Battlefield Heroesâ„¢
Hellbilly
A whole title out of pity... Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 3931Members, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
A whole title out of pity... Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 3931Members, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">wtf?</div><a href="http://www.battlefield-heroes.com/home.asp" target="_blank">Battlefield Heroesâ„¢</a>
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/nerd-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::nerdy::" border="0" alt="nerd-fix.gif" />
<i>Electronic Arts today announced that this summer will see the release of Battlefield Heroes, a free to play PC multiplayer shooter featuring a Team Fortress 2-like art style.
According to EA, the game will be easy to pick up and play, and among other things will feature character customization, matchmaking based on skill level, and a "deep online meta-game."
"We put a different twist on this Battlefield game going with the cartoon-style graphics and gameplay," said EA DICE senior producer Ben Cousins. "There's something here for all types of players--be it our core Battlefield fans or casual gamers. With the new online model, we will continually add new content to keep the game fresh and keep players engaged, while integrating player feedback in real time. As a game developer, it is such a cool new way to make games."
That new content won't be free, as Electronic Arts notes that the game will generate revenue through advertising and micro-transactions.</i>
free to play base game......looking awfully like a TF2 artstyle ripoff.
discuss.
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/nerd-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::nerdy::" border="0" alt="nerd-fix.gif" />
<i>Electronic Arts today announced that this summer will see the release of Battlefield Heroes, a free to play PC multiplayer shooter featuring a Team Fortress 2-like art style.
According to EA, the game will be easy to pick up and play, and among other things will feature character customization, matchmaking based on skill level, and a "deep online meta-game."
"We put a different twist on this Battlefield game going with the cartoon-style graphics and gameplay," said EA DICE senior producer Ben Cousins. "There's something here for all types of players--be it our core Battlefield fans or casual gamers. With the new online model, we will continually add new content to keep the game fresh and keep players engaged, while integrating player feedback in real time. As a game developer, it is such a cool new way to make games."
That new content won't be free, as Electronic Arts notes that the game will generate revenue through advertising and micro-transactions.</i>
free to play base game......looking awfully like a TF2 artstyle ripoff.
discuss.
Comments
It's hard not to have an initial venomous response, it really isn't.
From the response to the success of TF2, to the rise of 'casual gaming', everything EA manage to produce seems to further solidfy that gamers are nothing but 'assets' to be 'harvested' of their 'resources' in their view. I do so love these terminology sessions, it's right up there with 'friendly fire' and 'pacification'. The only sad thing? Thanks to gaming for the masses through the Internet and consoles, as well as the lowest common denominator marketing, it's guaranteed to work. With the side effect that the more it works, the more we'll see it from every other developer/publisher.
Perhaps I've developed too cynical an eye for gaming.
- Shockwave
edit: swearfilter.
EA you ######
Editedit: EA make good games you ######ing ######s!
Also, how damn obvious is that ripoff? Look at the "screenshots" section. Look at the preview of one of the "games for windows" magezines articles. It's so obvious.
Laggy menus
Poor net-code
HUGE patches
$15 "expansions" to the game that only add 1 level or weapon.
Also the second it stops making money EA will pretend it never existed and allow cheating to run rampant.
It's hard not to have an initial venomous response, it really isn't.
From the response to the success of TF2, to the rise of 'casual gaming', everything EA manage to produce seems to further solidfy that gamers are nothing but 'assets' to be 'harvested' of their 'resources' in their view.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
NEED MORE GEEK GAS!
Laggy menus
Poor net-code
HUGE patches
$15 "expansions" to the game that only add 1 level or weapon.
Also the second it stops making money EA will pretend it never existed and allow cheating to run rampant.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Micro-transactions? WTF?
Laggy menus
Poor net-code
HUGE patches
$15 "expansions" to the game that only add 1 level or weapon.
Also the second it stops making money EA will pretend it never existed and allow cheating to run rampant.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
But now you can buy new clothes for your soldier!
but you can't buy new guns. Because that would get you an unfair advantage.
Despite being free, I wouldn't play this ripoff even if it was the best thing since sliced bread. And sadly, for EA, sliced bread isn't the best thing since sliced bread.
but you can't buy new guns. Because that would get you an unfair advantage.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
*Feels bad to fully leap on the Bashing Bandwagonâ„¢ but...*
Actually, an EA expansion WOULD give you better guns. Because some Marketing goon knows that gamers will do ANYTHING for an advantage, and they'll all buy the expansion because the expansion will give you the WTFPWN class, that autokills the original classes, but also buffs the original ones for expansion users only, so they're stable again.
