Interview: Battlefield 3 and the 'dying' PC platform

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Zorachus

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Great to see some love for us PC Gamers still ;)

http://www.shacknews.com/article/67683/battlefield-3-interview-dice-gm

Now it's Battlefield 3 and we thought, "Now it's time to give some extra love to the PC community." But also, we strongly believe in PC gaming. Two years ago, maybe one year ago, people talked about "the decline of PC gaming." Or "the death of PC gaming." These kind of words were thrown around and, honestly, that's bullshit.

PC gamers are probably the most hardcore players we have out there. Sure, online gameplay has been on the rise on the Xbox 360 and PS3. There are a lot of hardcore online players there too. But on PC? That's our core audience.
 
I haven't place Bad Company, was a huge BF2 fan, and loved the original BF1942. Really looking forward to Battle Field3 being a true PC game, with vehicles, and 64 player support, with giant outdoor maps to have tank fights, helicopters, and stuff.

I do NOT want a Call of Duty clone, with little use of vehicles, and deathmatch, that is so dated already.
 
It's good to hear they're focusing on the PC platform first, a trait that is missing from almost all of our games at the moment. I suspect that some attention to PC gamers will massively boost PC sales, and with any luck that will encourage other developers to do the same.
 
Zorachus said:
I haven't place Bad Company, was a huge BF2 fan, and loved the original BF1942. Really looking forward to Battle Field3 being a true PC game, with vehicles, and 64 player support, with giant outdoor maps to have tank fights, helicopters, and stuff.

I do NOT want a Call of Duty clone, with little use of vehicles, and deathmatch, that is so dated already.
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a-fuckin-men

BC2 was so sad, half the maps didn't even have air vehicles, and teh jets? LOL they were scripted :(
 
I dont think the idea of BC2 was ever to fill the spot for BF3, so people need to get over the no air vehicles and large scale maps mentality.

If EA is putting the same amount of work into the game as they did with the video they just released, this game without a doubt will be game of the year.
 
chockomonkey said:
a-fuckin-men

BC2 was so sad, half the maps didn't even have air vehicles, and teh jets? LOL they were scripted :(
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yeah, I'm still on the fence about BF3 though. they are already trying to screw us over by making us pre-order to get extra maps. when really they should be included for everybody.
 
chockomonkey said:
a-fuckin-men

BC2 was so sad, half the maps didn't even have air vehicles, and teh jets? LOL they were scripted :(
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Are you serious ? The jets were scripted, you could not get in them and fly and drop bombs ? WTF :confused: BC just looked like a Call of Duty copy, or CounterStrike style game, that is NOT BattleField, BF is all about the huge outdoor maps to fly helicopters on long missions, and driving tanks in groups to the enemy base far away on the other side.

No wonder I stayed away from the BC series. To me it is BF2 #1, and BF1942 #2, all others are wannabes. Here's hoping BF3 does it right.
 
Zorachus said:
Are you serious ? The jets were scripted, you could not get in them and fly and drop bombs ? WTF :confused: BC just looked like a Call of Duty copy, or CounterStrike style game, that is NOT BattleField, BF is all about the huge outdoor maps to fly helicopters on long missions, and driving tanks in groups to the enemy base far away on the other side.

No wonder I stayed away from the BC series. To me it is BF2 #1, and BF1942 #2, all others are wannabes. Here's hoping BF3 does it right.
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Bf2142 wasn't bad, it was more battlefield than bc2 for sure
 
Zorachus said:
Are you serious ? The jets were scripted, you could not get in them and fly and drop bombs ? WTF :confused: BC just looked like a Call of Duty copy, or CounterStrike style game, that is NOT BattleField, BF is all about the huge outdoor maps to fly helicopters on long missions, and driving tanks in groups to the enemy base far away on the other side.

