Battlefield 3

[Sly Reflex]

I don't really see this as a good thing.

http://battlefieldo.com/bf3-pax-gamefest-dice-stockholm-testers/

For those of you lucky enough to live in or near Stockholm, Sweden where DICE’s headquarters are, good news: DICE is seeking 14 on-site QA Testers to work for a 3-month contract at their Stockholm office testing BF3.

So that's 90 odd days of testing starting from after today. Problem is...

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Now I understand that bugs and glitches will be found after the game comes out, but this looks like they are rushing it out to get a head start on MW3 to me. I'd rather have a game that worked than one that was getting patched every fucking time I turn it on. It's news like this that worries me.

[dante76]

Could just be server testing, and the public always find exploits that the programmers never considered.

[DANGERMAN]

yeah, could be some server testing rolling in to DLC testing

[Sly Reflex]

http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/battlefield_bad_company/archive/2011/08/11/battleblog-6-building-the-game-from-the-gun-out.aspx

Every Battlefield game is built from the gun out. If persistence is what keeps you coming back for more, the gunplay is the essential foundation that the entire game hinges on. Read on for Senior Designer Alan Kertz’ thoughts on what makes shooting in Battlefield 3 unique.

Tweaking, testing, and re-tweaking the weapons in Battlefield 3 is the short description of a normal workday for Senior Designer Alan Kertz at this stage in the production. Now that we are well into August, Alan’s work has long since gone from overarching shooter vision to detailed fine-tuning. Walk down to his desk at any given day and you are likely to find him poring over notes or some onscreen graphs, deep in discussion with his designer colleagues:

Is the exit smoke from this RPG large enough? Is the precision increase when adding a heavy barrel to this rifle noticeable enough in semi-burst fire mode? How does the addition of a foregrip to this rifle affect the stability when firing in fully automatic mode?

-- Authenticity is really important when you’re doing a modern day game like Battlefield 3. We know our players look critically at the guns in our games, so we brought in experts like Andy McNab. Our military advisors not only help us get it right, they help us understand why it’s right.”

Compared to both Battlefield 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2, there is a larger focus in Battlefield 3 on authenticity and real life handling. This comes down to details like reloads, mobility, bullet trajectories, and even how the caliber and barrel length of a gun determines muzzle velocity and energy. For Alan, this approach clearly leads to better gameplay.

-- With authenticity as a base, you get a natural balance because all real life guns are based on trade-offs. It really pulls out the personality of each weapon system to use the authentic stats and features. Each army selects a different weapon, for a different reason, and we pass those selections on to our players.”

Varied weapons for all play styles

The arsenals of U.S. Marine Corps and the Russian Army are both featured prominently in the game, since those are the sides you play in both single and multiplayer. Building from that base, we selected a number of additional weapons that are returning classics, competing designs, and alternate combat roles. Each weapon choice means it gives the player an additional tactical choice: Get in close with a carbine, PDW, or shotgun. Hit from long range with a sniper rifle. Engage tanks with an RPG. Or lay down suppressive fire with a light machinegun.

We’re not just giving you weapon A or B, take it or leave it, though. Each main weapon will be heavily customizable to suit different roles. The majority of weapons in Battlefield 3 can be tailored by the player to fit anything from close quarter to long range combat, or something in between. But we’ll save that for a later Battleblog post, when we will go deep into weapons customization.

Sounds good. Did anyone else notice that the Single player might have you playing as Russians? I wonder what all that is about?

[Sly Reflex]

This is a jet in BF3.

[Sly Reflex]

[Reecus]

Sucks that I dont have a gaming computer, the jets look really fun, though I have no doubt that the Xbox version of this will be amazing without them.

[TopGunKnacker]

Sucks that I dont have a gaming computer, the jets look really fun, though I have no doubt that the Xbox version of this will be amazing without them.

???

[Sly Reflex]

The jets are in all versions of the game.

[Reecus]

The jets are in all versions of the game.

Really? must have gotten my wires crossed somewhere along the line.

It makes sense when you think about it though (Shh it does), less players = smaller maps = no point in jets.

EDIT: Sorry, I assumed based on This RPS article, that it was 64 player map exclusive, and therefore PC exclusive.

[Sly Reflex]

I think you may have got mixed up with the player count. 24 for consoles. 32 to 64 on PC.

[Sly Reflex]

http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/battlefield_bad_company/archive/2011/08/18/battleblog-7-battlefield-3-introduces-themed-co-op-campaign.aspx

Co-op in Battlefield 3 is designed to be the perfect blend between the strong narrative from single player and the open-ended action from multiplayer. Lead Co-op Designer David Spinnier and his team are fusing the replayability of multiplayer with a pick up and play mentality to create a totally new flavor of Battlefield.

