through a window, seems to do less damage to structure than a direct hit. You can shoot out doors as you approach a building, making entering them in a hurry lots of fun.
The only negative I've seen in this aspect is that the size, shape and location of the destruction seems to be fixed. In other words, you can shoot a building with two tank rounds and blow out the wall, except for a thin piece of wall between the holes. The best way to explain this would be for anyone that has played BF2 and seen the "blown up" bridge on Mashtuur City. You can still walk down the middle of that bridge.
I have yet to see a building collapse, as we did in the videos, but I am sure it's possible.
Bullet drop
The game has bullet drop. This is something I really liked in Red Orchestra: OstFront. If you were in a tank and you wanted to engage an enemy that wasn't in close range, you had to compensate for bullet drop. Now, I have no idea how realistic the drop is, if it's accurate to real life, but it definately adds a new element to engaging far off targets.
Classes
I'm kinda disappointed in there only being 4 classes. It makes for a limited selection, but I'm hoping the low number of classes will be balanced out with the unlocked weapons. I'm hoping smoke grenades are part of the unlocked weapons because in on the beta maps, it seems that snipers abound.
Maps
The map system is nice. Although the beta only has one map, it plays in Rush mode. This is an attack/defend mode where one side attacks and another defends. There are two tactical computer systems that must be destroyed. If they get destroyed, the defendants must fall back to the next part of the map, which unlocks, to defend two more positions. This continues until the last one is gone. Unlike BF2/BF2142, you can't go behind enemy lines and wait for the first two positions to be destroyed. I am looking forward to the other modes as they are introduced, but with this Rush mode, I may be reluctant to play the old "conquest" classic game mode.
Overall
It's very nice. I am looking forward to the final release. Not much more I can say on that.
