Battlefield 4: China Rising

Premium subscribers can play this early. Everyone else has to wait till 17th December.

I just had a go last night and the new maps are really good. I'm a long time player of the Battlefield series so for me to be impressed, it's gotta be good.

Check it out. There's some flipping awesome maps out that not only look great but play really well. Infantry is very effective, planes and choppers are kept well in check. Had a lot of fun playing it. Hoping you PS4 and XBO people and even 360ers/PS3 owners enjoy it too.

You guys are killing me with all this talk of how good BF4 is! I want it now, have been a big fan of the series also.. BF1942, BC2 and BF3. The PS3 beta looked and played terrible IMO so have not been bothered but it sounds like it is really good on next gen/PC.

I never got into BF3 as I went off and played Skyrim half to death and got left behind. Had a really good night playing BF4 last night though and particularly the new China Rising maps.

BF4 is a lot more like BF2 in how it's played. Squad size is up to 5, voice comms and commander is back and it just feels a lot better.

There's a lot of really good innovation with the series but it's gotten a bit complex in places with all the weapons attachments and battlepacks and awards etc. Some great touches though. I have a Daffy Duck emblem that I had to design myself and it gets layered on to all the vehicles you drive and even on your weapons. It's pretty cool (a bit like the sprays in CS:S).

Though using an internet browser to launch the game through Battlelog is a good idea (kind of like the old All Seeing Eye days), it doesn't properly at all and neither did it in BF3. You're meant to be able to click on the 'Players' column to get it to show you rankings by populated servers but it's shot to blazes. It just doesn't work so can be extremely frustrating trying to find a suitable server to play on. I really need to look into other options there. I don't suppose Xfire can be used either...

BF1942! Glory days! I've still got the game installed on my PC and there are still people playing it I bet. Crazy bu.ggers. I certainly would recommend BF4 but only for next gen or PC really.

While am sure the PC version is even more awesome but at the back of the room with an old xbox 360 did find the graphics and environment to be a leap up from BF3. Waiting to January to go premium.

Gameplay wise its a leap on from the beta, tight small infantry only maps feel very frenetic particularly when you don't know them.

Just cannot justify the xbox one or PS4 to myself yet and with xbox live gold throwing out the freebies the last few months have a nice stock of different games to keep me busy. Also want all the TV apps to be on the next console before I upgrade, as I use the console for all my catchup.

And believe me Trance it looks like a different game and runs and plays beautiful ,if you remember when I posted about the Playstation 3 beta and how I said it looked appalling ,well on a Playstation 4 this is on another level and worlds apart from the shabby Playstation 3 version.

If ever there was a reason to upgrade to a next generation console then from what I have seen and played of Battlefield this is it.

I'm not even that bothered about the games,and have hardly ever put much more than I few hours at most with all the previous games ,but my I just love this game and I'm really hoping that later tonight when I connect to the multiplayer it still carries on shining.

After all Multiplayer is what Battlefield is all about and I'm impressed with the single player that as we all know is not its strongest point.

Looks very similar to this

From the sound of it I would really like it but won't be getting a PS4 until next year sometime, alternatively I could upgrade my PC but I'm sure it would come to more to play the game well.

Haha I remember those sprays well, you could make your own from any picture you had by resizing it and putting it in the correct folder, many people decided to use porn

Edited by astateoftrance (Sun 08-Dec-13 19:58:01)

That's interesting regarding the graphics as I found BF3 to be good, so if its an improvement on that then that wouldn't be a issue with me. The main reason for me not getting it on the PS3 is because it has a lower player count. 12v12 rather than 32v32. I love the big vehicle maps so that would surely make a big difference.

Would love to play it now after hearing how good it is but it's gonna have to wait... I have plenty of business to take care of in Los Santos anyhow

Another thing with online multiplayer games like Battlefield is they just take up all my gaming time. I have played many more single player games since I stopped BF3.

I think, unless you're dead set on having improved graphics and more players per server, that holding off on the new gen consoles is the way to go at least until the dust settles. Particularly so if you're coming from the Xbox ecosystem. That whole thing about the ESRAM and texture compression/decompression over IP sounded really good (too good even?).

So, have you got any favourite maps then Mr S? Paracel Storm for the cool waves and Flood Zone get my vote for most impressive/novel environments for an online FPS. If the map quality continues to be as good for the China Rising DLC for future map packs we will really be in for a treat.

Haha. Yeah. Kids eh? Some of those sprays (well, a lot of them!) were pretty graphic eh? Some walls were like art galleries and it used to crack me up seeing groups of soldiers idling about viewing them all. Of course the most infamous spray was the this one!

^ Yay! now I know how to do the above smiley on this forum thanks to looking at your quoted text

Haha yeah. I have a number of memorised smileys but when I forget I click the blue text above this box 'Markup in your posts' link and take a look at the FAQ (Smiley section) for something different!

