EA reloads, aims at Activision, goes for headshot

Publishing giant EA has continued its battle with Activision over who makes the best 'real world' first-person shooter game by releasing its next title at the same time as its arch nemesis' next offering is out. They were already in the ring together, now the gloves are off. Retailers claim the games will arrive within days …

[Pascal Monett]

I've seen the trailer for BF3

It is mightily impressive, I must admit. It seems to incorporate some things about destructible environments that I have been waiting for, and the quality is simply gorgeous.

That said, BF2 had one major issue - it was very difficult to get a ranked private server. Possible, but difficult. Me and my pals spent three years running around dozens and dozens of user-made maps, upping our ranks on my personal ranked server, and it worked rather well.

With Battlefield 2142, that became impossible. I do not think that there is any way to get a private ranked server for BF2142, and that is really a shame because there are way too many idiots in the world to have a public 64-slot server work well, and I dont have 63 friends with the same gaming interests as I.

So it seems to me that, given that the publisher is EA, which has a proven history of being positively anal about DRM and user restrictions, I fear that BF3, though promising from a technical standpoint, will suffer from the same lame, useless restrictions that will make basic, user-supportive things impossible.

And that, for me, means that I most probably will not be playing it, because I find no fun to be had in playing with the general public that is full of idiots, losers and griefers. I prefer playing with my friends against bots - stupid as the bots are, they're still more fun to play than regular Internet dweebs.

So, if BF3 is going to refuse private ranked servers (and I see no reason to believe it won't) and, even worse, restrict private servers to piddling 16-player-size maps, then I'm not even buying the game.

Not until someone brings out a mod to blast those restrictions away.

Then we will see the usual treadmill of EA patch that changes something that breaks the mod, mod community gets together to find the flaw and patch it or find a workaround, and start over again.

Because EA can simply not accept that anyone else actually add welcome functionality to one of its products. They're not selling games so people can have fun, no. They're selling games because that is what sells.

[DPWDC]

COD3?

Surelly it'll be modern warfare 3 not COD3?

[Goat Jam]

Huh?

"The best selling current gen game of all time"

What the hell does that even mean?

The best selling current game since the last game was released? Of all time?

Regarding the CoD games. Call of Duty sucks major balls. That series is nothing more than making the player shotgun charge their way through to the next-spawn-point-cancelling spot to stop the infinite spawning enemies. There can be no tactics in this game. Hold back and snipe them off one by one? Nope, they just keep on respawning FOREVER (unlike your ammo) . The ONLY tactic available is to charge forward full frontal assault style to stop them spawning. Oh, except for the other parts where you hole up somewhere and try to stay alive until the last of the "enemy waves" is gone.

You can play through the entire $100 game in a couple of hours because there is no point hanging back and savouring the atmosphere. There is none. Just an endless amount of respawning enemies that can only be stopped by moving forward.

What a boring load of old tosh.

It's a true credit to the idiocy of the console playing generation that they lapped it up with relish.

Biggest selling current gen game of all time, pah!

[Anonymous Coward]

Battlefield FTW

I think COD games are a bit lacking now, the multiplayer is very linear and doesn't offer the same level of depth as the Battlefield series, which have a much more sandbox like feel to them.

[Anomalous Cowturd]

Cue the queues...

Of sad basement dwellers outside Blockbuster Video on the night of release, eager to hand over wads of drinking vouchers for another fix of adrenaline and sore thumbs.

I'll stick to the real world thanks.

And beer. Cheers.

[mraak]

Three words

And a comma.

ArmA, Operation Flashpoint

All other FPS are laughable. Especially Battlefield, I had to return the game the same day. Just jumping around the same 10 meter area, dodging and spraying bullets. No tactics, no strategy, no nothing.

[Heff]

Activision hasnt been lazy

They've been very very active in bringing litigation against their own developers and closing teams which made games with revenues inferior to MW and Warcraft.

hey, Bobby Kotick might be the devil, but he works all the hours god sends to be such a blight on the creative process.

[Trokair 1]

Can't Wait

I played BF2 into the ground and was very dissapointed by what came after (BF2142, BC,BC2). It sounds like EA took a good hard look at BF2 and brought back some of the best things about that series.

Get out of the way, that is my jet :D

[Anonymous Coward]

well...

It's officially a cold day in hell... I want EA to do well.

[Captain Scarlet]

Woohoo

But I would probably still play BF1942

[DrunkJunkie]

Hope it works

CoD very good as it is could do with a bit of competition to kick it up the arse.

[Tom 260]

Gazump

I suspect that one or the other will decide to go along with this date matching, but secretly get the game ready for shelves one week earlier, and only change the release date as stock is being distributed to stores. Regardless of the relative quality (what with all big games reviews now being embargoed until release date or later, the impatient only find out when they buy it whether its any good), first on shelves will steal a march in sales.

[tickedon]

Bad idea

Really can't see this ending well... for EA

I think MW3 sales will easily surpass BF3. Sad but despite each annual COD release getting worse with obviously less effort going into each, I think there's too much momentum behind it with too much of the public willing to buy and pre-order no questions asked.

[Elsie]

MW3 more sales then BF3?

This might be true for Konsole Kiddies but for real gamers, i.e. those on a PC playing online with a keyboard, mouse and a better field-of-view, BF3 is going win hands down.

[DPWDC]

Better field-of-view..?

My 50" TV (Xbox) gives me the same field of view (with less eye strain) than using my 13" laptop... Nothing stopping an XBox user using a PC monitor or vice versa!

[DrunkJunkie]

Oh behave

As title.

"Konsole Kiddies" (myself included however at 30 years of age probably dont fall into the "kiddies" category) ARE proper gamers and I would challenge you for reasons counter to that.

Yes the controls on a PC are immensely more responsive than on a game pad, however all other users on your chosen game console are using the same method so this brings a level playing field. Yes, graphics are superior for most games on PC but look at the cost of this. Would your PC from 5 years ago still be able to play CoD/BF at a decent res/speed?

Knowing that my console at purchase was going to be able to play every game released for it over the next 5-10 years with no upgrades required means I can just buy the damn thing without looking through a list of tech specs.

Also there are the platform excllusive titles which sometimes force your choice.

Different stokes for different folks eh?

Go and find another bridge to hide under.

[Anonymous Coward]

YOMANK

You owe me a new keyboard!

LOL

[Thomas 4]

Who cares?

Bring on The Witcher 2.