It is time for Monday Screenshots but with a Blaugust slant! As we are in the "Introduce Yourself" week what better screenshots to feature than the many faces of the characters I've played recently across games.
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| New World |
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| Throne and Liberty Global Beta |
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| Once Human |
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| Pax Dei Alpha Test |
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| Enshrouded |
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| Battlefield 2042 playing as Irish with my favorite skin |
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| Call of the Wild: the Angler |
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| New World open beta |
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| Oldie but goodie - my Guild Wars 2 launch character... ummm yeah |
June 2024 has come and gone. Here is a look back (late delivery due to being in the middle of Nowhere, Minnesota for the last couple of weeks).
Blogger provided number (last 30 days graph so a bit off)
In other metrics:
New World continues as my main game and I spent a lot of time in 3v3 arenas and the trading post. The game has lost steam without much to do so we'll see how it ranks in July.
I fished a bit in Russian Fishing 4 which was a change of pace but not sure it's a game I'll stick with.
The surprise game of June though was the Once Human demo which ran for a week. I was hooked on the game and looking forward to it's launch today (7/9) at 5 PM EDT! Check out my Once Human posts. I suspect this may break me from New World for a bit!
In June 2023 I was hard at work grinding out my major combat trophies in pursuit of the ultimate combat trophies. I finished my 3x major corrupted in the 28th.
Oh and our vacation last year started with our rental bike getting stolen.
June 2019 saw no blog posts on the blog and I cannot recollect what I was up to.
In June of 2014 is when my blog drought occurred. Crazy looking back that it lasted so long and amazing how life just gets in the way sometimes.
June of 2009 was the month of Battlefield Heroes (which I still maintain as one of my all time favorite Battlefield experiences). It was basically Fortnite-ish before Fortnite was a fart of an idea.
This month also saw the merge of Bioware and Mythic after they were consumed by EA.
Probably the most important update though was the fact I finally gave in and purchased my first microtransaction in a game. Looking back it was a dumb purchase for a dumb game. Now a days I don't really sweat buying something in a game if I am enjoying it, but back then it felt like I was breaking an unwritten rule.
Technically I have 20 named years on my sidebar, but mathematically 2005 is only 19 years ago.
In June of 2005 I got screwed out of some loot in World of Warcraft and created a classic forum fire to go with it. Ironically looking back I see that the guild the player was part of was Angels of Death which at the time I said "I will probably not group with any Angels of Death members anytime soon." which if memory serves me I never did until..... many years later in 2024 when I joined up with Angels of Death to play Battlefield 2042. Small world out there.
We also got the Battlefield 2 demo in June 2005 and I was enamored with it and have been a diehard Battlefield fan ever since. 2 is still my favorite of the series.
And Dark Ages of Camelot was playing around with what we'd call a "classic server".
Oh and we got battlegrounds in World of Warcraft.
What a month!
Jack Frags published a recent video going over the Battlefield Reddit communities vote for "Best Battlefield game ever". Surprisingly the winner was Battlefield 1 which happened to also be available on Steam for the low sales price of $5.99. Having not played BF1 and being apparently the "best one" I had to give it a go.
Before I jump into my initial impressions let's review my last personal "favorite Battlefield" list (at least as far as I can find in my 20 years of blog content): https://www.heartlessgamer.com/2011/11/battlefield-3-is-step-back.html
My list at the time in 2011:
1. Battlefield 2
2. Battlefield 1942
3. Battlefield: Bad Company 2
4. Battlefield Heroes
5. Battlefield 3
Since that is 13 years (yikes) old let me update it:
1. Battlefield 2
2. Battlefield 1942
3. Battlefield: Bad Company 2
4. Battlefield 2042
5. Battlefield Heroes
There. All is right with the world. The community has a different opinion with Battlefield 1, Battlefield 3, and Battlefield 4 being the top three. Personally, I didn't jive with Battlefield 3. I played a good bit of it but it didn't supplant the others. I never played Battlefield 4 (because of my feelings about 3) and originally the theme of Battlefield 1 was not attractive so I skipped it.
