Six classic maps are returning in Battlefield 2042 as part of a tool for making your own game modes. The maps include Caspian Border from Battlefield 3 and Arica Harbour from Bad Company 2. The mode-editing tool is called Battlefield Portal and it works in a web browser, letting players create shareable game modes on a selection of old and new maps. You could make a mode that allows only repair tools, for example, or pits teams from distinct eras of warfare against one another.
In other words, you might force a bunch of World War 2 Germans armed with knives to fight squads of US soldiers from Battlefield 3 armed with modern LMGs. The important thing is they can duke it out in a fancy new version of El Alamein from Battlefield 1942.
]]>Battlefield: Hardline is mere weeks away from being shown off for the first time, and Battlefield 4 just got microtransactions. What's an already overwhelmed Battlefield neophyte to do? Why, dive into a different Battlefield altogether, of course. I mean, I guess that's rationale behind EA's decision to make BF3 100 percent free as part of Origin's On The House program, and - while things haven't exactly been sunshine and butterflies on the battle-est of fields lately - I won't look a gift tank in the turret. I feel like that would be a very, very poor idea under any circumstance, virtual or not.
]]>This is the latest in the series of articles about the art technology of games, in collaboration with the particularly handsome Dead End Thrills.
Games move pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss them. The pretties this week come courtesy not of a particular game, nor indeed me, but of the Dead End Thrills Flickr group, a caravan of some 500+ 'players' who spend more time stopping games and looking around than they do actually playing. The times we live in.
With some 11,000 images in there, I wasn't sure how best to approach this. (Drunk, obviously, but how badly?) I've gone for the easy option: a round-up of games and/or users that stood out over the last few weeks. What you'll often find is that wrangling games into 'screenshot mode' has knock-on benefits for any PC gamer, so let's see if that holds true.
]]>Battlefield 3 is finally getting a proper PC version, with custom server rules, a spectator mode and lots of other features unlocked or revealed for the first time. The Venice Unleashed project is an excavation of the shooter's code and is the work of NoFaTe, who previously performed similar work on Bad Company 2. Beta signups are open now, as testing takes place, and NoFaTe reckons this could give the game a bright future: "Using our powerful Extension System, which exposes lots of engine/game functions and abilities, you can now create your own unique mods and gamemodes, without the need of performing complicated and game-breaking file modifications."
]]>I do hope you hold an opinion about Battlefield 3. It'd be awful to found without one. If you're lacking, can I suggest: "I really think they made it fall too graphicy since Battlefield 2," or, "While the tanks may roll more impressively, it's hard to forgive the angle of the helicopter blades." Those should get you by. Or you could see if there's something new you can pick up in this End Game trailer, March's final expansion to the series that'll reintroduce flag capturing, and dirty bikes.
]]>Battlefield 3's next DLC (and possibly final DLC? It's at least the last announced one I am aware of - Oh, no, there's also End Game, which has motorcycles, apparently) will arrive just in time for Christmas. The new maps, set in an earthquake-ruined middle-eastern city, look pretty fancy, and they provide a playground for new weapons and a host of modified vehicles. All this underwrites a new game mode. DICE explain that Aftermath "sees the debut of Scavenger mode – an objective based conquest where players must brave the environment armed with only one sidearm, as they try to find more powerful weapons in an attempt to survive with their squad."
Big fancy Aftermath trailer below, and there's a bunch more information here.
]]>Well, this is a bit unexpected. Not the fact that more Battlefield 3 maps are on the way. Those will apparently be hewn from the Earth and flung at the microtransaction-loving masses until the end of time. But this new look at BF3: Aftermath's earthquake-pancaked Epicenter map is oddly serene. Usually, these things are all about the shooty shooty bang bang and Inception BRRRRRRRRRZTs, but this one? It's different. Maybe one day, this one will go out into the world and make something of itself.
]]>I've got bad news for a certain, uh, vocal portion of our readership: you might have a reason to not completely hate Origin. I'm kidding myself - obviously you'll hate Origin no matter what forever and ever. I know you, young man. But you'll still go and get your free copy of Battlefield 1942, blessed with the fine price of no-pennies in honour of its 10th anniversary, even while loudly decrying the entire system. THE INTERNET.
]]>But December 4th for premium subscribers! Yeah, those who pay will get to play just that little bit earlier. But what will they be playing with? Well, the Aftermath DLC contains four new maps, each of which is situated in earthquake-devastated Iran. There's also a new game mode, which sounds awesome. It's called Scavenger, and sees players start with just a knife and pistol. They have to go out into the map and search for better weapons to survive. I have to admit I've not been back to Battlefield 3 for several months, but the same was true of Bad Company 2, and I still went back and put hundreds of hours into that. Perhaps after Christmas...
The trailer, inevitably, lies below.
]]>Our news-pumped chums at VG247 recently talked to Patrick Bach from DICE about the upcoming Armoured Kill DLC for Battlefield 3: huge maps on which tanks and other vehicles do endless full-metal biff to each other. There's a bunch of new footage of the maps and modes in the video, which you can see below, albeit largely filmed from a screen. This DLC is actually tipping me back towards playing Battlefield 3 again, since I've been pondering which multiplayer game I need to lurch my way into in the winter months. Additionally, "Tank Superiority mode" sounds like something I need to spend some time with.
Check it out, neathwards.
