qC

I wouldn't put much stock in the theory put forth in that link. The article is basically just a wordy smoke screen. His comparison to the phrase "I should be so lucky!" fails because, while that phrase cleary works on a sarcastic level, "I could care less" doesn't at all. The author seems determined to make an excuse for entire swathes of the population that are too ignorant to even consider the actual meaning of the words before the begin habitually repeating a phrase uttered by their peers.

@PointlessPuppies I mostly agree with you, and when I first played the beta, I completely agreed with you...but after spending some time with it, I have a come away with a slightly different outlook on the beta. I came in cold, as a complete Battlefield noob, looking for a new experience from my shooter.

My first thought (after falling through the map, seeing half the players using Recon, randomly not being able to sight in or sprint or sometimes even arm the m-com, etc.) was that the beta was a disaster and that I would never, ever play this game...

Then I started to unlock things...so many things to unlock and customize...and suddenly I was playing Forza with guns! The squad spawn is another Battlefield feature that I thought was great and it added a lot of strategy to firefights. The environment destructibility was great, though it would be nice if the walls you can actually blast down weren't so few and far between (I wanna use that C4 I unlocked, dammit!).

I do hope that they've adjusted the sniper rifles a bit, though, as they felt a bit OP in the beta. Hopefully that would encourage the throngs of snipers to start playing with other classes and actually help their teams, instead of camping at the back of the map and waiting for kills.

Anyway, I know that my case is a specialized one, but I just wanted to point out that the beta may have not been a complete wash.

@maxxgold

New school of gamers? Justin is around 30 and, like me, among the first generation to grow up with a gaming console in the house for their entire lives. If you want to tell me that the original NES games that I was playing as a small child were easy, with conventions like going all the way back to the beginning of the game if you died, then I would hate to hear of the kind of games you played!

IMHO, I think most of the uproar in this comment thread is just due to a lot of people getting sucked in by the promise that this game was showing. He specifically points out that the game literally broke on several occasions. If this happens in a game you've developed in 2011, you. are. doing. it. wrong.

While I share Justin's distaste for the style of inventory management that this game apparently employs, I will concede that this is subjective and their are probably plenty of people out there who love the OCD-itching nature of constantly picking up new stuff and comparing it all.

One last point, concerning the need to work together with someone else for this game (and some others) to be fun: If a company is selling a game with a single player mode, it needs to function properly and be fun in single player mode. Likewise, a company should assume that the reviewer will opt to play the single player campaign solo, thus its quality will be reflected in the review. If your game sucks in single player mode, why not sell it as a multi-player only game, so that all reviews are reflecting the co-op that is apparently so fantastic?

The problem, IMO, isn't that Joystiq is too hard on games - it's that some people are just too easy on games that don't work as promised.

@DSight How is it invalid to point out that MW3 has better co-op, yet it is somehow valid for BF fans to go on and on about how the BF series offers more variety through vehicular combat? CoD's focus is on shooting and movement, which it in-turn does better as well - and that's why it is so popular in the competitive arena. BF does the vehicular combat exceedingly well. I'm not sure why it's a problem to point out that each game has it's strength and weaknesses...

@US 447 Have you been reading the same Joystiq that I have? Because it's basically the most Anti-CoD mainstream gaming news site out there. Both the staff and the readers here are decidedly in the Battlefield camp. The difference between the staffers and the average foaming-at-the-mouth-fanboy reader? The staff are here to give their professional observations and report the news, so they can admit when CoD does something better or that they like BF because it offers experiences beyond mostly shooting - which they might not be the fastest or most skillful at - and not simply "becuz CoD it teh suxorz!"

I'm completely excited to play BF3, which would be my first BF game, but the idea that most people online will be like the average pro-BF commenter here is really killing my enthusiasm.

If you live in an area where there are alternatives that's great, but I have lived where it was the only place to get a lot of things. Sure, there are plenty of carnies in the place, but it serves its purpose (and the freaks are good for a laugh!). Funny thing, though - in my experience - the more "civilized" the area is, the more scummy the general population is.

This comments on this article have proven what I have long suspected: The commenters here must be largely illiterate and blinded by unabashed fanboyism.

Thanks for a really informative and well-written article, Chris. You laid all the facts out there and took pains to stress that a good deal of the meat of COD Elite (and the parts that most will actually use) will be free...and I'm still looking at a wall of comments saying "OMG charging for something Halo already does for free!!!"

I'll keep coming here for the great staff (and hopefully more podcasts VERY soon...I'm dying here...MBMBAM only takes up so much time in a work week!). But I've gotta say the crowd here has kind of started to wear my patience thin, and I might be forgoing the comments going forward.

Thank you! I suppose Doom and Quake were just shooters too and it obviously had no affect on the gaming world...

Like it or not, the strictly competitive online shooter has been the most played genre of online game since online gaming began and it will likely continue to be. I have no problem with BFBC2. The problem for me lies in that I am a family man and I only have one friend who games online. I'm way too busy to be on an organized team of people to play games with and, while a good team is still the most powerful weapon in any COD game, the greater reliance on plain old shooting skill gives us a fighting chance when we jump online.

There's no need to disparage something just because you aren't all that great at it.

The bizarre thing is that I was just thinking about the whole crossing lanes to drive faster issue today on my commute home. My musing was a result of almost getting ran off of a narrow road into a tree when some idiot decided that it would be ok to cut his apex around a semi-blind curve into my lane. If you can't manage the turns while staying in your lane, then you are driving too fast.

I got an IPS monitor, wireless keyboard and a stand for my Macbook Pro (which means that I can finally use my Wacom Intuos3 and not be completely uncomfortable - woohoo!!!)