I don't want to come down so hard on this, I really don't. You always hope it'll work out better, and someone somewhere in that organisation is sat in his cubicle thinking 'We could make a really good game'.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->[...] we have other games that people play, a lot. We have BF2142 and BF2, and those have still got a huge fanbase with lots of people playing them, and we didn't want to confuse people by having 3 games that were all realistic graphics in the market at the same time. It was about making sure that we were different from the other Battlefield games but also it was about something that was really cool and fun at the same time.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->I read between the lines and have broken down the quote like this:<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->[...] we have other games that people play, but not as much as we'd like them to. We have BF2142 and BF2, and those have still got a fair fanbase with lots less people playing them with awesome truly unique games like TF2 eating into our generic pie, and we didn't want to confuse people by having 3 games that were all the goddamn same. It was about making sure that we were different from the other, less successful Battlefield games and the same as the more successful Team Fortress 2, but also it was about something that was really cool and fun at the same time, because it wasn't about making a carbon copy of the game we made last year. Instead it was about making a carbon copy of a game someone else made this year.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This same producer guy claims that BFH will not only be easier to pickup than TF2, but that BFH will have a 'friendlier' community (yeah selfish stat######s are always happy to break a newbie in gently).
In the second podcast the producer mentions that the game can only be launched via a website, where there will also be advertising, but also that there will be advertising on the "in-game menus". Previously they'd said the only advertising in the game would be the front end, but the front end is not exactly the same as an in-game menu. In-game menus could include changing class, team, weapon configuration, customising your character, choosing a server, etc.
Next up, a word on the bonus micropayment items, as well as playing Barbie doll with your GI Joe avatar, there are other extras you can buy, described as "convenience items". The example they give is that you can buy a modifier that lets you gain double experience points over a limited time, for example a weekend. This means that even if you can only donate this to another player, stat###### partnerships will be able to gift eachother even bigger e-penises, earning EA a lot of money in the process.
The matchmaking service is one of the few positives I heard so far about the game.
P.S. It's unfair to say this is a copy of TF2: TF2 was first-person, this is in third-person.
Well since I spend a lot of the time dead in TF2, it's like playing in the third person.
All games 'rip off' other games to one degree or another. If the game itself is good and interesting, I will continue to play it. If it isn't? Then I won't.
Yes, EA is obviously trying to cash in on what TF2 has going for it, however if all they do is make it a cartoon feeling, well they missed the point and it doesn't really matter.
If they make a good solid game, then I see no reason not to play it.
FH is of course what BF1942 should've been but that mod was free <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /></li><li>BF Vietnam: BF1942 engine in a different setting, cool new feature is that you have music speakers on your chopper... Still buggy...</li><li>BF2: New engine, yet not so groundbreaking as the original, perhaps even overengineered in terms of GUI and buggy as hell...
And mods you have to pay for:<ul><li>Special Forces</li><li>Euro Force </li><li>Armored Fury</li></ul></li><li>BF2: modern combat: a mod which costs money...</li><li>BF 2142: BF2 engine with, same gameplay only now you have hover tanks and mechs? Basically a mod which you have to pay for... Did I mention buggy?<ul><li>Northern Strike, didn't try and haven't seen it in action, but its probably a mod once more...</li></ul></li><li>BF heroes: TF2 franchise wannabe in a bigger setting with vehicles so it must be better (obviously discarding the huge history TF has <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> )
*ahem* buggy perhaps again? *ahem*</li><li>BF bigger heroes: expansion pack with bigger and better classes and weapons then the original (only accessable for people who buy this for 50Euro.</li></ul>The Battlefield franchise... Probably best know for its buggy engines, <b>crash to desktopâ„¢</b> and <i>good support</i> in terms of patches and updates...
I have a bad feeling that this game will be immensly popular even after the updates stop comming and EA moves on to the next expansion pack or mod or whatever they call their games... People tend to follow the trends. TF2 will still be popular even after BF4: galaxy conquest is released <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Heh I missed Battlefield: Bad Company, which has potential, but is probably going to be buggy... Well at least the CTD will be impossible due to console only crap <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
I wanted to play summore BF2 but of course I lost my cd key ages ago and couldn't coax EA's support staff into telling me what it was, even though I did register the game (I think)...
Yeah, right.
Yeah, who has ever heard of cuter, more stylized graphics for simpler games in order to attract more players by making things look less intimidating? It's not like Mythos or WeeWar or Battalion Wars or Maple Story or Gunbound or just about every third Korean MMO has tried it before.
No one thinks that this reaction to <i>someone else</i> making their game look like a cartoon is a bit ridiculous? Also, the jump from BF1942 to BF2 was a bit bigger in terms of ideas expanded upon than what you listed Kouji. New commander mode (artillery, waypoints, UAVs, supply drops) new squad interface (waypoints, new spawn system, helped to encourage cooperative play), additional weapons for classes to choose from, as well as ironsights and several more weapons added into the game that greatly differed from each other as opposed to the original where every weapon was essentially a carbon copy of your opponents. Not to mention classes reworked, and helicopters.
BF2 differed just enough from BF1942 to warrant the additional purpose of another game entirely, rather than a free patch. The game didn't need to be drastically different. When people go to buy a battlefield game, for the most part they want the original gameplay intact. Just because it doesn't seem like a whole other game isn't a bad thing.
I'm quite sure BFH will be fun to the audience that Battlefield games have attracted in the past, and won't be a carbon copy of Battlefield 2.
that said, if it's fun, I'm sure I'll play it - I just may feel a little dirty.