Battlefield 3: What we know so far

[Cain]

Battlefield 3


Here’s a comprehensive roundup of all the Battlefield 3 news that has been flooding into the web over the past week, starting with what we know BF3 will support:

* 64 player support on PCs
* 24 player support on Xbox 360/PS3
* Prone is back
* Jets are back
* No commander
* 4 classes
* Single player campaign + co-op
* It will have more unlocks than Bad Company 2
* No mod tools
* Release date is set for Fall 2011
* First screenshots released in GameInformer

New York, Paris, Tehran war theaters

It’s been confirmed that Battlefield 3 will take place in New York, Paris, and Tehran, although we expect several more locations and variations in each theater.
Frostbite 2.0

Frostbite 2.0 is the new engine that will power Battlefield 3, and it looks like a big improvement over Frostbite 1.5, which powered Bad Company 2. These are the first details on Frostbite 2.0:

* Frostbite 2 will only support DirectX 10 and 11, as we reported.
* Frostbite 2.0 is recommended to run on 64-bit CPUs and versions of Windows
* The engine will have a new set of compilers and pipelines, which will improve its diversity and open the possibility to mod tools.
* Tile-based deferred shading via DirectCompute, which will improve performance.
* Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA), implemented with DirectCompute, which provides better bandwidth conservation (exclusive DirectX 11 feature).
* Realtime radiosity (a dynamic light source with HDR), powered by the Enlighten middleware engine, previously used in God of War 3 for the PS3
* Improved environment destruction.

Read more about Frostbite 2.0 in our article and break down.
Limited Edition

The Limited Edition will include a DLC titled “Back to Karkand”, which will include 4 maps remade from BF2, including the iconic Strike at Karkand. The “Back to Karkand” DLC will be released as a downloadable add-on a month after the release of BF3. More info here.Here’s a comprehensive roundup of all the Battlefield 3 news that has been flooding into the web over the past week, starting with what we know BF3 will support:

* 64 player support on PCs
* 24 player support on Xbox 360/PS3
* Prone is back
* Jets are back
* No commander
* 4 classes
* Single player campaign + co-op
* It will have more unlocks than Bad Company 2
* No mod tools
* Release date is set for Fall 2011
* First screenshots released in GameInformer

New York, Paris, Tehran war theaters

It’s been confirmed that Battlefield 3 will take place in New York, Paris, and Tehran, although we expect several more locations and variations in each theater.
Frostbite 2.0

Frostbite 2.0 is the new engine that will power Battlefield 3, and it looks like a big improvement over Frostbite 1.5, which powered Bad Company 2. These are the first details on Frostbite 2.0:

* Frostbite 2 will only support DirectX 10 and 11, as we reported.
* Frostbite 2.0 is recommended to run on 64-bit CPUs and versions of Windows
* The engine will have a new set of compilers and pipelines, which will improve its diversity and open the possibility to mod tools.
* Tile-based deferred shading via DirectCompute, which will improve performance.
* Morphological Anti-Aliasing (MLAA), implemented with DirectCompute, which provides better bandwidth conservation (exclusive DirectX 11 feature).
* Realtime radiosity (a dynamic light source with HDR), powered by the Enlighten middleware engine, previously used in God of War 3 for the PS3
* Improved environment destruction.

Read more about Frostbite 2.0 in our article and break down.
Limited Edition

The Limited Edition will include a DLC titled “Back to Karkand”, which will include 4 maps remade from BF2, including the iconic Strike at Karkand. The “Back to Karkand” DLC will be released as a downloadable add-on a month after the release of BF3. More info here.

The trailer showed a few hints of what to expect, and it showed the first vehicles as well, which we can confirm are:

* M1 Abrams tank
* LAV 25 APC
* Apache helicopter
* Blackhawk helicopter
* Kamov KA-60 Kasatka (Russian helicopter)
* Mig 29 Fulcrum jet
* F18 jet

[Cain]

* Aiming for Q4 2011 release
* Concept for BF3 has been in the works for years, waiting on proper tech to seamlessly come together
* Frosbite 2.0 is the culmination of this tech, entirely re-written
* Lighting sounds neat, one “probe” contains more lighting information than an entire BFBC2 level.
* Level destruction is going to be “believable” but basically everything is destructible.
* Character animations powered by ANT, what EA Sports uses.
* AI characters and multiplayer characters have different animation sets
* No more “gliding” animations that look off, animation realism is a focus
* Captured their own war audios (bullets, tanks, helicopters, etc) at different distances to ensure realism
* Better audio cues for certain actions, more easily able to listen for threats
* Plan on better, more immediate post release content
* More unlocks than BFBC2
* Dice trying to find a good balance between customization of your character and not having “pink rabbit hat(s)”
* 4 classes
* Will talk about squads “later”
* Looking into a theater mode but can’t talk about it
* Will have co-op
* There will be a kill-cam but it can be turned off
* BF3′s team is almost twice as big as the team for BFBC2
* They want the pacing of the single player mode to be balanced, with highs and lows. Makes the comparison to a song vs a guitar solo.
* Part of the single player mode takes place in Sulaymaniyah – Iraqi Kurdistan.
* “Fuck” will be used often, so M rated for sure
* There will be an earthquake in a level. The destruction sounds very impressive. 7 story building collapses, looks very well done
* Significant narrative that goes with the SP mode
* More than one setting, you’re not in the middle east for the whole game
* PC version is lead version

* No mod tools at release. Maybe none down the line either. Frosbite 2.0 is complex and mods tools would have to be dumbed down, so does Dice really want to put their time to that or would it be better spent elsewhere?

[Jeffro]

sweet mother of god..... this new to come out noooooooooooooooooooooooow!

ME WANT!

[bobytt]

Battlefield 3 classes explained - Battlefield 3

[K PhaNTOM]

That recon looks exactly like me!

I read that 6 page article on PSM3 and I liked what I read.

[Pumpkin_Jack]

i hope recon looks like that in multi instead of a guille suit

[Infamous]

sweet mother of god..... this new to come out noooooooooooooooooooooooow!

ME WANT!

yeah, im tired of hearing the hype, give us the game already!

[baconoclock]

I like what i see so far. Esp that assault is basically the medic now.

[{CLR} Cobalt]

I like what i see so far. Esp that assault is basically the medic now.

Hmmm, get a bunch of assault guys healin each other and it could get rough. Add a support class layin down suppression and it makes for a bad day for the bad guys. Sounds like a really good squad could do a lot of damage if they played together right. I wonder if you can lock on to fighter planes with ground to air missles.

I pray snipers dont inundate what could be a very good game without em.

Oh, and Phan, that recon guy dont look nothin like you. He aint got enough girth around the middle . Nor does he have a backpack full of groceries.

[BadHabitz]

i hope recon looks like that in multi instead of a guille suit

Or even better, it would give you the option to look like that or look like a wookiee...

[Caddys83]

boo for 4 classes. But yay for recon

[TheSilentAssassin]

Im glad that med kits are back with the assault kits and ammo kits are back with the support kits. Never liked the setup in BFBC2. SOOOO stoked for this game!!!!!! Im kinda sad about the No Commander part because I always thought that was really cool aspect to the game. Do we now if there are going to be things like vehicle drops, artillery strikes of that sort yet?

[Infamous]

commander was cool save the douche who would spam everything all the time just to rack up points. hated that.

[Reconsnipe1]

Assault looks awsome!

[goldenfooler]

do we know how buggy the kick system is in the game?