Corona | Coming Attractions

anyone getting the expansion pack?

Are you talking about the Back to Karkand pack?  Then yes, I have it, and I've been enjoying the new maps and weapons that come with it.  I've put over 60 hours into Battlefield 3 now, and it is still just as much fun now as it was when I started playing. I can't get enough of it.

I think I finished downloading the expansion pack before my Xbox died, but I'll have to wait to get it repaired before I can confirm it.

I started playing BF3 last night, got a little burnt out on MW3, considering I've unlocked everything on it already.

Just signed up for the online battlelog, which is nice. Easier to see what you've unlocked and need to do to unlock other items.

Guess I'm going to need to hit Strider up next time I see him online so I can do some co-op missions :)

Hey Strider, next time you're playing and need a fourth to fill out your squad, let me know. I played for hours yesterday and I think only one time did I have any squadmates who talked.

Now, I am not saying I enjoy the people who just endlessly blather on. You know the types, especially on MW, who either sit there and spew violent racist homophobic comments non-stop. Or the people who seem to forget they're miked and we getting a running commentary of their home life, complete with yelling at their wife or kids or talking to their stoned roommates. And don't forget the person who has apparently INHALED the mike so all we get is the woosh-woosh of them breathing.

But on a game like BF, I think communication can be a good thing, and definitely helps the squad's success.

I'm always up for playing more Battlefield. 

Just to double check, your gamertag is lukerosati, right?  At this point, I've put people onto my friends list from several different websites, and it can be hard to remember who people are if their gamertags aren't the same as their usernames.

yeah, that's my XBL tag. I was going to hit you up this weekend, but I saw you were already in a squad so I didn't bother.

I've got a few people that I am usually playing with (including a guy from the UK), but we rarely have a full squad. Go ahead and hit me up next time.  I sometimes don't see who's coming online when I'm in the thick of things.

I think that I found you on Battlelog, unless there's another lukerosati on there.

yeah that should be me. I doubt there's another one. Although there are 4 Luke Rosati's in my family, they're all much older than me and probably not playing FPS's :)

I had fun playing Battlefield with you yesterday.  It's too bad I couldn't hear you very well on voice chat though.  For whatever reason, your volume was about half of what the other two guys were, so I couldn't turn it up to hear you without going deaf when the other two guys talked.

Anyway, I still think it's pretty cool to be able to have people from two different spots in the US, a guy from the UK, and a guy in New Zealand all be able to play the same game together.

yeah it was fun, and we kicked ass :) Not sure why my volume was so low. I had it jacked up all the way, and I could hear you guys pretty well. I'll have to check the settings on my xbox and see if there's anything I can adjust. Plus I am using a cheapie gamestop controller, so that might be the problem. Have to dig around at work and see if I can find another headset.

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/news/view/2832654779195992365/

http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield3/1/close-quarters

Woot, expansion packs!

Woot, indeed. I just wish they were coming a bit sooner.

Yeah, and it's also nice they're adding in new content too, unlike MW which just gives you a couple of new maps. Can't wait for the next pack with new vehicles!

http://www.gamespot.com/battlefield-3/previews/hit-the-ground-running-on...

http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield3/1/close-quarters

I have to say that I'm not really looking forward to the Close Quarters pack all that much. I recently watched a video on Youtube that summed it up nicely: "This is Battlefield, not BattleROOMS."

The best part about Battlefield is the vehicles and bigger map sizes. Indoor environments get rid of both of those things, and thus a lot of the flavor that makes Battlefield unique. It just isn't quite the same when there isn't the possibility of a tank rolling up.

I'm sure Close Quarters will still be fun enough, but right now all I am seeing is a lot more USAS with frag round spam.  At least mortars shouldn't work indoors, right?

I see your point, and that may be why I am more a MW type of guy. There's nothing more I hate then sprinting across a huge map, not seeing an enemy player, only to get taken out by a single sniper shot or strafing run by a chopper. Wash, rinse, repeat.

