Battlefield Hardline

We didn't seem to have a thread on the newest Battlefield game so I had to make one.

Hardline is built on the Frostbite engine but is going in a new sort of police drama direction. Inspired by classic crime dramas and those old movies it promises to be a big detective thriller. Somehow. Interestingly enough this time around the story is being written by Visceral Games instead of DICE.

The single player trailer for those interested.

Thoughts?

edited 16th Jan '15 3:10:18 PM by LeGarcon

Not interested. It looks better than the flaming pile of turds that is Battlefield 4 but basically Battlefield: Cops N Robbers just doesn't turn me on.

Yeah. I wouldn't mind a nice dark crime thriller game but really that's just gonna be a backdrop for normal Battlefieldness.

The multiplayer was fun when I played the Beta last year but it just felt like a reskin of BF 4 but with new game modes. Really damn fun game modes but still.

The game got seriously delayed, it's coming out in March now as opposed to last November so maybe they did something fun with it but I doubt it. There's going to be an open beta next month so I'll try that but to be honest my hopes are really low.

I've got good hopes for it. Visceral is trying to make some big changes and find a new backdrop away from all the modern-day military/WWII crap, and the emphasis on the teams actually having differences for once means the multiplayer is hopefully going to feel fresh again. I've got absolutely no idea on just how the hell are they going to make the plotline anywhere near plausible though, given that most BF campaigns involve you mowing down tons of mooks, something even a SWAT officer will probably never do in his whole career.

I'm hoping that the police side will be akin to S.W.A.T 4.

My little brother is ultra excited for this and will be buying it, so I'll probably end up playing the campaign.

edited 17th Jan '15 1:59:39 PM by MakotoYuuki

Gameplay trailer, this one makes the game look much better than the other one

Still not sold on the story but if nothing else I'm certain the gameplay and the multiplayer will be solid. Unsure if that's worth a buy though

A 12 minute segment of a single player mission with narration by the game's creative director.

You know what? I feel much much better after seeing that. Plus I get to shoot Tea Partiers, it's a dream come true.

I think the whole cop angle could work if they don't try to take themselves too seriously. Cheese it up a bit and play the entire thing a little tongue in cheek and and it might just turn out all right.

At the very least it looks fun.

At E3, the consensus was the same - it felt like a mod, and not as good as some of the experienced modders out there could do.

Hardline open beta starts February 3rd

I dunno about the rest of you but I'll be participating. We'll have the full unlock tree and we get some fun tags in the main game.

If there is one thing I can say about this game is that I'm positive the multiplayer will be great. I played the last beta and had an absolute blast. General gunplay wasn't too different than normal Battlefield but the game modes were top notch. The lack of true vehicles and heavier ranged explosives also made it very interesting.

Hardline's open beta is now available for preload on Origin. I'm doing so now, since I doubt that I will be able to download it on college internet, and in any case I won't be able to put in any serious gaming until Thursday evening/night here.

Here are the system requirements.

edited 2nd Feb '15 8:39:10 PM by Krieger22

The guns in the beta feel a whole lot different than the stuff I'm used to in BF 3 - you're clearly not supposed to shoot the assault rifles past 150m, let alone the SM Gs. Recoil feels really stiff and more rigid than before, less of the shaky, fluid feeling the BF 3 guns had. But then again I know a lot of the BF 4 players say the overall gun ranges and accuracy were nerfed to encourage more close-range fights, so maybe they're either taking the gunplay in a new direction or modeling BF 4.

Lag is making it difficult for me to accurately gauge the quality of the game in some respects. LOTS of choppiness and allies and enemies popping up in front of me without warning, and I'm not sure if it's just the beta being a beta or my internet. I virtually never win the up-close gunfights, typically dying as soon as I'm noticed by the enemy, with the exception of whenever I'm able to flank or sneak up on them. Fortunately the levels are easily the most interactive I've ever seen in an FPS: you can open and close doors, shut off lights, activate alarm systems or sprinklers, use the AED kits on the walls, find ammo storage lockers and first aid kits lying around certain locations, or even use fire extinguishers both for their original purpose AND as either a weapon or poor-man's smokescreen! I was expecting just the typical destructive environment type of stuff and emphasis on guns, customization and/or vehicles, but the new focus on using the surroundings and their potential uses is turning out to be quite the unexpected surprise.

Finally, just what kind of goddamned crime ring can stage an all-out battle vs the police?!? I get that they might be receiving support from other criminal cartels but Jesus Christ, if the multiplayer is supposed to be a part of the storyline's plot then these guys are INSANELY well armed!

Storyline is taking cues from all those cop shows where street gangs somehow have access to rocket launchers and are threatening the world with bionuclear anthrax and it's up to two hardboiled cops who don't play the rules to stop them. Which honestly sounds great if they play it sort of tongue in cheek.

Also I can't get the beta because PS Store is dumb. Probably won't be able to download it until later this afternoon.

What's the unlock system like? I heard we buy weapons instead of unlock them now. And what kinda guns do we get this time around anyway? The very first Beta I was in we only had like 6 and half of them were recycled.

Does the AKM still have that dumb aftermarket rail thing going on?

edited 3rd Feb '15 8:41:11 AM by LeGarcon

I strongly doubt that, they keep trying to hype up the singleplayer like it's going to be a serious crime drama with some slight investigative moments. The Wire or The Shield this game ain't, and I hope the actual storywriters realize they're actually more Die Hard and Bad Boyz 2.

