by HBrun
Posted : Jun 13, 2011, 12:00AM
Q: Is the Physical Warfare Pack available in all regions, or just in the UK?
A: It will be available worldwide at select retailers. It was first announced in the UK. Exact details for other countries and retailers will be announced at a later date.
Q: Will Physical Warfare Pack imbalance the game?
A: The three exclusive items in the Physical Warfare Pack were specifically chosen not to be overpowered or imbalance or break the game in any way.
Q: Why do I want the Physical Warfare Pack?
A: Owning these items will give you a more varied arsenal, but it will not give you a significant advantage on the battlefield.
Q: Is the Back to Karkand expansion pack exclusive to pre-orders?
A: No. You can also buy it separately if you do not pre-order Battlefield 3. Back to Karkand will be available the exact same date after the launch of Battlefield 3 no matter if you pre-ordered or buy it separately.
Q: When will the Back to Karkand expansion pack be released?
A: We have not yet announced the Back to Karkand expansion pack release date.
Q: How much does the Back to Karkand Expansion pack cost?
A: We have not yet announced a price. However, it will be included in the Limited Edition at no extra charge.
Q: Do I have to choose between Back to Karkand and the Physical Warfare Pack as my pre-order bonus?
A: No. There is no way you can pre-order Battlefield 3: Limited Edition and not end up with the Back to Karkand expansion pack at no extra charge. On top of this, select retailers all over the world will carry the Physical Warfare Pack. Exact details for other countries and retailers will be announced at a later date.
Q: Why do you offer pre-order bonus items?
A: Because we believe in rewarding our core fanbase with special offers — such as giving them the Back to Karkand expansion pack at no extra charge.
It's VERY obvious that they define "core fanbase" as people who preorder and everyone else who doesn't preorder is just some douchebag. So...How in the world can they STILL not release other countries' PWP version after the UK one was released so long ago, if they want people to pre-order?
I'm sure EA is running a complex bidding war to make sure that get every nickle and dime possible from potential winners of the vendor pre-order bonus lottery. Douchebag. (I have it preordered from both Direct2Drive and Amazon, so far...)
It's VERY obvious that they define "core fanbase" as people who preorder and everyone else who doesn't preorder is just some douchebag. So...How in the world can they STILL not release other countries' PWP version after the UK one was released so long ago, if they want people to pre-order?
yes by core they mean those who shelpt out $$ everytime EA farts in their general direction
May 11 2011 10:06 PM | cyclosarin in Battlefield 3
Many fans in the Battlefield community of late have been upset about what appears to be DICE walking away from their historic support of modifications. I, as someone who has been in the Battlefield modding community since October 2002, and have seen it all, would like to set a few things straight. I would also like to present what I think the community should be asking for, instead of what they have been demanding.
Much of the community talkback has revolved around two things: decrying DICEs walking away from their roots by not supporting mods the way they used to, and a demand for an editor. This line of conversation ignores what those of us around at the beginning know: DICE mod support has always been sketchy at best, and the release of an editor with Battlefield 2 was an exception, not a rule.
DICEs first official map editor was the editor they released for BF1942, called BattleCraft. But BattleCraft was actually a community map editor, being worked on by a community member during a time when we had no tools at all. DICE hired the person making BattleCraft early in its development and we didnt hear anything of it until late in BF1942s life cycle. This was a time when anything we had was software intended for other uses (like Daylon Leveller) or made by the community, like the RFA Extractor without which we could not have done anything.
The editor which made modding for BF1942 easier and to which many BF1942 mods owed their life was called Editor42. It was superior to what ended up being BattleCraft in every way, it came out early, and most of all it had nothing to do with DICE. It was made by a French Canadian named CoinCoin, and beta tested by another community member, named AudioGod, and myself (then known as Augustus). Editor42 was so good in fact, CoinCoin changed the license terms to say commercial use required payment, due to suspicions he had that EA and DICE were using it themselves (based upon approaches EA had made to him to offer helpful advice). Editor42 was always the preferred editor in the community, even after BattleCraft was released.
None of the most important tools had anything to do with DICE. Battlefield modding started out with people making maps entirely using notepad for object placement and 3dsMax for terrain texturing (and most other tasks, thanks to RexMan, later a Desert Combat developer).
By and large, DICEs mod tools had come out long after the community had already worked everything out for themselves, and had made software and 3dsMax scripts to do it all (DICEs Mod Tool download was actually a collection of MaxScripts made by RexMan, repackaged). DICE also consistently underestimated what the community was capable of; never believing the community could make a working helicopter with the existing code. This trait is still evident today with their patronising claims they cant release their Frostbite 2 editor because their engine is too complicated for us.
Criticising DICE for not releasing mod tools ignores the history of Battlefield modding, which is a history of doing it ourselves, with only a little help from them. That is after all, the spirit of modding. What we should be campaigning for are two simple things: a custom game menu item so that mods can actually be used (no one seems to have even bothered asking for this!), and some kind of extractor tool to enable us to decompile their files. From there, we can do the rest. Our community is chock full of smart people who love the challenge, and if BF3 is as big a game as we hope it will be, there will be even more of them.
