Monday, December 12, 2011

Big Changes Coming To Battlefield 3.


These are just maybe's at the moment and are subject to change.
  • Slightly increased the AEK971 recoil.
  • Slightly increased the ASVAL recoil.
  • Added Extended Mags to the ASVAL.
  • Slightly increased the recoil on the M249.
  • Reduced the recoil of the SKS rifle.
  • Fixed aimed firing max accuracy on the Pecheneg to be consistent with other LMGs.
  • Slightly reduced the recoil of the F2000 and restored it to the previous base accuracy.
  • Semiautomatic and automatic shotguns firing FRAG rounds now do slightly less splash damage.
  • Increased the damage of the G3, M60, and M240 at close range.
  • Claymores can now detonate from vehicles and can be used to disable jeeps or kill the passengers in light jeeps. Claymores will not do any damage to heavy vehicles.
  • Reduced the spot times on C4 and Claymore projectiles from 30 to 15 sec.
  • The Radio Beacon, Mortar, Mav, EOD bot, T-UGS, and SOFLAM should now be much easier to deploy.
  • C4 will no longer be detonatable after a player respawns, if the player is revived within 5 seconds he can still detonate his C4.
  • The player may now have a maximum number of mines which will persist after the player’s death. Deploying more than the maximum of 6 mines will remove a previous mine from the world.
  • Claymores now also persist through death, the player can have 2 claymores planted.
  • 9x39mm rounds no longer benefit from the Sniper headshot bonus.
  • Increased the damage of the 9x39mm rounds.
  • Fixed the AKS74u damage at max range, it was incorrectly higher than other carbines.
  • Increased the damage of the .357 and .44 magnum rounds at max range.
  • All semiautomatic and bolt weapons, including all shotgun slugs, now have their maximum damage out to 15m.
  • Semiautomatic sniper rifles, Assault Rifles, LMGs, and shotgun slugs now have more consistent damage over long range.
  • Tweaked IRNV to be more consistent across all levels.
  • Fixed a rendering issue with IRNV view when taking damage.
  • Tweaked the IRNV zoom times and scope visible areas to be the same across all weapons (some were faster than others).
  • Fixed the QBU-88 sniper and the L96 IRNV scopes to use the proper aiming reticule.
  • The spread for Flechette rounds has been reduced slightly on all shotguns.
  • The spread for buckshot has been reduced on the M1014, DAO-12, and S12k. These weapons have an accuracy advantage over the USAS12 but are not as accurate as the 870.
  • Semiautomatic weapons will no longer “jam” if the player presses fire faster than the weapon is capable of shooting. Some semi automatic weapons have had their rates of fire adjusted to fit this change.
  • Slightly reduced the effective blast radius of the RPG, SMAW, and 40mm grenade projectiles against infantry. Reduced the total number of RPG and SMAW missiles carried from 5 to 4.
  • Tank rounds will now instantly destroy Jets, Attack Helicopters, and Scout Helicopters.
  • Fixed a problem when locking on to two nearby targets, the locking should no longer jump rapidly between multiple targets.
  • Significantly increased the damage of the Javelin and Air to Ground missiles against laser designated targets.
  • Javelin missiles fired without laser targeting now do more damage to the side and rear of MBTs.
  • Slightly reduced the locking time of all weapons vs Laser Designated targets.
  • Increased the locking distance for Jets when locking on laser designated targets.
  • Slightly reduced the repair speed of the repair tool.
  • Increased the damage the MBT’s primary weapon does to other main battle tanks.
  • AA Missiles should no longer kill the pilot instead of the vehicle.
  • Reduced the damage AA missiles do to jets.
  • Stinger and IGLA missiles now do 50% damage to Jets, Attack Helicopters, and Scout Helicopters.
  • Slightly reduced the damage of Jet cannons.
  • Increased RPG and SMAW damage against aircraft.
  • Guided Rockets will now only track ground targets, as originally intended.
  • Reduced the direct damage done by helicopter gunners vs armor.
  • Helicopter guns should now suppress correctly.
  • Improved the accuracy of the Mi28 gun to match the AH1 gun.
  • Increased the direct hit damage of the APFSDS rounds for the IFVs.
  • Miniguns and Helicopter Gunners now more quickly destroy parked cars.
  • Increased the power of explosions from cars and other explosive static objects.
  • Dying from the explosion of a car or other explosive static object should now correctly credit the player who caused the explosion.
  • Adjusted the F35′s Center of Mass and Lift Engine for more stable, level flight.
  • Updated the F35 weapon systems to be consistent with the other air craft.
  • Changed the Kornets to TOW launchers on Wake Island and moved the spawn position of the AAV to a more level position.
  • Fixed several bugs with air vehicles colliding with objects at high speeds and taking no damage.
  • Players will no longer receive suicides or team kills if they crash their vehicle (dying is punishment enough).
  • You can now spot with the EODbot.
  • Increased the spawn protection time from 1sec to 2sec. The protection will still be immediately canceled as soon as the player moves or shoots.
  • Spawn protection will no longer be canceled by the player looking around.
  • Slightly increased the speed at which a player can shoot again after sprinting.
  • Fixed some situations that would unintentionally make a player unrevivable.
  • Reduced the black screen fade in time on spawn.

