Battlefield 3 Update Includes Paid "Shortcuts"

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piscian18

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A new Battlefield 3 PS3 update lets raw recruits dive into multiplayer with the same hardware as toughened vets - for a price.

Any military historian can tell you that you need two things to win a war: manpower and materiel. Now, if you don't have enough time to fight opposing forces in Battlefield 3 for the PS3, you can invest capital instead. A substantial update for the popular military shooter hit PS3 servers today, and along with some map tweaks and server options, the developers have included a number of "shortcut kits." These kits will unlock various class- and vehicle-specific items, weapons, and upgrades usually reserved for players who serve countless hours in multiplayer. While they range in price (and, no doubt, utility), this move is sure to cause some bad blood between fans who want to preserve the game's learning curve/reward system, and those who simply don't have the time or inclination to see Battlefield 3's multiplayer content the long way.

Tommy Rydling, otherwise known as Battlefield: The Official Blog keeper H Brun, shared the update with fans. "Today, we are also offering 10 different shortcut items for sale for Battlefield 3 on PS3," he wrote. "If you're new to the game, this is the perfect way to gain some ground on the veterans online."The shortcut packs themselves include unique item unlocks for every class and vehicle in the game, as well as weapons usually unlocked through co-op. They range in price from $4.99 (for the co-op weapons) to $39.99 (for everything), although each item and upgrade contained within them can be unlocked through normal play.

The update also includes a number of tweaks, bug fixes, and map redesigns, although perhaps the other most controversial feature will be the ability for players to rent their own servers. Instead of using the standard Battlefield 3 servers, players can now rent their own and customize all parameters, from respawn time to minimap display. The rentals last from one to 90 days, and range from $1.49 to $64.99.

Shortcut packs are hardly new territory for the Battlefield series, as it offered the same kind of package for Battlefield 2: Bad Company. Even so, the comments section on the Battlefield blog already runneth over with bile from both sides of the debate. If you prefer a good old-fashioned level grind to a quick-and-dirty unlock, that's your prerogative, but remember: Someone back home has got to fund the war effort.
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http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116532-Battlefield-3-Update-Includes-Paid-Shortcuts

Saw it coming. No comment. Thought I'd share.
 
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If you don't play BF3, then all the equipment in the game won't make you as good as someone with lesser gear who plays the game a lot. (Though that person should have as much or more gear anyway.)
 
Sounds like utter shit. I wondered why they made the game so incredibly grindy, now we know.
 
Dan_D said:
If you don't play BF3, then all the equipment in the game won't make you as good as someone with lesser gear who plays the game a lot. (Though that person should have as much or more gear anyway.)
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It's this simple. You can spend $200 on goodies and still get your ass kicked by a better player with better skills.
 
You'd be better off spending less money on a professional aimbot solution which will allow you to wtfpwn those who have better skills. Doesn't work on the PS3 of course.
 
Best recon player I've ever seen was using the SV98. That thing unlocks after what, 3 matches of recon?

It'll be funny to see all the people whining on the forums after they buy the 100% unlock thing and still are terrible...
 
Dan_D said:
If you don't play BF3, then all the equipment in the game won't make you as good as someone with lesser gear who plays the game a lot. (Though that person should have as much or more gear anyway.)
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It wont make you better from a skill point of view, but the unlocks do provide a massive advantage over the starting weapons and iron sites, and especially in relation to vehicle unlocks. Between two equally skilled players, I would put my money on the one with muzzle/foregrip/reticle unlocks as more likely to come out on top.
 
defiant007 said:
It wont make you better from a skill point of view, but the unlocks do provide a massive advantage over the starting weapons and iron sites, and especially in relation to vehicle unlocks. Between two equally skilled players, I would put my money on the one with muzzle/foregrip/reticle unlocks as more likely to come out on top.
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Yeah but skill levels are rarely comparable. Honestly if someone wants to waste a ton of money on unlocks, then go for it. A fool and his money are soon parted.
 