]]>I'm just going to pretend that this is a full trailer for Battlefield 3's Armo(u)red Kill, and not a video showing how you can buy into their crummy Premium service. So why don't you, me, and that guy over there all agree that the first 38 seconds of the trailer's 1.53 runtime is just white noise, or Joe Pasquale telling a joke - it doesn't exist. It a glitch in the Matrix. To make this work we'll just have to live the lie. Can you do that? For me? I don't ask for much.
]]>EA's policy with sequelized franchises tends to mirror that of an over-excited puppy or me when I'm talking to anyone and an over-excited puppy prances into view: out of sight, out of mind. Servers quietly disappear, DLC dries up entirely, and empires (mostly of the sporting variety) crumble. DICE, however, swears the same fate won't befall Battlefield 3. It's going strong right now with Armored Kill, Aftermath, and Endgame still on the way, but apparently, their end won't signal the endgame of this game's endgame. Endgame!
]]>I have, I must admit, spent a worrisome number of hours pondering the exact nature of the phrase "Armored Kill." Is it a kill you score while wearing armor - perhaps in the fashion of a medieval knight who'd rather die than admit that, yeah, that's a tank? Or is the kill itself - the very act of forcibly removing another man from his mortal coil - clad in some form of armor? Am I, say, throwing pieces of armor at my unsuspecting foes, sort of like a weaponized Super Ghosts 'n' Ghouls? Or maybe I'm simply killing armor that's, like, been possessed by a ghost or something. Maybe it turns out there was no ghost at all, but that it was in fact Old Man Jenkins clearly running out of ideas. Fortunately, EA's sent along a new trailer of Battlefield 3: Armored Kill in which all questions are answered. (Hint: there are tanks. So I was sort of basically entirely correct. Yep.)
]]>Just in case you thought I was pulling your leg/was a gullible tool when we posted about the apparent leak of Battlefield 4, EA have stopped pretending it didn't happen and officially 'fessed up. They've confirmed that, yes, people who pre-order Medal of Honor: Man Who Fights Wars will get priority access to the beta of the next Battlefield, and that's scheduled for 'Fall 2013.' Which I'd be willing to guess suggests a release date of October or November 2013, as has been EA and Activision manshoot tradition for many years now. But I might be wrong. I often am. Why, I was wrong about something only yesterday.
]]>That is a picture of my face at the precise moment I first read that there was probably going to be a sequel to a first-person shooter that sold millions of copies.
]]>While knee-jerk analysts (the same ones who incorrectly declared Facebook gaming was a gold rush for all and sundry) at micro-conferences attended only by a minute echo chamber fragment of the games industry ritually declare that free to play is the only possible future of videogames, any number of other business models arrive, persist and grow. Free to play will expand, of that I have no doubt, but that's not going to prevent a plurality of ways to acquire games. Bundles and crowdsourcing are the two most notable of the last year, while Sony's shock purchase of Gaikai for $380m today suggests we're about to see a whole lot more cloud-streamed (i.e. rented) gaming doing the mainstream rounds. Another latter-day content-flogging technique is subscriptions for multiplayer games - not MMOs, but the 'games as service' mentality that sees new content regularly generated for popular titles.
]]>So yes, Battlefield 3 Premium is a thing. It costs $50, and for that you get early access to all five expansion packs - Armoured Kill, Aftermath, and End Game are appearing between now and March 2013 - as well as "exclusive in-game items", exclusive events, and a lot of other stuff - double XP events and "tactics? And does all that add up to a new game's worth of stuff? EA certainly seem to think so. Because I think I'd want a new game for that much cash. But perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps this is an essential purchase for the Battlefield 3 legions? Those expansions are certainly promising a lot of stuff - weapons, 20 maps, new vehicles and so on... Are you going to buy it? To the commentmobile!
(Oh, and there's a glitzy trailer below.)
]]>EA have confirmed that Battlefield 3 is to get a "Premium" service, apparently allowing people who purchase it early and immediate access to future DLC, as well as a greater range of items and customisation options. BFBlog appears to have the details, although this is unconfirmed by EA, who say the details are to be announced on June 4th. The "leaked" details include the price: $50 as a one-time fee. For that you'll reportedly get all the existing and future DLCs, as well as: 20 maps (in total, presumably?), 20 new weapons, 10+ new vehicles, 4 new game modes, 30+ assignments, unique in-game knife, dog tags, and camos, unique weapon camos, and a bunch of other stuff.
]]>Eurogamer bring the news that Keith Ramsdale, EA's Northern European boss, has declared that the company wants all of its brands to become "online universes". That doesn't mean everything will be massively multiplayer, but rather that each player will never have an excuse to stop playing EA games. Play Battlefield, for example, on a console in the evening, a PC in the midnight hours, a smartphone on the commute and a tablet while at the office. All the data, all the progress and achievements, will carry from one device to the other, allowing the player to play "how he wants, when he wants and on the device he wants". Let's have a think about that.
]]>The Battlefield 3 patch rolls out today, bringing some excellent tweaks as well as adding "shortcut items" that allow players to buy items rather than putting in the hours to unlock them - "If you’re new to the game, this is the perfect way to gain some ground on the veterans online." Or maybe you're just a lazy man-/vehicle-shooter with money to burn? If so, these are the items for you, with an ultimate bundle that unlocks everything and smaller collections available. Some people are predictably furious, whether due to price or due to the fact that newcomers can jump to the top of the tree straight away. Personally, as I gibbered about earlier, I'm increasingly disinterested in these multiplayer unlock systems. Other changes listed below.
