Battlefield 4 Tips and Tricks

Hi guys,
 If you follow me on Twitter you will know just how big a fan of Battlefield 4 I am, and today I thought I would impart some of my wisdom to you. Well I hope it is wisdom or this whole post is a bit worthless but for now we will strive on under the assumption that is is wisdom and not the ramblings of a mad man! One last quick note, all of my tips today will be centered around how to do them on the PS4 controller, so I apologise if your are on any other platform!

      1) Spotting: This is probably the nost important tip I will give you today, as you will know shooting has been moved to R2 on the DS4(Dualshock 4) and spotting is now bound to R1, this is actually really handy because I have now got into the habbit of constatnly spotting and then quickly moving my finger back to R2 to shoot. I can't tell you the number of times it has saved my skin/shown me someone to shoot who I couldn't normally see, so get into the habbit of doing it constantly!

     2) Big Map: You may not know this but even on console you can bring up the whole of the map, rather than relying on just the little one in the bottom corner. To do this you simply hold the options button(to bring up the scoreboard) then press R1 which will move it to the map, once you release options obviously it will take the map from the screen. However when ever you bring up the scoreboard again the map will instead be there, to switch back to the scoreboard press L1! I usually check the big map every time I spawn in so I can see whrere I need to go! Alternatlivly you could just check the spawn map and spawn where you think you are needed.

     3) Sniper Lense Glint: If ever you see a little glint in the corner of your eye, like someone on the map is shining a torch right at you this isn't a bug, it is acutually the sun reflecting of the scope of a sniper! This is also usefull to watch out for if every you are trying to counter snipe!

     4) Tank Weak Spots: Want to get the upper hand in a tank-on-tank battle? Well the sides of a tank will give you the lowes damage(so turn your side towards the enemy tank), but most importantly the rear of the tank will give you the largest damage! Bear these 2 tips in mind during a tank battle and you will more than likley win!

     5) Talk to Your Team: If-like me- you don't particularly like turning your mike on to directly speak to your team mates, then you can hold L1 which will bring up this wheel of options:

      You can then select one of them(by hovering over one of them and releasing L1) and then it will pop up in the top left of the screen for your whole team to read. Also any team mates nearby will be able to hear your plea for help of your command!

     6) Squads: The first thing I do every time I join a server is press triangle to survey all of the squads, you want to pick the squad with the most number of people already in it(ovbisously not 5!) and join it, this can actually be really vital because with a large squad you are less likely to all die and lose your precious squad points. It will also give you a larger pool of players to choose to spawn on! Though be warned sometimes there will be a squad of less than 4 and it won't give you the option to join it, there is nothing you can do so just choose another squad.

     7) Phantom Assignmests: Right this is my last tip for the day and it revolves around the ellusive Phantom Prospect and Treinee assignments. You have to be a Premium member to be able to start working towards the assingment. First though you must enter the correct passwords for each assingment, what you have to do is go the the leaderboards table and scroll down, then in the bottom left you will see a little mask behind another mask. If you click on this it will bring up a large page of code, don't worry this is what it is supposed to do, once it has verified you are a premium member it will ask you to put a password in, the first password you want to put in is, bumpinthenight, just like that with no spaces. That will give you access to the Phantom Prospect assignment. Then you will be asked to input a second password which is, epic dream worlds, this time with all of the spaces, this will give you access to the phantom treinee assignment. Good luck completing them!

That brings me to the end of my tips and trick for BF4, I hope you found this usefull in some way, if you did be sure to tell your friends about them!
Thanks for reading
Ed

Battlefield 4 Diary: Aqua Domination

Hi guys Rick here reporting to you from inside the battlefield,

 07:00: The time that we all wake up every day, I nearly always train in the morning and then go out and shed blood for which every country I am serving now, and this day was no different. We usually do 10 laps of the Aircraft Carrier we live on and also serves as a mobile deployment station for where ever we are needed.

 

09:00: At  this time a couple of us have usually been deployed but most of us are sat around twiddling our thumbs until the afternoon. 

