Battlefield 3 at the E3
Written by: LCPL Nmd12345



There was an amazing amount of new information released about BF3 on the E3. I'll post here all the information released on the E3 about BF3 and it's media content. But please, remember this is all pre-alpha and developers have warned that it could change.



General release information

—The release date is now confirmed to be Oct. 25, 2011 and a free multiplayer Open Beta on September.

—The PS3 version of BF3 will include a copy of the downloadable game, Battlefield 1943.

—BF3 will make it to Nintendo's upcomming console, the Wii U.



Changes/Additions to BF3 classes

Here's a detailed post of the changes, taken directly from the official Battlefield blog:

"The Assault Class will be carrying a medic kit and will also be able to revive fallen teammates on the Battlefield with a defib kit.

The Support class can throw out ammunition as well as using an LMG to fight his way through hordes of enemies. The LMG is equipped with a bi-pod that you can fold out when you prone to give you that extra accuracy. Also, if you lay down some of that heavy suppressive fire on an enemy, you could also score some extra points as you’ll blur the enemies vision.

The engineer class is equipped with a submachine-gun with a flashlight that can actually be used to blind people thanks to the great tech provided by the Frostbite 2 engine. This is especially useful in the Operation Metro map due to the narrow spaces and darker areas of the map. The class also comes with a welding tool to repair friendly vehicles as well as an RPG to destroy enemy vehicles.

The Recon class has a semi-automatic sniper rifle and is also equipped with some powerful C4. Those C4 explosions can cause destruction – a Battlefield favorite – anytime, anywhere."



Battlelog: BF3 and Social Features

Thought this was revealed earlier by Karl Magnus, a lot more was revealed at the E3. The original announcement was: "featuring powerful social tools, feeds and detailed player stats. Battlelog also lets you manage your friends lists, squad up, create platoons, use voice chat and follow your friends’ progress in real-time" and he joked "Battlelog will be available for the monthly fee of (drum roll)... zero dollars."

Apparently, this will be done threw a web page which will let you track much more information about your game stats as well as your friend's. It will even let you launch the game threw the web page, thought it wasn't specified if they meant ONLY threw their web page... could be bad news? Anyways, this obviously DICE/EA's response to Activision's CoD Elite.



Battlefield 3 and DLCs

Gamespot released an article saying that BF3 will have 3 times the amount of DLCs that BC2 had. Here's the note:

"During an investor call this morning, EA announced that Battlefield 3–which ships on October 25–will have three times the number of downloadable content packs as the game’s immediate predecessor, Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

For reference, Bad Company 2 welcomed seven DLC packs, including two major offerings: the Vietnam and Onslaught expansions, which brought period skirmishes and co-op experiences, respectively, to the shooter.

Battlefield 3′s first DLC offering will be the Back to Karkandexpansion, which is included with limited edition copies of the game. As for what it will offer, Back to Karkand bundles Battlefield 2 weapons, vehicles, and mutliplayer environments, all updated for the game’s new Frostbite 2 game engine."



Battlefield 3 dog tags

At the E3 press conference, it was revealed that the game will include custom dog tags. This means you will be able to add your name, stats, pictures, etc., on them. Here is the demonstrative picture:





There was some additional information released threw interviews, chats, and the demo. Here is what I've gathered:

—There are Night-vision scopes.

—Damage from falling debris was confirmed.

—You can shoot lights to darken rooms.

—Sprinting in the current build is unlimited.

—You can jump over obstacles.

—When you're under suppressive fire, it will cause a blurry effect.

—Squads consist of 4 persons and Squad leaders are confirmed.

—Flash lights are confirmed and developers were talking about a "blinding" effect with them.

—You can op-out of being revived.

—The was no comma rose on the multiplayer demo; but apparently, developers are still talking about it

—There are day and night maps, but no conformation if the cycles will change on the same map/match. Apparently, the Frostbite 2 engine is capable of pulling it off thought.

—There is a health bar and regenerative health.



More Details and Updates:

There was a new post on http://bf3blog.com/ about Voice over variations from Tomas Danko (Voice Over Producer) threw twitter. Here is a little resume of what has been posted on his twitter account on the last couple of days:

—They claim no other game ever had more VO (voice overs) or actors for multiplayer: 35 actors and over 300 variations for "Man down" event alone.
—VO size/scope is the same on all platforms.
—There are no random sounds, every voice will be triggered by an action.
—There are Russian VO on BF3.
—No German VO on BF3.
—No Arabic VO (this question was made in relation to the Arabic faction voices for BF3).
—BF3 will have more swearing than BC2 on both single-player and multi-player.
—No Chinese VO.

