Battlefield 2042 - Beta Impressions

[Jason 1,245]

I spent about 30 mins playing it this morning. Looks and plays pretty well imo. Very bf4 like, and that’s a good thing. Experienced a few glitches. 
 

Screen tearing. Couldn’t jump at one point. Glitched into a rock a bit. 
 

Can’t wait to play a bit more with it later. 
 

TTK feels pretty quick. Gunplay seemed pretty on point for the series. Time will tell how much polishing it needs. 

[phil bottle 9,764]

Only played the PS5 version so far. Liked it. Movement and shooting all good. Killed some cod players and crashed a helicopter 👍 look forward to jumping on with a few ppl on Friday.

 

It's a 2 month old build apparently and a lot of the bugs already fixed, at least that's what they say. 

 

 

[MrBiron 1,453]

Had a few games yesterday. Struggled to kill anybody to start with. It always takes a while to get used to the shooting in BF.

UI is fucking awful. I have no idea where I'm supposed to be going or if I'm actually capturing an objective.

Creating a class is just a mess.

I also have no clue what buttons do what. For some reason they decided that L1 should just be used for modifying your gun in game which means that R1 does about 20 different things.

It should play better when in a squad.

[Dr Diamond 407]

Literally no controller schematics in the menus, so new players just guess at how to do things?

 

Screen tearing has been kinda bad as has the lag.

 

No vehicle control schematic either. Air vehicles feel horrible to control but might so be because I haven't played on a controller for years.

 

They need to rebalance the gadgets and this stupid specialist system. You can play as practically anything with any weapon and it does away with the old "trade off" system they had in BF4.

 

Also, these additional equipment selections are also ridiculous. Vehicles are currently weak AF.

 

Eg. I was capping one spawn point and started to get rockets shot at me from the attack chopper. Pull out my anti aircraft equipment....3 AA missiles....chopper blown up in about 12 seconds, flares can only stop one missile and I could fire the other 2 so quickly that it stood no chance of escape.

 

Same goes for the anti tank launcher you can take. Multiple hits really quickly and the tanks are done.

[J4MES OX4D 10,036]

2 hours ago, MrBiron said:

Had a few games yesterday. Struggled to kill anybody to start with. It always takes a while to get used to the shooting in BF.

UI is fucking awful. I have no idea where I'm supposed to be going or if I'm actually capturing an objective.

Creating a class is just a mess.

I also have no clue what buttons do what. For some reason they decided that L1 should just be used for modifying your gun in game which means that R1 does about 20 different things.

It should play better when in a squad.

It's kinda weird that they have a huge bar appear at the top for some alerts which could easily be communicated via audio or just by looking at the current score/capture points. 

[GazzaGarratt 11,054]

Separated Beta impressions out into a new topic.

[MrBiron 1,453]

30 minutes ago, GazzaGarratt said:

Separated Beta impressions out into a new topic.

 

Cool story, bro.

[J4MES OX4D 10,036]

Had one game just now on PC and it was pretty decent. Mechanics feel familiar and the game looks good. Animations are very poor at times though especially when looking at enemy air vehicles - I saw a couple of jets do instant 360's and infantry movement can appear erratic and wonky. The user interface is far too busy and I hope elements can be disabled, scaled down or minimised until relevant to the player. Maps will take a while to learn but I found it quite difficult at times to spot the objective and when capturing, it needs to be clearer - not as clear as the sector report bars which take up 10% of the bloody screen but something just a little tidier that doesn't blend in to all the other onscreen shite. Games like this you can lose your bearings quite easily especially when trying to manage your squad, the objective, gear and the enemies in an instant. 

 

Got to see the rocket go off

 

Also a five man feed including 4 with one grenade!

[Jason 1,245]

Man the more I play it the less I’m enjoying it. A lot of annoying ass bugs. Weird animations. Screen tearing galore. Try using a tank gunner without wanting to puke. User interface is not good. 
 

Just a lot of annoying issues that they’ll hopefully iron out before launch. 

[Diddums 4,346]

What a fucking mess. I get it's a beta and all that, but the bugs are ridiculous and make the game unplayable, at least for me. I stuck it out for a bit tonight but gave up as the reward for putting up with all the bugs isn't even remotely close to worth it. 

 

Add in the fact that you're up against PC players and it's quite possibly the least enjoyable gaming experience I've had in years. 

 

I'll wait until a month or so after the final release before looking again, but at this point, I don't hold much hope. 

[Plumbers Crack 4,062]

Just played the PC beta and died many, many times (totally expected though)but in beautiful graphics!! It's been a long time since I've played a BF game but it seemed quite smooth

@Diddumsif you don't want to play against the PCMR you can disable crossplay

[J4MES OX4D 10,036]

Tried the PS5 version which seemed very smooth but far less spectacular than on PC in terms of match fluidity. Took me a while to settle back with a controller and there doesn't seem to be significant aim assist although headshots can be pulled off quite regularly. Navigating the UI with a pad is horrible though. 

