There's no I -- or C or O or D -- in Team

One of the reasons we've been such big fans of Battlefield as opposed to the competition is the need to work as a team to send the other side straight to hell. Yet the Battlefield 3 Beta seems to be lacking any of the standard features necessary to enable this. There's no command rose in the game yet, making it impossible to call for support or direct troops to your flank, though we've heard there's one on the way for the full game. VOIP is AWOL as well, a worrying sign considering Bad Company 2's woeful VOIP system at launch. Battlelog's excellent VOIP system allows you to chat with party members (we love the way it supports an extra audio device for both inputting and outputting sound, unlike Steam's chat), but as yet there's nothing in the beta to allow in-server communications. Unfortunately you can't actually join a squad with your party members either, as there's no way to choose which squad you want to join, another glaring oversight when it comes to teamplay. Even the chat window feels like it's been thrown onto the HUD at the last minute, being too small to read most of the time.

The lack of tactical tools isn't such a problem given the small 16 vs 16 map, but we can only imagine what a nightmare it will be to launch a successful offense with 32 Lone Rangers all making a beeline for the nearest enemy stronghold. Throw tanks and jets into the mix, and we could see a clusterfunk of epic proportions, making it very hard to dig out embedded defenders.

Just four weeks to go
With just four weeks until launch, we're both excited and a little nervous about how Battlefield 3 will arrive come launch day. The beta is undoubtedly older than the code Dice is working on now, but the lack of such basic functionality as VOIP and a command rose raises questions about how team-oriented this latest iteration will be. The choice of a small, infantry-only map makes perfect business sense, obviously meant to lure in COD players with an experience not too dissimilar to the one they already know, but it also leaves much to the imagination. On the other hand, the stunning audio visual presentation leaves no doubt as to the wonderfully immersive and spectacular experience the game will offer, regardless of whether it's backed up by deep and tactical gameplay behind it.

Update – Just as we were publishing this article we managed to find our way into the closed part of the beta running the Caspian Border map. We'd love to write more about this massive 64 player experience, packed with jets, choppers, and armoured vehicles that takes place on a lush expanse of rolling hills and rivers, but we're not allowed to. Let's just say it makes the amazing Metro level look positively pathetic in comparison. We'll let you know more about it as soon as we're able to.