I'd like to add here that a new multiplayer mode was also confirmed: Team Death Match



The Physical Warfare Pack:

Demize99 (Alan Kertz, Senior Gameplay Designer) has been questioned a lot about the PWP (Physical Warfare Pack, more information: http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/battlefield_bad_company/archive/2011/05/23/pwp.aspx ) threw twitter. There was several complains about the "exclusivity" of the PWP and Demize99 simply answered: "We want to give our loyal fans something extra that says 'Thanks for Preordering.' I think PWP is a great way to do that." The interesting thing here is that he seemed to be surprised that this content was being charged extra, and after some tweets flaming about this, he answered: "Game sets the price, EA doesn't charge them extra." referring to http://www.game.co.uk/ . Does this mean that the retailers are taking the decision to charge more when it wasn't EA/DICE's plan? Weird stuff.

He also answered a few things about gameplay which clears some questions about the PWP. The first question was related to the "special clearing ammo" for the DAO-12 shotgun and how it could unbalance the game, Demize answered: "It's exclusive to the DAO-12... Doesn't mean you can't get it for other shotguns." and then he added: "And of course, to be crystal clear: There's no way to increase the damage you do either. I want BF3 to feel as balanced as humanly possible". He was also questioned if the shotgun was exclusive to the PWP, he answered: "The Type88, Flechettes for the DAO-12 and Flash Suppressor for SKS are exclusive. The DAO-12 itself is Day 1 Access".



Some other very interesting tweets about gameplay from Demize99:

—"Further Body Armor clarification: There is no way in BF3 to either increase your health or lower the damage you take from bullets. Period."
—"Before the forums goes all 'omg magnum ammo' Armor Piercing comes at the expense of lowering damage. It's also unique to flechettes."
—"Read again dude. NO MAGNUM AMMO. Got it?"
—"It will over penetrate people and thin surfaces that buckshot otherwise won't... but it does less damage in trade." This one was referring to the flechettes/armor piercing ammo.
—Some guy asked if the US army would be on the game, he answered "We're focusing on the USMC experience for BF3, like we did for BF2.".
—PWP announcement in other regions is coming.



You can watch the BF3 videos shown at the E3 in HD here:

—Battlefield 3 multiplayer demo - Day 1



—Community reactions



—Tank Battle Gameplay - The Best


—Heart of Paris Trailer - This is the multiplayer trailer


—Announcement Teaser Trailer


—Frostbite 2 Trailer



—If for some odd reason you haven't watched PWNED's BF3 Special, please do so:



—Battlefield 3 footage only:

Heres a live thing they did doin some cool stuff

http://live-event.ea.com/e3/chat/battlefield

Very nice, I loved the tank gameplay the most probably. We Battlefield 2 members do that on a Battlefield 2 scale

all of this is good the health bar ALONG with regeneration is awsome in BC2 i Learned yes LEARNED to see how much blood meant GTF OUTA THERE NOW xD everything about this game makes my skin chill..... I WILL GET IT!

It seems the console version of BF3 will be shown for the first time at the TV show "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" this thursday.

This is this week's schedule:

* Tuesday 6/14: Gears of War 3
* Wednesday 6/15: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
* Thursday 6/16: Battlefield 3
* Friday 6/17: Nintendo


Source: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/06/13/battlefield-3-console-version-debuts-on-jimmy-fallon-this-week.aspx

Great job NMD!

Thanks, Michael!

A little bit of updates.

Physycal Warfare Pack:
It seems the that after a lot of negative comments from the community about the PWP and a possible boycott from Reddit community (which included some persons canceling their Pre-order) DICE has announced that the PWP is now only a time-exclusive, meaning that, if you preorder the game from any of the retailers announced, you will get it from day one, but the DLC will be unlocked free of charge later this year to anyone who pre-orders.

The announcement also clarified that the Back to Karkland won't be available at day 1, but that it will be unlocked later this year. Both pre-order and normal users will have it unlocked at the same time, but those who pre-order will get it for free.

And some news for Swedish players:
SPECACT skins were announced if you buy the game from this Swedish retailer: http://www.game.se/acatalog/Battlefield_3_PC_PC.html Thought it wasn't clarified it it's an exclusive or it's just available for free with them.

Important note:
Also guys, be careful... they're a lot of frauds out there with sites offering "free" beta keys out there... DON'T BELIEVE THEM. Read more here: http://battlefieldo.com/?p=1135

And one last thing, Alan Kertz said threw twitter that there is some console footage on the Frostbite trailer. But remember that the console version will be shown at Jimmy Fallon's show tonight anyways. I'll post the video when it's available.

Sources:
http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/
http://bf3blog.com/
http://battlefieldo.com/

Ok, so here is the video of the PS3 version of BF3



I have to say that I'm impressed. I know the PC version is heavy on anti-alasing, but this one still looks amazing.

You guys think the Xbox version will look similar?

