Battlefield 3 Developer Interview

Post by Dan @ 10:05pm 09/04/11 | 23 Comments

Thanks to the fine folk at Electronic Arts, AusGamers was on-scene at the recent EA Showcase 2011 event in London, UK for a look at an assortment of the publishing powerhouse's upcoming titles.

One such upcoming title that a few of you may have heard of is a little number called Battlefield 3. Unfortunately the actual gameplay demo on offer was the same content from last month's GDC event in San Francisco (that the faultline trailer series was taken from) so there's not much new to report from that (other than: holy crap it sounds good on a 5.1 system and looks even more impressive running in real-time when the presenter stops frequently to soak up more of the environment and ambiance).

We did however, have the chance to chat with EA DICE executive producer Patrick Bach about the game and hit him up with a few further probing questions. Find out everything we did in this Battlefield 3 developer interview.

There's also a bundle of new high-res screenshots and concept art that can be found on our Battlefield 3 game page.

Battlefield 3 is due in November 2011 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

battlefield 3 interview electronic arts dice

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Latest Comments

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Eorl
Posted 10:13pm 09/4/11

No question on dedicated servers? Bummer :( Only detail left to hear about.

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FraktuRe
Posted 10:17pm 09/4/11

we already know it has dedicated servers.

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rationsauce
Posted 10:25pm 09/4/11

brr, i kinda felt as if patrick brushed off all of the questions with general replies.

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Dan
Posted 10:41pm 09/4/11

No question on dedicated servers? Bummer :( Only detail left to hear about.

They're still not talking multiplayer specifics, but they did mention in Steve's previous interview that they would be "following the old path" with respect to dedicated servers, what that means is open to interpretation, but probably means a similar setup to what Bad Company 2 currently offers.

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Eorl
Posted 10:43pm 09/4/11

Mmm, I don't really like BFBC2's style of servers. Wish it could just be as simple as a CSS server :(

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ctd
Posted 10:44pm 09/4/11

Do we know about movement yet? Eg sprint+strafe and prone

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Trauma
Posted 10:54pm 09/4/11

Patrick: No. I think any reports on the length of the campaign have been based on speculation. We haven’t released any numbers on that yet. To me, I personally think that a great campaign is more important than a lengthy campaign. So I don’t really have any comments on what is better. I’d rather have a shorter -- not too short of course, but the question is “what is too short? -- a shorter campaign that’s super great, rather than just making it longer for the number’s sake -- which some campaigns are; then no-one finishes them.

So that’s also a challenge. It needs to keep your attention for the whole campaign, otherwise you can just ignore building a campaign at all, I think.

I took that as confirmation of a short campaign. He said he does not have any comment on what is best right after he commented on it and asks what is too short? He was just told 5-6 hours...

A few holes that could have been picked at there imo.

Mmm, I don't really like BFBC2's style of servers. Wish it could just be as simple as a CSS server :(

A simple and logical server browser? pfft plz.

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Eorl
Posted 12:03am 10/4/11

I know, logic doesn't play well in Multiplayers now a days....

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HurricaneJim
Posted 05:27am 10/4/11

Fail interview again. Not going into detail responses isn't worth posting.

The BF series is known for it's "all arms" concept but nothing really has been said about vehicles, aircraft and ships. Multiplayer is where it's always at singleplayer is a unique waste of programming unless it's an RPG with 20+ hours of play.

Is it me or has AG interviews become more obsequious.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 07:45am 10/4/11

I still haven't played the single player game for BFBC2 and I doubt I ever will.

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koopz
Posted 01:45pm 10/4/11

I'm hoping the server admin tools that ship with the game are adequate.

The gear for BC2 never really was that good, and we're only now starting to see some good 3rd party offerings that are keeping the servers as cheat-free as they can be without having to reply on crappy old Punk Buster.

I'm looking forward to the game - though not so much having to upgrade.

*edit*

oh - and bring back Battle Recorder!!

last edited by koopz at 13:45:08 10/Apr/11

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Bah
Posted 02:05pm 10/4/11

When you ask about mod tools, you need to say something like "Are you not releasing mod tools so you can sell map packs", because his answer to the mod question seemed especially terrible, "oh yeah its bad that the mod scene is shrinking, no chance we'll let people mod our game though"

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trillion
Posted 02:07pm 10/4/11

yeah no s*** there sherlock that they're protecting their DLC revenue

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Steve Farrelly
Posted 03:30pm 10/4/11

At these events guys, it's really hard to ask questions in the short time you get, with people around you shuffling you about to grind through, when all you've seen is a minor component to the game. Moreover, a deep question about a multiplayer aspects, say, vehicles will usually just net a "no comment" response. You have to roll with what you can in the time you have.

Unfortunately, this is how these media sessions work and I think Dan did an awesome job touching on aspects like audio, console parity, the pc-tipping point and getting the HEAD of DICE and EA FPS games in general to admit that the mod community is too small to really support actively these days, and that an equally larger problem there stems from advancing technologies and the inclusion of middleware which would probably carry heft licensing fees etc with.

Good interview Dan

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Trauma
Posted 03:37pm 10/4/11

Arma seems to be doing fine in terms of mods. I think what Bah was saying is that he's bulls***ting when he says it's too small and I agree, although I also agree that it's getting smaller, but that does mean it's finished.

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nachosjustice
Posted 06:59pm 10/4/11

I was at the same event and when I asked about mod tools, LAN play and dedicated servers, they were all met with "We're not talking about that." They really want to focus on the small SP section they showed off, which is very weird to formulate questions around because we all really want to know about multi.

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Trauma
Posted 07:13pm 10/4/11

Hoping the 12 min reveal vid will have MP stuff.

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Eorl
Posted 07:21pm 10/4/11

Most likely due to multiplayer not fully set in stone, and saying something and then turning around and saying "no that wasn't there anymore" makes the people who think games are made solely for them, go ape s***.

You did a great job Dan, and I understand the limited amount of time on questioning, just wish it could of been a little bit more informative, but yeah, can't get that always!

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koopz
Posted 07:48pm 10/4/11

yeah, all in all - good work Dan

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Crakaveli
Posted 07:49pm 10/4/11

Hoping the 12 min reveal vid will have MP stuff.

I had just assumed the 12 minute video was just going to be all those short clips rolled into one. Could be wrong though (and i hope i am).

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ravn0s
Posted 08:01pm 10/4/11

kinda retarded calling it a "reveal" video if its the same s*** we've already seen.

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Choumou
Posted 06:25pm 17/4/11

it will have dedicated servers without a doubt. But no mod support? That sux :(

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Morbz
Posted 08:53am 18/4/11

fark just give us a beta MP or something to frag with! EA enough with the chit chat and time to step up and bring it on !

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