Dan_D said:
If you don't play BF3, then all the equipment in the game won't make you as good as someone with lesser gear who plays the game a lot. (Though that person should have as much or more gear anyway.)
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I look forward to dominating the players who do it. :D
 
defiant007 said:
It wont make you better from a skill point of view, but the unlocks do provide a massive advantage over the starting weapons and iron sites, and especially in relation to vehicle unlocks. Between two equally skilled players, I would put my money on the one with muzzle/foregrip/reticle unlocks as more likely to come out on top.
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rofl No, they don't provide any sizable advantage. The only upgrade you really NEED for vehicles are counter measures which are unlocked after like 200 points. I could remove all my unlocks from my load out and still rape.

Either way, all of the weapon attachments just got a complete makeover in the big patch.
 
The only thing I would be interested in paying to unlock would be all optics for all weapons (because trying to unlock all of them is tedious as hell), and I wouldn't pay more than $5 for that. My guess is it'll be outrageously priced at like $15 or something.
 
MavericK96 said:
The only thing I would be interested in paying to unlock would be all optics for all weapons (because trying to unlock all of them is tedious as hell), and I wouldn't pay more than $5 for that. My guess is it'll be outrageously priced at like $15 or something.
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Or you could just grind away in those Metro 24/7 servers :D Its easy to unlock weapon's upgrades there.

Vehicle upgrades however might be more difficult.


Oh, anyway, I fear this may be the beginning of a trend I dislike. Either grind away countless hours of playtime to unlock stuff, or pay your way though. I know, its not a big deal now for those of us who have been playing since day one, but I'm more worried about its impact on future games. I really dislike this feature.
 
I just picked up BF3 last week. Haven't stepped foot into a multiplayer game yet.

When I do, I'll stick to dying without purchased mod packs/unlocked stuff. Thanks all the same.
 
I don't see why anyone thinks paid unlocks are an issue. If you want to spend your money on unlocks, go ahead. If you don't, then don't. Just because you feel some kind of honor/pride from grinding unlock after unlock doesn't mean that someone who purchases it is any less than you. They just felt like using their time in a different manner.

Please keep in mind we are all playing the game for fun. For some, fun is grinding, for others fun is killing. If they had done this DAY 1 of release, I could understand a bit of the anger. But we are months into release. Again, if someone wants to play catchup with their own hard earned money, then so be it.

I think what EA/DICE did offering this is the right thing to do.

battlelogID - gonz0z.
 
more $$
and thats why they will release the Close Quarters DLC, to draw in more CoD type players.
 
Q-BZ said:
It's this simple. You can spend $200 on goodies and still get your ass kicked by a better player with better skills.
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exactly, i see nothing wrong with this. they make a few extra bucks off the idiots and the rest of the community gets to destroy them for fun. :D the nice thing is that there really is no over powering weapon in the game so good pay all the money you want for your weapon, i'll still kill you with the starter weapons. and honestly i don't think the game is all that grindy i mean hell i unlocked all the weapons in the first week on the 360, i unlocked all the added weapons with the DLC within another week.
 
gonz0 said:
I don't see why anyone thinks paid unlocks are an issue. If you want to spend your money on unlocks, go ahead. If you don't, then don't. Just because you feel some kind of honor/pride from grinding unlock after unlock doesn't mean that someone who purchases it is any less than you. They just felt like using their time in a different manner.

Please keep in mind we are all playing the game for fun. For some, fun is grinding, for others fun is killing. If they had done this DAY 1 of release, I could understand a bit of the anger. But we are months into release. Again, if someone wants to play catchup with their own hard earned money, then so be it.

I think what EA/DICE did offering this is the right thing to do.

battlelogID - gonz0z.
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So BF3 is now an MMO :D

My problem is this. Battlefield 3 was supposed to be a $60 game period. In fact, DICE even poked fun at Activision's paid subscription for MW3. Now we seems to have additional microtransaction for BF3 too.

So the question I ask myself is, is it justified that we have to pay additional money to enhance our gaming experience? Shouldn't the gaming experience come in a complete form when we paid $60 for the game?

If the gameplay is too much of a grind, shouldn't they actually tweak the gameplay so its less of a grind to ALL players, rather than charging extra for it?
 
Hornet said:
So BF3 is now an MMO :D

My problem is this. Battlefield 3 was supposed to be a $60 game period. In fact, DICE even poked fun at Activision's paid subscription for MW3. Now we seems to have additional microtransaction for BF3 too.

So the question I ask myself is, is it justified that we have to pay additional money to enhance our gaming experience? Shouldn't the gaming experience come in a complete form when we paid $60 for the game?

