Battlefield 3 @ E3 2011
Written by: Scott Dupler
We trekked up to E3 in Los Angeles for one thing. To get our hands on Battlefield 3. We were hoping to hear some mention of anything Battlefield related at the 3 main press events (Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft) and were a little bit disappointed, but we knew the EA press conference would fill our hunger for Battlefield 3. Sony announced a Playstation 3 exclusive for Battlefield 3, which will include Battlefield 1943 on the same disk. At Nintendo, EA CEO John Riccitiello came on stage and hinted that Battlefield is a possibility on the new Wii U. His exact words were "imagine a shooter like Battlefield with jaw dropping graphics and smooth character animations on the Frostbite engine brought to you on a Nintendo system, that breakthrough controller". A very careful choice of wording that doesn't confirm or deny Battlefield 3 coming to Wii U, but it definitely sounds like it could be a possibility.
Briefing
The actual E3 show floor opened at noon on Tuesday and hours before that people lined up to get in. The EA booth was the first thing you saw when entering the South Hall. The line to play Battlefield 3 wrapped around the EA booth with hundreds of people in line. Luckily we had an appointment at noon and after talking to some EA people were put into the Battlefield 3 VIP line to be the first group in. While waiting in line an EA rep asked for our names so they could engrave our names onto BF3 dog tags. We were then ushered into a small air conditioned room where a large TV with the Battlefield 3 logo was displayed. Alongside was Battlefield 3 Lead Multiplayer Designer, Lars Gustafsson who has been with DICE for over 12 years. Lars talked about the Frostbite engine and the different gamemodes they plan to offer such as single player, multiplayer and co-op. The single player was shown at the EA press conference in the form of the tank mission which takes place in the deserts outside of Tehran.
At the EA booth, we played multiplayer rush gamemode on a map called Operation Metro based in the heart of Paris where we played as the U.S. Marines taking on the Russian forces. Operation Metro is an infantry focused, urban environment, close combat map. Russian forces have taken over the city and are headquartered at the stock exchange. U.S Marine forces start from the west taking out the heavy anti-air stations setup throughout the park. In addition to conquest and rush gamemodes, team deathmatch was also announced. Lars then touched on the newly announced Battle Log, a social Battlefield experience that ties everything together. Although that was all that was said about Battle Log.
Lars then explained the 4 classes in Battlefield starting with assault. The assault class is now equipped with medic capabilities for healing and reviving. Second is engineer which has anti-vehicle abilities and repair abilities. Next is the support solider whose responsibility is to lay down fire. Lastly is the recon class who has the responsibility of supplying intel on the battlefield. It wouldn't be a Battlefield game without unlocks and as Lars explained, Battlefield 3 will have more unlocks and upgrades than any other Battlefield game. Primary weapons in Battlefield 3 have three customization slots which include add-ons such as silencers and flashlights. The support class now has a bi-pod that can be placed on any surface to provide more accuracy and to enable the player to use a new support only ability called Suppression. When your bipod is deployed, all the bullets you fire at an enemy affect them regardless if you hit them or not. Bullets that get close enough to an enemy will start to reduce their combat efficiency. Your squad can then flank the enemy and you will receive a Suppression bonus.
Vehicles are of course another important part of Battlefield games and as we know jets will indeed be making a comeback. You will be able to fight with boats, tanks, jets and helicopters. In Operation Metro the only vehicle we were allowed to play with was the LAV-25 (Light Armor Vehicle). Vehicles in Battlefield 3 have two new features. First is they now have regenerating armor. If it goes down below a certain threshold your vehicle will be disabled (you will see sparks) and not being able to move, although the turret can still move. Vehicles as well as soldiers are now fully customizable. In the demo, the LAV-25 has the main gun, an added a coax cannon to take out infantry and added thermal vision.
Since Battlefield 2142, players have received dog tags in return for humiliating a player by knifing them. Battlefield 3 is no different, except they are now fully customizable. As you play you will unlock more ways to upgrade and customize your dog tag. Dog tags are now dynamically upgraded, so the example used was if you choose to display you are a kick ass pilot, your dog tag will now be updated with your latest stats. New to this system is that dog tags can only be stolen by a knife to the back. The animation system for knifing is more dramatic and spectacular that before.
Hands-On
The briefing with Lars ended and we then moved to the next room where each of us sat down at one of 16 Alienware computers (specs not revealed) pimped out with custom Battlefield 3 A40 headsets and Razer keyboard and mice. Every station had a clearly marked yellow triangle with a construction worker with the text "Pre-Alpha" on it. The first thing you notice is the spawn screen has been completely redone. It looks a lot more simple and kit load outs are now at the bottom indicated by four icons. Weapon load outs are to the right of the kit select, but it didn't appear as if we could experiment with these. In the briefing they did say they had unlocked everything and preselected our loadouts.
The class I play the most is assault, so I selected assault which is the first class and is indicted with a medic style cross. Controls are as you would expect with 1 being your primary weapon, 2 - secondary weapon (pistol), 3 - med pack, 4 - shock paddles. The much asked for prone is back which can be toggled by hitting Z. Crouch is X and sprint / hold breath is the shift key. Quick knife is F, and flashlight was set to L. Q will spot enemies just like Bad Company 2. The ability to toggle between firing modes automatic, semi-automatic, and single shot is available in most weapons. There was no commo rose, and this is one of those things EA and DICE aren't talking about yet probably because they haven't decided on it fully.
Running around and shooting people was remarkably smooth for a pre-alpha game. We had 16 players at E3 vs 16 QA players, so this wasn't just some local LAN game. Speaking of LAN, I was told there would be no LAN support. Other features I noticed are obviously you can see your feet and when you go to jump over something it goes into this parkour type animation. The squad leader is marked with a star and if I remember correctly you can only spawn on them. Flash lights now have a new purpose besides lighting up dark areas. Whether you are in broad daylight or a dark tunnel you can turn on your flashlight and blind enemies. In the few times this happened while playing I noticed a halo around an enemy, making it difficult to know where to shoot. The knifing system in Battlefield 3 has also changed dramatically. The knife is more like a switchblade that your solider can flip out. Quick knifing an enemy from behind will initiate an animation where you grab the enemies head and slit their throat. This might not have been the only animation, but one of many. EA had also told us that knifing from the front is possible, but not an instant kill. I was also told you can pull out the knife (possibly the #5 slot) and not have to use quick knife.
As far as points go here's how it goes: 100 points for killing someone, 10 points extra for a headshot, suppress bonus is 10, kill assist is 50 points, m-com arm is 100 points 100 points for reviving. The reviving system has also been tweaked and DICE have solved the problem of being rived countless times in the middle of enemy fire only to be killed and revived again. You can opt out of being rived by holding E to die or space bar to accept being revived. The shock paddles are no longer a one click instant shock revive. You now have to hold the mouse button down to charge the paddles in order to revive fallen teammates.
I didn't spend too much time with the support class, but I did check out the bi-pod just see what it looked like. The bi-pod deploys when you go prone, and apparently you can mount it on anything zooming in, but I didn't have time to test this. I didn't experience the new suppression system, but from I was told it creates a blur around the edges of your screen.
In the 20-30 minutes I had with Battlefield 3 it was a lot of fun. There are some elements from Battlefield: Bad Company 2, but that's fine. The game itself still has many new improvements and features that will please old and new fans. Of course this is still pre-alpha so things can always change, but this already great game can only get better. The graphics look amazing and lighting is unlike any Battlefield game we have seen. Like many others, I wish I could have had more time to get a feel for the game. That September beta can't come soon enough!
No shit !
