Game Preview: Battlefield 3

“Battlefield 3“

Battlefield 3 is a FPS Shooter being developed by EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) and will be published by Electronic Arts. The game is set to be released on October 25, 2011 on 360, PC and PS3. Contrary to its name, it is the eleventh installment in the Battlefield franchise, and the direct sequel to Battlefield 2.

Battlefield 3 will feature the maximalist combined arms battles that made the series popular across single-player, co-operative and multiplayer modes. It will reintroduce several elements absent from the Bad Company games, including fighter jets, the prone position and 64-player battles on PC. To accommodate the lower player count on consoles, the ground area will be limited for Xbox 360 and PS3, though fly space will remain the same.

EA stated that Commander Mode will most likely not be included.

Battlefield 3 uses a new type of character animation technology called ANT.  ANT technology is used in EA Sports games such as FIFA, but will now be adapted to create a more realistic soldier, with the ability to transition into cover and turn their head before their body.

The game will feature maps set in Paris, Tehran, Sarajevo, Sulaymaniyah, New York, Wake Island and Oman.

A new animation system will allow players to “drag fallen comrades into safety and mount weapons on almost any part of the terrain”. Players will be able to use vehicles during the campaign, but their use will be limited.

In the first part of the campaign, the player will take on the role of Staff Sergeant Henry ‘Black’ Blackburn, a member of the United States Marine Corps stationed along the Iran-Iraq border. SSgt Blackburn leads a five-man squad on a mission to locate, find and safely return a US squad investigating a possible chemical weapons site, whose last known position was inside a meat market controlled by a hostile militia. After engaging in several gun battles with hostile forces, Blackburn and his squadmates are caught in the wake of a massive earthquake whose epicenter is in Iran. Brief shots from the campaign trailer depict an aerial view of a war-torn city, a column of M1 Abrams tanks being attacked by cluster munitions, and an aerial dogfight between US and Russian fighter aircraft.

Sony announced at their press briefing today that the PlayStation 3 version of Battlefield 3 will exclusively include Battlefield 1943 on the disc.

At today’s EA’s E3 press conference, it was revealed that BF3 will have an open beta across all applicable platforms beginning this September.

Play my outro….
- Jon Duryea (Follow @Artifact911 on Twitter)