If the gameplay is too much of a grind, shouldn't they actually tweak the gameplay so its less of a grind to ALL players, rather than charging extra for it?
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its optional to spend the extra money. no ones forcing you to do it. its not like they are saying " PAY US NOW OR NO MULTI-PLAYER FOR YOU!!!!!!!"

btw MMO and micro-transactions are not the same thing. and secondly welcome to the modern age of marketing and gaming, this isn't the 1990's anymore.

like i said in my post first up, theres nothing wrong with a company making a profit off the idiots that think paying for weapons gives them an advantage on everyone else. at least they were smart enough to wait this long before starting it and not doing it right off the bat(if they had i'd be just as pissed as everyone else). that means all the experienced players don't end up getting screwed and we now get to troll the crappy players for spending money on a weapon that doesn't make them a better player :D.
 
If BF3 is anything like Bad Company 2, then the difference is fairly negligible. You can rock hard with the standard set of weaps.

Pay. Don't pay. No matter.
 
So wait, they want me to pay more money as a new player to BF3 to get the gear that people who've been playing a while get?
 
Hornet said:
Or you could just grind away in those Metro 24/7 servers :D Its easy to unlock weapon's upgrades there.

Vehicle upgrades however might be more difficult.


Oh, anyway, I fear this may be the beginning of a trend I dislike. Either grind away countless hours of playtime to unlock stuff, or pay your way though. I know, its not a big deal now for those of us who have been playing since day one, but I'm more worried about its impact on future games. I really dislike this feature.
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Agreed. And I refuse to grind Metro 64 player. :D I have most of the vehicle unlocks, anyway, so that's kind of a non-issue.
 
I love how they tried to portray themselves as the good guys of PC gaming when they announced BF3.

Then they announced a DLC pack, Battlelog, no dedicated servers, no mod tools, and now this.
 
fattypants said:
I love how they tried to portray themselves as the good guys of PC gaming when they announced BF3.

Then they announced a DLC pack, Battlelog, no dedicated servers, no mod tools, and now this.
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Well, up until BF3 (and maybe to some extent BC2) they were a pretty dedicated PC developer. Sad to see that has changed so quickly.
 
They did this in BC2 also, I don't see what the huge deal is now. BC2's grind took a lot less then BF3's does.

If you want to pay, pay, if not, grind. I don't have a problem with this.
 
fattypants said:
I love how they tried to portray themselves as the good guys of PC gaming when they announced BF3.

Then they announced a DLC pack, Battlelog, no dedicated servers, no mod tools, and now this.
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i'm pretty sure all these things have more to EA then DICE.. down side to dealing with big name publishers.
 
Although these shortcuts wont give anyone a real advantage, I'm thoroughly disgusted with the route they have taken with the game.

With the announcement of Close Quarters with a max of 16 players. Subtract 48 players so we can watch plaster get destroyed. No thanks, unlocks and stats are the bane of FPS.
 
boredreflux said:
They did this in BC2 also, I don't see what the huge deal is now. BC2's grind took a lot less then BF3's does.

If you want to pay, pay, if not, grind. I don't have a problem with this.
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That's the problem you see. If there's something wrong with the amount of grinding needed, then tweak it, fix the game balance or whatever.

Its just my personal opinion but I dislike game that either forces you to take the hard way or pay more for the easy way, considering that this is a full priced game. I would have no problem if it was some F2P game.

For a $60 game, all users should enjoy the benefits of gameplay balancing and tweaks that are meant to make it more enjoyable. I don't like it when they offer a more enjoyable method with additional chargers.


Or, least they could have done is to be upfront about it from the beginning.
 
Hornet said:
That's the problem you see. If there's something wrong with the amount of grinding needed, then tweak it, fix the game balance or whatever.

Its just my personal opinion but I dislike game that either forces you to take the hard way or pay more for the easy way, considering that this is a full priced game. I would have no problem if it was some F2P game.

For a $60 game, all users should enjoy the benefits of gameplay balancing and tweaks that are meant to make it more enjoyable. I don't like it when they offer a more enjoyable method with additional chargers.


Or, least they could have done is to be upfront about it from the beginning.
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There's nothing wrong with the amount of grinding, it's subjective at best.

