Battlefield 3,
long rumored, is finally on its way. We always assumed DICE was
secretly tinkering with this while making the Battlefield Bad Company
series, and while there's been off-the-cuff
remarks from ex-DICE personnel, EA itself hasn't formally
acknowledged the game until last
week's announcement of the BF3 beta being bundled with the limited
edition of Medal
of Honor. But that's all that's been said about it -- so we're
still pretty much in the dark as to what we'll get with Battlefield 3.
All we know is that BF3 seems to be a multi-platform release (by virtue of being bundled with Medal of Honor), so it will not only be on PC, but also on PS3 and 360. That, and it's likely to use the Frostbite 2.0 engine (as good as Bad Company 2 was, it was still technically Frostbite one-point-something). So it's safe to expect even more destructible terrain, and perhaps better tools for supporting more user-mods on PC. But what else do we actually want in it? In basic terms: a delightful blend of Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 2. Basically, we want the aesthetics and destruction of BC2 with the scope and scale of BF2. At the moment, we're going to roll with a near-future setting; even though BC2 does a pretty good job with the modern-to-future gear, we'd like those aesthetics to be brought into a deeper and more interesting game in BF3. Anyhow, here are some more of our humble suggestions to DICE.
More players: First off, let's bring back the idea of 64 or
more players in a BF match. BF2 demonstrated that absolute madness and
memories come about from jamming tons of people onto a map and watching
chaos ensue, and the 24-player limit of BC2 pales in comparison to the
best of BF2. MAG has shown that it's possible to do 256 players in a single session on a
console, so BF3 needs to step up its player numbers. I realize it's
unreasonable to ask for 256 players plus fully destructible
environments, but surely we can get a decent chunk more than BC2's 24,
and still maintain fidelity in demolition. More classes: BC2 (and, well, Battlefield 2142)
streamlined BF2's seven classes into just four. Rather than a
simplified, four-guys-who-are-kind-of-decent-at-multiple-skills, let's
go back to highly focused and defined classes. Re-separate sniper and
spec-ops. Take BC2's engineer and reverse-engineer him back into an
engineer and an anti-tank guy. And reward players who stick to one kit
with a bigger set of focused tools and abilities. Have players get a
better sense of role and identity, rather than the "I can do this and
that" that you feel with BC2. While we're at it, bring back more
factions and equipment -- we actually miss playing as the MEC during
BC2. More real estate: BF2 was famous for having varied map
sizes based on player-count. So, in BF3, you can have your tight map for
a 16-person game, and when the player count reaches 32, the map can
grow to reveal more of the island you're fighting on. And when you hit
64, the entire island becomes playable. In BF2, a map could be measured
in square kilometers that took considerable time to hoof across. And
that sheer distance adds more gameplay variety than the "fighting down a
straight corridor" method of BC2 -- you can have a better sense of
multiple fronts, or individual squads carrying out flanking tactics to
support a big main push, and so forth. One idea we have is that the maps
are so damn big that they have crazy diverse regions within. Think of a
64-player match on a map where a city is surrounded by dense jungle, or
a snow-covered mountain overlooking a forest. Essentially, a map so big
that it feels like two distinct BC2 maps put into one large chunk of
real estate. More vehicles: To complement the massive map size, let's
get back to having something like 30-plus vehicles of all kinds. Why
limit the game to light tanks and jeeps? Let's have APCs and boats and
gunships. Let's have multiple types of heavy tanks. Bring back the glory
days of coordinating vehicle rides to cross the expansive maps. Heck,
let's bring back jets. Air power shouldn't just be helicopters -- BF3
could herald the glorious return of F-15s and the A10 while also adding
things like the AC130 or a B2. Sure, people will still invariably suck
at piloting them, but man alive, the ability to pound the map with 105mm
howitzers will make up for lackluster pilots. More command: With all the craziness going on, it's time to
bring back the Commander. Have a player call the big shots for his team
out in the field. Have him survey the map, and perform his BF2 duties of
calling in bigger artillery, dropping in supplies, and using radar to
guide everyone. But in addition, let's give him more cool tasks. How
about calling in (and guiding) a cruise missile? Or maybe designating
squad deployment areas -- so that individual soldiers can opt to either
spawn on top of their squad like in BC2, or jump into one of the
Commander's designated spot. More tracking: In light of all the new toys and activities
we're asking for, it'd make sense to up the stat tracking. BC2 does a
pretty nice job, but with all the weapons, vehicles, and commander
actions, it's time to adopt a detailed-MMO-level approach to stat
tracking. Dogtags, pins, unlocks, kills, streaks, support actions --
have it all feed into some sort of "Encyclopedia Battlefieldia." More modes: The Bad Company series did a great job of
adding more modes on top of the traditional conquest. Rush and
Onslaught, adapted for a game of BF2's scale, would be welcome. But
let's not forget everything about BF2142. In principle, the Titan mode
where teams would breach and destroy a mobile base, could still work.
Maybe it gets converted into storming roving battleships or floating
fortresses. But basically, in case you haven't gotten the point by now,
we're hoping that DICE just cherry picks the best stuff from Battlefield
and Bad Company and blends them into one crazy uber-package with BF3.
As a bonus for the more visually minded, here's a "charticle"
version of this story. What would you want to see in Battlefield 3? Originally published on 1UP.