Nmd12345 wrote:

Ok, so here is the video of the PS3 version of BF3



I have to say that I'm impressed. I know the PC version is heavy on anti-alasing, but this one still looks amazing.

You guys think the Xbox version will look similar?

Most probably. It's quite suprising how close the Xbox & PS3 come to each other. But there is a tad bit of gameplay we didn't see in the trailers. xD & I love this guys comments during the video, at least he actually managed to figure out how to ADS & shoot. ROFL

Lol While finding information about the show on internet, they were a lot of negative comments about his humor, but he does seem like a nice guy.

Oh and BTW guys, the co-op will be for 2 players only.

Negative comments about Jimmy Fallon? Oh' Com'on! The humor was harmless and funny, to me.


Anyway, here's some info I found just posted today by bf3blog

Quote :

Battlefield 3 will feature four classes when it launches, Assault, Recon, Engineer and Support.

These classes have been tweaked since Battlefield Bad Company 2 to make them more accessible to people and easier to play.

For instance now the assault class has been merged with the medic to allow for more excitement other than just running around trying to heal and revive people.

And this one yesterday

Quote :

One of the new features in Battlefield 3 is the ability to mount your weapon on almost any surface — or rather, mount your machine gun as the Support class on any surface, which would result in improved accuracy. This was properly showcased at E3 earlier this month.

Now DICE developer Alan Kertz has confirmed via Twitter that Snipers in Battlefield 3 will enjoy the same benefits of adding a bipod to their sniper rifles, although it’s uncertain whether this will be available from the beginning, or whether it will be an unlock (our money’s on the latter). A bipod on a sniper rifle would give obvious benefits: more accuracy and better stability.

Of course, such a feature to Snipers would anger those who already don’t have much respect for snipers, especially those who spend their time camping. Adding a bipod to the Sniper’s arsenal, in addition to prone, could upset some players, but we expect DICE to even it out in some way.

I guess the "balancing" thing DICE has in mind for sniper's bi-pod is the destruction lol And yeah, I dont know why they don't like him :/

OH and btw guys, console versions are confirmed to have locked 30 FPS and 720p. It seems that this started quiet a bit polemic... and there was an interesting post on Battlefieldo about it:

"DICE and Andersson have taken some flak from misinformed console players who are displeased that the game will run at 30 FPS and 720p as opposed to 60 FPS and 1080p. Andersson retorted that 'huge levels, lots of players, great fx, destruction, vehicles and varied gameplay is more important than 1080p'. He also points out that the vast majority of console titles are in 720p or lower. This is true – most graphically impressive games like Crysis 2 run in a maximum of 720p on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. In fact, very few games use 1080p – this list of the native resolutions of 360 and PS3 titles shows that 95% if not more of games run natively at 720p or lower. For example, Halo 3 and every Call of Duty game on both consoles runs natively at even less than 720p.

Many games, including Crysis 2 and Halo 3, run on consoles with locked 30 FPS. It’s also important to note that a locked framerate of 30 FPS is often preferable to a variable framerate (for example, a game like Call of Duty that might run at 60 FPS but dip to as low as or even beneath 30 FPS in high-load performance situations) where the variation in framerate in different situations is noticeable and sometimes distracting due to screen tearing and other issues."

This video comparison between the PS3 and PC version was also included:



Read the whole article here:

http://battlefieldo.com/30-fps-720p-consoles-debate/

720p this day is getting even more fucked up

Well, the list does show that almost every console game uses 720p or less.

Sorry to hear you're having a bad day

I have to do some updates:

—BF3 won 2 of the Best of E3 Game Critics Awards: Best Action Game and Best Online Multiplayer. This adds to the over 40 awards that the game had already won (Check the list here).

—BF3 blog posted some pics of the retail boxes of the Physical Warfare Pack. Check 'em out here


There was also some additional game details revealed:

—First, Alan Kertz (Demize99) just responded to a person on twitter that snipers can mount their weapons on cover surfaces—crouching, for example—and not only on prone.

—There was also some details revealed about squads and their re-spawning. It was confirmed that, unlike BC2 and similar to BF2, only squad leaders can spawn on any member, and the other squad members can only spawn on the squad leader.

Nice work NMD. Keep it up! Any info on whether limited edition pre-orders from North America will include the Physical Warfare Pack?

Thanks, Michael!

About your question, only some retailers from North America will have the PWP version. But keep in mind that this promotion is only a time-exclusive now. In other words, those who get the Limited Edition with the PWP will have it from day 1, and the others who pre-ordered the normal Limited Edition will have it unlocked later this year anyways.

The change was really surprising (I already made a post about it before) but they almost made it seem like it was always this way, and that it was just a confusion from the community. Thought I have to say the only ones confused here were the devs (DICE), and they didn't even seemed to have any idea what EA was doing with the PWP. For example, I remember Demize99 answering some guy threw twitter, and he actually seemed surprised/confused that retailers were charging more for the PWP version.

