thoughts from the 1.5 hours I played this morning (went to bed early, woke up at 3:30, made coffee, work is gonna suck, w/e):
-hip fire sucks. I don't think I got a kill with it in the 1.5 hours I played this morning, and that was using every kit outside of recon.
-tank play feels much more dynamic and driving is much more fluid, I don't feel like I'm sliding around aimlessly or not able to drive over large portions of maps anymore because of a rock or car (I drove over plenty of cars actually). Tanks feel properly strong and the new disable mechanics make actually aiming worthwhile (going to flank for the engine or aiming at tracks/wheels). APCs also no longer feel completely OP, although there is no alphabet shells in the beta so can't make a real comparison there to see if they are OP again. RPGs are super-effective as well, probably nerf worthy actually.
-speaking of tanks, I didn't notice a huge difference between the abrams and type 99 (china tank). They seemed fairly well balanced against each other, but I didn't get into close up 1 on 1 fights that often because RPGs are OP. Spent a lot of time backing into buildings and using angles to cover my ass-end so my engine wouldn't die, and took a lot of tread shots (and wheel shots on APCs) to make them slower and allow more shots on my end while I peeked out of cover. With more destructable buildings in urban maps, there is cover for your tank everywhere, just drive through the wall and make a hole for yourself.
-I hit a chopper with a tank shell multiple times and nothing happened
. Probably just buggy cause beta, whatever. Choppers don't have as much splash on the gunner seat, rockets don't feel OP, didn't fly to check flight mechanics so can't say to their ease of flying or not. Was only in gunner seat for a short while before the idiot flying crashed into the falling skyscraper
-other than 1 CTD that happened when I was alt-tabbing and recording, everything was really stable and I had no stuttering or frame rate issues while recording with all ultra, vert-sync, no aa, with the amd beta driver released yesterday. not uploading the footage I have so far as it was more of just a test of recording and system performance, might upload some later tonight.
-the xm25 for support is kinda strange, I haven't figured out the whole "lock on and airburst over cover" thing from the trailers, but it's essentially a noob tube with no arc fire and a 5 round mag.
-as to other weapons, I didn't play a lot of assault so I can't speak there, but having a support is a necessity in squads because ammo is low. support gun seemed much more balanced against the AR, but the gun you get is more like the M27 in bf3 than an actual LMG. we'll see how it goes once I get the type 88. Engy PDW eats ammo and isn't really that accurate, without good weapon control you won't kill anything from a distance and with horribad hip fire good luck up close. Probably will swap out to carbine once I unlock it.
-the skyscraper falling is quite impressive, especially from a chopper view as it falls on your head
-CQ Domination is the same thing as it was in BF3, no point spawning but squad spawning is there. Didn't try obliteration but it is listed in the filters list on battlelog. CQ and CQ large are both listed giving me the impression that there are 32 and 64 player sizes to maps.
overall it's pretty impressive, but it's by no means BF2 reborn, much closer to BF3 but with some added destruction and map items like closing chain gates over windows in a store and using elevators. Basically, think of what BF3 could have done, add it in, don't improve the graphics that much, taadaaa BF4. Didn't explore "levelution" that much, but did see the skyscraper drop which was impressive. Will add more after I get more play time in tonight.