We've got some uncommonly used ones there... like and seemingly Timey's recent favourite, !

Don't think I've seen all the maps yet...

The flooded streets with lots of roof tops is really good, lots of vertical/horizontal play.
The waves and weather is pretty amazing now. Only made it it Lance Corporal so far.

Some maps are sniper heaven, especially now there is a zero option on the sights, but good use of cover negates a lot of their fun

Apparently all future expansion packs have been delayed whilst they fix the problems (which should have been found before releasing) with the game...

Well i downloaded and install the China Rising Map pack and then found i had to wait 2 weeks to play them which Spook said would happen��.But hey this is Timey��.premium here i come at £39.99 and guess what i must be the only Playstation 4 owner that has them or the servers are showing invisible players�.Not a single player in any of the china rising servers.

64 player matches though so that looks interesting ? when i see some more players as it might as well be 1v1

64 players is not fun, I can tell you...

I hadn't bought Premium yet and therefore don't have China Rising but my friend has bought premium and he said what you just said, it is one of the best BF maps he has ever played and we have been playing BF for years. I am going to get it this evening I think, may as well as I am sure I will play it all year.

I have to say I am extremely impressed with BF4, if ever there was a game that felt like it was next gen it is this. All of the innovations in the game are brilliant, it's so much better than COD that just feels like a new skin on top of the same old stuff. All of the new little features in BF4 are brilliant (like the camera in the bottom left of your screen when you are going to respawn on a person showing you where they are" and levelution is awesome

Did find the console stuttering in the prison/facility map (the one with the guard tower inside and lots of tunnels. Suspect it was the weapons fire, mixed with bullets and rendering the explosions, smoke and incendiary grenades.

If the Xbox One fixes that and takes the graphics up another notch then I will be impressed.

Levolution

You know I had to look that up though I had a rough idea. I seem to miss a lot of important factual stuff going on sometimes like the fact the flood water rises in Flood Zone. I am a pillock. I knew about the damn collapsing on Lancang Dam though I've not destroyed anything big like that myself yet. Gonna go and find a quiet server and practise those demolition events listed in the link above.

Had a look on the Origin store for you but they only have Xbox 360 and PS3 games listed along with the PC. It's a shame as they'd got deals on at the moment and the standard prices for a lot of their stuff is just too high in my opinion. I paid £30 for the Premium edition, I bought it from simplycdkeys or whatever it's called. Got it in 5 minutes too which is good!

China Rising is also included in deluxe editions as Timey found out but it won't be accessible to those who are not paying for Premium until the 17th.

Yeah, lots of really good innovation going on here so DICE should be congratulated on that front. I love the camera respawn views too. You have that in Commander mode too btw so you can see what your squad leader is up to. But Commander mode is pretty boring in the main I feel. Played it on my 7" Android tab too btw but it's kinda tricky, I think a larger display size would be handy there.

Well, I'm off to blow stuff up! Just gonna check out the other posts first. Hopefully that won't too long. I'm itching for a bit of C4 high jinks fun.

Well I never, i didn't know half of them Spook! Granted I have only racked up 10 hours playtime but I didn't realise you could trigger them yourselves, I thought they were all time based. I am going to give all of them a go over the weekend, the Mrs is away so I can see a 12 hour BF session on the horizon.....

Yeah, I assumed the Flood Zone one was a timed event but there's a weak spot in the levee where it's been patched up with some kind of barrier holding it up.

I've done them all now. Every major levolution event. Took me ages to do the Dawnbreaker one as I didn't see the stairs going underground to the gas pipeline maintenance bit. You gotta overload the pipeline pressure at both ends (point B and D). Had to go on YouTube to work that one out. Worth it tho!

Had a long session last night but I think some of the new maps may be very poorly balanced in how they're set out as one side always dominates. Silk Road (the desert one) is particularly bad, it's really hard to win if you're on the US side it seems. Altai Range, playing as the US again. We couldn't even get out of base to capture point A. If you wanted to take a chopper and leg it past all the [censored] shooting into base you'd get taken down easy. It was a nightmare and I can't remember BF2 being quite so bad, even on Dragon Valley.

Games like BF4 demand time for sure. I'm sure the Missus will understand.

Battlefield 4: China Rising Edition is now sat in my drawer.

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

Battlefield 4: China Rising Edition is now sat in my drawer.

Well, solider. What's it doing there? You won't be killing no one with it there. Maybe just your socks and undies? Are you hiding it from yourself? Doing a Santa are ya?

He was actually messing about with the playroom the other day which is a camera enabled App within the Playstation media hub.

He said he wasn't setting up the camera until Christmas but seems to have changed his mind or had a little pressure from his daughters more like

Come on Dad��..Please ,please.please we will do the washing up if you set up the camera and show us the Playroom..