Most of the posts I saw, and a couple news sites, blamed this change due to the really negative reaction they got from players who had already pre-ordered the normal limited edition. And it seems that a boycott was already being organized at reddit. and it seems it wouldn't be the first time that a boycott on reddit works on EA and BF.

More updates:


Official Battlefield Blog:
The blog posted the first of a series of new weekly articles they will post until the final game release on October 25th. This first post, was an interview with Lars Gustavsson (Lead Multiplayer Designer). They basically cover the "philosophy" that the development team is taking for BF3. You can find the full interview on this link.

Lars explains he's focused on expanding the game using the BF2 spectrum of the franchise. Thought, he did talk about breaking some of the "molds" and make every part of the game more accessible to everyone. He said "We discussed the strengths of Battlefield and ended up with a lot of interesting questions. Does teamplay have to be squad based, or can it be in a more general sense of playing together? Am I less of a gamer if I don’t want to play in squads? If I want Team Deathmatch? If I want infantry only gameplay? That discussion really was an eye-opener and has changed how we view ourselves and what we set out to do with Battlefield 3" explaining how they came to these new ideas.

He also discussed the Operation Mètro map, the way it plays, and their reasons to bring back the Team Death Match mode to the BF series. He discussed the size and scale of the map, saying "For a sense of scale, each of the different areas in Operation Métro would be large enough to house a very good Team Deathmatch experience." which included this map overview.

The last question was about how he was honoring the hardcore BF2 fans with this game. And I think I have to quote him this time: "I take on the task humbly. I have the utmost respect for our Battlefield 2 fans, and I know that any feature I scrutinize in the game can be one of their darlings I’m messing with. Most of all, I’m excited we are finally returning to the core Battlefield series after a six year wait. I was Lead Designer on Battlefield 2 back then, and with Battlefield 3 I think we have the ability and the tools to create something truly amazing".

Note: The trailer posted on the original article, is the "Heart of Paris" trailer that was already posted on this topic, which shows Operation Mètro map.

Twitter:
Alan Kertz just answered a question from someone on twitter if the slug shotgun would have unlimited range again. He answered "There'll be changes to how slugs work. I guess that means I'm confirming slugs?" I'm not sure how to interpret that...

He also answered a question of someone asking about the size of Operation Mètro, and how it compared to other maps. He said "From the first attacker base to the last crate is 800m, which is the same as Karkand 64p from US to RU home" and then "It varies between 80 to 160m wide. Karkand is 60m wide at the front line for reference."

I thought the part about the size of Operation Mètro was a bit confusing, and I decided to add the sizes given by Demize99 to the map overview. I think this helps much more since it gives a visual understanding of the scale of the map. This is only my interpretation of the Demize99's tweet, and you should take in consideration that I could be wrong.



The map indeed looks huge.

Nmd12345 wrote:

I thought the part about the size of Operation Mètro was a bit confusing, and I decided to add the sizes given by Demize99 to the map overview. I think this helps much more since it gives a visual understanding of the scale of the map. This is only my interpretation of the Demize99's tweet, and you should take in consideration that I could be wrong.



The map indeed looks huge.

Don't forget that Op Metro will also include an extensive underground Metro (Subway) System, hence the name, so this map will be EVEN bigger.

im so excited i am so pre-ordering this for my b-day im going to be one of the nubs who satys up all night gaming so hard that it brings down an EA server or 2


EDIT: found this little informational video too

https://www.youtube.com/user/machinima#p/c/6656FE6D5A4D6973/2/A7pG5NIRDec <----klicky klicky

I think the map already includes the subway part. To my understanding, area 1 will be the park; the subway is somewhere between area 2 and 3 or both; area 4 will be the downtown streets. And the devs did say something about this map being sort of progressive, meaning that players will start on one place and move as the match progresses. Atleast thats what I understood...

And thanks for the video Flame211, but Cmdr. Micheal had already posted that

flame211 wrote:

im so excited i am so pre-ordering this for my b-day im going to be one of the nubs who satys up all night gaming so hard that it brings down an EA server or 2


EDIT: found this little informational video too

https://www.youtube.com/user/machinima#p/c/6656FE6D5A4D6973/2/A7pG5NIRDec <----klicky klicky

I already posted that one. -.- Why don't you search? Here's the original link:
http://13thmeu.net/t6123-battlefield-3-briefing-room-intel?highlight=BRIEFING <-Klick Klickity Flame...

Nobody will see me in November ) The internet will be full with MW3(phail) and BF3(Win)
okay less BF3 because newbs love noobtubes and nukes BUT i guess we'll still find some servers to play on