 

I'm really not holding out much hope with the final release next month especially with DICE's shameful track record.  This may be a beta but it's likely not too different than what we'll get. DICE are pretending it's an older build which is utter horsehit because the files indicate it's from week 3 of September. If this was the case and we did get a stable but outdated version then that would completely negate the point of a beta by its true conceptual definition. Right now, they are protecting their pre-orders and mitigating any concerns by playing it off as an old build but it's just not the case and people need to see through this PR nonsense. 

 

The shoddy animations, the relentless terrain clipping, visual bugs and woeful UI is just too much for them to rectify along with the rest. Even if it was put back until March 2022, it still wouldn't be long enough with their history. 18 months it took them to rectify the BF4 netcode and eradicate the critical invisible barrier issues with explosives. The game will still be in beta on release except with all the content. I have had some fun but for long durations in matches I've been bored and the gameplay lacks logic and flow. I think the maps are just too big and/or the player counts are. 

 

The beta should remain open right through until release if they are serious about fixing issues. This is nothing more than a PR event and all the feedback that could possibly be given has already been taken during the large alpha phases. They'll end the beta and keep the players in the dark until launch. I'm really on the fence but I know this game will launch a right state. 

[MrBiron 1,453]

Safe to say last night was an absolute shit show.

It took nearly an hour to be able to actually team up with people. Then when you finally managed it the game would kick people at random. Teaming up really should be their number one priority at launch as BF is a team game.

I still think the UI is dogshit. Why as the squad leader am I no longer able to highlight which objective to capture? Why when I try and tag an enemy air vehicle does it put a location marker 500 metres in the air like our characters can fly?! 

[J4MES OX4D 10,036]

I cannot believe they've removed the manual defibrillator and instead replaced it with a one-button action - not only that, the button required is the same for picking up weapons so you go to revive someone, don't receive a revive prompt and instead you pick up their gun. Absolutely retarded. 

[phil bottle 9,764]

1 hour ago, J4MES OX4D said:

I cannot believe they've removed the manual defibrillator and instead replaced it with a one-button action - not only that, the button required is the same for picking up weapons so you go to revive someone, don't receive a revive prompt and instead you pick up their gun. Absolutely retarded. 

 

Ridiculous crap like that should never have even made the beta. I don't know why they do this to themselves. So many little annoying issues that need to be sorted before launch. There's a really good game to be had here if they can avoid fucking it up.

 

I much prefer the PC version. I increased the frame limit and turned off Vsync and I was getting a solid 70 fps on high settings (1440p). Ran really well and without the weird flashing glitches on the PS5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[J4MES OX4D 10,036]

Played a couple more matches today and those will probably be my last. If this is an old but stable build then there really is nothing the community can say or do to change anything. I just didn't feel like I was ever having fun even outside of all the bugs and shoddy design. With DICE's miserable release record, I can't see much changing from now until launch in 5 weeks time. The guns are also really bland and lack punch and I'm seeing classic issues with the overall netcode. They haven't even got the elevators working properly plus all the other absent functions.

 

The squad size needs to be upped to 6 with a player count this big and they need to do away with the woeful specialists. The class system was perfectly fine and if they want to add additional gimmicks then they don't need to go the R6 or COD route by adding these characters which all look absolutely dreadful especially with their wonky animations. Just like Vanguard, everyone wears the same clothing too. I do think there could be a good game under the hood especially if the other maps are decent and they iron out the issues but we're weeks from launch for christ sake. 

[J4MES OX4D 10,036]

I tried the PS4 beta before it ended just out of sheer curiosity and it's got its own problems although it isn't as bad as it could've been. Firstly, it actually ran well but this was dependent on the amount of AI bots that were in the lobby - the more real players that joined, the worse performance seemed to get. I'd say it tops out at 60 but with strong dips below 40 and no real stability. There was also only 3 capture sectors as opposed to 6 and it felt incredibly barren with just 64 players. Even 128 on the current gen doesn't feel enough at times. The visuals still looked pretty decent but there was clear instances where buildings and other assets didn't render fully until you were up close. Not Cyberpunk bad but still disappointing to see. Gameplay felt underwhelming and slow overall. 

 

Anyone buying this version will definitely get a significantly inferior experience and for an upgrade-possible copy, it will cost £90/$100. If I didn't have a PS5 and couldn't run it on my PC, I'd struggle to consider playing this personally. 

[GazzaGarratt 11,054]

FG Friday gave many of us our first chances to look at the game (good turnout as well @phil bottle @MrBiron  @Greboth @LordBaguette  @Macca89  @Stretch616  @Diddums @tronic44 @Tadnothad ) and I thought for the most part it actually has a lot of potential. The graphics on the PS5 looked incredible, and I already feel like there is a good game there to be played in November.

