“Hey Mezzo, wanna play some Battlefield 3 today?” “Sure,” Mezzo20 responds via PSN messaging, after all, Maestro-GTUnit is his favorite online buddy when it comes to playing videogames. They play all the time: from Killzone 3, Modern Warfare 3, Uncharted 3 or any other game that they’re in the mood for. In recent times, however, Battlefield 3 has been that game.
“Hey Maestro, where to, Rush or Conquest?” “Let’s do Rush,” Maestro shot back in a message, he just can’t get enough of: “Hey Fall back! Will ya… Fall back, men!” Battlefield 3 had become Maestro’s game of choice after wrestling to get into it, and although he’d been having loads of fun, something happened. Well, that ‘thing’ has been happening for quite a bit, but Maestro, Foxton, Mezzo20, PantzBoy, GoKingsPoint, El_Baron and all the other guys who play together simply ignored it. Mezzo, however, had had enough.
“Listen, man. This thing takes up 30 minutes of playtime EVERY TIME we get to playing,” Mezzo messaged in considerable rage. And it was exactly what Maestro wanted to hear. “Yeah”, he shot back. “Why on God’s earth if you form a squad, you can’t stay with that squad once the game starts!?” Maestro had gotten the opening he needed to vent this particular frustration, and he made the best of it. “We usually have to either switch teams or go squad member-hunting, and by then the game’s in full motion. Furthermore, sometimes I can’t switch to the team you’re on because the match becomes ‘unbalanced’!” Maestro was on a role now… “So it’s either I go ahead and shoot you in the face, or quit the game and find another…” 15 minutes gone.
“Okay, let’s find another,” texted Mezzo irritably, “let’s do this one more time.”
We tried, we failed, it was about 30 minutes now, and we couldn’t get our squad on one team. That’s been the overriding issue with Battlefield 3. Not voice chat, not the overpowered USAS but the fact that it’s almost impossible to be in the same squad with your teammates in most games.
So we quit.
It’s a like a relationship. Little things are little things most of the time, but when this one thing becomes too much to handle, all the little things come into question. And so for Battlefield 3, I also hated the USAS, but that’s a little thing, I hated the hackers, but that too, to me, was a little thing as it never got out of control. I hated not being able to leave a game after a match, and yes, I hated the voice chat issues. They all seem big, now.
To its credit, Battlefield 3 is one amazing piece of work. It’s multiplayer is. Topnotch visuals, best sound in gaming, vehicles, destruction and more. It’s one of the best FPS games on the market at the moment. But Mezzo and I have had it. We’re simply tired of wasting 30 minutes trying to start a game. Because sometimes, 30 minutes is all you’ve got.
Oh, we’ll be back. Sooner rather than later – let’s just hope DICE sends the patch online quickly, and let’s hope it includes a squad fix, because if it doesn’t…
nice article maestro!
n yeah i hear ya, its particularly hard if theres a few of you trying to joing the same squad. Its so frustrating, you send an invite, wait ten mins till your all in the lobby in the squad, mics are all working, game chosen, then the game loads and it splits you up! well why i have spent all my time messsing about just for it to do that!
Has anybody raised this with Dice?
On a personal note it wont deter me from playing just yet, its normally just me and El_barone so it doesnt take as long for us to get intot he same squad.
Lets hope a patch will adress this, and a quit option at the end of game score screen!!!
I play Xbox, and don’t have as many problems.
Regularly play with 4 or more people on the same team. 8 is my Max so far.
Join an empty server, it will auto split you, don’t spawn, switch sides as people join, squad up, you won’t be split again. Simples. Takes 5 mins.
Need 4 people I think for server to register in match making.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
haha
so what game are we moving to then?