]]>The British Academy Video Game Awards took place on Friday night and Portal 2 was awarded highest honours, taking home little gold faces not only for Best Game, but also for Story and Design. Congratulations to Valve, who by this point must be making plans to put up some new shelves of award-bearing load strength. The popular vote went to Battlefield 3, which also won awards for Online Multiplayer and Audio Achievement.
The full list is celebrating after the jump.
]]>When buildings are collapsing and jets are being all "newwwwwwwrhghghghggh", it's easy to forget that the Battlefield 3 engine does small things as well. Subtle explosions. Personal blowey-uppies. I'd imagine that's the reason for DICE making the Close Quarters map pack: to show off their microexplosion technology. They spent hours crafting those mini-bangs, so maps that showcase them are needed: the Close Quarters maps are a series of four infantry focused maps set in, with added destructible bits. It makes me way happier than the ten new guns it adds as all I care about is the chandeliers.
]]>The handsome newshounds of Eurogamer are reporting that DICE have three new Battlefield 3 expansions in the pipeline, as announced at last night's GDC event in San Francisco. The first one of these new expansions will be arriving in June is called "Close Quarters". This will apparently focus on "indoor infantry combat with verticality to the map designs". The new map with this pack is a glass tower block called Ziba Tower. The pack after that focuses on tank combat, while the final one - END GAME - is a big secret and DICE aren't talking about it to anyone, not even Eurogamer. So there.
]]>Because it's a download. I mean I guess maybe that is still physical in some sense. It is a configuration of atoms on hard-drives... This is a rubbish line of thinking. Look over there, a free thing! It's out and free, says Battlefieldblog. It's new guns, as trailered below. So are you Battlefield 3 purchasers still playing Battlefield 3? Or has the lustre worn off?
]]>There are some things you should not ever doubt. There will be death. There will be taxes. But there will also be a certain type of videogame. Can you guess what happens to who? And where does it happen? I think you know this one...
]]>To keep you up to date with the status of our investigation into EA's dubious banning players from accessing their Origin account games (mostly multiplayer, although we're hearing exceptions), we have, well, no news.
Unfortunately, despite repeated attempts to receive a statement on EA's current position on their banning procedure, we have only been met with silence for the last fortnight. After some initial responses, pointing affected customers toward their support lines, we received an ambiguous statement that avoided the current issue and rather said there were plans to "review" whatever the current secret policy might be. And then no responses to our emails since. All the while, we're hearing of case after case of customers being affected.
]]>All these bloody Karks, coming into our country marrying our jobs... I think they should all go Back To Karkand. I hate myself.
Look, let's just move on. Just watch the latest BF3 video, showing the Gulf of Oman below.
]]>Because why not? It's Tuesday, after all. And I am not even going to make a bet with myself this time.
DON'T hit vote til you've ticked all the boxes, because it bugs out. But actually if you refresh you can still vote on missed ones. So it's okay. Sort of.
]]>Battlefield 3 has patched itself on PC now. Remember when we all used to scream and shout about games that needed patching after release? It was this massive faux pas, and we'd all condemn any who released a game "unfinished". And now sites report the "news" that a patch is forthcoming for a game, as if it's a free DLC bonus feature for us lucky players. Well, hey. That's what you get when you don't revolt in the streets. So it is that the free bonus patch for BF3 is now out for PC, and brings with it a raft of changes, which I've meticulously repeated below.
]]>For the last week I've been sending quite a few emails to various people within EA, trying to get to the bottom of why gamers receiving forum bans are finding they do not have access to their Origin online gaming. My goal has been to get a clear understanding of their current policy on the matter, since the company's actions don't appear to match the statements made in 2008, and March this year. On both occasions they have made it clear that forum bans should not affect access to games, and yet it's quite obvious that's not the case. So what is going on? We're getting closer to understanding. While we've still no clear idea what their current policy actually is, EA have promised me that they are "planning a policy update which will include more equitable rules", with a view to having "the time fit the crime."
]]>How does 7pm tonight sound? And how does 7pm UK time AND 7pm US time sound? Eh? What I mean, of course, is not that I have changed the timezones across the world (although I do have that power), but that we have a UK RPS Community BF3 Server in London, and a US RPS Community server in Chicago. Which one is best?! Only you can decide.
]]>You may remember, back in March this year, a story that threw EA forum user Arno into the limelight. Having violated the rules of the EA forums he was given a 72 hour ban on his forum account. But found that he was also unable to play online with any of his games attached to his EA gaming account, nor activate his single-player Dragon Age II. This led to quite the brouhaha, which eventually resulted in EA's announcing that the ban had been "a mistake", and the promise that not only would Arno's gaming rights be restored, but they would fix the issue to prevent this happening again. They haven't.
We are receiving information from a number of gamers who have received forum bans for a variety of reasons who are finding they're unable to play Battlefield 3 (or indeed any other game tied into the EA user account), and worse, when they try to contact EA for help sorting this out, they are either ignored or told it's tough. So what's going on?
]]>I've spent the last ten minutes trying and failing to make the Battlefield 3 noise with my mouth, but it has too many digital effects over it and my mouth, as I've just discovered, is analogue. Such mimicry is my usual reaction to squelchy electronica, and I just watched the trailer for Back to Karkand, the first expansion to EA's five-million and counting selling lawnmower simulator. Join me below in watching it.
