Hey everyone, Z here, with another rant blog post about Battlefield 3!
Something strange seems to have happened since the release of Battlefield 3. The standard of players who play Battlefield has gone down massively! It's actually saddening to see some of these people play. Yesterday, it almost brought a tear to my eye.
Allow me to clarify something. My play style does not rely on me going 35-2. I'm not that sort of player. If I want to do that, I play CoD. I'm a person who uses vehicles and attacks objectives in an aggressive manner whilst trying to flank and outmanoeuvre the opponent. For this I NEED players to support me. I need squadmates to spawn on me when I'm preparing to capture, or I'm behind enemy lines. I'm not the most accurate with weapons. I do get 4-man sprays sometimes, but it requires a combination of AR and revolver kills. I'm a good chopper gunner, but I need a good pilot to provide me with a stable and well-coordinated platform. I'm also a good chopper pilot, but I need a good gunner or repair crew to help keep enemy choppers, tanks and foot infantry off of me and keep me in the air. Because I rush objectives on foot a lot, I need some sort of reconnaissance for the areas I am going into, so I need teammates to fly MAVs and place T-UGSs down, or I need a teammate to scout an alternative route, so we find the route with fewest enemy encounters.
Here are some of the problems I've come across over the last few days when playing with randoms.
- Nobody gives health, even when asked for it1
- Nobody gives ammo, even when asked for it1
- Nobody spots
- Nobody uses the SOFLAM
- Everybody's a sniper pussy camping in a far-away building
- Nobody repairs vehicles
- Nobody goes for objectives
- Everybody abandons vehicles in the most stupid places
- Nobody looks out for c4 ninjas
- Nobody wants to be a gunner in vehicles
- Nobody takes out enemy vehicles
- Nobody knows how to use vehicles
- 50% of people either use the FAMAS or the USAS-12 Frag rounds
- Nobody picks you up when you ask them to1
- People drive off with empty vehicles
- Nobody listens to requests, recommendations on where to go, or even the locations of enemies (too many times I've had my IFV driver looking in the opposite direction to an approaching enemy IFV or tank).
This isn't even an exhaustive list, there's even more things that teammates don't do, like trying to flank the enemy, using alternate tactics when things aren't working out, even covering my six, or checking corners during an advance that I am spearheading.
The following is a recap of my 2 worst rounds in Battlefield history[]
Teammates rarely work together and go for the win. I've had a few rounds on Wake Island CQ recently. Normally I can have a flawless or near-zero-deaths round in the 9K33 Tunguska AA, but these two specific rounds showed how important teamwork is to keep key vehicles running. One round, when I was on the RU team, I was in the Tunguska, and my team did nothing to stop the enemy taking both Charlie and Alpha, and subsequently made to effort to spot or destroy 2 tanks converging on my position on Bravo - I was sandwich-attacked and we lost Bravo. I was attacked by 3 Engineers with RPGs, a Support with C4 and 2 T90-As. The round when I was on the US side (same teammates as before), I was the only person that entire round taking objectives, making any effort to take out the Tunguska and enemy tanks, and the only one to laser designate both air and ground targets for teammates. One guy in my squad broke out the Guided Shells, but the rest of the team did nothing - no Stingers, no Javelins. Nothing. Just ran about on foot or in the DPV Buggies like headless chickens. We obviously got demolished these two rounds with myself as the top player with twice as much score as anyone else on my team.
To finish up[]
Now I know this post seems ragey. That's because that's how I intend it to be. I don't enjoy playing Battlefield when, if I don't have friends online to play as a team, we are guaranteed to lose.
I recognise that people have their flaws, and these things did happen in previous Battlefield games, but it was nowhere near this bad in Bad Company 2. I guess this sudden influx of new players has brought a lot of the (dare I say it) CoD crowd in who don't know how to play a tactical FPS, well, tactically.
Some of these players I encounter are Colonel rank and above, and still only go for kills or hide in the corner like a little b*tch. Yes, hiding in the corner has its tactical advantages, but not when they are hiding in the corner as a support with 2 claymores on the only stairwell to their position and they can't even see the objective they should be overlooking, nor are they within range of its capture area... and they do this for the entire round. What's worse is that when that obejective is being captured, they make no effort to defend it. At all. And they they have an LMG with a bipod = perfect for overwatch.
OK, let's end this with a smile :D[]
Here's one :)
Notes[]
1This includes using the spot button, shouting over the mic in various languages, knifing them, shooting them, knifing them and then shooting the ground, flashing the torch or laser in their face, giving them ammo/health to request the opposite, or just generally trying to get their attention.