Private matches are pretty good
The Good:
- No lag problems at all.
- Reasonable selection of maps (compared to other shooters not previous FC)
- Asynchronous gameplay is a lot of fun (subjectively speaking)
- 5v5 can make for friendly environment where everyone can be heard and joins in the chat
- Voice comms worked fine, no repeat of the FC3 horrors
- Players can switch teams, (not sure if possible when teams are full)
- All players in our session enjoyed all game types
The Bad:
- Teams don't remain static, get auto jumbled after each round, makes organised games difficult
- Host sets all options, no voting
- Host can't give upgrades to all players to make things equal in the way they could back in FC2, this creates inequality where it is least desired
- Can't be opened up to the public to fill empty slots, it's all friends or no friends.
The Ugly:
- No player made maps (discussed to death but remains a massive disappointment for all previous FC MP players)
- Players can't continue into public matches together when a few people leave.
So there we have it. It was a struggle to get 10 people to fill the room, I have a couple of hundred people in my friends list, am part of a large gaming community (oldnrubbish.co.uk) and I still struggled to get this going, I think if anyone else is to attempt similar they would need to plan well in advance, although of course there iwll be some people out ther whose friends list is full of people wanting to play FC MP in private games, I doubt that it will be the scenario for many.
Once we got things going tho I do have to sya that everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves, only one person remained unconvinced and said they weren't sure if they would turn up for another session, everyone else was keen to set up a regular night.
Some of the guys were regulars from back in the glory days of FC2, where we had regular teams facing off against each other each week on a regular night, we played some regular maps, but also each week one team would have a map that they'd made and learnt, but was unknown to the opponents so they were goinfg in blind. absolutely epic, and I'll never forget the hilarity when one map had one team spawn in a cage with the opponents being able to blast them from all directions.
I don't think I've ever heard such laughter in a game lobby before or since! So yeah, we've had our creativity taken, but fun is still possible, we'll be setting this up as a regular night and I'd recommend to others that they give it a go, I do tho have to leave you with a quote:
For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: "It might have been!"
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Greenleaf_Whittier