Battlefield 3 Assignments.



The Back To Karkand DLC brings something new to Battlefield 3 (in addition to new maps, weapons etc.): Assignments, which is a new way of unlocking the new weapons found in Back To Karkand. Here’s the full list of Battlefield 3 Assignments that you need to complete in order to unlock all ten Back to Karkand weapons:

FAMAS (“Best Friend Forever” assignment)
10 heals
10 revives 

L85A2 (“Professional Russian”)
100 kills with assault rifles
20 kills with grenade launcher
Win 5 rounds of Squad Deathmatch 

MP5 / HK53 (“Fixing it”)
10 repairs
1 kill with repair torch 

QBZ-95B (“It Goes Boom”)
50 anti-tank rocket kills
5 conquest round wins
Destroy 1 enemy vehicle with repair torch 

QBB-95 (“Let It Rain”)
20 kills with light machine guns
2 mortar kills 

QBU-88 (“Specops”)
20 sniper rifle kills
5 laser designator assists 

MG36 (“Keep Your Head Down”)
100 kills with light machine guns
50 suppression kill assists
50 ammo resupplies 

L96 (“Creeping Death”)
50 headshots
50 spot assists
5 knife kills 

PP-19 (“Familiar Territory”)
Capture 10 flags
Arm 10 MCOM stations
Play 2 hours on Strike At Karkand 

Jackhammer / MK3A3 (“Scarred Veteran”)
10 kills with PP-19
10 kills with BTR-90
5 kills with DPV jeep
Play 2 hours on Gulf of Oman
Play 2 hours on Sharqi Peninsula

Friday, December 9, 2011

Battlefield 3 Back to Karkand Gameplay - Drivable Forklift Video






This is it! Back to Karkand is now out on PlayStation 3 in Europe, with North America and Asia to follow shortly. We hope you enjoy our new gameplay trailer entirely based on PlayStation 3 footage.



If you have followed the "Going Back to Karkand" blog series, you know by now that it contains four legendary Battlefield 2 maps reimagined in the Frostbite 2 engine. And you know about the vehicles, and that we have ten classic weapons brought in from Battlefield 2. These are a variety of shotguns, sniper rifles, and machine guns that were particularly popular in Battlefield 2.



What you probably didn't know is that Back to Karkand works seamlessly in conjunction with the base game. This means that you can bring these ten new weapons back to the base game. They essentially get added to your existing arsenal rather than being an either/or choice. Also, servers will have the ability to run map rotations with any mix of base game plus Back to Karkand maps. Further, the new layer of persistence with Assignments does not replace what is in the base game – it works in parallel with it. Since you will be able to join mixed map rotations, we will alert you if you don’t own Back to Karkand and try to join a server where one or more maps require Back to Karkand.



You will be notified in-game via a pop-up window once Back to Karkand is live, and you can buy it in the in-game store and the PlayStation Store. PlayStation 3 players will be able to start playing today, while PC and Xbox 360 formats will follow on December 13th.



To start playing on the Back to Karkand maps, make sure you For a guide on how to buy, download and get started in Back to Karkand, head to this simple step by step guide.