The game has been out for 6 months. If it was released with this I would definitely be there in the EA hate circlejerk with my pitchfork and torch.

"More enjoyable methods" is also subjective. I'm the type of person that would much rather earn my way then to pay my way, that's more enjoyable to me, but, to each his/her own.
 
They did this with BC2, no big deal. I'll still dominate all newcomers, packs or no packs, because I practice elite teamplay =P
 
Hornet said:
That's the problem you see. If there's something wrong with the amount of grinding needed, then tweak it, fix the game balance or whatever.

Its just my personal opinion but I dislike game that either forces you to take the hard way or pay more for the easy way, considering that this is a full priced game. I would have no problem if it was some F2P game.

For a $60 game, all users should enjoy the benefits of gameplay balancing and tweaks that are meant to make it more enjoyable. I don't like it when they offer a more enjoyable method with additional chargers.


Or, least they could have done is to be upfront about it from the beginning.
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if it isn't your money being spent then who cares? if people want to waste their money taking a shortcut then let them, when they realize that extra money they spent still doesn't make them a better player that is their own problem. i'll keep enjoying the fact that i didn't have to spend the extra money to use the weapons/gadgets i unlocked. its not like they are saying "give us 10 bucks so you can get this weapon no one else can get". if they did that then yeah i'd be pissed off but thats not what they are doing so i'm fine with it.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
if it isn't your money being spent then who cares? if people want to waste their money taking a shortcut then let them, when they realize that extra money they spent still doesn't make them a better player that is their own problem. i'll keep enjoying the fact that i didn't have to spend the extra money to use the weapons/gadgets i unlocked. its not like they are saying "give us 10 bucks so you can get this weapon no one else can get". if they did that then yeah i'd be pissed off but thats not what they are doing so i'm fine with it.
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News flash: Unlocks will make them a better player. So you're wrong about that. The simple fact is, starting out with the stock weapons and no attachments is far worse than using maxed out weapons.
 
gonz0 said:
I don't see why anyone thinks paid unlocks are an issue. If you want to spend your money on unlocks, go ahead. If you don't, then don't. Just because you feel some kind of honor/pride from grinding unlock after unlock doesn't mean that someone who purchases it is any less than you. They just felt like using their time in a different manner.

Please keep in mind we are all playing the game for fun. For some, fun is grinding, for others fun is killing. If they had done this DAY 1 of release, I could understand a bit of the anger. But we are months into release. Again, if someone wants to play catchup with their own hard earned money, then so be it.

I think what EA/DICE did offering this is the right thing to do.

battlelogID - gonz0z.
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My gripe is that they made the game extremely grindy with the intention of doing this. I mean, really, BF3 has some of the worst grind in an FPS that I've played. People whine about the likes if COD, but its not nearly as bad as BF3.

Also, to the people saying unlocks won't suddenly make people better, well of course, but they can still make a big difference. When you're much more skilled than everyone else in the server, of course you can take off all your upgrades and still dominate, there's no substitute for vastly greater amounts of skill.

However, when you're starting out and don't have a lot of skill it makes life even harder again if you don't have the unlocks. So often you get someone to 75% health and they kill you before you finish them off or see someone first, shoot first and still end up dead. Some of the upgrades like heavy barrel to improve mid range power or foregrip to have a few more bullets hit when you still aren't used to the recoil of the gun or some optics so you can overcome some of the lack of aiming skill can make a big difference.

I think a good unlock system doesn't really put new players at a disadvantage, however I also don't think BF3 has good unlock system, its a grindy piece of shit.
 
Spewn said:
Not sure if serious.
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So you're saying that if a person has stock weapons and no attachments, he will get the same kills as if he had every weapon and attachment available to him? Not to mention extra armor or sprinting, etc. Or vehicles.. unlocks help a lot.

It's pretty obvious the answer is a person will be better, because they can be more useful with all unlocks. The person's skill wont be any better, but the simple fact that he has better weapons/gear will give him better results. Saying anything different is just silly.
 
fattypants said:
I love how they tried to portray themselves as the good guys of PC gaming when they announced BF3.

Then they announced a DLC pack, Battlelog, no dedicated servers, no mod tools, and now this.
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no dedicated servers?

what. they're even dedicated on consoles.
 
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