No wonder I stayed away from the BC series. To me it is BF2 #1, and BF1942 #2, all others are wannabes. Here's hoping BF3 does it right.
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uh, BC is nothing like COD / CS in the slightest. you are dumb if you think so.

jets were gone, helicopters were there, it still played like battlefield at its core.
 
chockomonkey said:
a-fuckin-men

BC2 was so sad, half the maps didn't even have air vehicles, and teh jets? LOL they were scripted :(
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no whats sad is that you sat there comparing BC2 which was a console game from the start to a game like BF2 which is what BC2 was never meant to be from day 1. its an arcade team based strategy console FPS that filled a large gap where COD4-7 completely missed. not to mention BC2 was the first big game to test the Havok physics engine on PC.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
no whats sad is that you sat there comparing BC2 which was a console game from the start to a game like BF2 which is what BC2 was never meant to be from day 1. its an arcade team based strategy console FPS that filled a large gap where COD4-7 completely missed. not to mention BC2 was the first big game to test the Havok physics engine on PC.
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Well they messed up and put their "console" game on PC so I think it's fair game to gripe about that.
 
Nice to see DICE getting back to its true roots. The lack of proper mod support however won't make this game the success that BF2 was and still is.
 
I agree it's propaganda. The game is going to come out with a total console feel to it and the gameplay videos we're seeing right now are probably heavily touched up and not actual gameplay.Seeing how Dice handled BC2 is all the info I need to be making this statement.
 
MrFace said:
I agree it's propaganda. The game is going to come out with a total console feel to it and the gameplay videos we're seeing right now are probably heavily touched up and not actual gameplay.Seeing how Dice handled BC2 is all the info I need to be making this statement.
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Yeah I hated how BC2 looked a ton a better on PC and ran great, total console port trash.
 
I doubt it's just propaganda, because Battlefield 2 did a lot better on the PC than it did on the consoles. So it's reasonable to assume that they would give Battlefield 3 on the PC the better treatment.
 
BladeVenom said:
I doubt it's just propaganda, because Battlefield 2 did a lot better on the PC than it did on the consoles. So it's reasonable to assume that they would give Battlefield 3 on the PC the better treatment.
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BF2 was not on consoles. As others have stated (which I'm actually surprised and happy to see), this is just to garner more support from the PC community whom pretty much jump on anything that is said to bolster support for the platform.

I see more politics from developers today, than I see actual game development.

The fact that BF3 has a single player campaign tells me it will not come close to what BF2 did for gaming. Most of the greatest PC shooters of our time were MP only, and for a good reason (CS 1.6, BF2, Red Orchestra).
 
Monkey God said:
Propaganda designed to sell more copies.
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Have you played the BF series? BF1942? 1943? BF2? Have you watched the ALPHA trailers for BF3?

This game is going to sell itself based on reputation, brand recognition, and the content we are seeing in the trailers. It is a day 1 purchase for me, no doubt. BF games haven't been the crap you see churned out of the COD series.
 
I think it's pretty hard to hate on BF3 at this point, but I gotta ask: is this a Battlefield game? Then why are all of the promo screens and trailers for single player shit? Why haven't we seen a single vehicle?

The game looks super impressive, but come on, this is Battlefield, not Call of Duty.
 
I just saw the tv ad for the new Xbox controller. It looks something like a mac 10 with a shoulder stock and a big ball on the end of a 3 in barrel.
NOW little billie can shoot down anything while standing in the middle of the room looking like well you get the idea.

made for kids with an IQ of 10 and a mother with deep pockets

They will have to make a complete bf2 patch for this one...AIM no way the game aims for little billie
For $80 he should not have to.

On the pc we scream aimbot and bans.
on the console it will be ok since billie is a tard and mommy just thru away $160...80 for the game and 80 for the super controller that makes little billie a force to be reconned with.
 
Too much hating for BF3 here. Honestly, Battlefield started out in the PC Community. It was a staple PC game. They moved in a direction toward consoles and screwed up. Bad Company 2 is a good game, and DICE was able to really test out some destruction there.

Here's how I see it:

BF1942 -> Battlefield 2142 - Good games that defined Battlefield.
Then they screwed up with Bad Company & Medal of Honor (really bad here, lol)
DICE then decided to get back to their BF roots but not totally alienate and go extreme on their console gamers.
Now they want to set it right.