]]>The Battlefield blog has some details on what DICE have fixed or are planning to fix. The quick match thing will be improved (ie made any use at all), squad functionality is to be addressed, and apparently the worst of the lag issues has already been issued a fix: "Some users are experiencing lag and rubber banding, mostly tied to Conquest mode on Tehran Highway and Caspian Border. This was due to a bug in the network code that has been identified and eliminated in today’s console server patch, resulting in a big improvement in these cases. For PC, this issue was improved in an earlier server patch." I was still rubber-banding on Caspian Border at 10pm last night, so I am still a bit sceptical as to whether this has definitely been "fixed".
]]>Over the past few days I have, along with tens (perhaps hundreds) of thousands of other people, been blasting my way through the initial hours of Battlefield 3's post-launch multiplayer. The game has certainly benefited from the time spent in beta, but it still has some way to go before it reaches the kind of polish and balance we're going to enjoy in the coming years. Nevertheless it's been predictably thrilling, and getting to grips with this new Battlefield has been one of the highlights of my year so far. That said, it's also provoked some other, bleaker thoughts...
]]>This is how I'm going to play all games from now on.
]]>Last week was a big, big week for on-off gamer-enrager EA, with the absurdly highly-promoted Battlefield 3 finally launching - but to mixed reviews, technical woes and bewildering media outlet favouritism. Was it enough to put DICE's latest at the top of the charts? In the UK, that's a resounding 'yes' - it topped the all-formats charts as well as the PC chart individually, with list-compilers Chart-Track revealing that its week-one sales exceed those of all 17 previous Battlefield games/expansions put together, and that it's the tenth biggest-selling week-one game of all time in the UK. Crikey. And an alarming sign of how little reviews, or the lack thereof, can affect the success of heavily-marketed games. C'est la billboard-based vie.
What about Steam? Well, with EA and Valve still at quiet loggerheads, BF3 didn't show up there - leaving the way clear for a game about a man in a tie to take the top-slot instead.
]]>Earlier today I mentioned, via the tweetohorn, that I was having trouble launching Battlefield 3's single-player because the Battlelog website was offline or something. My confusion came about because the game's single player directs you to a web page to launch itself. But it turns out that actually you just have to switch Origin to "offline" mode to get it running. Ha. Yeah. It's a feature, you see.
]]>I'll get to that multiplayer stuff soon enough (although not until I have Europeans to play with), so for now let's have a bit of a think about Battlefield 3's single-player campaign. (No significant spoilers.)
]]>Initial question: why do these US military guys have a nice green pot-plant on their war-planning table?
Initial thought: I like the Johnny Cash soundtrack bit. Good choice.
Pot-plant update: there are pot-plants on every flat surface in this part of the game. I guess the marines had them there because they're buried in the things.
MORE BLOGGINGS BELOW, AS THEY HAPPEN.
]]>As you'll have noticed, RPS is yet to have brought you a review of Battlefield 3. This is because, unfortunately, EA seemed to forget to give us a copy in advance of release. So instead, below is a picture of a puppy on a unicorn.
]]>A few people have been asking about rebuilding PCs for Battlefield 3, so I've posted an incredibly basic guide below.
]]>DRAMATIC MUSIC SHOUTING MAN SHOOTING MAN FOREIGN MAN SWEARING MAN DRAMATIC MUSIC FALLING MAN FLYING MAN CAR CHASE GUNS GUNS GUNS WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR.
(Also, 'who's the real terrorist here?'-style political intrigue, which is presumably the long-hinted-at moral greyness of BF3's plot).
]]>I've noticed a mistake that's being made by a couple of publishers. EA and Activision both plan to release shooty-man games before Christmas, about some soldiers with some modern weapons having a big fight. One is called Battlefield 3 and the other Modern Warfare 3. But the weird thing is, the two companies keep taking potshots, saying their game isn't like the other. But, see, they really do look like each other. I wonder if they've just not looked at the screenshots of their rivals' game, or something. In fact, I've prepared you a quiz!
]]>After insisting there's room for more than one military shooter in the market, DICE's Patrick Bach told IndustryGamers than be believes shooters are becoming a "service": “I also believe that our free social platform Battlelog will make a huge difference in how people perceive where the game starts and ends. Games, especially FPS titles with their deep persistence and team play are no longer just hard-coded discs. They are transforming into a service.” People sure do love statistics and stuff, it's true. But does that really make it a service?
]]>Not long now until the great beast of Origin stumbles into our gaming crosshairs, but if you can't satiate your Battle-need, then there's a useful trailer out. It's one minute of the game's environmental destruction features. Few dudes get shot, no-one gets kicked, but a lot of stuff 'splodes. BELOW.
]]>Hey, DICE have released a batch of images of the single-player campaign. Aside from all that visual noise from the announcement trailers, I still don't have a really good grip on what this is going to be like, but I can't wait to see. I am presuming there's a bit of jet-fight action, at least. Ooh, there could be a fight for the WIT of this one...
Click on images for a full-size version.
]]>The Battlefield 3 beta wraps up on the 10th, and so to get the final stress testing done DICE have confirmed that they will be opening up 64-player Caspian Border servers - meaning maximum 32 vs 32 team counts, vehicles, and everything else - for the final weekend. How many of your are on the beta? We should probably orchestrate some kind of massed RPS man-shoot?
