Playing PC Games as a Test Analyst – Part II: Battlefield 4

by | Syndicated

Quick Disclaimer: ‘Buggy’ might not be a proper testing term, but I think this word describes the current state of the game.
This is written from the point of view of a tester who has never played BF1, BF2 or BF3. I’m also fairly average at MMO and FPS.
It’s been a few months since my last gaming phase. Last time I played (and conquered) Bioshock 3. Boomshakalaka.
Beautiful game. Beautiful graphics. And I must say, Battlefield 4 is definitely pretty.
Oh. And it’s actually very frustrating and it’s fairly buggy at the moment.

Gameplay

Put simply, BF4 is a game where you try to kill other team and complete an objective – the objective depends on which mode you are in. I stick to Conquest (which is kinda like capture the flag).

I’ll be honest with you. My kill-death ratio is not exactly the best. Well, verging on embarrassing – but I partly attribute that to the fact that I like to be a medic and don’t place as much emphasis on killing others as I do on healing others. (I much prefer no-vehicle locations).

Playing an MMO DPS means you got to be pretty quick and just keep moving – which I hate. My left hand gets tired and sore after 45min.
There are many reasons why you’ve got to keep on moving – the main one is you increase your chance of getting killed if you keep still (there are some exceptions to this rule of course). 

 
Bugs/Problems encountered
Interestingly enough, there are a few people who have encountered some annoying and just plain weird bugs.
People have been raging on various online forums about the state of the game and how it shouldn’t have been deployed when it was.

Issues I have encountered:

  • Being shot by a wall when nothing/no-one was there (it was well-lit)
  • The most annoying thing I came across was not having anything from my first few games saved (no XP, kills, nothing). But that was fixed the next day.
  • People spawning on a player and floating in the middle of the air for 2 seconds
  • Watching a game in Spectator mode (as opposed to being a player, you’re just watching the game) and watching motorbikes move around with no passenger for 1 minute, then a passenger appears on the seat

Below are some Youtube videos where players show the weird stuff they found (some are bugs; others are just funny – but I assure you they are all a good watch)

One hit kill – this is beyond annoying.

 
 
 
 
Player duplicates himself and finds he can shoot himself in the process.