Battlefield 3/YMMV

"Dima: "So? We're Russians. We always get to be the bad guys.""
 * Abridged Arena Array: For vehicle lovers, there's 24/7 Gulf of Oman or 24/7 Caspian Border servers. There's tons of 24/7 Operation Metro servers for people that love close-quarters, meatgrinder action. Team Deathmatch players go to Noshahr Canals for even more claustrophobic action.
 * Acceptable Targets:
 * Being Russian. Dima makes fun of this when he's warned by Bulganov in the novel that he'll be looked at as the bad guy when he hunts for Solomon in Paris.


 * In the community itself, campers who refuse to move forward, USAS users, MAV riders, and M26 Dart glitchers.
 * Hackers. Obviously.
 * Anyone with a high ping lagging the server.
 * And the Fandom Rejoiced:
 * The PC gamimg community after DICE announced that the PC would be the definitive platform for Battlefield 3. They rejoiced even more when previews of the game engine surfaced. Even more so when leaked gameplay footage was clearly from the PC version.
 * The inclusion of hand-held anti-air SAMs and effective AA vehicles. Also the removal of dumb bombs, and a major reduction in the damage output of the jet cannons.
 * Back To Karkand for the PC crowd. Console gamers will probably think "what's the big deal", but on the PC for the old BF2, 1942 and Desert Combat B2K is what BF3 should have been from the start.
 * The Armored Kill and End Game expansions are getting a lot of good buzz.
 * The USAS is no longer the broken mess it used to be pre-patch, and MAVs have a chance of exploding upon ramming into someone now.
 * Consoles get to rent their own servers now? Sweet!
 * Broken Base:
 * Various server options. Hardcore mode. Killcam. Rush. Conquest. Xbox. PC. Playstation.
 * For consoles, player-rented servers. For some, it's great to personalize your own server and it's a blast to build and play with a tight community rather than random nobodies. For others, it's tiring to see nothing but 1000-ticket 24/7 Metro servers and dealing with Jerkass server admins willing to ban at a drop of a hat, and worse yet, find that nearly all the official DICE servers have disappeared.
 * It Got Worse: With the update, a Game Breaking Bug was introduced that has made Operation Metro unplayable on any player servers with 500+ tickets. Playing the match for more than 30 minutes will freeze the game for everyone, essentially crashing the server and dropping it into the dreaded "0/24" limbo.
 * Crazy Awesome: Anyone who uses the skid loader added in Back to Karkand in a game where there are tanks, jets, and rocket launching helicopters.
 * Fan Dumb: Some of the outcry from those who chose not to purchase the Battlefield Premium service. When it comes down to it, Battlefield Premium is basically pre-ordering the 4 upcoming DLC packs for a lower price than what it will cost to buy them individually, as well as receiving several new features and gameplay expansions. For those who aren't buying it, it's EA teaming up with the Devil to ruin gaming forever, and anyone who buys BFP is an elitist buying their way to victory or an idiot.
 * Fridge Horror: In the campaign.
 * Once you boot up multiplayer and realize the Americans and the Russians are fighting each other, comes the horrific realization:
 * Now not only does
 * Well, at least the novel showed
 * Gameplay Derailment: MAVs are ostensibly used for spotting enemies, but most players don't actually use it that way, preferring to use it in two ways: as an elevator to reach high, normally-inaccessible areas, or as a flying wrecking ball. On PC, with its 32v32 matches, it's just annoying. In 12v12 matches on consoles, however, with 4-6 Recon players sniping on rooftops or ramming players, your team is effectively cut in half and it turns the game into a boring slog, with the added annoyance of getting constantly sniped from anywhere and avoiding the MAVs out for blood by the other team's Recons doing the same. Fortunately, the March 2012 patch makes MAVs unridable and become destroyed as soon as it rams a player.
 * Goddamned Bats: MAVs. While it's easy to avoid its path, it can kill you in one hit if it rams you. Trying to get rid of one isn't easy; it's difficult to shoot down until it's almost on top of you due to the guns not being Hit Scan weapons, and Javelin and Stinger missiles will cheerfully hit the side of a building instead of the MAV in urban environments. After you finally take one out, another one will replace it thanks to a resupply crate.
 * Good Bad Bugs: Tourettes Medic.
 * Hell Is That Noise: You will soon learn to dread hearing the distinctive "plink" of the M26 firing.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: After Battlefield Bad Company 2 was advertised with videos about how the game isn't about "Random Grenade Spam," the March patch introduced a bug where dropping multiple ammo boxes would vastly increase the rate grenades would refill. With 3 or 4 boxes it's essentially instant and enables a player to sit in one spot and throw grenades non-stop for an entire round.
 * HSQ: Has it in spades. Both online and single player.
 * Memetic Mutation:
 * "Be advised: You are being advised. Repeat: You are being advised. Over."
 * There has been a fascination with dinosaurs being in Battlefield 3 or other Battlefield games ever since a certain tweet.
 * "FALL BACK! MILLET!"
 * "The anemy hahs seht the charch!"
 * Moral Event Horizon:
 * Most Wonderful Sound: If you are on the winning team during 3, just before your team has their victory, the game will start playing the Battlefield Theme.
 * Nightmare Fuel:
 * Obvious Beta:
 * Battlefield 3 on release is a very obvious late beta. It's simply not stable enough, especially in the online modes, to really be called a polished product. The integration between Origin, Battlelog, the game and the online servers is flaky and constantly being brought down for "maintenance." The reason was EA pushing the game for an early release out to beat the latest Modern Warfare game.
 * The patches themselves aren't any better. For every problem fixed, a new problem springs up in its place, such as the much-hated M26 Dart exploit. Even elements of the game that didn't need fixing get broken with the patches; Alan Kertz, the Senior Gameplay Designer at DICE, admits that he wanted to tweak the Suppression mechanic until it's ideal, which is why suppression went from a minor annoyance to outrageously bad after the March 2012 patch.
 * Pandering to The Base: The trailers, promos, and advertisements for Battlefield 3 have absolutely pulled no punches when it comes to stoking the Battlefield fandom's fully-reciprocated and often venomous Fandom Rivalry with that of Modern Warfare.
 * Player Preferred Pattern: Battlefield can now be split into two periods, with the March 2012 patch being where the split takes place.
 * Assault: Pre-patch assault players used the F2000, AEK-971, or the FAMAS due to their high rates of fire. Post-patch the FAMAS's handling and ammo capacity changes nerfed it into oblivion and the F2000 is useless beyond 20 meters. The M16A3 with Heavy Barrel reigns supreme.
 * Engineers gravitate to the A-91 or the M4A1, again, due to the high rate of fire, while some go for the SCAR-H + ACOG + Heavy Barrel for long range damage. Post-patch, players that prefer a good medium-range weapon with minimal recoil will likely use the SG553 with the AKS-74U being configurable as a very good short-ranged hip fire weapon.
 * The Support class, with its variety of well-balanced guns but no superior weapon, inverts the trope. The class only contains Scrappy Weapons that aren't used like the QBB, MG36 and Type 88, which heavily suck compared to the rest.
 * Damn near every Recon use the M98B since it's the most powerful sniper rifle in the game, though after Back to Karkand the L96 is seeing some action since it shoots like a laser and it doesn't require as much grinding as the M98B.
 * Pre-patch the only semi-auto sniper rifle of any use was the M39 EMR: Very accurate, quick to fire and could be used in medium range as a 'designated marksman' style of play. Post-patch, the SKS has been buffed to the stars to the point it can compete with assault rifles.
 * Gun attachments: Pre-patch nearly everyone used the Foregrip/Suppressor combination to significantly reduce recoil to the point bipods, heavy barrels and the flash suppressor were never used. Post-patch, the Heavy Barrel is the new hotness for its very large spread reduction while aiming down sights with only a minimal vertical recoil increase and reduction of hip fire accuracy. Foregrip and suppressor usage depends on the situation rather than being no-brainer attachments and they generally only get used for very close quarter combat. The bipod is now used heavily across all classes as people not using a foregrip will have a free slot for a bipod which has no downside at all when not in use.
 * Gun sights are a matter of preference but out of the various versions, the main ones used are the Kobra, US Red Dot Sight, ACOG 4x, US Holographic, and the 8x or 12x for sniper rifles.
 * Post-patch pistol changes mean the best players will use one of three sidearms: The G18 Suppressed fully-automatic pistol with a high rate of fire that is equivalent to the MP7 at very close range and is used for players who want a true 'backup' weapon, the 93R burst fire pistol which received a major buff in the patch for those who feel they need a more controllable gun than the G18, and finally the .44 Magnum which is a two shot kill due to a buff giving it a 1.25 damage multiplier to the chest, used by players who are extremely accurate and will pick and choose either their primary weapon or the Magnum based on the situation.
 * MP7 with Laser + Extended Mags is the hip fire weapon. Its hip fire is often more accurate than many guns when aimed down sight and it is quicker to get bullets on target because of its hip fire. Its only drawback is that the extended mags mean you only have less than a handful of reloads, so playing a support kit or having the Ammo perk is mandatory.
 * The USAS-12 with Frag rounds. It's basically a handheld IFV cannon. It's super accurate, has no "bullet" drop, kills in 2-3 direct hits, creates splash damage if it misses, and (since the USAS-12 is an automatic shotgun) extremely spammable. Anyone using it will be met with much gnashing of teeth, and it's so bad that it was severely nerfed. This video is a good demonstration.
 * When the March patch completely broke the M26 Dart, there were people who used nothing but that glitched combination on the smallest maps like Noshahr in Deathmatch or Metro in Conquest, with tens of thousands of kills with it.
 * Camouflage-wise, Spec Ops Black as it hides your heat signature from infra-red optics. It's also useful for hiding in buildings since the interior is usually dark. It also looks cool.
 * Sequel Displacement: While the game was a sequel to the 2005 game Battlefield 2, many people thought of it as a sequel to Bad Company 2. Detractors of 3 will call it Bad Company 3, believing that it has little in common with 2 besides the company that made it.
 * Scrappy Level:
 * There is almost universal disdain for the "Going Hunting" single player mission where you are given control of the weapons in a US Navy Hornet. Not actually flying them. Just the weapons. Why it's hated is summed up adequately by this first impression video from The Cynical Brit.
 * Noshahr Canals is the least favoured multiplayer map for Conquest mode, but one of the more popular maps for Team Deathmatch.
 * Operation Firestorm on Rush has a ridiculously long distance between the attacking base to the first set of M-COMs. You will not be able to make it on foot, forcing everyone to use vehicles. Because of this, all it takes is for one person to stick up a SOFLAM for the rest of the team to use Javelins to completely shut down the attackers.
 * Seine Crossing's first stage B MCOM objective is one the hardest in the game. It is located in a small courtyard with three very small entrances. If the defenders get setup with spawn beacons there is no ability for the APC to influence this, resulting in the attackers throwing their tickets away trying to assault a near impregnable defensive position.
 * Operation Metro for people who think Dice are playing up to the Call of Duty crowd.
 * Scrappy Mechanic: Battlefield 3 was arguably the first DICE game to really have DICE's owners EA pushing them towards EA's overall strategy. This resulted in Origin, EA's rebadged 'EA Download Manager' being forced to be used with BF3. It is a bloated and completely unnecessary rival to Valve's Steam and is required to run the game even if bought as a DVD retail copy. Battlelog does not integrate with Origin except to launch the game, making it another pointless step done purely so that EA could try and wrest some control of digital distribution away from Valve. Needless to say, when EA yanked Crysis off Steam, and then confirmed that Battlefield 3 would not be part of Steam, gamers were not happy.
 * Battlelog. In what is a very fresh new look at managing games, DICE created Battlelog. This runs through a typical server browser, and contains the equivalent of a main menu, server browser and stats server. The biggest complaints were the lack of a not-while-being-shot-at in-game menu.
 * To elaborate: If you want to change your settings, you either take your chances during a match or do it via single-player. If you want to tweak your settings and check whether they fix the stuttering FPS count (or make using the gadgetry less uncomfortable), well, you'll just have to take your chances during a match.
 * A server that doesn't meet the minimum player requirements is completely locked. Thus no-one can run aroud or practice flying unless they are in an active server.
 * Killcam. Luckily it can be disabled.