]]>Oh dear. Cunning gentlethings found a way to hack/mod the Battlefield 3 open beta's map - Operation Metro - to enable support for up to 128 shooting men. Officially, it only allows up to 32 shooting men, though the full release version may well raise the headcount. That's not what I'm actually oh dearing about, though. It's DICE/EA's response to this that is troubling. In an official statement on the forum - which now appears to have been pulled, but we have a screenshot of it as-was below - they claimed that playing on the hacked servers "can cause your account to become compromised, stats to be altered or other issues to arise which may lead to having your account to be banned by EA." In addition, horrifyingly, "if your account does get banned it means any other EA game you have on your account would also be unavailable."
]]>Ah, I should probably mention that the Battlefield 3 beta is now open. Visiting this page will automatically download the Origin installer, and from there you can find the beta in the free games section. See you in there.
I've embedded Total Biscuit's Caspian Border footage+commentary below for you to watch while it downloads.
]]>VG247 points out that one of the people who got access to the 64-player Caspian Border map in the Battlefield 3 beta last night has uploaded 23 minutes of it running at fairly high settings. You can see that footage below. There's quite a bit of wandering about and taking potshots at distant aircraft, but it gives you a good idea of how impressive the game is looking.
I've been playing a bit of the beta myself, and I'll have some impressions soon. Silly browser-based server browser aside, it's been a fantastic experience so far. It's got the solidity of the other Battlefield games, but it feels like a significant step up in terms of look, feel, and scale. Not sure about the changes to the classes or the unlock system yet, but the combat feels right, and that means I can't wait to have a go at a 64-player map.
]]>My code has arrived, my megabytes have downloaded, Origin has grudgingly been installed and I have managed to squeeze in a couple of rounds in the Battlefield 3 open beta, which launched for pre-orderers and Medal of Honor special edition-buying mooks today (and goes live for everyone a couple of days later). This is nothing like an informed opinion as of yet: it’s just entirely top-of-the-head thoughts based on my very first experiences of manshooting in DICE's new game and its new engine.
]]>A date for you: September 29. That date is when the much-awaited open beta for Battlefield 3 will commence. It will run until October 10.
Another date for you: September 27. That date is when people who pre-ordered BF3 PC via EA's trouble-makin' Origin platform or who made the mistake of coughing up for the Limited Edition of last year's Medal of Honor reboot will get to access the beta.
More details and FAQs and things here, and there are system requirements and some singleplayer footage we may not have already shown you below, if you like. Oh, and some no doubt divisive news regarding the PC beta specifically: "ORIGIN WILL BE USED TO DISTRIBUTE THE BETA INSTALLATION AND RUN THE GAME AND THEREFORE NECESSARY TO PLAY." Their capitals, not mine.
]]>Last week, two RPS competition winners and myself (that being Alec, assuming the omni-voice of the hivemind for this post) headed over to Stockholm to visit DICE and see/play Battlefield 3. You've already read some of my thoughts on what I saw, but what about the readers? Well, one of them did himself a nasty leg injury on the first morning and wasn't actually able to see the game, which was a terrible shame. Fortunately the other, Joe O'Connor, was left unscathed. Apart from the fact that his plane home nearly blew up, anyway. Are RPS competitions cursed? Maybe. Maybe. Anyway, he's alive and well, so here's what he thought of Battlefield 3: take it away, Joe.
]]>DICE have been going into a bit more detail on the vehicles that will appear in Battlelfield 3. Lots of interesting stuff on specialisation. I'm not sure about this bit, though: "If you back up and take cover, you give yourself a chance to let the vehicle armor recover, just like your soldier heals up when going into cover. This is a new feature in Battlefield 3 where lightly damaged vehicles recover their armor after a set amount of time (if kept away from enemy fire). Instead of promoting a gung-ho attitude at all times, this means that the driver who keeps his cool and adapts to any given situation will also be able to keep his vehicle in working order for longer. It is basically our way of giving smart non-Engineers a fighting chance to keep his vehicle in the battle." Yes, I get that it says "lightly" damaged, but still seems odd to me. Like a tank picking up a medkit odd. Seems to defeat the point of working with engineers, to me.
Anyway, in case you'd forgotten why we're excited about Battlefield 3's multiplayer, I've added the Caspian Border footage below. Mmm.
]]>I have a frankly frightening amount of interview material from my trip to see Battlefield 3 at EA DICE HQ earlier this week, but before I lower myself into the tenth circle of hell that is transcribing the main hour of it, here's an interesting side-discussion that came up when I asked Twitter for a few question suggestions. One of the first respondents was Minecraft-maker Notch, who asked us to ask DICE "What are some best practices and lessons learned when awarding long-term rewards in a highly competitive game like Battlefield 3?"
Here's what BF3's executive producer Patrick Bach had to say in response - which led to a discussion of best practice for creating in-game unlocks, how he thinks Bad Company 2 got it a bit wrong, and why he reckons devs should try and keep improving and expanding their games for several years after launch instead of putting out annual sequels. Whatever could he be referring to?
]]>Just two months ahead of release, Battlefield 3’s singleplayer mode remains something of a mystery – oddly so, given this game is DICE’s attempt to make their biggest franchise as appealing to lone gunners as team gunners. So getting eyes-on with a never-before-seen singleplayer level yesterday went some way to explaining BF3’s approach. That approach: MEGA-GRAPHICS, MEGA-EXPLOSIONS, MEGA-WAR. And yet, somehow, it's also far more subtle and convincing than COD and its recent raft of wannabe crown-stealers.
