Rock, Paper, Shotgun

So many battles, so little time. EA/Dice already seem busy alternately delighting and outraging their fanbase with the much-delayed casual shooter Battlefield Heroes and sorta-remake Battlefield 1943, so dropping an apparent Battlefield 3 into the mix seems like a special kind of madness. Then again, perhaps a full sequel, expanding rather than simplifying or repeating the remit, is the way to win back men’s love. I have precisely zero information beyond EA CEO John Pleasants (he’s not a pheasant plucker, he’s a pheasant plucker’s son) dropping a sly “I’ve had the luxury of looking at Battlefield 3 over at DICE in Sweden and was highly impressed by the way the team is working on that product“, so every word of this post I write is essentially killing time until it looks long enough to publish. Oh, there we go.

BF3 then: whadda we want?

Sorry, sorry, this isn’t about a Valve game. But it’s pretty big news if it’s true. And, realistically speaking, it probably is true. A supposedly leaked document brings news of (the inevitable) Battlefield 3, and what it may contain.

Standing out from the neatly bullet-pointed and occasionally tedious list at the link above is a claim that matches will now feature teams of up to 40 each. That’s 80 men all told. 80! Death will be bloody and regular. Also mentioned are customisable, MMO-style avatars, a fairly logical evolution from the rank system of BF2/2142. It’d certainly be quite a thing to know that the man who just shot you in the head actually chose the face he’s now sneering at your dismembered carcass with, rather than simply bearing the same image the game hands out to every player. Gives murder a more personal touch, doesn’t it? It’s reportedly set in a similar time-frame (i.e. modernish day) to Battlefield 2, and it’s coming next Summer.

EA have given only a resounding ‘no comment’ so far. Understandable, really. Of course, the tinfoil hat-wearing part of me can’t help but wonder if it could be a stealth announcement to take advantage of Team Fortress 2 and Quake Wars causing teamplay mania at the moment. But that’s only because I’m a crazy, paranoid loon who likes making up stories.

I don’t have any pictures of it I’m afraid, so here’s one of Sega Bass Fishing instead.