By Jim Rossignol on February 7th, 2009 at 3:35 pm.
The New York Comic Convention (which is being attended by our own man-of-at-least-two-talents, Kieron Gillen) is in full swing, and this year it is being attended by many videogame companies. This means a minor deluge of videos from various sources, some of which I’ll post up here. First up: Battlefield 1943, with a developer narrating. Now isn’t this interesting: signs of that Battlefield Heroes parallel development breaking through here? Quite possibly, it does look rather bright and smooth and beautiful. Also far away from the painterly militarism of Battlefield 2. I can hear the howls of anti-console anguish from here.
Additionally, there’s this comment in the GameTrailers thread: “no blood? i wish u could see his body teared apart” Er hmm. (There is blood.)
I was going to make a comment about paying attention to video comments, but then realised the horrible irony of it all.
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There will be blood!
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It looks extremely simplistic. I was hoping for more.
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games for toddlers and console gamers
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I thought EA/DICE had the arcade shooter audience covered by BF: Heroes? There’s no need to make a shiney, stripped down BF1942 when you’ve still got a fanbase that wants BF3. Only 3 classes? I would have thought that BF2142′s 4 customisable classes was the bare minimum for a decent class-based FPS. Apparently not.
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I’ve heard, through various sources, that BF 1943 will be download only, feature only 3 classes, have infinite ammo and regenerating health. I balk at saying this, but… discuss?
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“Infinite ammo and regenerating health.”
IMO, those are valid reasons for anti-console howls.
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disappointing
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My main source for that is here, before I get accused of ‘stirring’, as my dad used to call it.
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I’m gonna be the first to say that this actually looks fun. They obviously don’t have a remake of BF1942 on the menu, and, as disappointing as that is, this looks like it will still be great fun. Planes, landing craft, running gunfights up the arms of Wake…they seem pretty faithful to the spirit, if not the execution, of Battlefield.
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I was initially excited about this, then after reading that Kotaku article I feel deflated. What made 1942 and BF2 so awesome was the large numbers, the variety of kits and the team work that was present, 1943 seems like a half-arsed effort to try and capture some sales on the PSN and Live Arcade things.
I want a real successor to 1942/BF2, not this. I could rant for days on this!
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Any of the die-hard BF2 fans want to skip over to ArmA2 for their realistic gunplay, huge maps and vehicle-based madness?
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Ugh. That game has consolitis so badly it should be taken out behind the woodshed.
Infinite ammo, such a crap idea. Personally, if I were aver to play this game, I’d probably just play anti-tank and continuously spam rockets. That sounds super fun.
Let’s hope this is a temporary cash-in like Modern Combat and we can get back to the real games next.
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Thats not consolitis, it’s just stupid developeritis. The Battlefront games, whilst not being particularly good, didn’t suffer from regenerating health, low class numbers or infinite ammo (aside from pistols anyway).
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@TPS:
The dev chappie in the cam video Jim posted mentions most of the features which are rubbing people up the wrong way too.
Looks fairly fun to me, and might be worth a look if they keep the price low. About the only design decision that sounds questionable is the infinite ammo, which sounds like it’ll invite a bit too much camping for my tastes, but then I’m not really a Battlefield fan having missed the boat for 1942 and not really getting on with the demo for 2 so I’m not attached to how the game used to do things.
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is DICE actually making a BF3 or similiar , ie a FULL on sequel to 1942/bf2 for PC ..?
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I believe they are making BF3 in a BF2 style setting, yes.
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isnt that a BF2 map, “something island” got released in a patch before the disc was relegated to a coaster for my Eeyore mug.
but uinfinte ammo just means that there is no “need ammo” spam ect and it s more action based. any 24 players = fail
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Wake Island was a 1942 map that has been remade/released in patches for BF2 and lately 2142, yes.
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I loved BF1942 and BF:Vietnam. Never got the newer ones though. From a realism point of view, dropping infinite numbers of bombs from a Zero or Corsair isn’t much worse than dropping 10, then doing a low fly-by of an aircraft carrier to get replenished. It’d have to be quite cheap and crapware-free to prise me away from L4D and TF2 though.
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There’s no reason to pay $15 or $20 for this when you can readily buy the complete BF 42 collection for $10. In N. America, there are still several full servers, too, one of which runs Midway 24/7.
Unlimited ammo, health regen, and 24 player cap? That doesn’t appeal to me at all.
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Fuck sake, this is nothing about consoles. They are simpering for the masses. Consoles have players who are aware of this bull just like us pc folk have guys who buy every idiots who buy everything catering to casual violence.
The problem does not originate from a platform but an idealoligy. A set of priorities the developers\focus groups think is important.
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It may be yours – so go kill someone.
(Signed, Bad Horse)
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what Heliocentric said.
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“There will be blood!”
Someone on the BF1942 team is shouting “I HAVE ABANDONED MY SON!”
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Also, this video reminds me why I don’t particularly like developer commentaries. Not many adept programmers are also adept public speakers.
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Any of the die-hard BF2 fans want to skip over to ArmA2
BF2 is very arcade and cannot be compared to ArmA… but did you try Project Reality mod for BF2 ? The official multiplayer campaigns are quite fun !
BF1942 is the best vanilla BF imho
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oh I totally screwed up the linking :-( tags are the things that should be dumbed down for mainstreams !
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I’m the only one who thinks this looks cool? It’s obviously not meant to be BF3.
