So with End Game having been released yesterday that officially brings Battlefield 3 to a close. I have yet to take the final DLC for a spin but I hope to do so tonight. I’ve logged over a 100 hours in BF3 and with Battlefield 4’s announcement rumored to be later this month I’ve been thinking about the series and where it is headed. I’ve enjoyed BF3, but there are plenty of things that need to be improved/removed in the sequel.
Speaking with a buddy on the weekend we were both in agreement that we wouldn’t even consider purchasing BF4 unless the game undergoes some serious design changes. If DICE gives us Battlefield 3.5 that just isn’t going to cut it. They’ve decided to stay in the modern setting so they need to produce a sequel that is a significant improvement. Without turning this into a CoD bashing post, I honestly feel that BF3 was catered to a totally different crowd than BF2 fans. When I originally pictured the third installment of the series I imagined Battlefield 2 with Bad Company 2 scale destruction. What we were given however, was something far less satisfying.
BF3 maps are smaller in most cases and a large number of them are functionally garbage as Battlefield maps. To me, this is where BF4 has a chance to wow me. They need to make fun maps that aren’t Call of Duty style maps. I am talking no Operation Metro, Grand Bazaar, Seine Crossing or any of the Close Quarters DLC maps. You can have fun infantry only maps but they should be done similar to ones found in BC2. Fighting was intense and there were far less bottlenecks that you’d be forced into. There are so many stalemate areas in the aforementioned BF3 maps that winning almost becomes an impossibility. In the CQ maps you just end up running in circles like any of the CoD maps.
I want to see destruction play an important role in combat again and not in the cosmetic or superficial way it is employed in BF3. Bad Company 2 set the bar high in terms of destruction. For me, the highlight of BC2 was trying to fight your way out of building that was in the process of collapsing. That mad scramble as you rushed to jump out of the second or third story before it all came tumbling down on you was heart pounding. I want to see maps like Cold War, where you could not only destroy buildings, but you could level the entire village. Give us destruction that allows the player to open up new avenues of attack or to neutralize defensive/offensive positions.
I’d like to see the 6 man squads return from BF2. They also need to put VOIP into BF4. Considering the game is so team oriented how they decided to leave out a built in voice chat boggles the mind. Get rid of the support’s mortar and give the recon his binoculars with mortar strike back.
I had intended this to be more of final review of Battlefield 3 and its Premium DLC service and got way off topic. Overall, I think the level and quality of post release content DICE provided for BF3 was really good. Premium was a bargain if you had intended to buy all of the DLC. The only one I could have done without would have been CQ (but it was also the only DLC that came with additional weapons). I still feel a little miffed about having to pay the full price for premium when I got the first DLC as a pre-order bonus. I’d definitely consider getting premium again although I’d probably hold off for a bit and grab it when it’s on sale. With that said, I’d be interested to hear what others think about the upcoming BF4. Especially those who stopped playing 3 long ago.
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