Thread: Free Week Quick Start Tips [sorry, no game play tips]

I wanted to list some tips for those of you who want to try Battlefield 4 during the free week:

• If you have the 64bit version of Windows installed and > 4GB of ram then make sure you change the game launch properties to use the 64-bit executable to take advantage of the extra memory. This is accomplished by right clicking on the Battlefield 4 icon in Origin, select Game Properties, and select the Battlefield 4 (X64) option.

• ​Turn off the option that enabled Origin in game. That will cause random crashes on AMD cards. This is accomplished in Origin by selecting the Origin menu, Application Settings, Origin in Game, and then unchecking the Enable Origin in Game option.

• ​Manually update Punkbuster. You can download and run the installer from PunkBuster Online Countermeasures. Directions are on the screen.

• If you have an AMD card that supports Mantel, change you tenderer in game to Mantel. You may need to update your drivers.

• VOIP is supported in this game. Be sure to go into controls and assign it to you favorite key/mouse button.

• If you plan to fly chopper/jets, go to controls and invert the mouse.

• In Battlelog, open Battlepacks. These may contain boost and you want to use them to rank up faster. You can apply these in game during a round.

• If you have a SSD, install the game to that drive. This will give you an advantage at the start of a map. Most maps load in about 30 seconds on an SSD. Players using regular hard drives will take 1-2 minutes to get into game. That is an extra 30 second head start for you as most maps do not make you wait with a warm up period. The game with all the premium packs takes 47GB of disk space. You can use GameSave Manager to move the game to your SSD if you installed it on a regular HD: GameSave Manager

• You will want the M412 Rex, M249, and the QBZ-95-1. You can only get them by playing the BF4 single player campaign. See Battlefield 4 Weapons Locations Guide - All Weapon Collectibles : SegmentNext for more details.

• Bring you MIC and make sure its not muted!

• Be sure to play the Siege of Shanghai map ASAP to see Levolution in action!

Now for the bad news..

The TPG Battlefield 4 server runs the expansion packs (DLC). Due to this, you will not be able to play on the server unless you buy the game and premium. Maybe the admins will go back to vanilla for the week so you can get online any play with your favorite regulars..

If you do try out the game out this week and find that you love it then buy the game with premium.

Happy gaming..

As a note for AMD video card users: Mantle WILL backfire unless you're using a 260x, 290, 290x, or 295x2. Mantle has some serious memory leak issues on GCN 1.0 video cards, but has no issues with GCN 1.1+ (the above listed cards).

I take that back. I updated to the latest Beta drivers (14.7) and enabled Mantle, and so far my 7870 hasn't experienced any memory leaking in the Test Range as it previously did. Either it was fixed driver-side, or was finally fixed software side by DICE. That or the problems won't arise until multiplayer.