More recently I've had a side addiction to Battlefield 2042. I didn't get it at launch so missed all the launch drama and came in well after the game had significant changes to make it more Battlefield-like. I am in the minority listing this as one of my favorite Battlefield games. 2042 has a bad reputation from that launch drama. For me though it hits a sweet spot in theme (near future) and a good balance between infantry and vehicle. I really enjoy it and haven't enjoyed a Battlefield game this much since BFBC2.
On to Battlefield 1 then. I've put about 3 hours in so far and it is definitely a different experience than other Battlefields. Part of it is the setting being World War 1 but also that the game seems stuck between the old days of server browsers and the new days of "quick match" push button experiences.
Personally I couldn't get quick match to work as there was never enough players to start the matches. The campaign mode also didn't seem to work. This pushed me into the server browser and there were only a few servers to pick from with reasonable ping.
Once in a match the visuals are top notch. I grabbed some screenshots riding around on a horse as cavalry and for a game that is seven years old it looks pretty good. The maps are also visually stunning and some feature a grand scope. I stopped a few times to look at something.
With those surprises it made me realize there is a lot I don't understand about this Battlefield. Sure there are points on the map to conquer and the classic Battlefield classes to pick from, but as far as how stuff like the train works I don't know. The maps are also proving difficult for me to grok and some rounds are really rough learning where you can and can't stick your head out.
I think I'll put a few more hours into the game but it's not grabbing me like 2042 did. Its a good break from the faster pace and more technically capable vehicles of 2042 though so has a slot currently with New World being on the slow down.
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| The zerg approaches! |
Before we get into the larger match sizes of Battlefield games let's look at some common team sizes across games. The most common team size I can think of is 3. New World's arenas are 3v3. Apex Legends and The Finals are both 3-person squads. After 3 is 5 (and 6). Many games feature grouping sizes of 5 or 6, but not always in competitive modes (for example; New World groups are a size of 5 but there is no 5v5 mode). I think 3 hits a sweet spot where each player's contributions are maximized.
While 3 may be the sweet spot it doesn't evoke any sort of feeling of being in a battle and many games are targeting giving players that sense of battle. As the player count increases per team/side the player's ability to impact goes down.
Think about a Battlefield match with 128 players. It is chaotic and tons of fun, but of those 100+ players how many are actually having a meaningful impact to the outcome? Not many outside of maybe the elite helicopter pilot farming kills. Even with multiple points of conflict to fight over there is still likely a large number of players in any one area.
Now look at a Battlefield match of 32 players with multiple points to defend/attack. Spread out evenly that may be 4-8 players fighting over each point. Losing one or two players is going to have an impact and it's more realistic to think that a single player could go Rambo and wipe out an entire team. It also means the "elite helicopter pilot" is going to be that much more of a factor.
In a game I am much more familiar with (3,000+ hours played and climbing) is New World. There are a few modes we can zero in on: 3v3 arena, 20v20 outpost rush, and 50v50 war.
I've spoke about team sizes of 3 earlier, but a common request I see in New World is for a 5v5 mode since the group size in New World is 5. Personally 3v3 is the sweet spot. While 3v3 can get bogged down due to healing/heavy tank builds that is not that common. It is also possible for groups of 3 without a healer to compete. If the arena was 5v5 there would be no way to go other than healer + clump strategies and the matches would boil down to which healer dies first.
Jumping to the top end is war at 50v50. Having played a fair number of wars and seen a fair number more via streamers I would argue there is a limited few individual players that have a major impact and almost always the "elite helicopter pilot" is the healer. So I'd agree individual healers can have a massive impact on wars and thus anyone landing a kill shot on a healer has an impact, but otherwise war doesn't offer a lot for individuals to sway.
This takes us back to 20v20 outpost rush (OPR) and where I feel the ceiling is for individual contribution. In OPR there are multiple objectives which change over the course of a match. There are also activities that individual players can partake in that, when done well, can contribute to a team winning.
