BF3 early access codes

[Rob Williams]

I cannot guarantee that these work, but I believe these codes to be early access codes for Battlefield 3. If you don't have the early access already, just load up Origin and redeem one of these codes, and please post if one of them works.

[marfig]

I successfully redeemed the first code to Battlefield 3™ Open Beta (English GB, English US). Thanks Rob.

I'll install the game in the next 24 hours. Hope to have fun with you guys in the upcoming days.

[Rob Williams]

Cool, glad that worked; removed it.

I loaded it up fast, but the website aspect of the game turned me off fast. You have to be INSIDE of an on-going match to just setup your graphics and test things out. I hope that's a beta feature exclusively :S

[DarkStarr]

I snagged the other code :P I will have to give it a try.

[Rob Williams]

Great, glad these got some use

[marfig]

Doing the download right now. But from what you say, I seem to believe that could indeed be a beta only feature, meant to more easily gather parametric data. I think the alternative is just unthinkable

What however got under my skin was the Origin client itself. It believes, just because my IP is from Portugal, it should setup itself (without asking) in Portuguese and use the Portuguese version of the online store. So, if I happen to be someone travelling to Manzhouli, China, I guess I'll have to learn to speak Mandarin. Anyways, this wouldn't be so bad really if the Portuguese translation wasn't just horrible. Translation shooter to "atirador", for instance, is like trying to translate a stop sign. It's stupid, useless and simply wrong. Some words just become universal when spoken in certain contexts. But if that's what it takes, at least give me the option to use an english version. I don't have that option for the online store. Only for the client itself, and only after finishing installing it -- which I'm going to tell you, will be a near impossible task if you happen to be passing by or living in a country you don't know the language.

Hate when software makes assumptions about the people that use it. It's a bloody cardinal sin of software development.

[Rob Williams]

Originally Posted by marfig

What however got under my skin was the Origin client itself. It believes, just because my IP is from Portugal, it should setup itself (without asking) in Portuguese and use the Portuguese version of the online store.

The unfortunate thing is that some games do the same thing; even if purchased through Steam. It's something that drives me nuts, because people should be able to choose their preferred language or location and just have it stick. A friend of mine who lived in Taiwan for some time wasn't able to purchase games on his Steam account because it was tied to Australia - and the solution wasn't as simple as just changing the location. He had to get friends back him to purchase games through it for him.

[marfig]

Well, just finished an hourly session. No server crash, thank goodness.

Serious teamkills the whole freakin' time. Felt terribly boring at some point and I almost rage quit after being killed for the 7326th time by a team mate, always less than a minute after deploying. But that's something to be expected on this type of things. Really, playing a game like this with complete strangers on a crowded server is not for my stomach.

Anyways, it was evident this is a great game. I couldn't fight for my life. Was as greener and as excitable as an acne factory nerd on sex ranch. And after choosing the lady, I was as confused on what to do with her as I was on what to do in-game. But "Boy! It was lots of fun, oh my god!", I would say to all my friends, thus denouncing my deflowering experience.

Screens looked confusing, options too, and the sense of urgency for having to change things while in-game didn't help at all. At some point I just decided to take a deep breath and ask the lady if I could have some time of my own to figure out what use I could give to those two things hanging from her chest. So, I just stopped playing and devoted all my attention to the in-game options and taking my time trying to understand also the screens that show when I die. In the end I still didn't understand much of it.

But I scored a kill! And that my friends is how men are made!
Booyaa!

[Rob Williams]

Originally Posted by marfig

Serious teamkills the whole freakin' time.

Ugh, this is one reason I like friendly fire turned off...

Originally Posted by marfig

Anyways, it was evident this is a great game. I couldn't fight for my life. Was as greener and as excitable as an acne factory nerd on sex ranch.

Hah! I don't think BF3 is that welcoming of a game to begin with. You have to know what to do and get in lots of practice. It's harder to get good at a game where a lot of it is out in the open not in confined areas like Call of Duty. This is one thing that might plague me with the game... it still doesn't appeal to me to a huge degree outside of the SP. I am hoping that'll change upon the actual release, because the beta seems to be a useless gauge to go by.

Originally Posted by marfig

Screens looked confusing, options too, and the sense of urgency for having to change things while in-game didn't help at all.

No joke. I'm not sure how the developers can create such a masterpiece of a game and then pull a stupid stunt like that. When I logged in to change settings I just ignored everything around me. If I died, I didn't care. It's not like I had a choice to change the graphics any other way.

Honestly, before I downloaded the "beta", I was stoked. After all that hassle, I lost interest mega-speed. Hope that changes for the better.

[marfig]

Originally Posted by Rob Williams

Honestly, before I downloaded the "beta", I was stoked. After all that hassle, I lost interest mega-speed. Hope that changes for the better.

I'm still confident the Got To Your Browser to Start the Game thing is optional once the game is released, and that the obligatory in-game settings change is just there because we actually aren't greeted with a title screen on the beta.

The game otherwise felt absolutely great. I did have fun with it, despite playing so badly. You are absolutely right that this game demands training for someone like me. Something I plan to do to a great extent.

Despite those two huge downers above, I think this is going to be a big game, Rob. They have to be temporary things that aren't going to be there in the release day

I was particularly happy with the unforgiving bullet damage, the apparent realism and brutality of close combat. The game is an adrenaline rush for sure in the hands of a group of like-minded friends playing match or co-op modes.

I agree the beta experience does suck, however. I would add two other downers:

- Can't pick sides
- Can't change keyboard settings

[Rob Williams]

I agree on all counts. I understand that the final game might have a real menu, but I don't think it should have been excluded for the "beta". I've never played a "beta" before where there was never an actual menu... never.

Originally Posted by marfig

Despite those two huge downers above, I think this is going to be a big game, Rob. They have to be temporary things that aren't going to be there in the release day

I sure hope. I am going to give it more of a change during the beta and see if it just clicks or not. At this point I'm just not sure. I never liked BF, and I'm not sure BF3 is going to change much outside of SP. We'll see...

Edit: I should just mention, I have a major lack of patience. I can go from being a total fanboi of something to an absolute hater if corners are cut or I keep running into problems. At this point a lot of fun was just sucked out of the game for me, so I am going to let things settle down before I dive back in.

[DarkStarr]

Well, that was weak as hell..... I went 14/16 K/D. I only got that many due to either them spawning where we were of them glitching into there but I took the shotty to em for like 6 kills or something.

[TheCrimsonStar]

They picked a bad map for the beta. Operation Metro was the same map on the Alpha, and it's not too fun. I got onto a locked Caspian Border EA Testing server. 64 people. Oh...my...God....so beautiful. One of the player's first comments was "Now...THIS is Battlefield." which was followed by a round of "Hell yeah!!" from other people. I can play at around 35fps on the open parts of the map. It's freaking HUGE. I just ordered a 6970 last night after playing CB due to the low framerate. I got high k/ds the whole time, and even sniped someone from clear across the map. And that map is approximately 1.4km long according to the devs.

[DarkStarr]

hmmm guess i ought to get my fps on BF3, ill update here soon.

[DarkStarr]

Well, at stock clock it looks like about 42 min and 66 max.
OC (on air, so quick n dirty OC) min was like 54 and max was about 86. Not bad for a 480 hahaha