3FL & DICE Rap About Battlefield 3

As we’re now in the final stretch leading up to Battlefield 3′s release later this month, DICE has sent Lars Gustavsson (DICE’s Creative Director) and Daniel “zh1nt0″ Matros (Global Battlefield Community Manager) on a whirlwind promotional tour around the globe.

Since 3FL is kind of a big deal when it comes to Battlefield, we were able to grab a moment of their time to ask a series of burning questions that will blow your mind.

Read on to find out about the state of the current post-beta build, how DICE feels about BF3′s eSports potential and whether they have any plans for some Danger Zone functionality.

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Battlefield 3 Beta Ends

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and the BF3 open beta is now closed. I’d ask for a moments silence, but it would be spoiled by all the sobbing, sniffling and swearing I’ve been doing since 6PM last night.

We’re now in that magical time of finding something to do until the game is released later this month on the 27th. Luckily the combined power of new multiplayer maps and user uploaded Youtube videos are here to save the day.

After the jump you’ll find over 20 minutes of footage from two new multiplayer maps, some excellent jet dogfighting from the beta, an insane 921m sniper shot and the best use of Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone in a BF3 video yet.

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BF3′s Caspian Border Now Live

We’re into the final days of the BF3 open beta and DICE have finally answered everyone’s prayers – Caspian Border is live for everyone to play until the beta finishes.

Caspian Border brings conquest mode, 64 player servers and most importantly a whole bunch of jets, choppers and tanks. This is classic Battlefield gameplay at its best on a huge sprawling map, so get into it before the beta finishes on Monday.

Head over to our BF3 forum to discuss the beta with other 3FL gamers!

EA Week Day 7 – Battlefield & Medal of Honor

The final day of EA Games One-Day Sales through Steam has Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam, Battlefield 2: The Complete Collection, and two Medal of Honor all on sale for 24 hours.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 – $6.80 USD
Battlefield: Bad Company 2™ brings the award-winning Battlefield gameplay to the forefront of PC gaming with best-in-class vehicular combat and unexpected “Battlefield moments.”

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam – $7.49 USD
Bad Company™ 2 makes the journey back to the 60′s and the infamous Vietnam war. At the heart of this expansion lie four distinct, brand-new multiplayer maps.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Specact Kit Upgrade – $2.99 USD

Battlefield 2: Complete Collection – $3.75 USD
The Battlefield 2: Complete Collection features the following: Battlefield 2 (v1.50) Battlefield 2: Special Forces Battlefield 2: Euro Forces Battlefield 2: Armored Fury Lock and load, soldier!

Medal of Honor – $34.99 USD
Operating directly under the National Command Authority, a relatively unknown entity of handpicked warriors are selected when it is crucial that a mission must not fail. They are the Tier 1 Operators.

Medal of Honor: Airborne – $2.50 USD
Step into the boots of Boyd Travers, Private First Class of the “All-American” 82nd Airborne Division, and revolutionize the way the war is fought.

Source: Steam Store (EA Week)

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Battlefield 3 – First Details Released

For those who missed it on Friday afternoon, the first details on the latest in the Battlefield series “Battlefield 3″ were released.

Small list of Features to be included:

• Single Player Campaign
• Co-Op Campaign
• The return of Jets and going Prone
• 64-Player Multiplayer
• Powered by the Frostbite 2 Engine

Battlefield 3 will come in Standard and Limited Editions, and will ship out in Fall 2011.

The contents of the Limited Edition are currently unknown but EA have mentioned that details on the Limited Edition will be revealed sometime around the Game Developers Conference (February 28th – March 4th).

The Official Battlefield 3 Teaser Trailer can be found locally on the 3FL Mirror.

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Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Maintenance

EA Games have announced there will be some maintenance on the servers which Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PC connect through tonight during the following hours:

• 06:00 pm AWST – 09:00 pm AWST
• 08:30 pm ACDT – 11:30 pm ACDT
• 09:00 pm AEDT – 12:00 am AEDT

EA will be looking to improve the performance of the stats system, and reduce/eliminate periods of stats outages.

Source: EA Blog

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BF: BC2 Update a’coming.

Server – Some potential sources for lag/rubberbanding have been eliminated
Server – The old reserved slots has been replaced by a kick-on-demand system like in BF2
Server – Log file for server admins: all remote admin interface commands/events are logged
Server – Log file for server admins: major server events + all chat messages are logged
Server – Idle kick is controllable
Server – Profanity filter can be disabled
Server – Teamkill-kick system is controllable
Server – Ticket counts and bleed rate are controllable per-level
Server – Infantry only mode available per-level
Server – Initial spawn delay and respawn delay are adjustable
Server – Server description can be up to 400 characters, and use “|” for line breaks
Server – Banlist can contain up to 10.000 entries
Server – reduced latency in packet handling

Admin Interface – fixed the player.onKill spam that occasionally happened
Admin Interface – ensured that player.onJoin events always report the player name
Admin Interface – events triggered when people spawn
Admin Interface – much more info on kills
Admin Interface – detailed stats are reported at end-of-round

Gameplay – Various minor level bugfixes
Gameplay – Helicopter handling has been tweaked
Gameplay – Weapon tweaks have been implemented based on PC public feedback
Gameplay – Fixed technical hang when a crate was armed outside of the combat area
Gameplay – “Victory is near” message was shown for the wrong team on Valparaíso, this has been fixed
Gameplay – Countermeasures can be fired when driving a helicopter
Gameplay – The brightness of the pilot view in the Russian helicopter has been reduced
Gameplay – Advanced Spotting scope works better
Gameplay – Knifing people in the back works again (we backed out the change that we had done for Server R11)

