I beg to differ. I have tried the alpha for about 3 hours by logging in to my friend's account, and the gameplay is considerably hardcore compared to BC2 and even BF2. I might even say it's on RO level aside from lack of leaning, gamemode and HUD clutter. Reasons?
- Prone destroyed the "BC2" style fast paced gameplay completely. At the moment, everybody is in cover somewhere either proning or crouched and waiting for you. It's impossible to "rush" the opponents anymore as anybody in the open is basically a dead meat.
- Bullets do more damage and the net code is less laggy. Combine these two and you're basically dead if someone has the crosshairs on you. In BC2 the net code and hit registration is usually laggy(hitboxes usually lag behind player) and this makes running around and being reckless much more possible. Not anymore.
- Movements have inertia. Just like RO, it takes time to go sprinting and stopping. It's not easy to do the "WASD dance", if you make a bad sprint and want to go back, well good luck for you. In comparison, BC2 has almost no inertia at all, everything is instant. Making the gameplay faster paced. The inertia in BF3 right now is comparable to Killzone 2 levels.
- Graphics at the moment makes spotting enemies really hard. The lightning levels of environment and players match, so no longer you can spot a static enemy far away. You can really blend in with the environment and nobody will notice you save for muzzle flash and 3D spotting.
To be honest I'm not really liking how it plays at the moment. It's a bit too hardcore for what I liked in the Battlefield formula. Rush gameplay is obviously broken as everyone is not rushing, but sitting in their cover exchanging bullets comfortably. It's gameplay core is much more hardcore now, but the gameplay modes are not suitable for them. DICE should really think about what they want to do in this Alpha/Beta period.
Other than that, the graphics and attention to details are awesome. Laser sights and flashlight really work. It's awesome to turn the corner with your flashlight and blind everyone in the darkness of metro. Laser pointers can also blind others if you can manage to point it their eyes. Lightning is superb, dark Metro part almost feels like CGI. Weapon fire modes are back and lots of customization options(3 slots for each weapon). My only gripe with the graphics is the super-high contrast and there's no graphics options so you can't do anything about it.
2142 style classes feels better, assault now can either be the