So get the word out stop whingeing and ask for something DICE might actually see as a small thing that wont cost them anything to give us. Well do the rest.
Is the move to fewer game engines about freeing up studios and allowing them to concentrate on creativity?
To a degree. With Frostbite, we've built a technology that works across genres. I don't want engineers, artists and designers to be fighting their tools, I want them creating great gameplay experiences. That was definitely a conscious decision – we've got to get out of fighting all these engines, because I can't even move an artist from one game to another. The beauty of Frostbite is, the spectacular piece of technology that you see in Battlefield 3 and Need for Speed: The Run is just the tip of the iceberg – we'll be taking that tech across more genres to help us do great things in the future.
Last year, you were pitching Medal of Honor against Call of Duty – that possibly didn't work quite as well as you'd hoped. What did you learn from that?
We learned that it's a tough category. We also learned that Medal of Honor did sell well, we were proud of it, but we wished it had done better from a quality standpoint. The key learning was, we wanted to get on to a common technology – the Medal of Honor and Battlefield teams are now operating in the same group together so they can share tools, technologies, innovations, without feeling like the same games.
Battlefield and Medal of Honor will be part of a rotation that we go after the shooter category with, and this year, with Battlefield 3, I think we have a generational breakthrough in terms of technology. We have a team that's been together for ten years. The Medal of Honor team was fairly new, they were using middleware and software that had already been out there, so… They're a great team, and we're going to continue to invest in them, but we're going to approach it slightly differently than we did before.
Just watched the whole thing. It's funny - they go from really loving it to only "liking" it after they've discussed all the shortcomings of the pre-alpha. That's fine - it's obviously not a finished game, so hopefully their criticisms are heard by DICE so we all end up loving the game.
BTW, some people here (or one in particular) will not like what they say about 3D spotting!
This info will cheer up no one in particular, also...I can't see the detail at the link, but this source has been reliable in the past...
twitter.com/Blond3r: "Awesome #Battlefield3 news: And I'm singing: 'He's coming home.. he's coming home.. I still don't believe it, but he's coming home!' #BF3"
twitter.com/Blond3r: ""Okok... I stop singing and just make it short: 'The #Commander will be back!' t.co/ykkJwDj #Battlefield3 #BF3
You have summoned me from my great slumber!
So, what's the cliffs notes on what they said about 3D spotting?
BTW all I really want is for 3D spotting to be able to be turned off without losing ranked status or losing the ability to be found in the server browser. Because I know that if they don't screw us in those 2 ways, enough people will turn it off that we can all be happy.
Cliffs: It was on and working well during the E3 hands-on.
Cliffs: It was on and working well during the E3 hands-on.
That's it? No clarifications on whether they had toned it down? Over on EA UK BF3 forums, even the most staunch defenders, who always say "3D spotting is awesome for teamwork!" often add "But yea they could make it better by making it squad only or make it static and not follow the target".
Actually, they specifically said it worked "too well," and they speculated that you might be able to spot an entire squad by spotting the squad leader. They all agreed that this would be going too far. Their comments were based on the fact that multiple reviewers were able to spot entire groups of players (potentially squads) with what seemed to be one click, although they admitted that it could have actually resulted from one spot lighting up a number of players in the same general area.
Anyway, it's all speculation right now, but 3D spotting was definitely there and very easy to do (they said it was much easier than it had been in BC2: Vietnam, for comparison's sake).
Addressing no specific person nor topic, draw your own conclusions...
twitter.com/L_Twin: "Hold fast people, clarifications are coming from us. Will be posted on the blog probably tomorrow"
BY: Highwind55
POSTED : Jun 15, 2011, 09:11PM
Last week at E3 was amazing for Battlefield 3, but there was one question that stood out from the rest of the pack: When do we get to see Battlefield 3 on consoles? Well, you may want to pay attention to this next bit...
This Thursday night (June 16), Battlefield 3 will be appearing on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, but more importantly, we’ll be playing the game on the PlayStation 3. That’s right! We’ll be giving you the world premiere of Battlefield 3 on consoles this Thursday night when DICE’s Johan Dohl takes the stage and gives Jimmy the first crack at Battlefield 3 for the PlayStation 3. Be sure to tune in, or set your DVR to record, for the world premiere console gameplay of Battlefield 3 on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon this Thursday on NBC at 12:35/11:35C!
For more information, be sure to visit Battlefield.com.
According to this, those clarifications are about DLC:
http://www.gamersmint.com/dice-to-offer-clarification-to-angry-battlefield-3-fans-tomorrow
Which is funny considering they've already put out one Q&A about the DLC/Exclusives.
Like I said, come to your own conclusions, like that guy did.
and for assault, hell I don't know...