A Guide to Battlefield 4: Game Modes

Having recently purchased Battlefield 4 and seeing as many people will have hopped on to the Battlefield bandwagon for the first time or from other franchises, I thought I'd write up a series of articles covering everything from game modes to maps to weapons to classes etc. written from the perspective of a Battlefield veteran. This week, we'll be visiting game modes where I'll break down the different types of game modes and my overall strategy for each.

Conquest

The classic Battlefield game mode involves capturing and holding a majority of flags to bleed the enemy team's tickets where both sides usually have 400 tickets each. Typically there are 3 to 5 flags depending on the map with the centre flag being the most contested by both sides. Vehicles are extremely important in Conquest as they provide much needed force multipliers in tough situations and maps are often so large that walking will be an absolute pain, especially when snipers are out in force. 

The best way to approach Conquest as a new player is to explore the map as much as you can. Two things will guarantee victory in Conquest, a good team and map knowledge. Having a good team is sort of a 50/50 gamble every time you join a server unless you have 11 other friends to play with you on the same team so learning the map is a must if you want to win. Most importantly, find flank routes and look out for heavily populated enemy areas. You want to avoid heavily populated enemy areas or alternately, bombard them with the mortar or the M142 HIMARS on the map Zavod 311. Flanking is key especially when the enemy has most of the objectives locked down. An effective squad who knows how to flank can take objectives while the team is being held down by the enemy at spawn. Or at the very least break out of the spawn and do some damage to the enemy from behind.

Team Deathmatch

Classic first-person shooter fare. No vehicles and relatively small versions of the existing maps make for exciting close-range firefights. Map knowledge will be a huge help but the only real way to win is with the best weapons and fast reflexes. Unless you're a fantastic sniper or know the map inside out, a carbine or quick-firing assault rifle is recommended for Team Deathmatch. 

There's not much advice to give about Team Deathmatch, it's a relatively simple mode with no real objective or strategy behind it except to kill the enemy.

Obliteration

This brand-spanking new game mode to Battlefield involves a bomb that spawns somewhere in between the two sides and three objectives you must detonate within 20 minutes. The winning team is the one that manages to detonate all three before the 20 minutes elapses or to have more detonated objectives than the other team. Furthermore, the person carrying the bomb is a giant target for everybody, so, it's not a job for the faint-hearted Obliteration is an extremely fun mode and really provides some pulse-pounding action particularly when you are the bomb carrier.

For Obliteration, the only real way to win is to have a really good team that knows how to work together. Always cover the bomb carrier and for the love of God, provide transport for the poor bugger with the target on his back. Also, keep your distance from the blast site because once it detonates it will take out most people near it and even the odd unlucky vehicle that strays too close. Vehicles are a must to carry the bomb carrier to his/her target and to cover the location from enemies attempting to defuse the bomb. Avoid main roads when driving because there will almost always be M15 anti-tank mines or M2 SLAMs on the ground. The helicopter, either transport or scout, is the best bet for delivering the bomb carrier because they're way faster than anything on the ground and really only susceptible to portable anti-air and mobile anti-air.

Rush

A more recent but extremely popular addition to Battlefield involves a set of M-COMs in every base which the defenders must prevent the attackers from detonating. The attackers get 75 tickets only and to win they must detonate the first set of M-COMs to move on to the next set and so on until the final set. The number of M-COMs depends on the map and range from 6 to 10 but will always involve a set of two at each base, no more, no less.

Unfortunately, DICE has tweaked Rush to provide a massive advantage to Defenders on almost every map particularly for the first two M-COMs with perhaps the exception of Golmud Railway and Flood Zone. For defenders, just dig in and take out the swarms of attackers coming at you. Don't forget to watch for snipers as well. If you have a half-decent team, you should be able to win pretty easily as defenders. Most maps have M-COMs in easily defensible positions provided your team isn't too stupid and too aggressive to guard the objectives. For attackers, it's really down to how effective the enemy team is on most maps because there's no real set way to break enemy defences. Having a good team helps but even then the map advantage afforded to defenders is insane. On the bright side, you'll get a go as the defending team so you'll probably get a victory at some point.

Squad Deathmatch

A slight twist on the staple in all first-person shooters, Squad Deathmatch features four 5-man squads duking it out for ultimate victory. Teamwork is crucial because you have less players backing you up and each member of the squad has to pull their own weight because you will effectively be fighting 15 other players with 4 players backing you up.

