Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Because it’s a download. I mean I guess maybe that is still physical in some sense. It is a configuration of atoms on hard-drives… This is a rubbish line of thinking. Look over there, a free thing! It’s out and free, says Battlefieldblog. It’s new guns, as trailered below. So are you Battlefield 3 purchasers still playing Battlefield 3? Or has the lustre worn off?
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And there’s a trailer showing off Strike At Karkand, to celebrate that fact, below. Needless to say, the trailer shows off a lot of walls getting blasted into bits, a lot of guns getting reloaded, and a lot of shouting. I love shouting. That’s the best bit. Back To Karkand, just in case you’ve been asleep for the past couple of months, is the DLC for Battlefield 3 that brings back four famed Battlefield maps for the new game. They are: Strike at Karkand, Wake Island, Gulf of Oman and Sharqi Peninsula. It’s free if you pre-ordered, and $15 to everyone else. The DLC also introduces a bunch of new achievements, weapons, vehicles and so forth, and the Battlefield blog is slowly detailing them all for our anticipatory pleasure.
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How does 7pm tonight sound? And how does 7pm UK time AND 7pm US time sound? Eh? What I mean, of course, is not that I have changed the timezones across the world (although I do have that power), but that we have a UK RPS Community BF3 Server in London, and a US RPS Community server in Chicago. Which one is best?! Only you can decide.

And yes, only 32-player servers for now, but if these two get used regularly we’ll see about getting you a great big 64-player server or two for you to play on.

I’ve spent the last ten minutes trying and failing to make the Battlefield 3 noise with my mouth, but it has too many digital effects over it and my mouth, as I’ve just discovered, is analogue. Such mimicry is my usual reaction to squelchy electronica, and I just watched the trailer for Back to Karkand, the first expansion to EA’s five-million and counting selling lawnmower simulator. Join me below in watching it.

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The Battlefield blog has some details on what DICE have fixed or are planning to fix. The quick match thing will be improved (ie made any use at all), squad functionality is to be addressed, and apparently the worst of the lag issues has already been issued a fix: “Some users are experiencing lag and rubber banding, mostly tied to Conquest mode on Tehran Highway and Caspian Border. This was due to a bug in the network code that has been identified and eliminated in today’s console server patch, resulting in a big improvement in these cases. For PC, this issue was improved in an earlier server patch.” I was still rubber-banding on Caspian Border at 10pm last night, so I am still a bit sceptical as to whether this has definitely been “fixed”.

Earlier today I mentioned, via the tweetohorn, that I was having trouble launching Battlefield 3′s single-player because the Battlelog website was offline or something. My confusion came about because the game’s single player directs you to a web page to launch itself. But it turns out that actually you just have to switch Origin to “offline” mode to get it running. Ha. Yeah. It’s a feature, you see.

Sigh.

It should also be mentioned that while all the stat tracking and stuff is a-mazing, Battlelog also the server browser, for some reason. Yep. The server browser for the game, is in your internet browser, and is a website. Not that we’re unused to external apps, but… well it’s no All-Seeing Eye, I tell you that. I miss you, All-Seeing Eye.

Initial question: why do these US military guys have a nice green pot-plant on their war-planning table?

Initial thought: I like the Johnny Cash soundtrack bit. Good choice.

Pot-plant update: there are pot-plants on every flat surface in this part of the game. I guess the marines had them there because they’re buried in the things.

MORE BLOGGINGS BELOW, AS THEY HAPPEN.
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DRAMATIC MUSIC SHOUTING MAN SHOOTING MAN FOREIGN MAN SWEARING MAN DRAMATIC MUSIC FALLING MAN FLYING MAN CAR CHASE GUNS GUNS GUNS WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR.

(Also, ‘who’s the real terrorist here?’-style political intrigue, which is presumably the long-hinted-at moral greyness of BF3′s plot).
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After insisting there’s room for more than one military shooter in the market, DICE’s Patrick Bach told IndustryGamers than be believes shooters are becoming a “service”: “I also believe that our free social platform Battlelog will make a huge difference in how people perceive where the game starts and ends. Games, especially FPS titles with their deep persistence and team play are no longer just hard-coded discs. They are transforming into a service.” People sure do love statistics and stuff, it’s true. But does that really make it a service?

He also argued that “authenticity” was more important than realism (contrasting the game with the Armas, I suppose): “We are not trying to create a simulator. But the feeling that what happens in the game is plausible and looks real and authentic is important to us.”