Yep, you gotta buy your gear now. Most of the purchases are permanent (like the guns, paintjobs, and bigger kits of gear), but it seems as if the grenades and other secondary weapons may actually be single-match-only uses. I haven't tried them out yet cause I haven't made much dough insofar and don't want to waste it. Case in point, the grenades average around $5,000 or higher, so wasting that on a shitty match just when I'm starting off would be a terrible decision.

As for the guns, it's a nightmare trying to identify them now. They're doing that stupid thing of giving many of the guns fake or slightly altered names again, as well as adding or customization choices. Case in point, the SCAR-H is in the game, but it's been heavily modified: there's no stock, the barrel has been extended, it has extra pitcanny rails, and it still has that horrid kick like in the last games. The only AK series I've seen so far is the AKM and that particular sucker was tricked out to hell and back already. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if only a couple of other (or only just that one AK model) appeared and were used as stand-ins for the rest of the AK family via gun mods.

edited 3rd Feb '15 8:56:37 AM by SgtRicko

A stockless SCAR-H dripping in aftermarket rails? .....why?

And when you say more customization do we get more optics and things or paint or what?

And can you buy any gun anytime or is it like a double unlock thing? Cause the buying anytime idea sounds a bit better than what we usually get actually. Sounds more fun than grinding for a week to get your CZ.

edited 3rd Feb '15 9:26:34 AM by LeGarcon

Downloading now thanks to some minor cheating. Probably. Size is a little small for some reason, hope I'm not accidentally downloading the last one.

Anyway, anyone encounter Ghost Homie yet?

Supposedly there's a very small chance on every empty reload of a little easter egg happening. In this case, Ghost Homie hands you a new mag.

Finally got into the beta. Game FPS is... under 24 for sure. No idea whether it's the beta-ness or the 200+ ping thanks to a lack of Asian servers. Can't kill anyone thanks to that.

Hacker mode is fun, though. I'm trying to help, guys...

The Battlefield servers have never been kind to those with high ping. I'm in the same boat as you, finding it impossible to survive the close-quarters inside of the bank due to how you absolutely need to split-second trigger finger reflexes to aim at and kill your targets. Maybe one day when I'm living stateside I'll have some better luck, but right now that single aspect is seriously making me consider holding back on purchasing this game. Do keep in mind though that I'm not saying the game's bad; in fact, from what I'm seeing Visceral made one hell of a fun multiplayer game that is definitely going to have a devoted fanbase for some time.

I'm finding some measure of success with the Mobile Command vehicles and the heavy-duty SU Vs: they're easy to use, durable, and most importantly both can act as mobile spawn points for the team, meaning I can help dictate the flow of the battle and which control points are taken or not.

I reckon things should get better when the game actually comes out, since then there will be more servers in the Asian region.

I keep getting matched up with some horrendously uncoordinated teams on both sides. Squads don't even function like they're supposed to, everyone simply charges into combat by their lonesome selves to die. Only so much a hacker can do for his team. At least I had someone admit in public chat that the gas releases I facilitated were a pain.

I've unlocked all hacker kit that can be unlocked with Bronze Service Stars. Anyone know what the scoring threshold is to earn Silver and Gold Hacker Service Stars?

Personally I've had no connection or ping or lag issues whatsoever barring a couple random disconnects.

I really like the game so far, the lack of heavy weapons has made things interesting. I absolutely adore Heist mode. So much so that I haven't actually played any other mode yet.

Gun balance feels a bit off though, there's no good reason to choose the RO 933 over it's bigger sister and the Uzi is fairly useless. Also the list of weapons feels a bit sparse, I'm hoping that'll change in the full game.

Shotguns are absolutely glorious now. I'm a little bummed about the lack of flechettes though.

I also like the changes to unlocks and the battlepacks, giving out vouchers instead of items was a great call.

Really there's a lot of stuff I like but I'm too lazy to list them all.

edited 5th Feb '15 8:48:54 AM by LeGarcon

Is it actually worth getting? I'm not really one for multiplayer shooters outside of TF 2 and maybe Quake Live, but the cops-and-robbers thing at least looks different than most shooters, and it does have those reload animations...

Well if you're not interested in multiplayer probably not. Single player in Battlefield is usually very small and almost completely irrelevant, it's always been a game that's been built from the multiplayer outwards.

Damn good multiplayer though, I'll be buying it.

^ Except that's what got em in trouble with BF 4. That and the (still) perpetual technical issues and relative low quality compared to other installments.

Hardline has stated it wants to be better than BF 4 in at least that regard. So far, it appears to be succeeding.

I won't be getting the game due to the unbearable latency issues here on Guam, but otherwise I would wholly recommend it. Best description I can think of would be a tactical FPS/ Call of Duty clone on crack due to the rapid pacing the matches have. I could've mentioned the vehicles too, but the simple fact is that aside from the choppers, all of the vehicles are pretty straightfoward and intentionally expendable, unlike in the previous games were they expected you to hold on your tanks, jets or whatever have you indefinitely. The 1000+ ticket matches never last long, maybe 30 mins, tops. In the other BF games they could seriously drag on for close to an hour, probably due to how the heavy firepower and support options made it easier to form chokepoints and defend the objectives as well.

Have a little album of the fun reloads

The Unica 6 one in Battlefield 4 I didn't know about, I love the little pat at the end.

Honestly it's just these cute little things that make Hardline much more fun for me.