Are you being intentionally vague? Coming from BF2 to BF3 (and all the games in between), I could just as easily say that with the introduction of destructible buildings, as just one example, BF2's gameplay has been opened up in such a way that the tactical options presented have furthered the franchise greatly. The infantry combat has been immensely improved over BF2, and things that needed to be balanced have.
BF3 is far from perfect, but to call it a step back from BF2 is pulling an ostrich on all of the new and improved features.
Destruction and graphics are not what I'm talking about. Taking BF2 and adding destruction would have been awesome.
However the infantry combat has not been improved for me. Maybe for you. Of course it depends on what you care about. If you want a style that emphasizes pure twitch speed of aim over any other skill, over tactics and teamwork, then sure, BF3 was an improvement in infantry play. BF3 is not a bad game but in truth it is neither an improvement nor a step back, it emphasizes completely different things. Although, since it emphasizes things that don't interest me(pure twitch skill and lightning fast pace instead of tactics, strategy and teamwork), it's by default a step back
for me and for all who share my views.
To the point:
1. The time to kill is greatly reduced due to weapon accuracy and range in BF3. Bullet damage may be slightly less than it was in BF2 but the accuracy and range is greatly increased and this allows you to easily spray or tapfire enemies at longer distances. There is therefore zero motivation for people to get closer to the enemy in order to get kills, which causes people not to play objectives and instead play deathmatch-in-conquest.
2. The time between kills is lowered. For the same reasons as in 1, and also due to things like 3D spotting and automatic audiospotting. In BF2, 2D spots that weren't close to you didn't show up on your minimap. But in BF3, all 3D spots show up to you at any range, and so this motivates people to not cap flags but instead go running around trying to get in position to fire at 3D spots even if they are halfway across the map. Audiospotting has a similar effect.
3. Disabling. Disabling I hate not because I'm a vehicle whore, but because I'm NOT a vehicle whore and disabling makes vehicles(namely tanks) more powerful. But that's a paradox, you say? Not really...you see, engineers in BF3, unlike BF2, have primary firearms that are as powerful as assault, so there's no downside to playing them, AND they have both repair tool AND AT rockets...again, no downside. So disabling, and the fact the engineers are proliferated, means tanks run around with 3 engineers at all times in response to disabling. It would be 10 times better if vehicles could NOT be disabled, because then tanks would try to flee instead of sitting there with 3 engineers repairing them, and as you can guess, you can't be repaired if you're running away from your engineers at full speed trying to avoid the next shot instead of repairing through it.
And even when I am playing a tank, it's irritating from that aspect as well because there are only two available tactics with tanks due to disabling: Camp from long range(and be called a tank camper) , or run around with 3 engineers myself. Which makes it very easy to rape the other team but it makes the vehicle game very...non-diverse.
4. No in-game VOIP, totally worthless and inaudible commo rose, no orders rose(only social context sensitive orders), and small maps. Self explanatory here...though I will say the game pace is so fast and maps so small and linear, what's the point of having teamwork tools anyway? You need to spend your time trying to out-twitch aim the enemy, not coordinating with teammates.
I could go on and on but that's enough for now. As I say, BF3 is good for who it's for, and to those of you that love it, I congratulate you. But it's basically CoD with permanent vehicles instead of killstreak vehicles, and since I don't like either CoD or BF3's gameplay, and since DICE will likely make the BC series a BF3 clone, and MoH has never been that good, it means that the new BF3 meatgrinding gameplay is all we're ever going to get.
Bottom line is that BF3 may be a good game for who likes it but it is not a step forward from BF2 except in terms of graphics and destruction. Its gameplay style is a lateral step to a style that not all of us like. Again, congratulations on your dream game to those that want this, but those of who prefer deliberately paced gameplay with larger maps, we must continue to ask that DICE make a game for us in the style of BF1942/2/2142.
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