As a quick aside here, as I am noting with OPR, a lot of what a player's contribution comes down to is the design of the game mode. As we'll see breaking players up into various objectives decreases the population in any specific spot. However, this has an eventual breaking point where if player numbers are higher it doesn't matter how many objectives there is because humans tend to always favor wanting unbalanced conflict and so you end up with "zergs" of players rolling over each objective.
In OPR the 20 players per team + three main outposts to fight over with side events such as the baron fight results in a good mix of players across the match. No part of the match is really 20 v 20; it is a of 3-5 player fights. Within those smaller fights individual players can sway the match. A single player can hold off a team trying to sneak behind and take a backline outpost. A single player can gather supplies and show up in time to build doors on an outpost.
In summary: too many players is too many players no matter the design. Limiting player and providing divided objectives breaks up the action into a size where individuals have impact and when combined those impacts have an effect on the over all game mode. It feels like the 16-20 player-per-side range is where that sweet spot is hit in my experience.
Changes to the specialist Irish are coming to Battlefield 2042. EA DICE announced the changes on their latest Inside Battlefield podcast. The big change is a significant NERF to Irish's APS-36 Shootdown Sentry.
Irish's sentry, as it stands currently, takes effect immediately once deployed (i.e. it starts shooting down explosives) and intercepts all explosives until such time that the sentry is destroyed. Basically it is an infinite explosive defense if it is not destroyed.
The upcoming changes are:
Oh boy!
These are significant nerfs to Irish's sentry and I have some reservations. One of the long standing problems with Battlefield games is "explosive spam". Trying to defend a point? Trying to defend the little bit of ground you took over on attack? Prepare for a never ending flood of explosives being lobbed into your general area; especially in game modes like breakthrough.
Irish's sentry is critical in the current state of the game to combat explosive spam. Without the sentry confined spaces or bottlenecks would be unplayable. Anyone that has played a round of breakthrough without anyone playing Irish know how miserable the experience can be.
Pushing players into open areas exposes them to other Battlefield detractors such as vehicle campers and snipers. In modes like breakthrough it may become impossible to either defend or attack some points (attackers rely heavily on Irish's sentry to push forward and hold areas; resetting the sentry position a few feet forward as the push makes progress).
While the sentry is great for combating explosive spam it also has some areas where it can be abused. The most egregious abuse is vehicles camping just off the main battlefield protected from any long range anti-vehicle attacks since the rockets are considered explosives. In modes with out of bounds areas for defenders; attacking vehicles could park, drop a couple sentries, and be impervious to attack.
What confuses me most about the changes is that it hurts defending against explosive spam in close quarters but is not much of a deterrent against the abuse by camping vehicles. Vehicles are often far enough away that even with a cool down period the sentry is still a near-impervious defense. Outside of multiple players coordinating attacks there isn't much risk to vehicle campers still.
The developers also stated they wanted to improve the pick rate of Irish (and Dozer who they also covered in the podcast). As I see it there is even less of a reason to select Irish now than there was before. As an Irish fanboy; I can't see myself picking him if his sentry is gutted.
So in conclusion: what'd they do to my boy!? The only change needed was to make it so the sentry didn't stop rockets so vehicle campers couldn't sit untouched, but instead we are getting changes that will actively encourage more explosives spam...
Battlefield 2042 has a new special event, Leviathan Rising, and includes a game mode called Shutdown.
Attack, Plant & Protect - Infiltrate enemy objectives & plant the Lances; a new mode objective in Shutdown, protect them, and score as many points as possible.
Defend, Locate & Disable - Locate and eliminate Lance Carriers, prevent their dropped Lances from being picked up, and defuse any that do get planted, with prejudice.
Basically it is conquest but players get to plant the flag (the Lance). It is also infantry-only so no vehicles. Combat is all close quarter as the maps are small. This is an entirely different experience than normal Battlefield.
This mode may be fun in a coordinated group, but as a solo player with unorganized teams this is a mess. I will play enough to get the rewards but then I'm done and back to breakthrough.
