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Battlefield Heroes Goes Into Open Beta
EA Digital Illusions CE has quietly opened up the beta of Battlefield Heroes, their long-delayed, free-to-play shooter. After gradually scaling up the number of players in the closed beta, they've now made the game available to everyone and lifted the NDA. EA has not yet mentioned this in an official announcement, probably hoping to keep their servers from being overwhelmed. The game's website is now accepting signups. IGN ran a hands-on preview of Battlefield Heroes back in April.
This looks astonishingly like TF2.
Can someone who's played both give some feedback on differences/similarities?
#define true false
EA has not yet mentioned this in an official announcement, probably hoping to keep their servers from being overwhelmed.
We can take care of that for you...
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
First, this is a FREE to play "web based" game. Web based is a bit misleading as while it is launched from a browser (ad supported), it is fully installed and runs fullscreen.
Second, the game is a "cartoon shooter" based around 3 classes. The heavy Gunner, the light knife/sniper rifle toting Commando and the middle ground SMG using Soldier.
You're able to level up much like in an MMO and every 2 levels you get another point to spend on new abilities. Burning Bullets, Stealth, Blasting Strike (an ability that knocks everyone back, including vehicles), etc. Currently the highest attainable level is 30 and it takes quite a while to get there.
The game takes a lot from past Battlefield games. Controllable territory via flags placed around the maps. Airplanes, Tanks and Jeeps are all fully controllable.
The only thing you can pay money for is "Battlefunds" (Roughly $5 for 700 Battlefunds). These can be used to buy outfits for your charater and give NO advantage to you. So someone that spends $100 on battlefunds will have zero tactical advantage over someone who never spends a penny. (For reference, a permanent Battlefund purchased item generally costs 560 Battlefunds but you can "rent" them for a month for 140 Battlefunds). There are also free points that you earn slowly during play called Valor Points. These can also be spent on "free" clothing in the in game store. There are also healing "widgets"/spells that you can pick up to heal you (and another type to heal your vehicle).
Right now there are only 4 maps (2 infantry only and 2 with a moderate to heavy emphasis on vehicles). All of them feel very polished and fun to play over and over again. DICE has mentioned that they have new maps on the horizon.
Now, my personal opinion. The game is about FUN. This isn't a hardcore shooter such as Counter-Strike and doesn't claim to be. This game is one of those that you can easily pick up and just have some fun! If you're looking for realism and a serious tournament game, look elsewhere. But if you just want some fun comedic gameplay (not all that much unlike Team Fortress 2) this game might be for you.
Overall, coming from an old school Duke Nukem/Quake1/2/3/Counter-Strike/Battlefield player, this is a fun game. Give it a try if you want to see what it is about, again, it is FREE!
on their website, it reminded me of the theme song intros to all those cartoons I grew up with, TMNT, GI Joes, etc. Can't wait to try out the gameplay, though its a shame it doesn't work in Linux so I'll have to boot up my windows gaming rig to play. Don't know yet if it works in OSX, but I doubt it.
The game is good. In the earlier beta it had some horrific problems with the netcode/lag correction and hit detection. Aside from that, though, it is quite fun. I would say comparisons to TF2 are somewhat deserved. It is a class based FPS with objective oriented missions. The vehicles add an extra element, from jeeps which are a simple troop transport (which the passengers can shoot from) to tanks, to airplanes (which are mostly useless unless you have a joystick as they are near impossible to control), but they do function as a fast troop transport as one person can sit on each wing. Graphically, it's nothing to write home about (they're not bad, but come on, it's web based), however the level building/character customization aspects are a very interesting aspect. Each of the classes has unique abilities the ones I remember from the first beta include "I eat gernades" which allows the heavy gunner to eat gernades thrown by the enemy to heal himself, first aid "healing auras" that heal people around you. Etc. Further, the load out options add a whole lot of strategy to the game. There are various weapons from fast firing but low accuracy, to high accuracy slow, to close range high damage. Secondary weapons add even more strategy by allowing you to use gernades for anti personal, dynamite for anti-tank/booby traps. There are some comical elements such as the ammount of knock back caused by explosions, but the strategic gameplay of capture points, and the map design were all very good. Over all, I recomend at least giving this game a shot, especially considering the price. While I never went back to the beta when they reopened, I do wish I had, it was because of time that I didn't, not because of any lacking in the game's fun factor.
I didn't play Battlefield Heroes for more than 30 minutes, so someone can come in here and correct me, but aside from the "first impression" looks the games are completely different.
BH plays in third-person, on large battlefield-style maps (capture points, tickets, etc) with a few slightly different classes that branch out more with additional unlocks - the unlock system being a very large component of the game in general. There are also vehicles on some maps.
TF2 plays in first-person on maps with various objectives (some staged objective, some escort, some CTF, etc) with many classes that are very different and have some very specific interplay between them. There is an unlock system but it is fairly minimal.
One could go into a lot more specifics, but that is the short version.
Why, yes I have been touched by His noodly appendage. And I plan to sue.
A stylized rifle with four colored buttons which you have to press just in time to kill the enemies - why, that sounds like a sure hit to me.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
The only things you can buy with real money are:
Clothes
XP Boost Widget
VP Point Boost Widget
That's it. Clothes don't help you tactically in any way, VP points you get anyways and XP, while it will unlock abilities for you faster, doesn't give you anything playing will already give you over time.
So again, FALSE. There is nothing you can spend real money on to make you more formidable. Well, maybe a faster computer, but I digress.
A couple months back I was accepted into the Battlefield Heroes closed beta, so I downloaded, installed it, then after about 20 minutes of play I promptly deleted it.
It's like Battlefield 1942 except with all the fun stuff taken out. Seriously, it's a beautiful looking game, but that's it. The controls are dodgey, the weapons are weak, and the unlockables expire. Since this is an EA game you can pay real world money to get unlockables, which after a week will expire and be deleted from your inventory. I suppose that's the next step for DLC, and they've gotta test the water somewhere.
If you want to play a fun cheap battlefield game, then pick up Battlefield 1942, or Battlefield 2, they're bargain bin games now and are still great fun to play. Battlefield Heroes is just a dumbed down piece of crap designed to make you watch ads, and surreptitiously take your money.
And that was the last Terry Fox run I ever participated in.
Are you kidding me?
Download the game as a _4Gb_ Firefox plugin? One of the stupidest idea, IMHO.....
No possibility of changing install location, I wonder when was the last time I had 4Gb free space in c:\... must been some time before i installed openoffice.org.
I've found BH emphasizes strategy more than many other games. You just have to use very different strategies than in most other FPS. Once I stopped relying strategies I learned from other FPS and instead analyzed BH's strategic dynamics to develop BH specific strategies, my scores shot up to where I am regularly the high scorer on any server.
I'll grant that BH is not strategic like maybe Rainbow 6 or AA. BH requires a much more dynamic strategy than that. Nevertheless, you can't bunny-hop or twitch shoot your way out of trouble so you have to be very situationally aware and strategically maneuver yourself into positions where you are more likely to kill than be killed.
Maybe BH isn't right for you, but if you want to give it another go, here are some tips. If you want to win at BH, you need to: