BallsupField: 1943
Battlefield is a great game but one perhaps destined to be a great shame.Published 20/07/2009 at 18:30 by xvLIAMvx
Battlefield 1943 DLC On The Way [33]
BF1943 Problems Investigated [34]
Coral Sea Unlocked [43]
I am invincible. I am here with my fellow servicemen cocooned in the belly of this steel beast, rolling over the hills in search of those that seek to do us harm. Look at them, the pitiful ants scrawling across the land in fear as our tank bumps and grinds its way over the terrain we will soon claim as US soil. There they are, in plain site and shaking at the knees as they await confirmation on their position being compromised or that they will escape unharmed. They don’t want to believe it but deep down they know there is a canon looking directly at them, ready to destroy their bodies having already destroyed their hope. I speak into my headset “let rip – destroy them”…… “I said open fire – they’re over there look”……. “stupid bloody voice chat”. It would appear that the voice chat has cut out again and thus this little story cannot continue I am afraid.
Any guesses to which game I am referring to when I say: “sort it out EA”? That’s right – Battlefield 1943. The game is great and for just under ten British pounds you cannot argue with the bang for buck value. Or can you? You see, when I purchase something I like that something to work, to do what it says on the tin. Battlefield is a great game and the fun factor is potentially leagues higher than other full priced retail games. However, when you cannot communicate with your squad as the voice chat cuts out just as the action starts, or worse – you get disconnected half way through a match, the game becomes a chore.
Needless to say that the game works fine on the 360 with only a couple of disconnections during the high demand period when there were only a few servers. Which leaves us to then accuse the PS3 and its hardware as the reason for this epic fail, that the voice chat software is weak and just not up to scratch. An easy accusation to make and one that would excuse EA and DICE of these issues as they can only work with the tools to hand. But then Killzone 2 has worked flawlessly for me, Inferno Pool has also worked fine. The only games that have suffered with this voice chat problem are Battlefield 1943 and Call of Juarez, both released recently I might add. Whether this is down to developers getting sloppy (or remaining sloppy in some cases) or a recent update has altered voice chat in some shape or form we shall probably never know.
What we do need to know is that these issues will sorted very soon. You have our money now and you could just walk away with the ten pounds I gave you for your product. You will never see another ten pounds from me but maybe that doesn’t matter to you. Or you can sort this issue out and listen to the gaming community when they say “fix this game please”. Dice and EA are onto something special in that Battlefield 1943 is a great example of a good game at a very good price and available to purchase anywhere at anytime. But the issues with voice chat and connection problems could brand it a cheap game with a cheap execution. So please – get this fixed and I mean now damn it!
Tournaments and competitions for this title are on hold until it is fixed. I cannot host a competition when people are failing to connect or are getting disconnected whilst playing. I will be keeping a sharp eye on this title and hope they fix it soon.
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
hannes_truce | 20/07/2009 18:37
Member
2919 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
Good read, I agree. Come on EA, come on Dice. Please fix this. I love this game but am starting to get so frustrated with the disconnects and lack of voice chat…
Dexter17 | 20/07/2009 18:39
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3274 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
I can see it now… To eradicate these kinds of issues we will have to start marketing the product at a higher price…
Cort | 20/07/2009 18:39
Member
348 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
I’ve mentioned the problems I’m having in other threads. I’ve given up playing – getting whipped every game is no fun and no incentive to keep trying to justify the purchase.
Milereb | 20/07/2009 18:42
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82 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
Well it’s even worse. Battlefield Bad Company occasionally suffers the same voice chat failure since launch. When it happened to my little brother and I after purchasing BF1943 off the store, it made us shrug and go it’s a Dice/EA/Battlefield al right. Obviously not the way to go and therefore I do not expect BF1943 fixed soon.
gurglesletch | 20/07/2009 18:42
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450 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
I’ve never lost voice chat in call of duty world at war so i think that this problem is unexcusable.
Roynaldo | 20/07/2009 18:48
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2988 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
I have stopped playing this until it is patched up, its a crazy world we live in where we fork out money for bad design and then have to wait for things to be fixed later down the line.
We should all learn from this and “just say no”!
bajere | 21/07/2009 12:11
Member
1067 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Same here, my megadrive, ps1, ps2, n64, dreamcast games never had updates, dev’s did a CRAZY thing back in those days…they finished games before they released them!
cc_star | 20/07/2009 18:51
Team TSA: Writer
7869 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I’ve stopped playing now
I’ll resume if its fixed, if not a BattleField product won’t be seeing any more of my money
Although there were no fingers pointed the short delay in the title appearing was presumably down to the PS3 – Why oh why does yet another faulty game certified by Sony for release on the system, and why after over 3 years of developing titles for the PS3 can devs still not make it sing.
Poor show DICE/EA and poor show yet again Sony
Cadabena | 20/07/2009 19:24
Member
370 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
I seem to think that online and general usability us rarely taken into account with PS3 games. For instance, Fallout 3, which would freeze every time a notification popped up, presumably using the same bit of code to freeze the game when the in-game XMB is used. If beta testers would have been online and signed into PSN, that problem would have been noticed and resolved straight away. Developers need to let beta testers use their own PS3s to see how their games cope with normal use (and make sure all beta testers are avid PS3 users!).
v2049Design | 20/07/2009 18:54
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83 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I keep hearing great things about this game and i was planning to buy it today, yet after reading this, it really makes me think twice.
Thanks for the info.
stefhutch20 | 20/07/2009 19:02
Member
371 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Is this affecting everyone, or just a select group? I haven’t been on it for a few days since my PS3 YLODed, but before that I’d only ever been disconnected twice in over 40 games, and that’s the only issue I’ve come across. It’ll be interesting to see if I experience any problems when I get my reconditioned PS3 tomorrow.
antvanzant | 21/07/2009 07:09
Member
17 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
The same for me, the game froze for me twice. Don’t know how many games I’ve played but well over 15 hours. It’s nothing wrong with the netcode, people complaining about disconnection must have a poor internet connection.
Voice-chat is horrible though, agreed!
Amphlett | 21/07/2009 09:02
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1247 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
…and the same goes for me. I got ‘Call of Duty II’ trophy (100 games played) last night and can recall only 2 disconnects during the 100 games. Sure, there have been a couple of times when a section of screen has flashed and on one occasion my gun disappeared so it looked like I was shooting from my fingers.
But come on, for £10 I can forgive these relatively minor issues. I’ve played the game for over 21 hours on-line, flown planes, conducted bombing runs, decimated building with tanks, sniped across maps, what more could I ask for for £10?!!
By direct comparison, I wend out for a few sherbets on Saturday night and spent £10 on a cocktail pitcher which lasted us around 5 minutes. Now tell me where I’ve got best value for my £10.
Erroneus | 20/07/2009 19:02
Wanted "Trophy Hunter" but was too late.
2978 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
I had a felling this would happen and that’s why I didn’t bought it a launch. If my stats were deleted, I would not come back to the game, such events ruins a game totally for me.
ShovellyJoe | 20/07/2009 19:03
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1202 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
You’re really missing out if your only reason for not buying this game is the voice chat.
FruitOfDoom | 20/07/2009 19:17
Member
481 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Yep – and if you ever buy a car without headlights – don’t complain!
Gamoc | 20/07/2009 19:44
Team TSA: Content Manager
1216 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Yeah, that’s exactly the same thing.
tinytim01 | 20/07/2009 19:19
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231 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
i can live without voice chat hampers the game for me
jacklum | 20/07/2009 19:22
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990 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
“the game works fine on the 360… PS3 – epic fail”
I thought the 360 version was supposed to have had way more connection/lag issues than the PS3 version? Did they fix that stuff? Lack of voice chat has barely affected the level of enjoyment I’ve gotten from the game so far. ‘Epic fail’ is vastly overstating it.
FruitOfDoom | 20/07/2009 19:30
Member
481 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
The game is designed to be played in squads and with team-work. Voice chat is not just a must for co-ordination but to listen to your friends laugh and joke about the events.
Glad you are enjoying it without voice chat though. I personally hate multiplayer games where you cannot communicate, unless I am playing lone wolf.
Gamoc | 20/07/2009 19:47
Team TSA: Content Manager
1216 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
I still enjoy the game. I don’t use voice chat unless I’m playing with people I know, mostly because nobody else does and, when they do, they don’t so much use it as mumble something irrelevant every 5 minutes or so.
The game is great fun, so I’ll continue playing it and, when it’s fixed, maybe even use it and play with people I know.
BlingOnMyWrist | 20/07/2009 19:49
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1485 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
It is a horrible fault within the game. I thought the same thing as you earlier. You should see the 10 page thread on the official NA battlefield 1943 forums. (http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/258969.page)
UK forums: http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-1943/
You’ll have to search a little but there are several threads on the PS3 mic problem.
You could try this one: http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-1943/737732-ps3-voip-chat-friend-invite-bugs-bot-working.html
I posted in the NA forums, “With 60 people in a competitive game on Resistance 2, the mics work. Even in Call of Duty, which has seemingly HORRIBLE community support, has working mics.”
True right? I hope they fix the mics. Out of two games that my friends have, this is one of them… I’d really like to speak with him. We usually resort to using our cells but then I have to put my phone on speaker and… well I’d rather use my more convenient bluetooth headset in the game.
Sorry about all the links…