 

 13:06: My lunch was cut short when I was told that I was being deployed, my orders from up high were to scout a plane crash in an attack boat. Thinking back that was one of the best tuna sandwiches I had eaten in quite a while!

 

 13:12: That was one of the quickest times that I had got from the mess to the lower deck in a long time, but this was a special day, I am usually deployed on foot, so to be entrusted with a huge boat with even bigger guns was quite a spectacle.

 13:17: By this time I had reached the crashed plane, but I could feel that something wasn't right, it was too quiet, there was no body any where near the crashed plane, the whole place was totally deserted. Just as I was about to radio back to the Carrier to report, I saw them. I saw the enemy, and they were plentiful, I managed to take down one of their attack boats and a couple of infantry before I my self was killed. 

 13:19: Expecting to go into the nether, I was very surprised when I suddenly woke up in an identical attack boat! This time before I left the Carrier I made a few upgrades to the boat, this time I would be going out with a new kind of ammo which I was assured by my quarter master would deal with enemy boats with greater ease. He was right.

 13: 25: This day was turning out to be a very, very good one I had already dispatched 2 enemy boats and I was bearing down on my third. Every thing was going brilliantly, but it would seem with hindsight that the enemy saw what I was doing and dispatched a jet to take care of me. As you may be able to imagine, it didn't take long before I was waiting to wake up again.

 13: 33: I felt like I was within spitting distance of something very important, I just couldn't put my finger of what! This time when I woke up there was someone else driving the big boat and I was precariously stood on the back of it with a rather large chain gun. 

 13:37: This was going brilliantly, it turned out that the guns on the side of the boat were highly affective against most things that floated. Alas my reign of aqua dominance could only last so long. This time it was someone from the shore line who was pointing a rather large gun at me which he rested on his shoulder.

 13:54: After several more escapades in the attack boat I got a radio buzz from my quarter master, who told me that I was now a good enough boat driver to be entrusted with a very new gadget which had been nicknamed "TV Missiles", as soon as I used one for the first time I could see why, using a screen in my boat no bigger than a laptop, I could wirelessly control very explosive missiles, and send them all the way across the map!

 14:35: After a little while longer experimenting with this new gadget I was told that I had played my part for the day and that I was being brought back to the Carrier. I was quite disappointed because I was having more fun in the boats that I undoubtedly would doing laps of the Carrier. Alas I would be able to take to the seas once more tommorow!

Thanks for reading,

Ed

Just as a quick note on the end, Rick is a totally fictional character and the diary is written from his perspective of one of the players in Battlefield 4.

Battlefield 4: ACE-23 Gun Review

Hi guys,
 I decided that seeing as I am loving Battlefield 4 so much, I would bring you a review of one of the guns/classes I like to use! If you already have BF4 you have doubtlessly heard of or used the ACE-23, despite BF4 being a much more balanced game(gun wise) there are still guns that the masses will crowd towards. In BF4 the ACE-23 is just such a weapon. The biggest problem with this weapon is actually unlocking it, it is unlike most other Assault Rifles as you need to complete 3 assignments to be able to unlock it! Let's break down the three assignments:

     First you will have to complete Assault Basic, which will require 7 kills with any Assault Rifle and 11 heals, but most importantly you will need to be at least rank 10 which shouldn't take you to long to do. I believe this is to keep this very powerful weapon out of the hands of people who have just picked up the game. The heals can be obtained either with the Med Kit or the Med Bag. You will then be awarded with the Assault Basic dog tag.
     Next there will be the Assault Veteran assignment, you will needed to have completed Assault Basic to unlock Assault Veteran, for this you will need to get 8 kills with any Assault Rifle an 12 total heals. Much like Assault Basic this will be very easy to complete, though if you are having trouble with the heals play some Operation Locker pop one down and the heals will come quickly! The nice thing about this assignment is that you get a new camo for all weapons and vehicles for completing it.

