Field Music: Battlefield 3 Detailed, PC Is Win
A poster on the ever-mighty NeoGAF forums has paraphrased the new details on Battlefield 3 from the new issue of Game Informer. There's a lot here, but here's the gem- the PC version is not only the lead version, it'll boast the 64 player limit of Battlefield 2, while console versions of Battlefield 3 will only support 24 players. When was the last time a PC version of a AAA game had a benefit like that? Yikes.
Because I'm not above it, I'll quote the NeoGAF post verbatim and bolded the important bits. Yeah, none of that purposeless rephrasing here.
-Aiming for CY 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 complains 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.
And in addition to the news nibble that Battlefield 3 will allow players to go prone, Best Buy has detailed that you'll be able to “drag your fallen comrades to safety and mount your weapon on almost any terrain to defend them.”
This is all starting to sound very, very good to me. Dragging my comrades to safety in the middle of an earthquake while using "Fuck" often? Count me the fuck in.