Fede says:

The Air-combat looks really fun, but I don’t like much the UI, it seems it covers much more than what it needs.

August 28th, 2008 at 9:14 am

Valentin Galea says:

The graphics are amazing, but the camera is horrible - way too fixed to the character’s back… looks like he’s running on the spot when walking (but that may be the animation )

They should use a bit more over-the-shoulder approach///

August 28th, 2008 at 10:08 am

Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:

I honestly did not get a TF2 vibe as much as you, apparently, because this was more cartoony and “clean fun-ish,” while TF2 is more darkly comic, and really goes for the funny in the way that you’d expect the Old Man Murray crew to aim for. It’s a stylized cartoon look with a surprisingly mature edge. BFH is definitely more “family-friendly.” And with guys jumping on plane wings, I don’t think I’ll mind that.

Dare I say, this actually reminded me of… Megaman Legends. The goofiness, color, and feeling of light-hearted fun, all of it reminded me of my youth playing that most underappreciated of gems.

While I hate the fact that you usually need to get in a vehicle to really get anywhere in Battlefield games, I was nearly giddy with delight when I saw that one guy jump on the plane’s wing. (Usually, I rush for the aircraft spawnpoint only to get to there a second too late.)

So yeah. Color me surprised. I’m actually looking forward to this now that I’ve seen it in action.

August 28th, 2008 at 10:23 am

James says:

Looks like a ton of fun and it’s free. Seems like a recipe for awesome as far as I’m concerned. Hopefully I’ll be able to get into the beta at some point to get a first hand look at the thing. The real test will be seeing how it goes on my laptop, I guess.

August 28th, 2008 at 10:29 am

Paxeh says:

To be honest, If I had to pay for this game I wouldn’t even had thought about even trying it. The 3rd person view just makes it look too ‘consoley’. I never liked having to peer through a silly HUD crosshair to shoot at something 2 miles away in 3rd person, it just gets annoying. I thus have certain reservations regarding to this title.

Then again, it is entirely possible that this turns out to be mega awesome cools but after reading the 1up Hands-On and spotting “It’s a little like Age of Conan or any other MMO mixed up with a multiplayer shooter” I just went D:

August 28th, 2008 at 10:57 am

N says:

The infantry combat seems pretty negligible, plus the camera should be placed a bit to the side… nice visuals though, even if pg13-ish…

really moronic sounds effects

August 28th, 2008 at 11:33 am

die happy says:

@ Guido
since when is the battlefield series realistic ?
in bf2 it takes 20 shots to kill someone, you can jump 2 meters high
and bf42 ? well dont get me started on realism in that game

BF:Heroes in the same game with just some more cartoonish design and focused more on “funstuff”

and how i hate this 3rd person camera
this is supposed to be an FPS so give me a normal camera view through the guys eyes.

August 28th, 2008 at 12:26 pm

Briggsy says:

Regarding beta balancing, they still haven’t got it spot on in a number of places. Soldiers are practically useless against tanks atm, and gunners are overpowered, with commandos having very weak knives. Expect it to be sorted more before release however.

August 28th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

Ginger Yellow says:

“I’ve heard some bad balancing issues regarding this - can anyone in the beta tell me how they’re getting on with it?”

GFW said it’s pretty easy to get an unbalanced class if you overload your points on one skill/weapon rather than spreading them out.

August 28th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

Post Maker 1 says:

I’m not really in agreement with most of the complaints levelled against this (aside from the obvious balance issues).

The HUD/UI/LookyBits are just large enough to give the player easy access to anything they want to know using only a quick glance, without taking up too much screen space. The talents on the bottom seem a little small (the recharge meters are pretty tiny!) until you realize they work together with the sound effect that lets you know skill has recharged (the sound plays, and the recharged power flashs and becomes coloured for a bit). It looks nice!

The sound effects seems a little odd in places (rocket launchers and grenades making that cartoony springing/jumping/swinging sound, for example), but they work well for the things that really matter (guns, vehicles, and explosions). The ones that don’t quite sound right (rockets and grenades, again) might help to distinguish between ordinary guns and powerful weapons, and they fit in fairly well with the art style too (cartoony and deliberately unrealistic).

Now I’ll admit the game might look like Team Fortress 2, but that’s only because both games have gone as far away from realism as possible. They look similar in that they are cartoonish instead of bump- and normal-mapped to Hell and back, but there are noticeable (and frankly, important) differences between the two (that I don’t have enough space to go on about right now (unless asked (please don’t ask))). Besides, if comparisons are to be drawn, you might as well say that Team Fortress 2 was just ripping off the art style of Psychonauts and Valve JUST DIDN’T HAVE THE BALLS to take it as far as Double Fine did.

