Funny. Other than the background, I liked the second one better. I think it has a cleaner and more interesting set of stats, and I like that the ribbons, class and rank are bigger. I also think Score Per Minute, vehicle kills and longest headshot are interesting and/or quirky stats.




I'm tempted to try to figure out how to edit one of those just to see if I can weed the background out and make it black.

I also think the clan emblem should have a rocket launcher and/or C4 instead of the medic symbol, and I still think it would be funny if instead of any of those, it simply said "OMNOM"

That was an epic comeback. Good times for sure. Chess was holding down one of the flags single-handedly while me an another guy were riding around like maniacs from one flag to the next. I still can't believe we won that match. I don't think anyone in our squad died in the last 10 minutes. Clutch performances by everyone.

Shit yeah man...that was crazy!

Almost embarrassed to say that I stood up like my team had just scored the winning touchdown.

Some more good games tonight...pretty much settled on the M249 with infrared as my primary...love that gun. With the extended magazine, I can shoot nonstop for 20 seconds or so.

Suicide bombing tanks with C4 is my new favorite thing. It's so satisfying, and I every time I do it. I love that at some point C4 will be my second or third favorite weapon. Also unlocked the squad sprint ability...cool stuff.

Got disconnected a lot today...not sure what that's about.

So after playing for a bit...some thoughts on the maps...at least in conquest...and some similar maps from BC2 that are substantially better in most cases:

• Operation Metro - Worst Battlefield map I've played...a meat grinder with no redeeming qualities - White Pass
  
• Caspian Border - My favorite of the new maps...4 flags and lots of interesting and varied landscape - Cold War/Laguna Alta
  
• Operation Firestorm - this one isn't bad...linear tug of war...not half as good as Atacama Desert
  
• Grand Bazaar - of the small maps, this one has grown on me the most...lots of nooks and crannies - Oasis
  
• Kharg Island - Not terrible, but Apha is too far from the other 3 objectives...reminds me of Harvest Day that way - Harvest Day
  
• Tehran Highway - My second favorite new map...once you have infrared - Laguna Presa
  
• Seine Crossing - Not bad...small urban environment with 4 objectives...feels a bit like Arica Harbor
  
• Noshahr Canals - Not a bad map. Similar, but can't hold a candle to Panama Canal
  
• Damavand Peak - Terrible. Feels a bit like White Pass with the craziness at Bravo, except without ways to get around the other team to take the rear objective

While I really like a couple of these a lot (Seine, Tehran and Caspian), I find them mostly uninspired and generally not playing to Battlefield's strengths.

Hopefully the Karkland pack will deliver.

Strike At Karkand - looks a bit like Oasis
Gulf of Oman - original had 7 capture points...not sure how that works
Wake Island - Assuming it's like the one in 1942, it should be fun
Sharqi Peninsula - original had 8 capture points

I can't seem to put this game down, so I must be pretty content with the maps. Sure some are better than others, but for the most part they all have their strengths and weaknesses. Maybe I like the fact that it forces you to change your tactics and you can't play the same way on every map. It's good to switch classes every now and then, although it's tough starting out. Especially if you have a certain weapon set up that you like that you can't use in a different class. I haven't found a map where recon is good though. Or maybe I just suck with sniper rifles.

It's funny you don't like davamand peak. That's one of my favorites. The thermal/infrared is a must on that map cuz there are a lot of dark hiding places in the tunnel.

If i had to pick one, I would say my least favorite is operation firestorm. Seems to be mostly people camping on the roofs of where the 3 objectives are. I can park a tank right next to the flag and it won't move because somebody is hiding on the roof. My feeling is, you should at least have to be ground level to capture anything.

Did you play BC2? Just curious.

I'm in the same boat overall...having some fun with it now and playing it a ton on my time off, but it's hard not to compare when BC2 had such great maps. The only one I hated to see come up was Heavy Metal.

I'm hardly ever in a close game on Davamand Peak...somebody is always getting base raped within the first 5 minutes....just like Operation Metro.

I agree about Firestorm...it's not terrible, but I'm not super excited when it comes up either. It always comes down to having to go into those warehouses and finding some dude hiding in a corner who kills you.

Love it.

Looks like the OMNOM could move a bit to the left.

And I don't know if you can pick colors, but it seems like all the symbols/letters should be the same white as the skull.

I'll fix it up a bit later. I had to do all of the letters in pieces (made from 0s, 1s, and lines), so once I got it looking decent, I left it because it was 2am.

Your thoughts on the maps quoted above are pretty close to mine (dislike Metro; like Caspian Border, Grand Bazaar, and Tehran Highway). One thing worth noting on Damavand Peak is that each team gets a transport helicopter which can be used to fly over the peak and drop people to take the rear objective. The problem is that no one ever seems to really use it for that.

Right...there's usually some douchenugget flying around aimlessly in it. Probably a good map for chopper practice, since the other team doesn't give a shit about you.