I wouldn't recommend playing this with randoms. Find some friends or you will be utterly demolished. Aside from having friends to play with, perhaps have a mic to communicate with randoms?

Domination

It's like Conquest without the vehicles on a much smaller scale. Three flags in fairly close proximity with 300 tickets on both sides means that killing is the main means to victory although capturing flags will help bleed the enemy tickets dry. Also it's 20 players on all platforms rather than the typical 24 players or 64 players in other game modes.

Capturing flags is quite important but again the main attraction here is close-quarters fighting particularly around the flag. There's very little time to relax as this is a ridiculously fast-paced game mode with action around every corner. Speed and reflexes are key although having some map knowledge will put you in good stead. Controlling the roofs on Siege of Shanghai and Zavod 311 is a must because you can move to any flag on the map with relative ease and you get a height advantage and positional advantage over the enemy.

Defuse

Basically Search and Destroy for Battlefield. One side arms objectives, the other side defends them. One life then spectator mode if you get killed until the end of the round.

Not sure if there's any tips for this other than sticking together and making sure to stick to whatever cover you can find that isn't destructible.

The Return: Back in Action

Hello everybody, I know it's been one hell of a hiatus but real life did significantly get in the way for all four of us, even though the whole point of getting four contributors is to ensure a steady stream of content. Well, you know, things go wrong, real life gets in the way and all that jazz. I'm happy to let any of you loyal readers know that we're not abandoning this project though, or at least, I'm not abandoning this project any time soon. I've got some content on the way and we're working on something that hopefully works out some time in early 2014.

365 Days Later

Hey everyone, it's been a good solid year and I'm quite happy with how far this little project has come. Thank you so much for sticking with us (for those that have) and welcome to our tiny little speck of the internet (for those who are new to the blog) which I hope we'll maintain for the years to come. We're still lacking a proper dialogue between us and you but I understand it's a little daunting to comment on a stranger's blog. If you do want to say something though, please feel free, be it criticism or praise or suggestions or anything really, unless you want to spam us with spam sites, then, please don't come back.

Anyway, one year in and we're still going quite strong. We're working on a couple of things aside from writing here and we'll be happy to reveal them to you when the time comes. Hopefully, the major thing will be being able to transition from the blog to our own proper website where hopefully, we can create a fun and vibrant community, a little corner of the internet you can call your virtual home, like PlayStation Home except not terrible. Again, thank you to anyone who has stuck with us for however long you've stuck with us and we look forward to hearing from you.

The Last of Us: Hunter or Hunted? Part 1

Freshly fallen snow lines the streets of the deserted Lakeside town, crunching beneath their boots as they move towards the buildings towards the centre of what had once been some sort of resort. The four scavengers move cautiously but quickly, worried that reports of Fireflies encroaching further and further into their territory might mean a hard fight for what would probably turn out be a measly amount of supplies. Wordlessly, the Hunters split up and take up positions that allows them to maximise coverage of the snow-laden resort.

Climbing to the roof of a low-slung cottage, the man with the sniper rifle scans the area thoroughly, looking out for the garish yellow uniforms of the Fireflies. Seeing no signs of life, he signals the others that the town is all-clear. The other three peel from cover and move in a V formation towards their first target, a large lonely cottage separated from the rest of the little lakeside commune. From his perch, the sniper continues to scan the area, determining that the reports must have been wrong or that the Fireflies had given up and gone home. Dropping noiselessly to the snow-covered ground, he makes his way into the house he was previously standing on top off through a conveniently-open window. Once inside, he searches for supplies and after meticulous searching of the small cottage, finds nothing of interest or utility. Worried that he's been away from the others for too long, he makes for the window to catch a glimpse or even establish contact with them.

As he approaches the window, he hears a shot ring out in the distance and all hell breaks loose. He hears the retort of gunfire from the house where he last saw his fellow Hunters. Snatching frantically at his sniper rifle, he dives to cover below the window and prays that nobody has seen him yet. Cautiously, he peeks through the window, scanning the area for targets. On the far side of the town, he sees a glint that can only be from a rifle scope and gingerly, he lifts the rifle to the window and peers through his own scope. From the magnified image of his scope, the Hunter manages sees a Firefly behind the glint with another Firefly probably acting as a spotter next to him. Breathing in, he lines up the shot and gently squeezes the trigger. The rifle adds a loud retort to the symphony of gunfire erupting across the idyllic whitewashed town as the man holding it attempts to bring the weapon back to bear for another short. One eye still glued to the scope, he sees the head of one of the Fireflies releasing a pink mist into the crisp winter air and satisfied with the result of his marksmanship, moves the weapon ever so gently to target the second Firefly.