     So far the assignments have been a walk in the park and you should get them within a few matches, the biggest problem is Assault Expert, which firstly requires you to have competed the two above assignments and then you will need 50 Medkit Ribbons, 200 kills with any AR and 10 AR Ribbons. Despite it sounding quite daunting this one assignment only took me about 4 hours to complete. The 50 Medkit ribbons: to earn one Medkit ribbon you have to earn 8 heals in one round. For this I would recommend you having the Medbag but it isn't essential, this will also mean that you will get a Medkit medal. The 200 AR kills and the 10 AR Ribbons both will be earned together, the ribbon requires you to earn 6 AR kills in one round, you will earn this before you get your 200 AR kills. As for the 200 AR kills it isn't that hard, just quite time consuming. Once you have completed all of this you will earn yourself the ACE-23.

    Right now you have unlocked it let's talk about how it handles, this is a very good overall weapon, it can handle itself up close and further away(though you will need to tap fire for long range shots) and that is the main reason it is good. Anyone can pick it up and do well, you don't need to chose a compromise you just have to pick up the weapon. Let's talk about the attachments:

To be honest the optic is really down you how you want to play with this gun, but if you are going to be close to medium range then I would recommend either the Coyote RDS or the Kobra RDS. I find the laser sight is invaluable as you will be running into people unexpectedly so you want to be able to hip fire and still have a fighting chance. I haven't unlocked it yet but I would recommend the green laser sight as it is the hardest see at a distance.

     If you didn't know, in BF4 you can equip a suppressor with out it effecting you damage stats, as it did in BF3. Instead it only slows the flight of your bullets, this makes it an essential for any guy(when you unlock it).

Finally you have you under barrel attachment, I have gone for the potato grip as it decreases your bullet spread when you shoot!

    

     Thank brings me to the end of this review for the ACE-23 in Battlefield 4, all in all I would give it 10/10, a flawless gun that can be used at nearly all ranges with few guns to out shoot it. I know this has been a bit of a weird post but I am playing very little else at the moment, so I wanted to post about it. Please do tell me if you want to see more of these BF4 gun reviews either by Tweeting me, or leaving a comment down bellow!

    As always thanks for reading,

Ed

Don't forget you can read this and much more on my new Website!

Battlefield 4 First Impressions

Hi guys,
 You may have seen in most gaming news outlets that people are saying that Battlefield 4 is a broken game and you shouldn't buy/play it. Now to some extent this is true, there are quite a lot of things in the game that need to be fixed. However that doesn't mean it isn't worth playing, so far I have only played for about 13 hours, but I can assure you that time will increase dramatically.
     This is a game that I can get lost in, a game that is worthy of many accolades, then the game crashes and you lose all your match progress(in my 13 hour play time my game has crashed about 12 times). This gets very irritating, though it takes about 30-60 seconds to get back into a match. From what I have played there hasn't been too much lag and when there has been it has been because I have been downloading a game in the background. To say that I only have 1.8 MB/s internet speed it is remarkable that I have had as little lag as I have!
     My one problem with the game(when it works) is the levelling system, every time you level up you don't get anything, every 2-3 level ups you get what is called a battlepack. With a battlepack you get a certain number of random things, they could be XP boosts, attachments, camos, knives and more! Now the problem is when you only get these every 2-3 levels you begin to feel that they are quite a low incentive for levelling up.
      The flip side to the poor levelling system is that everything is unlocked using it's own levelling system. So if you want to get a specific gun, say an assault rifle, then you have to get a certain amount of points with that section. I personally think this is a brilliant idea, as it is making me use my pistol and grenades more(to unlock more pistols and grenades). I feel this gives the game more diversity and the game is better because of it!
     They are my initial thoughts on the games Multiplayer, I haven't played all that much of the single player but that will be included in my final review. Over all I am beyond loving this game, and I can't wait for the day when it preforms as it should. Unlike most of the gaming community I have faith in EA and DICE to fix Battlefield 4, and get it to the standard it so desperately deserves. The last thing I will say on this game is, if you are a Battlefield fan then you should pick this game as you will appreciate where it has come from. However if you are thinking of picking this game up from the point of view of someone who hasn't played any previous BF games, I would advise waiting for a few months until it is in a better state to be played.
That's all for now check back soon for more exciting PS4 content!
Ed