Holy shit dude! I thought there'd be letters...didn't mean to have you doing actual work.

Edit: Oh...now I see it...the "M"s are 2 ones...thought you did something complex, but it was really just clever.

I can't tell you guys how much I love C4ing tanks!!!!!!

I find myself running for them just like I used to run for knife kills, and I every time I get one. I think it's cathartic for me because in BFBC2, as a medic, I basically cowered in fear of vehicles.

Durka Durka

Edit to add: Squad Sprint helps too. The squad upgrades are a really cool idea...reminds me of Borderlands.

I did play BC2 (and BC1 and 1943).

You're not gonna convince me the maps suck. Like I said, as much as I've been playing, the maps are obviously not having a negative affect on my enjoyment of BF3. This game has taken over all my free time (of which I have a lot).

Like I said...just curious.

I don't think all of the maps "suck". I think the ones with choke points are pretty bad though (Metro and Damavand), and I don't think any of the maps are anywhere near as good as or better than their BC2 equivalents...aside from Tehran and Seine, which have their own hook. I also think they are a little bit samey...dreary with lots of gray and brown. Hell, they are even making Wake Island gray and dreary to keep with the theme! BC2 had much better variety of environments with some desert, snow, tropical, country, industrial and urban.

I would pay $15 for a "best of" map pack from BC1 and BC2 in BF3. Something like Oasis, Harvest Day, Atacama Desert, Panama Canal, Arica Harbor, Laguna Presa, and Nelson Bay. I know it's a new engine, but I can't think of anything new in the gameplay that would break them.

On my way to dinner and it hit me...Friday bitches.

Anybody planning to play tonight?

Friends in town... probably not. I hope to be able to start playing a little more again soon.

We had something like 6 of us on tonight, and I played with Diecast and his brother for a bit before that...good times and tons of ace squad pins.

The game is about 90% awesome and about 10%...WTF? Sometimes I think the only reason I'm playing is for the points and upgrades...because I'm obsessive and nerdy and there's stuff to collect...and stats.

I got disconnected a bunch of times, making it really hard to stay in the game/squad...and I got off at 2AM when my PS3 froze.

I saw you were on, and i had finished my homework, so i decided to join you...this is only the second time i have played since i picked it up, because i've been so busy. it wouldnt let me join you, it kept saying I needed to reconnect to the server, so i jumped into my own game and it let me play. then i saw Murr and Spatula were on, so i jumped out of my game and tried to join you guys and it said i wasn't permitted to join...then i tried spatula and it said hte same thing...then it let me join Murr, but i couldn;t hear anyone clearly and only every other word from spatula.

On top of all that, I'm severely awful at this game. I can't hit shit with the iron sights, I've been playing too much COD, so my controls are all fucked up and everytime i try to throw out a medpack, i end up pulling up my paddles...are those thing reversed in this game compared to BFBC2?

I think i had 7 kills in the hour and a half we played.

The squad set up and squad chat is getting better but last night was pretty bad in terms of getting people to be able to play together and with getting kicked. At one point, I even had all of my display disappear: no map, health/ammo indicator, ticket counter, etc. And when I died, there were no text options to spawn so I had to quit the game and restart. I'd like to blame it all on a traffic-heavy, server-filled Friday night, but given all the squad issues we've had so far...

Got rolled at Seine Crossing a couple of times which was a bummer because I usually do the rolling on that map. It's an interesting map, with Alpha / Bravo close to the US deployment an Charlie / Delta close to the Russian deployment, yet Alpha / Charlie and Bravo / Delta immediately next to each other. Makes for some excellent close-quarter combat that just keeps coming.

Finally, I got a nice pair of dogtags last night and was immediately knifed by one of their teammates. I'm pretty sure he watched me knife his pal so I would be distracted enough for him to take my dogtags. Talk about teamwork!

I know it has been asked before, but are you people playing console or PC? I've been thinking about getting 3, but as I learned from 2 and SpecOps, it pays to play with people you're familiar with (and who have mics.)

We play on PS3.

we are on PS3...we have a pretty good group for multiple incarnations of both COD and Battlefield and NCAA football...and in the past, Red dead redemption and on occasion we will get together and play Burnout with like 5-10 of us...(although it has been awhile)

Yeah, the comms are a mess and hooking up with friends almost has to be done before you jump into a game. We sort of did what we used to in BC2, taking over half of a team, but it's a pretty far cry from how easy it was to do in that game...and even harder to maintain it with disconnects and crashes.

Yes, they are reversed...had me raging pretty bad early on...it's awesome to toss a medpack and find yourself completely exposed as you fumble through absurdly long animations. You also heal fairly quickly in the game anyway, so the medic is a combination of gimped and redundant.

My recommendation is if you want to play assault, use grenade launchers, and if you really liked the way the medic played, switch to support...that's what I did.