 * 3D Spotting. The so called "dorito triangle" that hovers above anyone's head if they are spotted. In previous battlefield games this would only show up on the mini-map as a red dot or small picture of a vehicle. In this game it's literally over their head, enabling anyone to shoot at them without any line of sight or actual knowledge, just aim a little below the triangle and shoot. This can also be disabled as well.
 * It is a toned-down version of what was in Bad Company 2, though, and was generally received as positive. You can no longer spot people through foliage, you can no longer spot people obscured more than three-quarters of the way by level geometry, depending on server settings, you can only see spotted enemies if they are actually considered "visible" by the spotting rules. Of course, for many players from Battlefield 2 or Battlefield 1942, they want no spotting at all except on the mini-map.
 * All of Bad Company 2's annoying shortcomings (suppression fire, curvy bullets, etc) are back, with a vengeance.
 * Lens Flare.
 * A particularly annoying aspect is the amount of glare from dust, grime, and other dirtiness that hamper what you can see. It may make sense since the characters may be wearing ballistic eye wear, but there are times (notably in "Going Hunting") where the PC isn't wearing anything and you still get this.
 * Suppression. It was an interesting new mechanic at best, and a pointless gimmick at worst. However, with the March patch, suppression was given a MASSIVE buff, with 1-2 bullets whizzing by turning your view into a blurry mess and absolutely destroying your accuracy. There is something very wrong about missing a target 20 meters away with your bolt action rifle, all because you were suppressed.
 * The F-35 in the Back To Karkand pack is horribly slow, turns like a tank and switches thrust modes seemingly at random. More specifically, it slows down quicker than conventional-flight jets and holding the "throttle down" long enough will cause the F-35B to switch from forward flight to "hover" mode... which can be a nasty surprise for Russian infantry and ground vehicles, but the Russian jet is a conventional-flight Su-35, which will frequently win a dogfight unless the US pilot is consistently good at forcing overshoots.
 * After finally squashing the overpowered USAS and MAV Riding, DICE managed to introduce yet another stupid glitch/exploit. The M26 Dart, when used with a heavy barrel and an underslung rail, will give each of the 9 darts fired in a shot the same damage as the assault rifle it was attached to. It also massively increases accuracy, and shotguns do not suffer from suppression either. If attached to a G3 it generally ensures one-hit kills from medium-long ranges when it ordinarily would barely scratch a player.
 * The June 2012 patch fixed the M26 Dart exploit, but introduced another dubbed the "Smoke Railgun". Attaching the smoke grenade launcher to the newly introduced AUG via a heavy barrel and it quickly lives up to the railgun nickname. It has no drop, it flies at the speed of light and is perfectly accurate.
 * Are you bad at the game? Is your team losing by 300+ tickets? Well good news! If you're a server admin, you have a powerful ability only you can use: Tactical Team Switching. It's simple: Just switch yourself with someone on the winning team (bonus points if it's the top player or someone you dislike) and watch your win/loss ratio climb! Formerly a PC-only ability, but with the ability to rent servers on consoles, console server admins can now enjoy Tactical Team Switching as well.
 * Do not hide behind non-static cover in this game. Many of the maps have things like chairs, boxes, rubble and large crates that are not static and move around if hit by gunfire, the player or explosions. The problem is that these are client side rather than server side and is different for each player on their own system. This means that a large crate you are hiding behind that looks like it is protecting you isn't there for anyone else. You can be seen and shot through this non-solid, non-static cover, even if you appear to be in complete cover or protected behind it. From the enemy perspective, the cover simply doesn't exist, leaving your body sticking out like a sore thumb for an easy kill.
 * Scrappy Weapon:
 * Support:
 * The Type 88 LMG is hated by most players, especially by players that do weapon reviews, because of its very underwhelming performance in all areas compared to the other LMGs. One weapon reviewer described it as the M249 SAW, except worse.
 * The QBB-95 in the Back To Karkand pack is garbage. It's pretty much a hybrid LMG and Assault Rifle, except it has the worst of both worlds. It's inaccurate, underpowered and slow to shoot. Its only advantage over other LMGs is its reload time. It was either pre-nerfed to make sure it wasn't a Jack of All Trades, or a generic filler gun for the expansion pack.
