{"id":403,"date":"2011-04-06T09:27:05","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T15:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/avaritech.net\/?p=403"},"modified":"2011-04-06T09:27:05","modified_gmt":"2011-04-06T15:27:05","slug":"battlefield-p4f-you-get-what-you-pay-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/avaritech.net\/2011\/04\/battlefield-p4f-you-get-what-you-pay-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Battlefield P4F: You Get What You Pay For"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Last week, EA opened up BF P4F to all their loyal BF players, before a wider release that happened on Monday. \u00a0A free Battlefield game, based on BF2 with some adjustments and a new experience? \u00a0Sounds great, sign me up!<\/p>\n

So I signed up and played for a bit, and pretty early on in my first play through, an old adage came to mind: \u201cYou get what you pay for.\u201d \u00a0Much has been made about the \u201cevilness\u201d of the micro-transaction system in the Play4Free games. \u00a0Thankfully, EA has provided plenty of ways to avoid spending real money on things that really matter in the game, like better weapons and \u201ctraining\u201d for gadgets. \u00a0However, the system can still be annoying. \u00a0You have to buy all your upgrades, but you can use your BF bucks earned in game to unlock new weapons for the day or for 3 days. \u00a0To keep the guns permanently, you\u2019ll need to spend real cash. \u00a0BF bucks are earned pretty easily, and the cost of the guns is low, so unlocking weapons for a day isn\u2019t going to cost you hours of play time. \u00a0All cosmetic stuff seems to cost real cash money, so those of you who want to play dress up will have to shell out.<\/p>\n

The biggest issue I had with the game is all options and weapon purchases have to be made before you join a server. \u00a0Want to tweak your mouse sensitivity? \u00a0Quit the server you\u2019re on, edit sensitivity and then re-join another server. \u00a0Want to buy a new weapon? \u00a0Exit the game and unlock the new gun. \u00a0It would have nice for them to incorporate a Counter Strike in-game \u201cbuying\u201d system — and they may still do that since the game is still in its infancy. \u00a0It\u2019s also worth noting that there is no server browser. \u00a0You can either do a \u201cPlay now\u201d, join friends, or play on servers you\u2019ve bookmarked — which seems odd…why would you bookmark random servers you joined through Play Now? \u00a0Another minor annoyance is the game has to launch from your web browser each time, so even after a web-based installer runs, the shortcut it leaves in your start menu just takes you to the BF P4F website, which you have to click the play button…very much like Quake Live or BF Heroes.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re actually playing the game, it\u2019s hard not to say that the game is essentially a stripped down version of BF2. \u00a0\u00a0Most of your favorite BF2 maps are there, but don\u2019t look near as good as BF2 — a game that was released in 2005. \u00a0\u00a0Video options take a page out of the Crysis 2 book, with only settings of low, medium and high…and in this case, \u201chigh\u201d looks pretty mediocre compared to most shooters release over the past several years. \u00a0To be fair, this game isn\u2019t built for eye-candy, it\u2019s meant to be an accessible, multiplayer shooter for the masses — if such a market exists. \u00a0\u00a0Does that mean that it\u2019s a bad game? \u00a0No, it\u2019s actually pretty fun to play and provides a quick\/free alternative to having to dig out BF2 discs, install and then patch a 6 year old game. \u00a0That said, I find it hard to imagine myself sinking more than a few hours into this game which doesn\u2019t seem to register as anything more than a temporary diversion for me.<\/p>\n

So for BF2 and BC2 die-hards, it\u2019s hard to recommend this game as an alternative to those, as I\u2019d say you\u2019re better off to just keep on playing the existing games until BF3 comes out. \u00a0For people new to the BF experience, it\u2019s a quick and easy way to check out that type of gameplay with relatively low system requirements and great for a quick match when you just want to jump in \/ jump out. \u00a0Is this the future of games on the PC? \u00a0I doubt it, and I seriously hope not. \u00a0My guess is that it\u2019s trying to fill a gap between \u201chardcore\u201d PC games, who play the \u201cproper\u201d BF games, and the casual PC gamers that play Flash-based games. \u00a0This falls somewhere in between which feels a bit like no-mans land.<\/p>\n

You can sign up and download the game for free at battlefield.play4free.com<\/a><\/p>\n

I did try to do a little video of the gameplay, but had trouble with both Fraps and WeGame with the beta version of the game. \u00a0With the WeGame client running, the game would crash every time when loading a map. \u00a0I could actually record with Fraps, but the result was just a stuttering mess even though the game played smooth — something I hadn\u2019t experienced in other games. \u00a0Instead you\u2019ll have to just deal with a few screenshots:<\/p>\n\n\n \t

\n [Show as slideshow]<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t