PLEASE NOTE: At the moment, we are experiencing issues with the server browser. Please use the Quick Match filter settings to pick the Back to Karkand map and mode you want to play. Going through the server browser right now will match you up with base game maps only. We are hard at work isolating and fixing this issue and will have an ETA on this later. Stay tuned for more information. In the meantime, using Quick Match will let you select and play on any map, from the base game or Back to Karkand.



Back to Karkand PlayStation 3 release timings

Europe, Australia & New Zealand: Out now!
North America: December 6th, between 2PM and 6PM PST
Japan/Asia: December 7th, around 3PM JST



Did you miss the earlier stories in this blog series?

#6: Gulf of Oman gameplay, combat vehicles revealed
#5: Gameplay from Strike at Karkand, Assignments explained
#4: The design idea behind the themed expansion pack
#3: Introducing Gulf of Oman and Sharqi Peninsula
#2: “Wake Island has a special place in my heart”
#1: Your chance to relive the greatest Battlefield maps ever

Get your Back to Karkand reviews here!



Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand has been out for a few days on PlayStation 3 and reviews and impressions are popping up everywhere. Check out these stories and keep your eyes peeled for more in the days to come, as Back to Karkand is set for a December 13 release on both Xbox 360 and PC.






BACK TO KARKAND PS3 REVIEWS:
IGN: "Back to Karkand Revitalizes Familiar Roads"
Kotaku: "Should You Buy Battlefield 3’s Back to Karkand? Yes."
Now Gamer review: 9/10
Gamingtruth review: 9.75/10

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Crappy Commo Rose System Upgraded To 2.0 But Still Useless.

Commo Rose Crap System

Seriously, who is ever going to use this crap. Professional gamers and hardcore gamers use TeamSpeak, Ventrilo, or some other form of chat system. Instead of wasting effort and resources on some stupid command system you should focus on creating a voice chat in-game that doesn't suck up bandwidth and is easy to use. Scratch the stupid Comrose 2.0 and just make it if you point your crosshair on a friendly it requests whatever you currently need at the time based on your health or ammo values at the time of request. Fuckin simple idea that makes sense and is easy to use. See how easily I did that DICE?
Commo Rose was a much requested feature for Battlefield 3, but the version that managed to ship with the game is awkward and practically useless, as it’s missing key commands — the two most needed commands (“Need ammo”, “need medic”) are not there. Now according to DICE sound producer Tomas Danko, DICE have updated Commo Rose quite a lot, so much in fact, that they’re referring to it as “Commo Rose 2.0″.
Danko recently Tweeted:
“We have patched and updated comrose big time, it will be distributed shortly. It’s so updated we refer to it as comrose 2.0. Soon in a patch near you.”
Danko also confirmed that players will be able to request ammo and medic help with the 2.0 system. Commo Rose a communications interface used by holding down the “Q” button, where after a menu pops up where players can issue commands, request stuff, etc. No word on when the next patch will be released.

Battlefield 3 Banned In Iran!

Iran is mad we virtually kicked their ass.



According to a an article in the Lebanese Daily Star, Electronic Arts’ military-based first-person-shooter,Battlefield 3, has been banned in the country of Iran because of its scenes depicting intense battles in the Iranian city of Tehran.

Interesting, though, is the fact that EA never made any plans to have the game sold in Iran anyway, meaning that all Iranian sales of Battlefield 3 were already illegal before this official ban.

The article notes that the government had received more than 5,000 signatures from “Iranian youths” via an online petition.

“We understand that the story of a videogame is hypothetical … [but] we believe the game is purposely released at a time when the US is pushing the international community into fearing Iran,” read a statement from the government.

Of course, since EA isn’t selling Battlefield 3 in Iran, they’re just fine with the ban, even releasing a statement on the subject reported by Industry Gamers: “In that Battlefield 3 is not available for purchase in Iran, we can only hope the ban will help prevent pirated copies reaching consumers there.”

EA and bans are best friends.

To my understanding, there’s been a long history of popular western items being banned in Iran, as depicted in Marjane Satrapi’s excellent graphic novel, Persepolis. The way Satrapi illustrates it through her own experiences in the 1980s, these bans were measures taken by an oppressive regime.

All of this leads me to wonder just one thing, though: I wonder what the Iranian policy is on using the term “e-peen”?