Battlefield 3 - Details

The March issue of Game Informer, of which BF3 is the focus,  has started to reach people. A reader by the name of Jason has gathered pertinent details which are outlined below at GamersMint:

• Aiming for Q4 2011 release

• Concept for BF3 has been in the works for years, waiting on proper tech to seamlessly come together

• Frosbite 2.0 is the culmination of this tech, entirely re-written

• Lighting sounds neat, one “probe” contains more lighting information than an entire BFBC2 level.

• Level destruction is going to be “believable” but basically everything is destructible.

• Character animations powered by ANT, what EA Sports uses.

• AI characters and multiplayer characters have different animation sets

• No more “gliding” animations that look off, animation realism is a focus

• Captured their own war audios (bullets, tanks, helicopters, etc) at different distances to ensure realism

• Better audio cues for certain actions, more easily able to listen for threats

• Plan on better, more immediate post release content

• More unlocks than BFBC2

• Dice trying to find a good balance between customization of your character and not having “pink rabbit hat(s)”

• 4 classes

• Will talk about squads “later”

• Looking into a theater mode but can’t talk about it

• Will have co-op

• There will be a kill-cam but it can be turned off

• BF3′s team is almost twice as big as the team for BFBC2

• They want the pacing of the single player mode to be balanced, with highs and lows. Makes the comparison to a song vs a guitar solo.

• Part of the single player mode takes place in Sulaymaniyah – Iraqi Kurdistan.

• “Fuck” will be used often, so M rated for sure

• There will be an earthquake in a level. The destruction sounds very impressive. 7 story building collapses, looks very well done

• Significant narrative that goes with the SP mode

• More than one setting, you’re not in the middle east for the whole game

• PC version is lead version

• Why 64 players for PC only? No complaints from the console crowd.

• No mod tools at release. Maybe none down the line either. Frosbite 2.0 is complex and mods tools would have to be dumbed down, so does Dice really want to put their time to that or would it be better spent elsewhere?

• Original story, not based on Bad Company at all.

Related articles

• Battlefield 3 Coming Fall 2011 (ps3.ign.com)
• Your First Brief Look At Battlefield 3 [Dice] (kotaku.com)