Server Browser – Servers are sorted into 3 categories: Normal, Modified, Hardcore depending on their settings
Server Browser – Added support for retrieving update progress
Server Browser – Now refreshes information
Server Browser – Join queue system when attempting to join a full server
Server Browser – all settings are automatically saved between sessions
Server Browser – Pings are sent via an alternate mechanism, which should work for non-Administrator users as well

Client – Fixed DX9 issue, which likely caused graphics glitches and perhaps crashes
Client – Fixed some crashes
Client – Toggle/hold crouch is user controllable
Client – Toggle/hold zoom is user controllable
Client – Vsync bugfixed for DX10/DX11
Client – Rewritten how settings are written to disk; this should reduce/eliminate the spawn lag
Client – Fixed bug where a player could join a server before the stats has been downloaded causing faulty stats in “EOR- unlock progression”-screen
Client – New chat system allows chatting when dead (but not during end of round) and keeps a 100 lines log
Client – Improved Play Now functionality
Client – Removed K/D ratio and Skill Level filters in the leaderboards
Client – Any points you get while being dead will be added to your score
Client – Reduced negative mouse acceleration
Client – More informative disconnection/kick reasons

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Battlefield: Bad Company 2 patched

The full list of  changes are as follows:

• MP – New Server browser
• MP – Added 15 second spawn timer for Conquest/Rush gamemodes at the start of round to prevent high end machines getting the upper hand before other machines load in.
• MP – Crash fixes relating to ALT+TAB at different times throughout the game
• MP – Hang fix when trying to connect to a full server multiple times
• MP – Deletion of soldiers now possible through the account pages in game
• MP – Removed screen flash during loading
• MP – Added support for colour blind players
• MP – Fixed crashes relating to faulty server banners
• MP – Servers closing during connection no longer cause the client to hang
• MP – Auto team swap reflects correctly in the scoreboard
• MP – Fixed scoreboards when switching teams before spawning
• MP – Rush scoreboards fixed
• MP – Veteran ranks no longer display as “12″
• MP – Isla Innocentes MCOM building fixed where knifing the fence would destroy the building
• MP – Logout/Login button correctly reflects the player status
• MP – Added minimum number of players needed to start a round (you can play and take objectives but you will get no score until 4 or more players join the server)
• MP – Isla Inocentes welcome message on the loading screen now fits the text box area
• MP – Reduced the brightness in Russian vehicles
• MP – Medic gadgets now display correctly if the defib is not unlocked
• MP – Server filter options are remembered
• MP – Punkbuster filter now works as intended
• MP – Scroll bar no longer overlays the Join Server button in the friends list panel
• MP – CANCEL server refresh is implemented
• MP – Zooming in on a friendly using the SAIGA no longer causes the crosshair to disappear
• MP – The chat no longer displays the incorrect player name when appearing
• MP – FoV switches to the default value of 55 when entering vehicles to prevent graphical glitches caused by wider FoV settings. The custom FoV returns when exiting vehicles.
• MP – FoV no longer causes the UAV station to rotate
• MP – Fix to correctly display the unlock progression at the end of round
• MP – Chat functionality will no longer freeze after writing a partial message at the end of round
• MP – One account can no longer connect to the same server multiple times
• MP – Squad Death Match is correctly named during loading
• MP – Server browser no longer gets a bad FPS when filtering Conquest
• MP – Server info banners correctly clear between displays
• MP – Setting display settings which the system hardware can not handle no longer makes the game unusable
• MP – Correct camera collision for vehicles’ heavy machine gun
• MP – Game no longer crashes if the player sends a message in the loading screen
• MP – Trying to join a full server no longer causes the game to hang on Please Wait message
• MP – Most server filter options are remembered it doesn’t remember the setting in dropdowns
• MP – Kit/gadget loadout saved between sessions
• MP – Window on static guns is now transparent on DirectX 9 systems
• SP – Fixed crashes when patching and trying to resume a campaign (there is now a message that you need to re-play the latest mission from the beginning)
• SP – Fixed a crash after the “Upriver” mission end cinematic
• SP – Supply create at “Resupply at Flynn’s create” objective now supplies weapon ammo
• SP – Hang fix when reaching the objective “Destroy Enemy Zu23″
• SP – Fixed hang after “Storm Cockpit” objective
• SP – Changed melee attack raycast to be detailed
• SP – Game no longer crashes when transitioning between SP_03B to SP_04A when installed in Polish
• SP – Game no longer crashes when killed by the first two enemies in the trenches on SP_01 when installed in Italian
• SP – Updating to R7 will invalidate your single player save game. If you update you will need to play your last mission from the start. If you do not update you will not be able to play multiplayer.

Now get back to it!

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Battlefield: Bad Company 2 – Hypernia server deals

Minor rant aside – the full game is nigh.  We’re looking at a March 4th release date here in the AU (barring any sudden rating mishaps due to the games lack of fluffy bunnies and interpretive dance) and we’re already gearing up with Hypernia to make sure we have a whole slew of tasty Freezone servers for you to play on.

Hypernia have been working their butts off in the last week to make sure there’s plenty of capacity for you – the punter – to purchase your very own BC2 servers too.  These (like all Hypernia servers in Australia) will live inside the Freezone and be unmetered traffic for anyone on one of our partner ISPs.  Pricing on the servers has just been released, with 16 slot servers running at US$20/month and 32 slot US$30/month.  With the exchange rate at the moment you’d be stupid not to buy a server!

Now to figure out what to do for the next 2 days until it’s released.

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3FL Servers for Battlefield: Bad Company 2

We expect the beta client to be released shortly.  If it’s available on Steam, our WA server will very likely have a copy.  We’ll also be putting the standalone client up on the 3FL download page as soon as we can get our hands on it.

Now I just need a beta key really..

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