Honestly, the game just got announced. We'll see vehicles. Stop being impatient and put trust in DICE. They screwed up once and know they need to set it right. If they don't - they will hurt because of it.

I don't smell propaganda in this article (for repping PC gamers).
 
RIPATI said:
I think it's pretty hard to hate on BF3 at this point, but I gotta ask: is this a Battlefield game? Then why are all of the promo screens and trailers for single player shit? Why haven't we seen a single vehicle?

The game looks super impressive, but come on, this is Battlefield, not Call of Duty.
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Seriously. I want a trailer like the BF2 intro video to show me this thing is like BF2.

Godmachine said:
Nice to see DICE getting back to its true roots. The lack of proper mod support however won't make this game the success that BF2 was and still is.
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I didn't download a single mod for BF2 the entire time I played it (years and years) But I guess having it capable of being modded does create some community interest which leads to more playing of the original...
 
RIPATI said:
I think it's pretty hard to hate on BF3 at this point, but I gotta ask: is this a Battlefield game? Then why are all of the promo screens and trailers for single player shit? Why haven't we seen a single vehicle?

The game looks super impressive, but come on, this is Battlefield, not Call of Duty.
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Because they have months and months to hype the game, and they want to keep us coming back the whole time. They know that the people that care the most want to see the multiplayer, that's why it will come last.
On the other hand, I have seen several polls about whether people favor single player vs. multiplayer PC games, and it's just a fact that more people play single player games than multiplayer. Putting it out there that there will be a single player game in the main Battlefield franchise means more sales/$$$ for DICE.

dioxholster said:
next trailer better be multiplayer, thats what i want to see.
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The next trailer will be part II of the past one, where they go up on the roof, get sniped at, then send a rocket in to the side of a large building, and we get to see the large scale destruction to the building. If we are lucky, they will throw in footage of the Earthquake, too...
 
timtheenchantor said:
Too much hating for BF3 here.
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If a game is a 'console port' then people rip it apart for that reason. If the developer says they're creating a PC specific game (in other words, something that is not a console port), then the developer is called out for spreading 'propaganda'.

From where I sit, it looks like a no-win situation.

I'm seeing this everywhere at the gaming forums right now - just wall to wall hatred for everything and anything. Just constant, constant, bitching and complaining.

I was just about to write that PC Gamer, in a recent preview, wrote that BF3 was visually the most impressive game they've ever seen. The reason I wanted to write this was to provide evidence that what the developer is saying about its game not being a console port is probably quite true - that they really have created a great game for the PC.

But why bother? I know exactly what people would say about that.

"Ah, so, Wabe, you only care about graphics, huh - what about fucking gameplay, you douche."

Or this:

"Huh? PC Gamer? ROTFWL! PC Gamer was obviously paid by EA to write that! OMFG!"

Blah, blah, blah.
 
MrFace said:
I agree it's propaganda. The game is going to come out with a total console feel to it and the gameplay videos we're seeing right now are probably heavily touched up and not actual gameplay.Seeing how Dice handled BC2 is all the info I need to be making this statement.
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yes i too hated its surprisingly fast load times and performance and how they fixed just about every major problem through patches as well as giving us all plenty of free content.

bc2 looked and played just how i expected, silly battlefield moments included. it wasn't the successor to bf2 and it didn't try to be.

i've ridden friendly UAV's into the sky and killed people with my rifle up there. i've hit infantry with a helicopter, i've sniped pilots, i've cleared entire maps of trees and cover forcing a 200 yard death sprint for the other team... i felt more than happy with my investment the first time i ramped an atv off a cliff, crashing into the peak of a 40 foot tall tree and then riding the result to the ground unharmed. i've been in a comically out of control jeep barreling down a cliffside before slamming into a fence and being thrown into an absolutely flawless barrelroll. i've ramped a jetski 30 feet into the air somehow and cleared a small island. i've charged to the enemy uncap at the start of a new game with my squad and successfully held the entire team to the point where my own managed to take over the entire map.

argue what you want but at it's core it was still whacky battlefield all the same at its core.
 