]]>I've just come back from a fascinating and noisy day at EA DICE, seeing and playing Battlefield 3 with the winners of our recent competition. I have quite a few BF3-related posts due over the next couple of days as a result, but let's start off with the game's executive producer Patrick Bach talking about why he believes it can be tricky for games to present more authentic situations, such as a Battlefield level containing innocent, unarmed civilians. He reckons that, given the option, many gamers can't resist an opportunity to be bad - and, he fears, game-makers would be the ones blamed for their players' naughtier choices. For instance, shooting one of said innocent, unarmed civilians...
]]>This story is a little surprising. BF3 Blog have done the legwork on this: first they spotted that Battlefield 3 on the PS3 and 360 is going to have an in-game server browser for multiplayer game-finding. Good for them. However, where this story turns sour is the news that the PC version will not have any in-game server browser, and to find a multiplayer game you have to exit the game or Alt-Tab out of it, and use the "Battlelog" application to launch games. Senior Gameplay Designer Alan Kertz has been assuring everyone that the process is relatively smooth, but why? And, if it has to be in another app, why isn't there a server browser in Origin's overlay? Why is there another system to complicate things? Ah, of course, because Battelog wants to be the free equivalent of Activision's Elite thingum, with all that social and achievement stuff that you play games for.
]]>Holy shit. It's the bit at 0:38 with all the vehicles, for me.
]]>The headline says it all, really. The single-player game of Battlefield 3, which hasn't had much attention so far, will be playable with a chum. The demonstration was shown on PS3, meaning it looked nowhere near as good as the trailer that followed, with the two developers pretending to not know what they were doing (and to be playing). They totally rescued a hostage! They drove a tank together! They revived each other! But there you go - co-op. In Battlefield 3. Got it? Good. And new screenshots! Added below.
]]>The moves! They are becoming clearer. As many of you speculated, it seems that the retail version of Battlefield 3 will indeed require Origin to be installed on your computer in order to play it. Oh Twitter, how did we find out brief snippets of information (or organise anarchic uprisings against the grim hegemony of shoe shops) before you existed?
]]>A post on the EA forums has thrown a bit more detail into the blaze of speculation surrounding Battlefield 3's failure to appear on Steam. While we're still not precisely sure what it is in Steam's terms of service that preclude its inclusion, it is, as many speculated, down to how Steam restricts DLC and patch distribution on their service. The author of the post explains: "EA offers games to all major download services. Unfortunately, Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content. No other download service has adopted these practices."
]]>Greetings, humans. We have a new competition for you, and it's a little different from the norm. In fact, it's far better than the norm. (Well, unless you're afraid of flying. Then it might be worse, I guess).
The prize, for two lucky readers from the UK, is three days and two nights in Stockholm, Sweden, during which you'll get hands-on time with early code for Battlefield 3, meet and interview developers EA DICE, stay in a five-star hotel and also visit a local range to fire some real guns as well as BF3's virtual ones. You can still shout 'dakkadakkadakkadakka' as you do so if you wish, but honestly, it won't be necessary. Real bullets, see.
]]>Those keen-eyed newshawks at VG247 have spotted seven minutes of Battlefield 3 footage posted on YouTube, via BF3Blog. It's a leak, and EA will surely stamp on it faster than an elephant doing a do-si-do, so look below as fast as your fingers can carry you.
]]>Forget about the blah blah Modern Warfare 3 site battle yawnwhocaresfest. There's some important news (via CVG) that's come out of the Battlefield 3 camp: a novelisation by none other than Andy McNab. OH YES. Read on for RPS's world exclusive and completely false excerpt!
]]>For the past few weeks I have found myself returning to my favourite multiplayer game of last year, Battlefield: Bad Company 2. It's a punchy rascal of a game, but it also hints at plenty of things that could be better in the future, and reminds us of lots of things that have been better in the past. Things that might be better in Battlefield 3. Or 4. Anyway, what follows is a consideration of what Battlefield games have done right and wrong, and what Battlefield 3 needs to think about.
]]>Over the weekend, or at least I noticed it over the weekend, EA stuck up "A list of digital retailers who will be selling Battlefield 3" onto Battlefield.com. I had a good look at it at, but it's curiously now been taken down. It included the likes of Gamersgate, Impulse, Direct2Drive, and EA's own (sort of) brand new download service, Origin. Nearly 100 different digital distributors were listed in total, but conspicuous by its absence, it seems there are currently no plans for Battlefield 3 to be made available on Steam.
]]>The latest DICE blog on Battlefield 3 reveals a few bits and pieces about the game, specifically explaining about the new classes. Medic is gone, as they explain: "all the abilities such as medkits and defibrillators typically found on the Medic class are now incorporated into Assault. It makes sense that the class on the frontline will be able to revive fallen team mates, right?" The class that returns is LMG-toting Support, and that also adds another feature to the game: suppressing fire. "When you lay down fire in close vicinity to an enemy, the incoming barrage will show up as a graphical blur effect on his screen to stress him and let him know it’s not safe to pop out from behind cover. Just as importantly, this mechanic also affects his character’s in-game firing accuracy, making him less of a threat by using real world tactics." You even get XP for this action. I wonder if that will feel "real" enough to work. I hope so, because it could really make suppressive fire a key tool. I'll be interested to see it in action.