-- Every mission in co-op is a new experience. We wanted to create the ultimate mix of play styles for you and a friend, said David Spinnier.

The co-op missions in Battlefield 3 take place in the same world as the single player campaign, and follows a unique series of events that lead up to an explosive finish. Players in co-op will take the role of soldiers that are not tied to any one particular branch of the Armed Forces. This is an intentional design decision to allow for a vast variety in gameplay in the different co-op missions.

Lend a helping hand

To survive through the co-op missions, you’ll need to stay close to your buddy. If he goes down, lend a helping hand with the new co-op “Man down!” mechanic, that lets you revive him in the heat of battle. While being down, you can still use your secondary weapon to defend yourself, while slowly crawling to a safer spot where your friend can help you without getting shot. If both of you go down, it’s game over.

You fight together. You die together. And you score together. After having cleared a co-op mission with your friend, your total combined score will be displayed via Battlelog, our suite of free social features that connect all Battlefield 3 players. Missions are designed to be shorter than single player missions, so you can easily do multiple rounds in an evening to try and beat your friends’ high score. The best score of your Friend will be displayed for each mission, so you know what to aim for.

Difficulty is high. Spinner and his colleagues are going for a tough challenge in all missions. Also, since competitive players will likely try each mission several times, all of the co-op missions contain randomized elements to keep every playthrough fresh. Clearing the co-op missions not only gives you scores and bragging rights – it also has benefits for your multiplayer career. There are a number of weapons that you can unlock in co-op and take with you to the regular multiplayer modes. These unlocks are based on your combined scores ackumulated throughout the co-op campaign.Exfiltrate Hamid El Zakir

At GamesCom 2011, we are running Battlefield 3 in co-op for the first time, with the mission Exfiltration. It revolves around a defecting informant, El Zakir, that you and your co-op friend needs to escort to safety. The mission starts outside the building where El Zakir resides. You need to move in, remove any opposition, and extract the target. If you can make it that far without raising a single alarm, there’s a little bonus in it for you. Here’s a little playing tip for you: If you need to take out multiple targets simultaneously (which is the case in Exfiltration), do a countdown over the voice chat. That way you can open fire at the same time, which gives the enemy less time to react.

Part two of Exfiltration has you clearing a path for your convoy so you can reach the outskirts of the city, before entering two of the vehicles and assisting by manning the top-mounted machine guns. Exfiltration is not over there, and there are more elements to it, but by now you should have a good idea what awaits in one of our diverse co-op missions. More will be revealed later.

I wasn't really bothered about this but seeing it tied into the MP I might have to have a gander.

[Reecus]

Hopefully it'll have split screen this time around.

[Sly Reflex]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-19-ea-bf-will-eventually-outsell-cod

Battlefield will eventually outsell Call of Duty, EA reckons.

It'll take "a few iterations," but it'll happen, EA's European boss Jens Uwe Intat told Eurogamer.

"In any year I would want to see that happen, yes," he said. "It's possible. If we as a company put all of our effort into winning market share in a place we can do that."

This year Battlefield 3 goes head-to-head with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. While analysts predict Battlefield 3 will prove a huge success (one expects it to shift 11 million copies), Modern Warfare 3 is expected to outsell it - and break video game sales records set by last year's 20 million-selling Black Ops.

Uwe Intat said EA had demonstrated how to overtake a market leader in the past, pointing to FIFA's current dominance over PES.

"We've shown that in the football space with FIFA. We were behind. We rewrote the engine. We came back with a superior game. It took us a few years, but now we are the clear market share leader in that space, and we want to do it again.

"It takes a few iterations, but it's doable."

As for this year, EA hopes to reduce Activision's share of the first-person shooter space by a considerable amount.

"This is obviously top priority for us," Uwe Intat said. "Battlefield this year is a critical priority of what we're doing. We are also very ambitious, and we obviously have a clear competitor out there, who in the past for quite some time has dominated that space.

"What we've embarked on is to take market share away from Activision, big time. The way we're doing this is focusing on, front and centre, the game and the consumer experience. It's not that we just want to have a marketing battle. We want to have the better game.

"We have this wonderful team in Sweden that has been working on a new engine, Frostbite 2, and what we now have is the better game. We're very proud of DICE.

"Rome was not built in a day. We're not going to take over that place in one go. But, if you say Activision last year had 90 per cent of the shooter space, we definitely want them to go down to 70, maybe 60 per cent this year. That is what we are aiming for."