I've been playing team deathmatch, which has no vehicles, and enjoying it. Maybe it's just because I am a terrible pilot, so that eliminates half the vehicles for me. There's nothing more frustrating than going against a team with good pilots, because unless there's mobile AA on the board, you're screwed. Tanks and IFV's machine guns just don't seem to be powerful enough to take out a competently piloted chopper, and shooting them down with SAMs is next to impossible unless you've got a whole team on engineers volley-firing.

Again, this might just be personal preference, and the fact that I never play on any teams unless I'm with you guys, so it's much harder to coordinate actions against vehicles when playing with 2-3 lone wolves.

It's all in how you move through the map. I don't just sprint my way everywhere blindly.  I try to move from cover to cover and look for enemies. Also, by now I've kind of got normal routes on the different maps that usually are the safest ways to go as far as avoiding enemies when I want to. 

I am rarely taken out by snipers in BF3, and once I am once, I can usually avoid getting killed by them again. I had much more trouble from snipers in Bad Company 2 than I ever have in BF3, although there are still a few times when an annoyingly good sniper will show up in a match.

As far as vehicles go, I am only just now a decent helicopter pilot, and I can keep a jet in the air as long as nobody's firing at me. I have a total of 14 kills in a jet. Not very many at all. I've done a bit better with helicopters, but a lot of those kills have been in the gunner seat with a good pilot.  However, the tanks are a completely different story. I can rock a tank like nobody's business, even by myself. They are a very powerful tool, especially once you learn how to use them well.

On the flip side, being good at destroying tanks is also very useful. Ducking in and out of cover, playing hide and seek with a tank is always thrilling, even if you don't manage to take it out. But those times when you hit it just right a couple of times and see it explode right in front of you are the best. Then of course, there's always the option of C4 rushing a tank. Picking the right moment to jump out of cover can be a little tricky, but hitting that switch and blowing up the tank makes all the failed attempts worth it.

As far as pilots go, a helicopter pilot has to be very, very good to make things tough on the ground. As long as you are aware of the helicopter and keep track of its general direction (usually by the sound and/or if someone has it spotted) you can usually still get around pretty well on all of the maps. But, if nobody knows how to take them down, helicopters can be a pain in the ass. Tanks are great at killing air vehicles....provided you have two people, one of which must have the third seat unlocked in order to paint targets and the other must have the guided shell. If you don't have that, you'll have to get a lucky shot with the main turret. SAMs can work against the scout choppers if you're by yourself, but it's definitely hard to take down attack choppers solo.

Most of the time I don't worry about it much when I'm by myself. I usually just bother about capping flags and keeping them for my team. If I'm outnumered, I'll harass the enemies until teammates arrive or I get killed. If my team seems to have a pretty good handle on the game and we have a big lead, then I start to worry about taking down choppers.

You certainly have to keep track of more things in Battlefield than just ground troops sometimes, but that's why I like it. There's just a ton of variety in the game. Each of the four classes plays quite differently due to being equipped for different types of situations. Then you've got several different vehicles to drive around, and some to fly in the air should you choose to try and master them.  There's a lot more to do than just shoot guys in the face, especially in the objective gametypes that are Battlefield's bread and butter.  I like that even if you aren't nearly as good at shooting people, you can still be a great palyer by taking objectives and doing other things to help your team like dropping ammo boxes.

I wouldn't have played BF3 for 240 hours (and counting) if I didn't love it.

Have you tried watching any tips videos for Battefield, omicron? I watched some when I was trying to figure out Bad Company 2, and it helped a lot.

fucking wonderful. I blame Modern Warfare Elite

http://www.gamespot.com/news/ea-exploring-battlefield-subscription-servi...

Well, at least it's too late to do that with Battlefield 3. If I'm going to be paying a subscription, I want to get a lot for it.  Perhaps their "exploration" will lead to "this is a bad idea".

http://blogs.battlefield.com/2012/03/bringing-battlefield-into-close-qua...