]]>German computer-games investigators Gamestar got a chance to talk to EA's Patrick Söderlund, and you can see that interview embedded below. It covers a number of issues, but most tellingly reveals that DICE have no current plans to produce modding tools for the game. Söderlund claims that that modding would be "very difficult" due to the complexity of the levels and features like destruction.
Ah, yes. The modding community: famously confounded by complexity and difficulty, only able to get their heads around the simplest of game technologies... But seriously, not producing modding tools is surely going to be a commercial decision, and I almost wish that were the reason given.
]]>You couldn't ask for a nicer story to start the week with. Following a somewhat underwhelming showing of Battlefield 3 on chat show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last week, the Battlefield community was roused from its sleepy state of contentment. "THAT LOOKS NOWHERE NEAR AS GOOD AS BEFORE," they bellowed, probably.
That's because it was running on a PS3. The unofficial Battlefield 3 blog has amassed some info on the matter, including tweets from Dice developers stating that the PC version of Battlefield 3 will not only run at a higher resolution than the console version, it'll have double the framerate and more besides.
]]>DICE General Manager Karl Magnus Troedsson has gone a little further with DICE's response to the uproar over the Physical Warfare Pack being a pre-order bonus. And it seems like a bit of a change from their initial response. Here's the meat of it: "I would like to start by clarifying that the Physical Warfare Pack is a time-based exclusive. If you do not pre-order Battlefield 3 at a retailer carrying the Physical Warfare Pack, don’t worry. We will unlock the contents of the Physical Warfare Pack for free to all Battlefield 3 players later this year." They also say that "if you pre-order Battlefield 3, you will be able to play Back to Karkand at no extra charge as soon as it is released, but it is not day one DLC and it is not on the base game disc." Folks who do not pre-order will, of course, have to buy and download the DLC separately.
]]>Following an online campaign that involved many, many upset emails to EA and DICE's major executives - plus the rather less executive but rather more innocent staff of Rock, Paper, Shotgun - regarding a decision to make a trio of Battlefield 3 in-game items a retail pre-order exclusive, the great machine has settled on a public response to the matter. But not a climb down. DICE have posted a brief reply to the controversy, intended to appease fears that the Physical Warfare Pack (coming soon: the Metaphysical Warfare pack) will grant a frightful in-game advantage.
]]>This morning RPS awoke to inboxes bursting with emails telling us off for Battlefield 3's DLC announcement. This was confusing, as we are not EA. You can tell by the lack of Will Wright posters on our walls. It seems a Reddit campaign has been organised in reaction to news that BF3 pre-orders will come with DLC that others won't be able to get. The Back To Karkand expansion pack is (somewhat mistakenly) the focus of this ire, not only because it will mean those who buy the game on release will need to spend extra to have the same content as other players, but because they apparently won't be able to get at all of it. The extra weapons and ammo that come in the Physical Warfare Pack are not to be included in the post-release version.
]]>Missed the tank bit from Battlefield 3 that everyone was talking about? It's below. Highlights include a dinosaur, a glimpse of tank interior, a subsequent air-strike, some poor fella tumbling out of a stricken tank on fire, and so, so many explosions. The question for me is whether we can expect multiplayer battles with similar vehicular carnage. If we're going to get 64-player maps, then will we also get a heavily tanky multiplayer version of this sequence?
]]>Activision boss Big Bobby K is unsurprisingly out on the campaign trail for Modern Warfare 3, and that means any journalists who manage to get past his Nazgûl guards inevitably attempt to ask him how he thinks EA's rivalrous Battlefield 3 is going to compare.
Here's what he said. It almost certainly won't make you say incredibly rude things about a man you've never met.
]]>When EA made claims that Battlefield 3 may topple Modern Warfare 3 this Christmas they were certainly being optimistic. But there's a fever building around BF3 that makes it seem a very likely contender for second place. And having got my hands on it, it's not all talk. It's big, fat war.
]]>Easy to forget, isn't it? With BF3 increasingly pitched as the military shooter to beat this year (though only an apocalypse event could prevent MW3 from outselling it, I fear), some of us have perhaps lost sight of BF3's true purpose: epic-scale online manshooting. Here's the first official taste of it, lending a sense of just how the FrostBite 2 engine scales itself to massed, non-scripted battles. Also, as a free bonus to you, my favourite reader, there's another video showing off the various capabilities of said engine.
]]>Fuck! Last night I started writing something about my hopes for Battlefield 3, and one of the points in it was "they better have huge tank battles across massive plains", and that's precisely what they're showing now. I should have finished it up and I'd have looked like the prescient games genius that I am.
]]>There's going to be more Battlefield-related showing off from EA later, I think, but they've already put out a fairly impressive trailer, which you can see below. It's out October 25th, and there will be a beta in September.
]]>Oh, you two. I'm unsure whether the endless spat between two of the world's biggest games publishers is healthy. With Activision currently occupying the coveted Most Hated spot at the top of the publishing ladder, once so impressively held by EA, you can see why there's rivalry. "We've sacked another entire dev team! Take that!" "Well then! We're going to cancel a game people were really looking forward to!" And so on. Currently the battle is over the world-dominating presence of Call Of Duty, and EA's belief that plucky Battlefield can depose it. Slap! Pinch!