 * After the March patch broke the MG36's extended mags, it falls into the same category as the QBB as being a hybrid LMG Assault Rifle with no advantage over any other support weapon, but its reload time which is still pretty long, and with only 50 rounds you'll be reloading a lot.
 * The M1014 shotgun is very inconsistent, sometime killing in one shot from medium range, and sometimes requiring three shots at point blank range. As a result, you'll rarely ever see someone using it. All the other shotguns post-patch are better even with the huge nerfs to some of them.
 * Recon: The SVD is a gun that is abandoned by almost every player the moment they unlock the other Recon weapons, which is after about 5 minutes of play time. The MK11 Mod 0 gets very little love as well, for much of the same reasons. Both these guns are inferior at medium and long range to the bolt action rifles, and at short to medium range they are inferior to the SKS and M39 EMR.
 * The 93R was the worst sidearm in the game before the patch. It is a 3-shot burst fire pistol with several issues: The gun is held by both hands, obscuring your vision when running. It is slow to ready up when pulled as a backup pistol. Its recoil is high and is harder to aim with multi-burst fire. Finally, there is a far better fully automatic pistol in the game, the G18. Additionally, the G18 also has a suppressor version.
 * It was buffed in the March patch to the point that many of the more visible YouTube star players now pick between this and the magnum as their preferred weapon.
 * The Back To Karkand expansion weapons PP-19 and QBZ require completion of in-game assignments, and aren't very powerful and are both outclassed by other weapons that are of a similar style to them. This has lead to them being weapons that are rarely ever seen on the battlefield.
 * Assault: The FAMAS after the March patch. It used to be one of the best weapons of the game, ostensibly balanced by its incredibly slow 4-second reload, but it wasn't enough for people complaining about the gun. When DICE added more recoil to all the guns, the FAMAS suffered the worst of it due to its extremely high fire rate, and the 5-round reduction to its magazine ensured no one would ever use the FAMAS again.
 * The F2000 received a similar nerf but made it just barely usable inside 20 meters or so using the Foregrip/Suppressor combo.
 * Tainted By the Preview: Leaked details and the trailer showcasing one of the maps for the Close Quarters expansion have been met with much disappointment, with accusations that "DICE is turning BF3 into Call of Duty!" not far behind.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks:
 * Many players complained that the Russian announcer does not speak in Russian like the previous games.
 * Jets. Helos. Pretty much everything about these has changed from Battlefield 2, and the 'expert' jet and helo users have kicked up a massive storm about it.
 * Regenerating Health. This can be turned off however, and takes a long time to kick in: twelve seconds of not taking damage and not being suppressed. Either effect will interrupt natural health regen and reset the timer, although the automatic healing from a Medkit dropped by an Assault player is not interrupted.
 * Going from a strict magazine count to One Bullet Clips like every other modern shooter.
 * Going from the full range of 16 player, 32 player and 64 player map layouts from BF 2 to the one-stop shop that is Battlefield 3's maps. Granted, there are 32-player and 64-player-oriented capture point layouts for Conquest for SOME maps, but they still have the same size boundaries, which still faces you with the issue of it either being too cramped or too widely-spaced depending on the map.
 * Tier Induced Scrappy:
 * The USAS-12 with Frag rounds has definitely become this. It basically turns your automatic shotgun into a handheld IFV cannon, with all the power and accuracy of one. If you use this weapon, you are guaranteed to piss a lot of people off. Hell, there are Metro 24/7 servers that ban the RPG, M320, MAV ram kills and the USAS because of overuse for being very easy to spam for kills as opposed to using guns.
 * As of the Rent-a-Server Patch, the USAS' status as this has been replaced with the SKS. Before the patch, it was considered terrible in lieu of other sniper rifles. The patch decreased the recoil to the point where there is practically none, and now it's become an alternative to regular assault rifles which have been massively nerfed because the Foregrip itself was nerfed. You now have a semi-automatic rifle that's super-accurate, and with the Flash Suppressor it easily becomes the most accurate weapon in the game.
 * What an Idiot!: EA had a genius idea and released Star Wars: The Old Republic and Back to Karkand on the same day (December 13th). Needless to say, the entire Origin system crashed and burned, preventing the vast majority of BF3 players from playing the game. Even the password recovery system broke.