BC2 was incredibly fun, for what it was: a closer-scale modern combat game. I can't even count the hours I've spent with that game, worth every penny. Most of the people complaining probably never played it, on some flawed principle.

And, for the record, it played excellent on a range of systems. I had a few issues during the beta, but those were ironed out week one. DICE and Valve are the only 2 studios that I will even buy games from anymore.

Who cares if this is propaganda. If the game is as cool as it looks, I'll play it as much as I did BC2. Everyone else can enjoy boycotting it, and complaining in some internet forum about whatever is next.
 
WabeWalker said:
If a game is a 'console port' then people rip it apart for that reason. If the developer says they're creating a PC specific game (in other words, something that is not a console port), then the developer is called out for spreading 'propaganda'.

From where I sit, it looks like a no-win situation.

I'm seeing this everywhere at the gaming forums right now - just wall to wall hatred for everything and anything. Just constant, constant, bitching and complaining.

I was just about to write that PC Gamer, in a recent preview, wrote that BF3 was visually the most impressive game they've ever seen. The reason I wanted to write this was to provide evidence that what the developer is saying about its game not being a console port is probably quite true - that they really have created a great game for the PC.

But why bother? I know exactly what people would say about that.

"Ah, so, Wabe, you only care about graphics, huh - what about fucking gameplay, you douche."

Or this:

"Huh? PC Gamer? ROTFWL! PC Gamer was obviously paid by EA to write that! OMFG!"

Blah, blah, blah.
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So damn true.

Elitists are simply hilarious. Note to them: STFU.
 
Maybe its just all propaganda, maybe not.
We should at least wait for a demo before we start knocking on it;)

At the least they are addressing the issue. Unlike Crytek, and yet many people had lots of hopes for Crysis 2 prior to its demo, which is fair IMO.
 
WabeWalker said:
I'm seeing this everywhere at the gaming forums right now - just wall to wall hatred for everything and anything. Just constant, constant, bitching and complaining.
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It's called having an opinion, that is why forums exist for people to post their opinions, if you have a problem with this idea then why the hell do you read forums?

Plenty of people give games praise, loads of us are waiting baited breath for BF3 and want as much information as possible, someone will always post something negative, just get used to it already.
 
PrincessFrosty said:
It's good to hear they're focusing on the PC platform first, a trait that is missing from almost all of our games at the moment. I suspect that some attention to PC gamers will massively boost PC sales, and with any luck that will encourage other developers to do the same.
Click to expand...

Where did I hear that before ? Oh right, one example pops up and that is Bioshock, which supposedly had two teams working on the game: one for the PC version and one for the console version. Guess what ? When the PC version came out, it was a mere console port!
 
Silus said:
Where did I hear that before ? Oh right, one example pops up and that is Bioshock, which supposedly had two teams working on the game: one for the PC version and one for the console version. Guess what ? When the PC version came out, it was a mere console port!
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Yep, I agree 100%, we were basically duped there, developers lie.

WIth Bioshock the devs went on and on about it being a game about choice and balance between resources but just before release they actually admitted that it was combat focused, most of the encounters in the game were combative you could't sort of hack your way around a problem or use other skills like you could in say something like System Shock 2.

I have slightly more confidence in EADICE because they have a fairly rich history of success on the PC platform and they've had a lot of very obvious learning experiences where games like BC2 actually did very well on the PC because they offered up a reasonably good experience for the PC player. With BF3 I suspect they're drawing on what they've learnt from BC2 and essentially testing the waters by moving back to a more PC orientated game.

If that pays off for them with really good sales, which I'm confident it will, then not only will there be a direct correlation between good PC design and good PC sales for them, but other developers can draw from that as well.

Wouldn't it be lovely if all of a sudden devs "got it" and realised that with just that little bit of care and attention to the PC version of the game, you can draw in a bunch more customers.
 
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