New Battlefield 3 Info Surfaces

Matt Wingler 24 Comments

We’ve known for quite a while that Battlefield 3 was going to be featured in the newest issue of Game Informer, and today the information has hit the web and we finally have some of the details that so many of you have been waiting to hear. So what exactly is going down in Battlefield 3?

For starters, we have confirmation that there will be a full blown single player campaign to go along with the main course that is multiplayer, but DICE made a point to say that they’re not taking manpower away from the multiplayer portion of the game. The team working on Battlefield 3 is huge and it sounds like the majority of the team is still focusing their attention towards online play. There will be co-op out of the box but we’re not yet sure how many players it will support or if it’s online enabled.

Speaking of online play, that’s what the majority of the new information reveals. PC gamers will get to experience the full 64 player warfare from Battlefield 2, while console gamers will be playing with a more modest field of 24 players. DICE says that they are putting a lot of work in to making sure the multiplayer remains balanced. They’re bringing back the option of going prone but they say they’re also making sure that there are new ways to identify those pesky enemies lying in the grass. Another thing we know is that the controversial kill cam will be making a return, but players will have the ability to turn it off.

They said that there will be 4 classes, just like in Bad Company 2, and that Battlefield 3 will feature a lot more unlocks this time around. They also made mention that the progression system would be getting an overhaul.  They also said that the squads from BC2 are making a comeback but they’re going to be handled differently – hopefully with the ability to have more than four players in one squad. Jets are making a comeback as well (from Battlefield 2) but DICE talked about making sure their implementation makes sense for the maps included in the game.

One of my biggest complaints about BC2 was the lack of real post-launch content. Sure we had the VIP map packs but most of those maps were just rehashes of boards already in the game, reconfigured for different game modes. DICE said that they underestimated how popular BC2 was going to be, as well as how high the demand would be for DLC – a mistake they say they won’t be making this time around.

Putting the actual modes of the game aside, there’s a lot of other work going in to Battlefield 3 that will benefit the game as a whole. Like a new animation system that’s being fine tuned for each portion of the game to look more realistic than ever. For instance, when a character turns in Battlefield, you may actually notice his head and gun turning before the rest of his body. The game’s audio is also being meticulously perfected. They even mentioned recording audio cues at different distances so you’ll be able to hear how close an enemy is in real time without having to take your focus off whatever it is you’re looking at.

Last, as most of you know, Battlefield 3 is running on the Frostbite 2 engine, which is supposedly going to be the mother of all game engines. The level of lighting is going to be taken to a whole new realm, and destructibility looks to be better than ever. DICE made mention that this engine allows them to fully realise what it is they want to create without having to include the ‘can we handle it’ questions.

Granted, none of us here at TSA have actually seen this game running but it certainly seems like DICE is putting everything they have in to this. Pair the details we have now with the DICE’s track record and you have just about every reason to be excited. Battlefield 3 is set to launch in Q4 of this calender year, but not before they give us the already announced multiplayer beta that has yet to receive a go-live date.

If you want to get the complete low-down, you can always check out the latest issue of Game Informer, but seeing as how it’s unavailable for most of you chaps in Europe, you may have to continue to rely on us for news. Don’t worry, we won’t let you down.

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24 Comments

  1. The fact that DICE underestimate how popular BC2 was going to be explains so much about the lag and stats issues.
    It’s heartening to hear that they won’t make the mistake again, hopefully they will be properly prepared for the stress that will surely hit their servers on day one.

    • It’s nice reading that too and realising that they don’t make DLC just for the money, they didn’t just nock some out for the sake of it with Battlefied 2.

  2. Sold. It all sounds pretty damn nifty to me, with the only disappointing thing being the disparity in player counts. Though that’s certainly “just” down to the amount of RAM on offer.

    I just hope they fix private lobbies too, because the last few DICE games have completely sucked in that regard. Disconnections, switching teams, it was all just a pain in the bottom.

  3. i must admit its sounding good so far. I have two points for DICE to take in.

    – make the win/lose screens correct
    – make sure stats actually work
    – don’t do VIP map packs, that was a complete joke. We want all maps straight away.