]]>The full demo shown at GDC has now been released as a trailer for internet view-watching. See it below.
]]>Speaking on Nvidia's Geforce-promoting Geforce site, Battlefield 3 executive producer Patrick Bach has stated that he believes "the world has moved on" from consoles being the focus for "superior" gaming.
]]>This Battlefield 3 trailer is a fancily-edited-up selection of footage that we've seen before. Until the end, where there's some stuff we haven't seen before: base-jumping, jet-fighting, tank-battles, and a city on fire. It's only a glimpse. "Glimpse" is a funny word.
]]>Oh, there's a story to these BF3 videos? OK, then! I just like watching stuff explode.
]]>DICE: getting very good at making people on the internet go "ooooh." Case in point, Battlefield 3 - of which we've seen very little, but everytime we do it hammers home a sure sense that this is far more than your average man-shoot. Here's another decent chunk of in-game skulking and firefighting, ably demonstrating both the splodeyfects and the rather impressive barks/ conversation system the game seems to employ.
]]>So! You've read our Jim's sparkling words regarding the GDC Battlefield 3 presentation. Would you like to watch some of the in-game footage that he did, using your eyes? You would?! OK!
]]>I was there for the reveal event. Read on below to find out what happened.
]]>Hurrah - some in-game footage of Battlefield 3 has appeared today. Unfortunately it was sent live by satellite from inside an imaginary warzone, and as such the image quality is quite blurry and sporadic. Because what we want, more than anything else, is confusing, unclear footage that makes it difficult to see the game we're looking forward to playing. Oh, hush me - I am a one to complain. You can see the video beyond the clickzone.
]]>A poster on the ever-mighty NeoGAF forums has paraphrased the new details on Battlefield 3 from the new issue of Game Informer. There's a lot here, but here's the gem- the PC version is not only the lead version, it'll boast the 64 player limit of Battlefield 2, while console versions of Battlefield 3 will only support 24 players. When was the last time a PC version of a AAA game had a benefit like that? Yikes.
]]>Game Informer have the scoop on Battlefield 3, and they've announced some details: "Several standout features that defined Battlefield 2 return to the fold, including 64-player multiplayer on PC, jets, and the ability to go prone." So that's interesting. We should get to see the full unveil at GDC at the beginning of March.
Exciting but ultimately content-free teaser trailer below.
]]>And now for the bad news. Blues reports that Battlefield 1943 has actually been cancelled for PC, despite prior news to the contrary. This forum post has the news: "We know some of you eagerly have been awaiting Battlefield 1943 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Onslaught on PC, " says Karl Magnus Troedsson. "I’m sad to say that these two titles are now officially cancelled. Instead, our talented teams will focus on delivering the greatest possible gaming experience in our next behemoth release. We’re confident this will lead to an even better experience in Battlefield 3, not only on PC, but on all platforms."
]]>It's true. The third Battlefield game is going to be shown at an EA Partners press event at GDC in San Francisco, on Tuesday, March 1, 2011. Convenient, because I am going to be there. The game is due to release in the final six months of 2011, according to EA. Will it really have been six years since Battlefield 2? Oof.
]]>Speaking on the EA Forums, DICE designer Alan Kertz talks a bit about the consideration he has had to put into the PC version of Battlefield 3. He says that PC players are, like their machines, a little more demanding, and as such need extra work on DICE's part. He explains that this will affect his work on the as-yet-unrevealed game: "It's too early to talk BF3 specifics. But it's never too early for me to acknowledge that PC players have a fear that BF3 will be "consolized." PC gaming is alive and well, BFBC2 has proven that and no one at DICE or EA can argue with the numbers. Battlefield 3 needs an extra bit of special attention on the PC. I intend to give it that attention, tradition and our community demand it."
]]>We know nothing about Battlefield 3. Nothing. We don't even know if there'll actually be battlefields in it or not. Why, they might well be war-meadows instead. Or fight-commons. WE KNOW NOTHING. That hasn't stopped EA from announcing a beta, and using it as a lure to make you buy the new Medal of Honor. Not just its standard copy, oh no. Purely its limited edition. Which is one more degree of abstraction than I believe we've previously had from betas' original purpose.
]]>So many battles, so little time. EA/Dice already seem busy alternately delighting and outraging their fanbase with the much-delayed casual shooter Battlefield Heroes and sorta-remake Battlefield 1943, so dropping an apparent Battlefield 3 into the mix seems like a special kind of madness. Then again, perhaps a full sequel, expanding rather than simplifying or repeating the remit, is the way to win back men's love. I have precisely zero information beyond EA CEO John Pleasants (he's not a pheasant plucker, he's a pheasant plucker's son) dropping a sly "I've had the luxury of looking at Battlefield 3 over at DICE in Sweden and was highly impressed by the way the team is working on that product", so every word of this post I write is essentially killing time until it looks long enough to publish. Oh, there we go.
]]>Sorry, sorry, this isn't about a Valve game. But it's pretty big news if it's true. And, realistically speaking, it probably is true. A supposedly leaked document brings news of (the inevitable) Battlefield 3, and what it may contain.
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.png?width=1200&height=630&fit=crop&enable=upscale&auto=webp "שחרורו של Assassin's Creed Shadows נדחה למרץ כאשר מועצת המנהלים של Ubisoft שוקל מכירת חברה")