Cannily, the other Firefly has dropped behind cover and grabbed his fallen compatriot's weapon. Moving frantically towards better cover, he scrambles across the snow with a rifle in one hand and a pistol in another, shooting wildly with the pistol out of sheer panic. The sniper takes a breath and leads the shot, slowly putting pressure on the trigger, waiting for the perfect moment to fire. The Firefly trips and the man with the sniper rifle pulls the trigger. Almost instantaneously, the round enters the Firefly's leg, causing him to shout in pain and fall even deeper into the snow. Cursing, the sniper works the bolt and loads another round into the chamber of his trusty weapon, sending another shot towards the fallen Firefly. Another one down and an unknown number to go. Peeling away from the window, the sniper moves cautiously towards the door, scanning the area ahead of him with his revolver in hand. With the area seemingly clear, he moves quickly towards the house his comrades are holed up, attracting the attention of the other Fireflies in the area. With a fusillade of shots whizzing past him, the Hunter increases his pace and dives through a window to escape the blizzard of lead headed his way. Grunting, the sniper gets back on his feet and moves further into the house, following the sound of gunfire coming from within the house. In the living room, he comes across his allies, two still up and one writhing in pain on the floor. As he approaches his compatriots, a nail bomb sails through one of the windows and detonates, killing his friends and sending various bits of shrapnel into his arms and legs.

to be continued

Pokemon X and Y : Preview Part 2

Hey fellow Poke-nerds.  I have seen new footage of the game and I have also found a pretty swell video made by MunchingOrange which pretty much shows some of the other things I have explained in my previous post as well as some other points.  Just watch the video below and I'll give my take on each topics to the best of my interests.



The New Pokemon- Yea, I have to agree. When playing a new Pokemon game, one definitely looks forward to seeing and catching all the new Pokemon Game Freak has thought up. The new typing (Fairy), like I mentioned in my previous post will add a well needed paradigm shift to a game that has remained arguably the same since Gen 2. While some people seem to be disappointed with the design of some the Pokemon, I am sitting on the fence with this one ( I neither hate or love them). I will just have to see the new generation of the Pokemon as a whole before placing my decision to whether this generation of Pokemon are aesthetically pleasing or butt ugly.

Mega Evolution - I have already touched on this topic in the my previous post so I won't ramble much about it here. What I will say though, is that after some reflection, the Mega Evolution seems to greatly resemble the Digimon formula of evolving ( Pokemon Black and White actually had a very Digimon-esque evolution style with the fusion of Zekrom or Reshiram with Kyurem). I may be wrong but that is the vibe I seem to be getting from the footage I'm seeing.

Customizing Characters - Not too much of a fan of this aspect. Then again this is coming from a person who cannot get past the the character customization screen in Skyrim. While it is a great incentive for gamers to be able to customizing his or her character to their own unique taste, I will not be dabbling much into this feature. I'd rather a Plain Jane than a Lady Gaga any day of the week. Skin colour and clothing accessories will be among the things players can change about their Pokemon trainer avatar. Somehow I wouldn't be surprised if fashion shows would be included in the game :P.

The Feel/ Layout of the Game - Beautifully done, however I must say it reminds of Digimon once again. Ever played Digimon World 1 and Digimon World 3. It looks and sounds pretty similar, which has gotten me a bit worried. While I do understand that the game is a reboot for the series, I guess I have gotten used to the feel of the old games. Once again, I hope to be proven wrong as I extrapolating data from recorded footage.

X and Y seems to be the most hyped Pokemon game in a long time. In fact I drifted out of the Pokemon franchise after Ruby and Sapphire. In my humble opinion, none of the Pokemon games has ever come close to topping the 2nd generation (Gold and Silver). However, I do hope X and Y will set the record straight and remind of my childhood bliss once again.

This has been Alex Plum reminding you that Pokemon X and Y is only days away. Carpe Diem Poke-nerds :).