Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Apparently this new piece of footage from Battlefield Bad Company 2’s multiplayer is a map that will feature in the beta. It’s confirmed as a pre-order beta at the moment, so I’ve no idea if we’ll be able to get our hands on this for general play with an open beta for PC in December. It’s looking remarkably solid, with the environmental destruction stuff right at the forefront of the game. It makes me wonder whether certain maps will have logical destruction patterns in them once you’ve been playing for a while, like you always destroy a specific wall or fence in the first 30 seconds of the game because it opens a route, or removes sniper cover. You’ll find yourself performing the same makeshift demolition tasks over and over again, like some kind of builder’s nightmare.
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When the Modern Warfare 2 thing kicked off I said to my fellow RPSites, “gadzooks, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is so going to capitalise on this.” And lo, I see on Blues that EA have posted a Dedicated Server FAQ on the game. “Other games use player-hosted or ‘peer to peer’ solutions,” says Gordon VanDyke, presumably with a smile, “often resulting in a “host with the most” situation; where the player hosting the match has an advantage over other players connected to their game. Everyone else is dependent on the host’s internet connection and if they don’t have a great connection neither will you regardless how great of an internet you have.” (Further PC related info here, via Planet Battlefield.)

Well, it made me laugh. It’s a bonus that the game looks pretty good (see old trailer below). Roll on Battlefield 3, I say.

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The Battlefield series is a bit patchy (HA! DO YOU SEE!) Heroes is a little too “lite” for my tastes, and the rather more realistic-looking 1943 has been delayed into after Christmas. We’re due Bad Company too, but I wonder if the focus on environmental destruction will dilute the multiplayer manshoot. Personally Battlefield 2 was always my favourite, but I must admit I’ve not picked it up in a while. Nevertheless I suppose there must still be some kind of community playing, because DICE have just released a patch for it. A patch first promised in June last year. The words from Battlefield blog:

As part of Update 1.50 we are glad to announce that not only is Highway Tampa now a required install included in the update but Euro Forces (Great Wall, Taraba Quarry and Operation Smoke Screen) and Armored Fury (Midnight Sun, Operation Harvest and Operation Road Rage) is now FREE for all Battlefield 2 players. Including the brand new map, Operation Blue Pearl this brings EIGHT new maps that everyone can play and will be added to ranked Battlefield 2 servers world wide. The Booster Pack content is included in the update and has made the file just over 2Gb in size.

2Gb. Oof. Here’s a list of mirrors.

March 2010 will see the arrival of the sequel to an FPS spin off from the Battlefield series that never actually showed up on PC the first time around. Once again the focus will be on environmental destruction, with the new game finally challenging Red Faction in the breaking-stuff stakes. You’ll be able to blow holes in walls with light weapons, and flatten entire buildings with more serious ordnance. It sounds like there’s a lot more focus on multiplayer for Bad Company 2, with lots of random extras, including the weapons from Battlefield 1943 as unlocks.

Anyway, GamesCom trailer lurks below, in which stuff gets shattered, knocked over, penetrated, cracked, and otherwise exploded. It’s a cinematic, but a clever one. Goes a bit meta at the end there.
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As I mentioned in our recent podcast, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in Battlefield Heroes, and I ended up doing a review over at Eurogamer. I say:

This free Battlefield game comes with two complimentary kneejerk responses. “Hey, this is nothing like proper grown-up Battlefield!” is one of them. “Cartoon? Team Fortress 2 is cartoon, therefore grumble-mumble!” is the other. Neither are actually relevant, because this is very much its own game, with its own innate delights, peculiar slow pace, poorly-executed class mechanic, and weird micro-transaction married to level advancement persistence.

The game disappointed me overall, because its an awkward mix of really genuinely fun stuff, and not-quite-there design. But then it’s also completely free, so you can judge for yourself.

After a rather extended beta and much delay, the free cartoon FPS from Electronic Arts/DICE has finally arrived. You can play it here, for no pennies. Impressions below.

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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?

DICE’s forthcoming “not Heroes” Battlefield game, Battlefield 1943, will be delayed on PC until September, reportedly due to the complications of bringing it to the PC platform. Once it turns up it’ll be a downloadable game available for $15. The game will feature a simplified Battlefield 1942-style system, and revamps three of the original maps, Wake Island, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. There’s a trailer for Wake Island beneath the click.
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Well, that’s what you get reading between the lines of Gabe Newell’s keynote at this year’s DICE Summit, which featured the Valve boss speaking about his company’s experience with Steam and how digital-download direct sales are an enormous success. G4 liveblogged the event in loving detail while Gamasutra did an overview of the whole thing. I’d read the whole G4 thing if I were you, if only to have a chuckle at the comment thread at the bottom full of PS3 owners who just won’t let go. However, I’ll pick out the key points – and some exciting percentages – beneath the cut.
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After going very, very quiet for a few months, EA and DICE are reopening the Battlefield Heroes closed beta today. Which means if you already had a key, you’ll be able to get back into the new and improved version of the game when you receive an email. Should you not have a beta key, you can still get in line, with DICE planning to send out a few thousand invites in the near future. You’ll need to create an account here, then fill in the sign-up form here.

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