I've been enjoying Season 4 of Battlefield 2042. The game is in a really good spot. I wanted to take a break from my normal "support" role and play the more aggressive play style with the Assault class and specialists. I've become a big fan of Zain and landed some great matches; either topping the scoreboard or landing in the top squads.
While I am more "aggressive" playing assault I am still "support" in my non-existent heart so I spend a lot of time watching flanks for the team. It is surprising how many kills you can get when you learn the spots where better players flank and just wait for them. They never expect someone to be waiting for them and I have been able to wipe entire squads.
Oh and the new sticky grenade is mucho fun.
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| Look Mom! First place again! |
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| Look Mom! The team carried me! |
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| 2nd place is the first loser... err wait! |
Patch 4.0 is out and Season 4 is here. A couple screenshots from last night's session.
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| LOOK MOM!!!! I'm in first place! |
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| I'll pick you up when you are down (seriously it's what I love to do!) |
Battlefield 2042 Season 4 is here and the community is excited about the little things. Mainly some improvements to minimap scaling.
I don't really care but the community is excited: It's finally here!
When you just need to get that weekly challenge done in Battlefield 2042!
Flying the OV-P Recon Drone around is so much fun sometimes. I can't do it every match but when the weekly challenge encourages me I love breaking it out; especially on maps like Discarcded.
And took home an outstanding performance for most assists!
Prior to this latest update players could select any combination of specialist, gadget, weapon, and throwable (grenades). This meant I could play as Irish (a support specialist), carrying anti-vehicle rockets, and at the same time carry the proximity sensor (grenade). On top of that I could use any gun (assault, SMG, LMG, or sniper).
To be honest it was pretty sweet as I noted in my post here and here. I was a mega super team support player with my Irish setup. I could do everything except shocking non-squad members back to life. But that is where the problem lied. Everyone could do everything and thus the Battlefield developers had to make many things "balanced"; for example since everyone could carry anti-vehicle it was weaker than it would be if it was less limited. It was fun but then also not fun.
With the class system back in place the developers have been able to make things like anti-vehicle stronger per shot (since there is less of them now). Vehicles should in theory feel less threat over all because not everyone is rocking anti-vehicle tech. There is far less proximity sensor spam as it is restricted by class (even if that does break my nonexistent heart).
The development team also figured out an approach to continue to allow all classes to use any of the main guns. If I want to use an SMG as an assault class I can continue to do so (in prior Battlefields the SMG was limited to Support). There were proficiency added (as covered in this post) to certain classes to favor certain weapons, but they are not so dramatic as to penalize someone for opting out to another class of gun.
After having played several rounds under the new system the game does feel better over all. I actually got in a vehicle without immediately getting blown up! There seems to be more medics and thus more revives. I have a much better understanding of what my teammates are capable of because I can see what class they are. The only thing I really miss is my proximity sensor as I am not a fan of the other grenades, but I understand sometimes less is more.
Have you given the update a try? If so, what are your thoughts?
Maybe not an achievement for the chad gamers of the world but for us old fart gamers getting to a 1:1 K:D in games like Battlefield 2042 is an achievement. I was at 1:1 for a period but I've had some terrible rounds after coming back from a hiatus.
Also I am finding myself pretty terrible at some of the original maps (they suck compared to Spearhead IMHO) and feel like I am either getting spawn killed or getting shot in the back because I don't know where to expect enemies from.
Anyways here is my progress:
In Pocket Casts go to the Discover tab.
Searching by Inside Battlefield or EA or any search term will not work. Instead enter the URL for the Apple iTunes page:
https://podcasts.apple.com/se/podcast/inside-battlefield/id1589510289?l=en
Searching by that URL in Discover should bring up the podcast and allow you to subscribe. Note: this does not work for all iTunes podcasts so I am sure there is more to why it works for this one and not others.
Hope this finds someone in need and solves the same problem I had. Enjoy!