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[rant]DICE suck balls, they give us unfinished games then instead of finishing them with patches they make rip off expansions. Between Battlefield 2 and Bad Company they made nothing worth a full price game and many piles of turd, Bad Company was very impressive technically and massively lacking in content or variation, then comes Mirrors Edge with it’s four hour singleplayer and no multiplayer. I’ve given up on them and anything they output.[/rant]
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Why does that Japanese sniper have a Mauser? :(
I was excited about this game before watching this. It looks look concentrated idiot boredom. Oh well. New version of DYSTOPIA is out! \o/
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I take your dystopia and raise you a project reality!
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I love the colours. But I don’t know about the gameplay. Could be fun, could be too simplistic.
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There will be a class based game that has just one class, I’m sure of it. It’ll be a black and white game (or two different colors). And people will pay money for it.
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I was wondering if the pointing hand was some sort of new gameplay feature for spotting enemy troops. It was only about 3/4 of the way through I realised it was the developers
>_<
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why are all the pc gamers getting angry over this its being relesed on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, & PC download why were/are you expecting a full fledged pc game?
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Why release a half assed game with better versions already out though? I suppose the console release makes sense with them not having 42, but eh? I’m not angry it exists, just not in a hurry to spend money on it. Although, it will show the direction bf3 is taking so the right price might lure me in.
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I’d say Dice is a poster child of the EA Style of game development.
That was not a compliment.
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Wow I was actually pretty excited for this before I saw that video. It definitely comes across as a console 1st and PC afterthought approach. I want a real successor to BF1942, it was probably my all time favorite pc game.
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I think most of the anger comes from the fact that this isn’t a remake of 1942, which we would all love. However that doesn’t necessarily mean this will be a shit game. All they have to do is raise the player cap a bit, and remove unlimited ammo on weapons like rocket launchers, and there you go, a nicely playable, fun game. Call me crazy, but i think the destructible terrain will be awesome.
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I must admit, that while I try not to hate a game at “pre-alhpa” (snigger), I could think of few worse things to put out than a version of a game that appears less pretty, less varied and with no discernable new ideas, that I’ve played previously.
I have enjoyed the recent Battlefields, increasingly so, (not heroes) so I want to give it a chance. Why do they make it so hard?
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They cant/wont port BF heroes but they want a arcadey version of the game like it on the consoles and its easy to port to pc so why not. As for the gimped out game its got to fit in the size limit for arcade games ms has in place, not sure what it is now days.
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Looks like fun! You all remember fun don’t you?
Oops, no, it doesn’t seem like you do. That’s what you get when you try and play games on your fancy-dan beige word-processors.
Get with the times, grandad!
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The ‘nice little roadkill, classic Battlefield moment’ looked really terrible. I thought he’d driven over the guy without effect until he got out to look at his corpse, due to the way he clipped through him. I remember all the other Battlefield games doing a nice ragdoll-over-the-bonnet thing.
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An arcadey BF game, huh? What’s the point when they are already knee deep in BF: Heroes? Doesn’t make sense to me.
I think that BF3 has became BF: Bad Company 2.
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@Andrew: I think that’s something I can forgive for not being in a earlyish build. One would assume such effects will appear later.
@Pundabaya: These game playing things can process words? That sounds fun! More fun than this game looks right now, anyway.
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Oh sweet a WW2 shooter
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DICE should just forget about the PC altogether. Heroes was bad enough but this is just insulting. Unlimited ammo? Where do I insert tokens?
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I really don’t get what DICE is doing here, especially on the PC. The press release said that both 1943 and Bad Company 2 would be coming to PC so there will actually be three different Battlefield games released for the PC this year if the information is correct.
If this is the case, EA seem to be taking a very scattergun approach to multiplayer gaming by releasing as many different games at different price points and for different audiences, as possible and hoping that something hits the target.
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I still don’t get why they’re doing this. There’s Battlefield Heroes for the combat-challenged people, why create another product for the same kind of crowd, at the same time (while also raping everybody’s expectations nonetheless)?
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btw that fov looks painful. the consolitis in this game will be really bad.
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“I still don’t get why they’re doing this. There’s Battlefield Heroes for the combat-challenged people, why create another product for the same kind of crowd, at the same time (while also raping everybody’s expectations nonetheless)?”
They wont/cant release heroes on the consoles most likely due to it being a “free” game and anything that goes on to xbox arcade is going to need a price point not sure about the playstation network.
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Hmm. On the negative side, I notice how the dev emphasises ease of play. I’m not one for hyperrealism all the time, but unlimited ammo in a WW2 game? I don’t know, that just doesn’t seem right.
Of course it could still be a whole lot of fun, but part of the fun can consist of overcoming / using limits such as limited ammo.
On the positive side, I am getting an ever-increasing urge to purchase Battlefield 1942.
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This is quite dissapointing tbh. I’m sure I’ll get it and I’m sure it will be fun for a while but it seems so basic. I just don’t see when we are going to get a battlefield 3 in amongst this, heroes and bad company 2.
It’s a real shame. There used to be three behemoths in pc online fps in CS, CoD and BF. It just feels like EA has dropped out of this race whilst Valve remains dedicated to it and Activision/Infinity Ward are doing a great job of pulling off games that suit both console and pc markets in one.
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I know I’m late, but…
jonfitt says: “Personally, if I were aver to play this game, I’d probably just play anti-tank and continuously spam rockets. ”
Well you’re in luck! Apparently all of the classes will have anti tank weapons. Urgh.
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This is totally what i was not hoping for. I like the idea of destroyable environment and long burning fires but not regenable health, less classes, unlimited ammo, and smaller amount of players….Kills the purpose of what everyone was looking forward too. I was going to buy this when it comes out but now i think i might look for a different game unless changes are made.
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Aw, this is a really quality site.
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