 

The glitches which nearly gave us all epileptic fits was the most concerning issue I experienced through it. A few other graphical mishaps but overall my experience wasn't as bad as you guys above had. Its a 2 month old build and they've confirmed they had some server fixes already in that just missed it - I'll still hold reservations on that due to their previous launches, however it won't put me off the game at all.

 

The attachment selection in game is awesome and so good that you can switch out mid running to another capture zone. The tornado came into one game and we all went flying into it. Crazy scenes and the UI glitching out (on purpose) when you're in it adds to the coolness of it.

 

It could get annoying after a while if campers start to spread into the camoflauged trees and dark green surroundings but should be enough people in-game running around like headless chickens to balance the game out.

 

Shame others felt the experience wasn't that great, I just looked through the shitty bits and felt an extremely solid game to be bought there.

[Diddums 4,346]

4 hours ago, GazzaGarratt said:

I just looked through the shitty bits and felt an extremely solid game to be bought there.

 

What, you? You looked through the (very expensive) shitty bits? 

 

I don't believe you. 

[Jason 1,245]

5 hours ago, GazzaGarratt said:

 

 

Shame others felt the experience wasn't that great, I just looked through the shitty bits and felt an extremely solid game to be bought there.

Your perpetual optimism is as unwavering as ever. 😆 

 

I do however think the game will end up being good. I don’t think it will out the gate though. BF 4 went through a rough bit before it became the game we loved. So I imagine this will follow suit. 
 

This is the first game that made me come close to hurling from using the tank gunner. So that’s a only in Battlefield moment. 

[GazzaGarratt 11,054]

1 hour ago, Diddums said:

 

What, you? You looked through the (very expensive) shitty bits? 

 

I don't believe you. 

 

Well the friends party up UI was shitty but not expected to be very expensive and i'm sure that'll work for Day 1 😄 Tbh, you fell through the map at one stage whereas I was just mainly getting the flashy rubbish.

 

2 hours ago, Jason said:

Your perpetual optimism is as unwavering as ever. 😆 

 

I do however think the game will end up being good. I don’t think it will out the gate though. BF 4 went through a rough bit before it became the game we loved. So I imagine this will follow suit. 
 

This is the first game that made me come close to hurling from using the tank gunner. So that’s a only in Battlefield moment. 

 

Well of course! 😁 I just think its good to try and pull out positives and negatives, because they were both - it wasn't just one sided. Granted though, I could understand if they do delay the game. Just hope that they pull their finger out instead so we can have a good play up until Xmas rather than waiting until 2022. Thinking about it now, they won't want to miss out on the Christmas Cash Cow so it'll be out on time, even with bugs.

[Diddums 4,346]

Skill Up covers a lot of the points really well. 

 

 

 

What's put me off even more was realising that a lot of features aren't in the game because they're not in the game, and not because it's a beta.

 

No scoreboard? No squad organising? Yeah... no. 

 

It'll take a miracle for me to purchase this. 

 

[techno 3,511]

No scoreboard? 

 

I didn't get to play it and I was so looking forward to this game but that's been shot down with what I've heard and seen.

 

How is it that franchises that used to be great and fun could end up so bad. CoD and battlefield were great in the past, they are a template the Devs just had to build on but they try to reinvent the wheel and fail year after year yet people make excuses and continue to buy sub standard products. 🤦

[Diddums 4,346]

11 minutes ago, techno said:

No scoreboard? 

 

I didn't get to play it and I was so looking forward to this game but that's been shot down with what I've heard and seen.

 

How is it that franchises that used to be great and fun could end up so bad. CoD and battlefield were great in the past, they are a template the Devs just had to build on but they try to reinvent the wheel and fail year after year yet people make excuses and continue to buy sub standard products. 🤦

 

Watch the vid I posted to see what a dumpster fire it is. I get it's a beta but this shouldn't even be considered an alpha at this point, it's not just bad, it's Cyberpunk bad.

[J4MES OX4D 10,036]

3 minutes ago, Diddums said:

 

Watch the vid I posted to see what a dumpster fire it is. I get it's a beta but this shouldn't even be considered an alpha at this point, it's not just bad, it's Cyberpunk bad.

This game less than a month ago was due to be released in 12 days time too. I don't even see the point of us playing a beta seeing that it was an older build and the state it was in wont do them any favours no matter how much they play it down. Based on DICE's consistent track record for broken betas that lead into even more broken and shitty releases, this game wont be in a fit state until March 2022. It beggars belief we couldn't even view the map so either basic features are broken or they are being implemented at the 11th hour. Biggest worry is that no more footage will be provided before release and then everyone gets lumbered with a catastrophic mess at launch yet again!