Looking Ahead to 2014

Hi guys,
 This is my first post in 2014, I know I have been away from your screens for some time, but I am back now and I am more passionate than ever to bring you awesome content that you will enjoy. As you may be aware over Christmas I was lucky enough to get a Playstation 4, so I am now part of the next generation. I currently have Battlefield 4, CoD Ghosts, AC IV: Black Flag and LEGO Marvel. I also have the 3 PS+ games available, Contrast, Resogun and now Don't Starve. You can expect coverage of all of these games in the coming weeks and months.
      This was just a quick post to tell you what is coming your way, check back soon for more posts on all things Playstation.
For now,
Ed

The War of Games Will Go On

Hi guys,
 You may have hear of the rivalry between Call of Duty and Battlefield, well this rivalry has been showcased in the last few days. Both games have released story trailers, which show us what will be in store for us if and when we play the respective campaigns. You can watch both below!

Now I know that both the companies behind both games will have had these trailers made for quite some time now. It seems a bit of a coincidence that Battlefield release their trailer the very next day after the Ghosts equivalent was released! Anyway both trailers of action packed and as I will be getting both on the PS4, I can't wait to see what they will have in store for me! Tell me what you think of the trailers below, and which game you prefer the look of.
You can now like my Facebook page to stay up to date with all my posts, I will also be posting smaller news articles exclusively on Facebook, so you won't want to miss out on that! Of course you can also follow me on Twitter.
As always thanks for reading,
Ed

Battlefield 4 Beta Details

Hi guys,
 The scene is set, the field is ready, the players; preparing, the developers baiting their breath. The time is fast approaching, the time when players will unite together to play the hell out of a beta. The beta of a game that will redefine what it means to make a shooter, a game that will redefine the definition of an immersive game.
     You can be in no doubt in your mind of the game with which I speak, Battlefield 4. Of which the beta is soon upon us. As you probably guessed from the title of this post, anyway let's get down the the new details of the beta.    

The only map that will be playable in the beta will be the first map we saw all the way back at E3 this year, and that is Seige of Shanghai, as I'm sure you remember the largest skyscraper in the map was destructible, you can see the building collapsing in the picture above. The two available game modes to play will be Conquest(4-5 flags to capture and get points from) and Domination, which is similar to Conquest Domination in BF3 except on a bigger scale. It is a great shame that both the modes are so similar in gameplay. I would have been very nice to see the flagship mode of Battlefield: Rush, as that would have shown the map of in a different light. Alas it is not the case, we will have to make do with those two modes and that one map for the beta. If my memory serves the full game will feature 10 maps(Including Seige of Shanghai and Paracel Storm) and 7 game modes. 

     

The beta is set for release on October 1st for certain people, and October 4th, I hope to see you all on the battlefield!

On one last thing, it is the European Women in Gaming Jobs convention, on the September 25th, keep up with what is going at the convention here.

Thanks for reading

Ed

Follow me on Twitter here.

E3 2013: Battlefield 4

Hi guys
 If you are new to my blog then you won't know just how big a fan on Battlefield I am, so I'm sure you can understand why I was so excited to see the first BF4 mulitplayer game play footage at E3(which you can watch at the bottom of the post). It was about 6 minutes long and totally blew me away. There was a massive skyscraper made of glass which collapsed, a tank which Italian Job style fell through into a car park. It looked to be the perfect game and I couldn't wait to get my hand on it. Then I tuned into the Battlefield livestream from their booth at E3. I was prepared to be totally blow away. Instead all I felt was a slight disappointment! We have been promised Levolution, revolution that effects the level. But so far the only destruction I have seen in the one shown map is one building collapsing. Now I understand that the game is in Pre-Alpha, so along way from  being finished, but I would have liked to have seen much more destruction. Battlefield is know for the big maps and it's destruction, and I am yet to see that this game is keeping up with the vibe of next gen. I am still very excited for the game, and can't wait for the beta "fall this year", so I will have to wait and see how that takes shape.
       In case you haven't watched the stream let me get you up to date with what has been revealed, a spectator mode, in which you can have a top down view, first person view, third person view, and a free camera in which you can go anywhere you want. Rest assured there will be loads of cinematic films on the Internet come the release on BF4. It has also been announced that you will be able to dive under water, to be able to have an even more stealthy approach on your traget. There is also, what is being called a "sprint swim", in which you obviously swim faster! I have seen some footage of a player swimming, and it looks so much more realistic than the stock still swimming of BF3. The camera now rocks from side to side whilst swimming, and water splashed onto your screen.
     That is all for now, I hope you can understand where I am coming from with my complaints.
Thanks for reading
Ed