Nelly�Look girls if you do my general household chores like the ironing,cooking,cleaning,dog walking and don't tell your mother i will show you how this playroom works��.But its our little secret��Please for pete sake don't tell your Mother else I'm in the Dog house

There's no dog house in our house. The missus wouldn't stand for it.....in fact I'm not sure why I call it OUR house at all.

And the playroom was an accidental button press, the camera's all wrapped up on top of the wardrobe. Hang on.....now there's a thought?

Nope. Timey made me promise not to go online until he was back in action!

There's no [censored] "I" in team soldier.

I played Killzone MP search and destroy last night and guess what? No meaningful lag whatsoever. Zilch.....nada. It was supremely playable. And out of all the modes, search and destroy was the most unplayable in COD games. I've never had a KD ratio greater than 0.39 in either COD or BF3 games. First night of MP on the PS4 (in fact the first night of competitive MP since November last year) and the nel meister comes away with a 1.48. Eh? Eh? Howdya like them apples?

Too early to say whether it's the killzone netcode or the network as a whole, but I'm praying for the latter. I will be gutted if BF4 lags on me like BF3 and bad company did.

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

There's no [censored] "I" in team soldier.

Yeah, but there is an 'i' in soldier.

Who needs Timey anyway? Oh hang on. A diversion eh? Actually I've spawned a fair few times in BF4 only to serve as a handy bullet shield for the squad mate I was spawning on. It's most annoying so I guess having Timey handy is a useful thing.

Hopefully you won't have the same cra,ppy netcode balancing sh.ite going on as you did before with the PS4. What broadband co. did you say you were with again?

There is a network smoothing feature thing in the settings in BF4 on the PC. Maybe you have something similar with the PS4? Not exactly sure what it's for but it's a slider from 0 to 100% and advises you that your latency increases as you apply it whilst 'visuals errors' decreases. I'm experimenting with it at the minute. Not sure if it'll make a difference tho. I have my good games/nights and my bad ones. The good nights are all right (a mix of performance) and the bad ones are very bad. Current K|D ratio is 0.7. Ahem. Reflects my tendency to go for the flags at great cost to (my) life and limb. I always play Conquest mode and I'm sh.ite at rush, which is the only other one I like so far.

In reply to a post by SPOOKish:

Current K|D ratio is 0.7. Ahem. Reflects my tendency to go for the flags at great cost to (my) life and limb. I always play Conquest mode and I'm sh.ite at rush, which is the only other one I like so far.

Conquest IS Battlefield, forget the other modes and you are playing it the right way, going for the objectives and forgetting about your K/D ratio

Well, I wish more people would play it that way. Many more! I was explaining Battlefield to Timey and how it wasn't just a one man mission (against all others) for top score. It'd be nice to kill some more people now and again though.

My K/D ratio doesn't even get me on the leaderboards. I think there are 7 or so divisions for things like Best Commander, Aviator, Support Class and Skills and so on and unsurprisingly I'm not even in the lowest division for K/D. I'm in world division 1 for top commander, 2 for ace aviator and 2 for support class.though (just checked).

Also, my Win/Loss ratio doesn't even feature as I've been on the losing side far too many times. What does that say about me I wonder? Either I'm dragging everyone down or my refusal to quit/switch teams is a highly punitive strategy.

To be fair, BF4 continues to strive towards rewarding players with points for helpful team play. There's still a ways to go though. Conquest is Battlefield. I like that. Yeah. There's too many modes now and luckily you can filter them out so I have.

Edited by deleted (Wed 11-Dec-13 20:40:34)

In reply to a post by astateoftrance:

In reply to a post by SPOOKish:

Current K|D ratio is 0.7. Ahem. Reflects my tendency to go for the flags at great cost to (my) life and limb. I always play Conquest mode and I'm sh.ite at rush, which is the only other one I like so far.

Conquest IS Battlefield, forget the other modes and you are playing it the right way, going for the objectives and forgetting about your K/D ratio

You're right of course, but it's not about the prestige of a high K/D. Its about the quality of the experience too. I always play that way but I'm nobody's patsy. You can tell when timing and reaction results aren't quite right but you begin to doubt yoursef, perhaps in the same way that those with a 3:1 ratio start to believe it is all their own work.

It's just nice that Killzone has confirmed that hosting a buttery smooth connection for all the high pingers needn't result in a performance handicap in exchange!

Go on test it out ? I won't mind Nelly

I might be wrong but isn't Killzone using Dedicated servers ?

Yeah i had a theropy lesson with psychiatrist Dr Spook this afternoon courtesy of Skype,actually felt like i was in the chair at the time and i certainly went into a deep Trance thats for sure

But i did manage to decorate the whole house why he rambled on about Battlefield 4 so there is a positive end to the story.

Timey checks emails for shopto confirmation of anther shipped playstation 4 but sadly empty mailbox ?

The bedroom Aye ? make sure you use the SHARE BUTTON like Quality Street