Let me start out by talking about one thing being absolutely wrong with this game, and that is the information sent from the bullets to the person being shot at.
In normal mode, from the perspective of the shooter, it is clear he has to lay into the body of his target (100% health) about 6-7 shots to make the kill. From the perspective of the victim, he gets 1-4 (4 if you're lucky) pretty fast you've-been-hit indications (red signals), before dropping dead.
It's bullshit. And it feels borderline like a hardcore match from Bad Company 2.
On that note, conduct the test yourself by seeing if there's a very clear difference in being able to survive in hardcore vs. normal mode in this game. Not much at all, is there?
I wasn't on board with Battlefield 2 so I don't know if that's the true feeling of a Battlefield game or whatever, but I feel like in Bad Company 2 it felt more accurate within this department of "information" through the bullets.
Oh, and apparently my soldier has some serious love handles that get exposed when I think I've made the clear around a corner or what have you, because a final bullet hits and kills me, even though I'm looking at a new room, or I clearly went to prone behind a barricade. On top of that, when your death screen appears, you're no longer where you thought you were--but a few steps in the past tense. Apply that to falling/jumping from an altitude while being shot at and it doesn't really feel natural once you get killed. You sort of get snatched back up a little bit before another fall takes place after seeing your death screen. Very much bullshit.
This visual misinformation also occurred in Bad Company 2, if I remember correctly, but I don't recall it being this bad. Paired up with the misinformation in the damage, it can be really annoying in this game.