Now I’m in love with 3rd person cameras, so I’m obviously a little biased, but in a game like this I think a 1st person viewpoint would ruin the experience. Why customize a character when you only see it after you die (if at all, outside of the menus)? Sure, the other players will gaze upon your awesome leather-bound bondage soldier in his tribal head-dress and skirt, but isn’t half the fun of creating a custom look seeing it yourself, in game? Plus, in a game that is (apparently) going to feature large amounts of people doing absurdly high-damage, wide-area attacks and causing all sorts of chaos in some occasionally confined environments, a 3rd person camera angle would let you see more of the battlefield than if you were viewing it from your character’s eyes. In the end the 3rd person viewpoint will help you stay out of trouble a bit more by letting you see trouble coming more often, if that makes any grammatical sense.

Personally I like the more rigid, straight behind the spine viewpoint this game has. I’m sick to death of games taking an over the shoulder camera angle, because it forces the character model to eat up more screen space on one side or the other (due to the usually close proximity of the camera in “those types of viewpoints”) and it looks absolutely awful. Sniping (is there sniping? I’m not sure!) could be awkward if it stays in some kind of weird 3rd person view but the odds of that happening are pretty low(!(?)).

The fact that it’s free and powered by “microtransactions” (a completely ridiculous word) isn’t much an issue so long as people can’t buy Super Killing Guns that dominate the playfield, but with all the attention to gameplay balance that I’ve heard about I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.

Vehicles (and vehicle combat especially (BARREL ROLLS)) look nice, and I’m a little ashamed to admit that when I saw the plane run right into that pole and just keep going without getting damaged, I cheered. It might be just me but I really dislike taking damage from running into little things, however realistic it may be. An environment that appears to be totally indestructible is also something I’m looking forward too, because after playing a bunch of Battlefield: Bad Company multiplayer (among other multiplayer games with destructible environments) I’d to run behind cover that’s actually cover and not just some tiny annoyance to be blasted away while I cower and attempt to heal.

Furthermore-

Oh god I have typed so much look what I have done.
This is too much text!

August 28th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

Nimic says:

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this. Obviously stuff like the Air-combat looks splendid fun, but as a whole I don’t know how much I’d like it over a longer period of time. The 3rd camera view doesn’t agree with me at all, particularly not after having played quite a lot of TF2, which has a similar style while still being 1st person view.

August 28th, 2008 at 2:14 pm

Tom says:

There’s no blood!!! Not even little puffs of it. How the hell are you supposed to see if you really did manage to shoot someone inspite of that crappy camera perspective. And the sounds, terrible if you aks me. I was really looking forward to this, I love TF2, and I also liked bf1942, bfheroes should be what happens when both geht cuddley and have babys, but I think TF2 got cheated, and some WOW-guy came alonge and fathered his beloved bf1942…a shame

August 28th, 2008 at 2:37 pm

Zeitgeist says:

Just because it doesnt have blood doesnt mean it is for kids, the game is really really fun but since there only seems to be 2-3 players in the video you cant really tell what a real game is like based on this

August 28th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

A-Scale says:

It looks like LEGO WW2 to me. Some of the combat looks remarkably fun, considering that I really thought this game was going to fall flat. The tower sniping position definitely looks OP though.

August 28th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

Nick says:

bunny-hopping and point blank grenade useage.. I thought they were trying to avoid all that gubbins?

The planes carry people on the wings is looking to be the only feature I’ll have any interest in.

August 28th, 2008 at 6:08 pm

Nick says:

It’s free so we should all get down on our knees and praise the lord/EA? The things I mentioned are favourite FPS tactics of what they said in the very first trailer they were trying to avoid (ADD kids playing it 13 hours a day).

August 28th, 2008 at 8:15 pm

Noc says:

Actually, I watched it again, and even though I saw some bunny hopping, it didn’t look like it did anything. After all, people bunny-hop in WoW.

I think a lot of the issue with the camera just comes from how awkward your standard circle-strafey FPS fights look in third person. But that’s something you get used to pretty quickly, I think.

August 28th, 2008 at 8:50 pm

MetalCircus says:

Take your prozac son. I don’t see the merit in whingeing about something which is A) absoloutley free and B) you could just as easily ignore. Do you react like this when a friend offers you some of his (FREE) chips?

This chip has vinegar on it. ARRRGHHHHH.

August 28th, 2008 at 10:47 pm

Nick says:

And I fail to see how me expressing displeasure about it containing stuff - as I mentioned before - is synonymous with the playstyle they were trying to avoid. What exactly is so fucking awful about me being disappointed about it? I was looking forward to playing it and now I’m not, why does is that such a big issue for you that you have to repeatedly attack me for it? What the hell are comments threads for if not expressing opinions?

Nice analogy btw. *sigh*

August 29th, 2008 at 12:32 am

Nick says:

yes yes, very droll. I appreciate the futility.

August 29th, 2008 at 1:49 am

Mr. Softpants says:

Can I get a refund even though it’s a free game?

August 29th, 2008 at 12:53 pm