Beta went live this morning!

Did anyone else happen to get a code?

No, and I'm more than a little peeved about that.

I did downloading it now but I'm sure I won't get to play it tonight. I hate my shitty ISP.

Nope, no such thing for me either...but I guess you have to pre-order through Origin to get the early access. =(

I think it's open beta and officially releases on the 29th.

OK so I played a few hours last night on 360 then went to see it on PC.

It appears to be a modified version for multiplayer testing.

It will only have limited graphics, probably to keep bandwidth down, and it is evident as I clipped through the ground to my death several times. Foliage will also prove to be the biggest issue when running around the map. It appears to be too easy to just hide in the bushes and not be seen. Other graphic issues exist like knifing through a concrete wall but should be fixed. DICE even has a pop up when you sign in saying it does not represent the final graphics.

Back to the beta.

One game mode, Rush, and one map, Operation Metro will be available unless you are PC. PC will have a second invite only map called Caspian Border. It is a huge map with vehicles and the passwords are revealed on the official forums. Warning though, it is laggy as all hell.

The beta is limited to 32 players on PC, 24 on console.

The beta also does not allow cooking nades or countering a knife attack.

But the beta will give you a good idea of the gameplay differences between BF3 and BC2. Squad play is a must. Suppression fire is a god send and a great addition to the game. You will also see how the unlocks work which is interesting.

Unlocks are not class specific anymore, they are weapon specific. So you get the ACOG on the M4 it only works on the M4. You cannot use it on the M16 or AK.

This might cause players to constantly play 1 class and 1 side. I watched a lvl 18 only play as US and his M4 was decked out. When he did play as Opfor his AK had nothing.

Some balancing issues exist. LMG's are amazingly powerful and combined with ammo packs it is like a Stallone movie. Sniper rifles obviously haven't been finished yet as I watched my buddy strafe back and forth from the back of the map rapid firing the SVD.

Only other issues I ran into was matchmaking. I couldn't get a squad to launch into a map on 360 or Origin. Hopefully this will be fixed since squads worked well on the Alpha.

When it worked the squad system is definitely awesome in Origin. You just drag your squad to the server you want and it will make sure your whole squad gets into the match otherwise it won't launch into that server. Can't comment on the console since it was broke.

Wish they allowed coop in the beta since I am curious how they deployed this feature.

Overall the BF3 beta shows the game has evolved back to its squad play past where lone wolves won't last. A good team can clear a rush map in no time.

awesome feedback jar! Can't wait

Thanks for the updates Jar. Can't wait to play it. One more day...=)

D/L now. We'll see how hard my 'puter chokes on it, lol

K well now that I've tried it here's what I think:

Visuals: Looks great, even in this unpolished state. Maybe it's just my computer showing it's age but somehow the gameplay doesn't feel fluid to me. Also I noticed it will only play in windowed mode....WTF!?

Sound: Weapons have suitable punch, explosions are crisp and clear. Sounds like a battlefield to me.

Origin: This Steam rip-off is the worst piece of shit I've ever had the displeasure of interfacing with. Total crap from start to finish, I hate it and it stinks!

Gameplay: I hope the full game is a lot more polished than this. There are balance issues, for example: Going prone in the bushes as a sniper=WINNING!

There are some neat visual cues that reveal their positions but in the heat of battle you don't really have a lot of time to stand around gawking at shit. Also, I've fallen into some sort of invisible hole in the ground several times until I naded myself to re-deploy. Clipping issues galore! Like I said earlier, it just doesn't seem fluid for some reason. Hard to describe and it could be that it's just beta release or maybe my puter is getting over the hill but things seem kinda jerky and shit....???

Overall: Mucho promise if they tune up all the gameplay glitches and give Origin the heave-ho. They should have just released this on steam instead of rushing out an obviously unfinished matchmaking service. I'll reserve final judgement when the full game is released.

Played it some last night, looks like it will be awesome in its final state. Don't know how good my 8800 GT will be able to handle it tho might have to do an upgrade soon.

Love the windowed mode, it allows me to play and veiw porn all at the same time. Wish the steam games worked worth a shit in it.

I haven't really played many FPS games lately so I don't know if its the standard now but I love the way you can see snipers by the suns reflection on the scope.

The best part of the games I played last night was the knife fight that ensued when everyone fell through the ground. I should have gotten a screenshot.

I look forward to playing with some of you guys soon. Maybe I can get knifed by RMP again like the old CS days.

Also, I'm with MNR, Origin is a big steaming pile.

Gotta get my pc running! Hopefully this weekend.

You know, the server browser implementation has always been a running joke for the Battlefiled series, but seriously?!? Can no one make a server browser that actually works??? I just have to say again what a steaming turd Origin is. I have to open up Origin, then open a web page, then open the game screen after endless searching for a server that isn't full or fuckied in some way. Most of the servers show as being available but click on it and it says server full! So you go down the list clicking on each server until you find one isn't actually full and lets you in. But then it has to join the server, and that's broken half the time. Sometimes nothing happens, sometimes it says disconnected and once in a while it actually joins!

There's some serious irony when you have a system that's supposed to hook you up with a game and instead does just about everything it can to keep you from playing said games.

Origin seemed to work much better in the Alpha compared to the Beta. Since the Beta went public apparently EA is doing a shit job keeping servers up and constantly screwing with Origin.

I saw Origin working on the 27th and very little issues were present yet the 360 servers were fucked. Now I hear it is the opposite. Matchmaking on the consoles is fine and PC is shit.

I will agree with MNR that the multiple windows to get BF3 to launch is shit and Origin/Battlelog thing should be built into the game.

Hopefully DICE stops tweaking Origin and just fixes it and the servers prior to release.

As for playing in a window, I believe there is a setting for full screen.

This is really fun so far. Today was rough, every time I deployed I got sniped

=HPSF=AgentK12 wrote:

This is really fun so far. Today was rough, every time I deployed I got sniped

Sounds like campfest where you played Agent...lol

I agree with everyone. The server browser and Battlelog is absolute crap. Gameplay is still a bit glitchy and not as fluid as I would have liked, but I guess it's still just beta. The deploy screen looks like they just slapped it together last minute and not very user friendly. I've only played for a couple of minutes last night, but will probably put some more hours over the weekend.

MNR, not sure if you saw yet, but you can take the game out of windowed mode. It's 2 keys, but don't remember what they were. =)