The free Battlefield 3 Multiplayer beta opened up to the general public yesterday and after many attempts I was able to get into a few games to try it out. Demand must have been incredible because connecting to a game was really difficult (my suggestion is to just keep trying until it works). But it's a free beta and these things are to be expected, so ignoring the connection issues I thought I'd write up a few of my thoughts on the experience.
First, let me give BIG kudos to EA for making this available to the general public for free. Usually you have to pre-order the game or buy another completely different game in order to have access to the beta. Not with Battlefield 3, and I hope the strategy works. I'd love to have access to betas of other upcoming games, though my suspicion is that a free beta is a pretty good indicator of how confident EA and DICE are that this game is going to be successful, and a lot of other games probably wouldn't be as confident.
The game looks great, and I don't think a first person shooter has ever looked this good on the XBOX 360. The gameplay is largely the same as Battlefield Bad Company 2, with some noted improvements. They've changed out the fighting classes, giving the Assault class a med kit and replacing the Medic class with a Support class that carries ammo. I was initially able to get the most kills with the Support class, but all of the classes seem much more well balanced now. The Recon class has a sniper rifle but it feels more like a true Recon role than a sniper. And the Engineering class doesn't dominate quite in the same way it seemed to in BFBC2.
The other notable gameplay improvement is the ability to lie prone to get a shot or (more likely) duck out of the way of flying bullets. It feels weird to do initially, and I think it's one of those things that will take the longest to get used to. However, it also has the best chance of being the thing that I'll enjoy it the most of all the new features.
One odd change seems to be that the weapon upgrades you get (sights, etc.) seem to be specific to that gun. If you've earned the ACOG sight on that Russian assault rifle, it doesn't also transfer over to the M-16 on the American side. I suppose this encourages players to use all sorts of weapons, but I think having to slog it through iron sights on some of these guns will be more of a pain in the ass than anything.
The biggest problem I have with the beta though is a simple thing from BFBC2 that I would have bet money they would have fixed in Battlefield 3. In the Battlefield 3 beta a player still isn't able to quit the game in the "lobby" in-between rounds. You can't even quit while you're selecting your load-out, you have to wait until you spawn. Don't the people who make the game play it socially too? Usually you want to finish a game before you quit, but with Battlefield you have to wait until the next one starts before you can quit. Sitting in the lobby waiting until the next game starts so I can then quit the game is very annoying. It seems like such a simple thing that they could fix, and I can't find a reason why they wouldn't change it. In fact, I can think of a ton of reasons why they should.
The Battlefield 3 beta is fun, and even if you don't think you'll be buying the game it's definitely worth a download. It's a free way to play what is likely going to be one of the top shooters on the XBOX 360 ever. Just have some patience trying to get in.
Battlefield 3 Beta [Battlefield.com]
You can also pre-order Battlefield 3 for $59.95 from Amazon.com.