What worries me about this is that EA might start pushing Battlefield out every year, and I don't think it's possible or feasible to be knocking out a game a year without the quality suffering. I'd rather them support Battlefield 3 with new maps and updates instead of putting out a £40 game out in Autumn which blatantly could have been done as DLC, as seen with other franchises such as FIFA, Guitar Hero and CoD. Saturating the market isn't the way forward.

[Reecus]

What worries me about this is that EA might start pushing Battlefield out every year, and I don't think it's possible or feasible to be knocking out a game a year without the quality suffering. I'd rather them support Battlefield 3 with new maps and updates instead of putting out a £40 game out in Autumn which blatantly could have been done as DLC, as seen with other franchises such as FIFA, Guitar Hero and CoD. Saturating the market isn't the way forward.

I think I read in an interview somewhere that they wouldnt push for yearly releases to keep the quality of the product intact, cant give a source though.

EDIT: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-03-dice-no-plans-to-annualise-battlefield

[Sly Reflex]

That's good to hear, I'd rather have Special Forces, Euro Forces, Armoured Fury and Vietnam rather than them just pumping out a full blown shelf copy every run up to Christmas. That's just bullshit and I'm surprise so many people buy into it.

[Sly Reflex]

Twitter conversations since Gamescom have mentioned...

For those of you disappointed in Battlefield 3 only having 9 maps at release, I'd like to point out that Bad Company 2 had 10 maps on release, five Conquest and five Rush, while Battlefield 3's nine maps are set to playable in all game modes at launch.

Squad specialisations apply the same bonus as the normal specialisation, but the bonus applies to all squad members. An icon beside squad members' names will indicate which (if any) squad specialisation they have equipped. Not confirmed, but it's believed that Squad specialisations will not stack, so it's in a squad's best interest to all have a different Squad specialisation. Squad specialisations unlock at a higher levels than their standard counterpart.

All guns have bullet drop.

C4 and mines will no longer denote when shot. Only explosives will destroy them. Placed C4 can be picked up by pressing the reload button. Explosive devices, including armed M-Coms, can be disarmed by an EOD bot. Engineers can disarm mines.

Moving while crouched or prone will not trigger claymores.

Motion mines (now called UG sensors) are a stationary placed object, which is easier to notice and can be destroyed. Only one may be placed at a time. Its spotting ability isn’t as powerful and can be completely negated by crouch walking or going prone.

Players can exit and enter control of the EOD bot and MAV UAV gadget at will.

A suppressor can be fitted to pretty much every gun besides the shotguns (no recreating No Country for Old Men then). Fitting a suppressor will slightly lower damage at long range.

Faction specific weapons can be unlocked for both factions by either reaching a certain rank, or completely levelling a class. Slight confusion on this, but you will be able to use an AK as a marine at some point.

Fire modes don't change damage or max rate of fire, just how many bullets fire with each press of the trigger.

The glint of a sniper's scope when aiming at you is not just for snipers. Any class using a high powered scope (exactly which scopes constitute high powered I'm not sure) will have scope glint.

Disabled vehicles bleed health until they explode. Vehicles only regenerate health if slightly damaged.

Credit goes to DogEyedBoy over at Britxbox for collating this info.

[Reecus]

Most of that sounds good, what does sound a bit off to me is the crouch-walking not triggering claymores or motion sensors, going prone I would understand, but its way too easy to crouch while entering a building with very little penalty.

[TopGunKnacker]

Most of that sounds good, what does sound a bit off to me is the crouch-walking not triggering claymores or motion sensors, going prone I would understand, but its way too easy to crouch while entering a building with very little penalty.

[Sly Reflex]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-24-bf3-team-deathmatch-supports-24-players

Battlefield 3's Team Deathmatch mode supports a maximum of 24 players on all platforms.

The mode does not support vehicles, BF3blog reports.

Instead, Team Deathmatch is focused on tight infantry portions of regular maps.

Battlefield 3's Conquest mode, on the other hand, supports 64 players on PC.

As BF3blog noted, the maps in Team Deathmatch are tighter than they are in Conquest mode, with more focused and intense gameplay.

It also compared the 24-player limit to Battlefield: Bad Company 2's Squad Deathmatch mode, which was limited to 16 players and "never managed to feel inadequate".

As revealed earlier this year, anyone looking to enjoy Battlefield 3 multiplayer on a console will have smaller maps to play with than their PC counterparts.

The console versions only permit 24 players in a match compared to 64 on PC, so developer DICE made the decision to scale the maps down for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 releases.

This only applies to ground battles, however. Aerial skirmishes will apparently play out across the same area as they do on the PC game.

I can't say I'm interested in the none objective parts of BF3.