Interview: Jrb Site Director at Battlefieldo

Hi guys
 This is an interview with Jrb, the site director at Battlefieldo, I am very excited to bring you this interview, it was a true pleasure to talk to someone just as passionate about Battlefield and gaming as me, maybe even more so!! Enjoy the interview, you can check out Battlefieldo here.

 What gave you the idea to create Battlefieldo?  

I'm actually not the original creator. I'll have to give credit to my good friend, Stadler, who started Battlefieldo as a Tumblr blog about a year before BF3's release date. However the original plan was to have an impartial place where people can discuss the franchise, all while maintaining important sources as the number one place for Battlefield news.

 What academic route did you take to have the knowledge to create Battlefieldo?

Going back to the first question, I'm not the original creator, but my academic background fits in quiet well with some of the things we do. I majored in computer science with a heavy focus on programming. Successfully running a community based site requires several different backgrounds. You'll need not only a design & development team, but also a set group of people that focus on bringing people into the site and posting news, which implements a marketing strategy. Thankfully, we have an amazing team which is highly dedicated to making sure we stay on top of our game.

 What inspires you in your day to day job?

My day to day job, as a programmer in real life, and as the director of Battlefieldo, both consist of doing things that I love. When you're as passionate as I am over your real life job and the Battlefield franchise, you never have to stop working, and never get burned out. I have the freedom in my real job to make sure I can always keep an eye out for the site.

 What do you think of the possibility of dynamic maps in BF4?

From the things I've seen around, both public & non-public data, there's no doubt that the maps in BF4 will be dynamic. You may have seen the recent marketing material for Battlefield 4, which tells us about a new feature for Frostbite 3 called "Levolution", which promises a high level of interaction with the map and its contents. I believe that Levolution will be a major factor in why people will really enjoy Frostbite 3 – Not only in Battlefield, but for other titles using the new engine.

 If you could put one single feature into BF4 what would it be and why?

I would definitely bring back commander with a simple interface but complex functionality. This was missing from Battlefield 3, and it let down a lot of people. The core of teamwork is to have a chain of command instead of having a number of squads or lone wolves run around with no intel, support, or communication from a higher authority. This will add a great sense of teamwork, and make the Battlefield even more intense.

 Do you feel much pressure in the up keep of Battlefieldo?

It can be tough being such a large site. When things aren't going so well in the community, all eyes are on you. Though we've been a little slow lately, we plan on going big once E3 comes along and the BF4 hype will be non-stop. We've been working hard on a large-scale side project called Overpwrd (www.overpwrd.com).

 How many people work on a day to day basis on Battlefieldo?

We have a team of about 10 people, though as I mentioned earlier, things have been slow as we work towards the release of Overpwrd. A healthy estimate would be about 3-5 people who do daily work on Battlefieldo, but we have the means to double that number at any given time.

 If you could work with any development team in the world, which would it be and why?

I've visited a number of different studios, most of which were under the EA umbrella, but the most fun interaction I've had was with the men & women at Rockstar Games. I have always enjoyed the content they put out, regardless of how controversial it is. The quality & level of fun in their products are a golden standard of the industry.

 Do you think Battlefield as a series will ever be the biggest selling FPS on the market, and if so when?

It has the potential to be, but I don't think it'll happen anytime soon. The marketing team at EA/DICE has been trying to topple Call of Duty for quite some time now. My opinion is they shouldn't focus on being number one in sales, but rather be number one in community and fun. Their attention should focus on the fan base that's already in place for Battlefield, instead of trying to bring in a different market of players.