I've been AFK for a bit but got a chance to jump into the most recent Battlefield 2042 update and I was having the best of games (like seriously; it is rare that I hit the top of the board) and all I'll have to show for it is these two screenshots as the round ended suddenly with "all players disconnected". Oh well!
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| Five minutes in and crushing the revives and getting a few kills. |
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| More kills and revives; still the top! |
In Battlefield games classes normally restrict what weapons and gadgets players can use. In 2042 classes will not restrict weapon use but will limit gadgets. Instead of limiting weapons classes will gain a proficiency in a weapon. For example; Medics will be more proficient with SMGs (exact details below)
Assault + Assault Rifles: 3 Extra Magazines
Engineer + LMG: Improved Dispersion while Crouched or Prone
Support + SMG: Faster Draw Time
Recon + Sniper Rifles: Immediate, constant and steady scope
At face value these are hard to evaluate. When I had first heard they were thinking of proficiency I thought it would mean a more dramatic impact; such as an assault player being unable to aim an LMG. But stuff like assault getting stuff like three extra magazines on an assault weapon? When is the last time you've run out of ammo or lived long enough to go through stock magazines?
I don't think players desire for classes to return was just to have a limited set of gadgets to worry about when facing an opponent. The guns classes were limited to was a huge part of the system. Without I am not sure what the point of having the classes is. This could have just been a simple pass through gadgets to limit them to specific specialists.
On the other hand these changes do at least bring classes back to the game in an official capacity without taking away combinations many players enjoy as far as their main pea shooter. Gadgets getting restricted will certainly freshen up some things (no more Mackey zip-lining in with C5). I hope this means vehicles have a little bit of a return knowing that not everyone can pop out with a rocket launcher.
The changes will hit in the next month or so and shake the game up. I've been playing a lot less 2042 lately so we'll see if I am around for the changes. If so I'll probably have some more thoughts.
Saw this and figured I'd share and maybe someone can explain to me the context for the penguin?
With the most recent Battlefield 2042 update players have been getting a Matchmaking Failed error. I started getting it myself and figured out a workaround (which was also confirmed by others using similar methods).
Matchmaking Failed
Error Code: 3:2907J:2903J P:84955732
The fix:
Queue up for co-op solo, cancel, and then rejoin the mode you were trying to join and you will not get the error.
Quote from the Reddit post with their steps "If you get the matchmaking error, search for a game of coop/solo and wait for the countdown to start. Cancel the lobby and then try online again."
Hope this helps! It has worked for me every time.
I had a great match this morning in Battlefield 2042 playing Irish stopping explosives and getting assists. I may average just below 1:1 kill vs death, but I can support the team like a champ. It is awesome that 2042 rewards support and reserves a billboard spot at the end of the match for the top assists.
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| My first "Most Assists" award! |
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| Look at all those explosives destroyed.. 83! |
Game mode was Breakthrough on the Spearhead map.
The next big item was the confirmation the class reintroduction will occur in update 3.2.
Update 3.2 will be a big one for us with the reintroduction of Classes to Battlefield 2042. All our existing Specialists will be placed within defined roles with a set of gadgets and equipment that best suit their purpose on the battlefield.
This is a massive change for the game and will bring it back to the model of all Battlefield games of the past. While I wasn't playing prior to Season 3 my understanding is the original Specialist system was too far removed from what is expected of a Battlefield game and contributed to a lot of the "WTF" reviews of the original version. Since launch its been a steady crawl back to the tried and true concept of Assault > Medic > Engineer > Recon. I look forward to see what this shapes into.
Also mentioned are new maps and map reworks. I have mostly played Spearhead in my short stint so can't comment on the reworks. Community sentiment seems to be that the team is focused on the right maps to rework and there is excitement around possible new maps.
One area that was not mentioned was Battlefield Portal. I would have thought there would be a call out for whats next with Portal. It seems like a cool concept and my few forays into I've found fun little game modes to give a try. I wonder if its not a key feature at this point? Not sure.
If you are interested in giving Battlefield 2042 a try the game is free to play until Dec 5th.
Have some thoughts about this First Look at 2023? Share a comment.