    Also, using prone? Major no no, Camping COD players everywhere now.

    • Isn’t that actually four points?

      VIP packs were a total joke, but I suspect they might now just do 4 or 5 free maps and charge for the rest as a best case scenario. EA love to make money from DLC.

      As for going prone, it’ll be hard to balance, but if they’ve got some ideas on how to do that, then I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

      • erm yeah it was 4 points lol, thanks teflon. I agree, at least they know people are not too sure about prone, they will hopefully get it balanced correctly.

      • I’m a bit weary of the prone thing. Although I guess it may come in handy against the snipers

  4. “One of my biggest complaints about BC2 was the lack of real post-launch content”—What about Onslaught mode and of course Vietnam?
    I`m looking forward to this game, I love BC2 and I`m sure this will better that

    • I’ll give you Vietnam. I heard it was great. Had it not come out almost a year after launch and well after I moved on to something else, I might have played it.

      • I’m still playing BC2 – Love it! Downloaded the Vietnam pack… Don’t bother! Played it twice and gave up with it. Seems more of a mix between 1943 and BC2. Some of the character models look awful and the mechanics don’t seem to be up to scratch. Everyone on my friends list gave up with it after about 2hrs and reverted back to the normal multi-player.

      • Vietnam is a grower i think, at 1st i really didnt think it was as good or up to scratch as you said, but after getting used to it, its a good DLC, its harder than normal BC2 but not too differant, i think alot of people were dissapointed with it because they thought it would be like the original but its not….sadly

    • It was released abit late, but its amazing and well worth the wait, there was also the SPECACT pack aswell, not an amazing pack but still extra content, the VIP maps were abit of a let down as they were revamps but when they introduced 2 new maps and 2 old maps it was well received, i`d pick BC2 over any other FPS online, i feel you get more than other games like COD

  5. Having 24 players (max) on maps designed for 64 player battles, with jets probably necessary to shrink down the presumably huge distances involved… it will be interesting to see how they make it so as the battles aren’t dwarfed by the maps. Anyone who’s played Warhawk’s Vaporfield Glacier will know vehicles are essential and playing when the servers aren’t full mean you can go the whole round without coming across opposing players if you don’t want to.

    I’d say it was down to the fact that the PC will obviously support dedicated servers where as the console version will be P2P hosted matches only.

    I’m not sure why the business model differs between PC & consoles, surely the console version will sell just as well, if not better. Games such as Warhawk & Killzone 2 feature dedicated servers for the full 32 player battles as wells as P2P hosted smaller private/public ones. MAG obviously proves consoles can handle that amount of info at one time given the right server setup.

    • BC2 had dedicated servers.

      MAG was built from the ground up to support 256 players, and was nowhere near the graphical fidelity of BF:BC2, let alone BF3, with very basic vehicle physics at best, no destruction etc. etc. Also, as a cross platform game, there’s not the simple advantage of being able to tailor the game completely and utterly to the console. Exclusives will always manage to push the boundaries that much further.

      I believe that the BC2 expansion Vietnam upped the console player count to 32. That would be good to see. Regardless, with proper funnelling of players and setting of objectives, there’s no reason why a map big enough for 64 should feel too empty when playing with 24. I think the bigger question is how they will scale up the maps and gameplay in order to suit twice the player count without it descending into a complete mess. Remember Resistance 2?

    • Killzone 2 had dedicated servers?
      didn’t know that! hopefully KZ3 will too.

  6. CsNation has scans of the game, looks bloody marvelous and one ill be buying for all systems ;/

  7. Hmm, no word of a Commander for the PC version :/

  8. killcam, aslong as its not incl in hcore im happy.

  9. Oh man, Bad Company was one of the only games I played online and actually enjoyed, so I will be be picking this up for sure! Never played the previous Battlefield games, but I’ve heard great things about them.

  10. I love this early artwork, I’m very interested to see how Destruction 3.0 will work in an urban environment!

    Anybody who likes this artwork should check out my current wallpaper: http://twitpic.com/3xsovu

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