 Which next gen console do you think is looking the best right now, and why?

I've always liked XBOX better than the Playstation console, but the PS4 is definitely shaping up to give Microsoft a run for its money. There are some controversial decisions being made for the XBOX One, which will ultimately give the PS4 an advantage on the initial release.

I hope you have enjoyed this interview, there are more to come soon, so stay tuned.
Thanks for reading
Ed

Run up to E3 2013: Part 2

Hi guys
 I as I promised in the last E3 post I will be talking about an Xbox game. I was going to talk about more than just one game, but after the abysmal Xbox One announcement I though that I would only talk about one. Anyway the three games I will be talking about are Halo 5, Battlefield 4, and Batman Origins.
   

Halo
First up is Halo 5, this is a series which I have never personally played but I have obviously heard of it, this game will probably see you reprising your role as Master Cheif, I say probably because we have heard very little about this game other than its announcement at the Xbone reveal. I'm sure we will hear more about this game at Microsofts E3 conference.

Battlefield 4
As you can see the next game I will be talking about is Battlefield 4, if you follow me on twitter you will know just how much I have played, if you want to see my stats for BF3 you can on Battlelog. I really can't wait for more details on this game, as I'm sure you remember there was a 17 minute game play released a few months ago. Which was taken from the single player side of the game I was very impressed by the looks of the game but was slightly concerned about their focus on Single player, well that should be dispelled at E3. DICE have confirmed that there will be a live demo for the multiplayer of BF4. I am very excited for the release of this game later this year.

Batman Arkam Origins

This is a game which will precede all of the current Arkam games, this game is set on a Christmas eve on an unknown year in Batman's early life. We have had only one trailer for this game which was a CGI trailer, so you can't think of that as the final graphics, but I think it looks like a totally epic game and can't wait to see some actual game play at E3 this year. If you haven't seen the trailer then you can below: 

As you can see in this game our main enemy will be Black Mask, a villain which we have never seen before in a Batman game, I think it is safe to say that this game is looking really good already.

     So that brings us to the end of this road to E3, if there are any game you would like to hear me talk about leave it down in the comments below.

Thanks for reading 

Ed

Where could it go next? Battlefield

Hi guys
Welcome welcome welcome, to a new series that I will be starting from now on in which I will examine major series and see where they could develop and what could be changed. As you will have read from the title this post I will be examining the Battlefield series, so lets get straight into it.
      I will admit now the only Battlefield game I have played is Battlefield 3, but I was highly impressed by that game, it is my favourite FPS and my favourite multiplayer game. Anyway in BF3 you have 4 classes in the form of Assault, Support, Engineer and Recon, these four classes has been down sized from BF:BC2 which had 8 classes, I think it should stay with the four classes, but the guns you unlock should be for versatile as to which class you can use them in. As you will know if you have played any of BF3 the leveling system is a very very slow one, in BF4 I would like to see a considerably sped up leveling system, there is a fine line between feeling a great reward at leveling up and feeling you barley never level up. I would put BF3 on the latter side of the line, also there are certain levels when you are highly uninterested in what you have just unlocked.
     I think the massive maps are a part of the Battlefield legacy, and that it should stick to it. I would also like to see many more game modes in the game, in BF3 there are only 3 modes you will want to play(pre-DLC) and all of them are highly generic. A feature many people have said they would like to see in BF4(myself included) is a Battlerecorder of sorts, something with which you will be able to watch your match back and make awesome montages. My last wish for BF4 is more guns, you do feel slightly bored after a while with the same guns over and over again, but that is a small complaint.
Just a quick side-note at the end of this post, BF4 is more that lightly to be announced at the GDC in late March so keep your eyes peeled for that and all the info we will be getting, BF4 may also be announced as to be coming to next-gen consoles as well as current-gen.
Alright my fellow gamers that is it for this post I hope you liked it, the coming months will be very busy for me, so don't expect the same number of posts you have been seeing from me lately.
Thanks for reading
Ed