News: Battlefield 3 Questions with Karl Magnus Troedsson Vice President and General Manager of DICE

Earlier today Gamedigital had a question and answers session with Karl Magnus Troedsson Vice President and General Manager of DICE. The topic for those who weren't following on twitter was the upcoming game Battlefield 3. Here's what we learned;

Will the maps on console versions be scaled down to fit the reduced number of players?

Yes they will run on smaller versions of the same maps.

Are there any maps where no vehicles are present?

We actually have an ‘Infantry Only’ option for the player who wants to focus on this part of the experience.

Do you believe you have done all you can to max out the power on the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield 3?

We're definitely pushing the hardware much more than we did before with BFBC2.

Are there any plans to make another downloadable BF game, like you did with BF1942? That game was fantastic!

Glad you liked it! But sorry, can't comment on this.

What is your greatest achievement with Frostbite 2 and what will it mean for Battlefield 3?

It's how the engine enable us to deliver great visuals, stunning animations, awesome soundscape large scale maps and total destruction. It enables us to build our all out war!

Will we see a return of the Battlefield Commander Role from BF2?

We've decided to push down the responsibility of the commander to the squad leaders who can set orders and strategize. The entire team can use the different communication tools available, spot enemies etc.

What is your favourite Battlefield moment from the whole series?

So much to choose from, but I have to say that the intro movie to BF1942 is something that still sticks with me. 

Why have you included the prone position in Battlefield 3, and why wasn't it included in earlier versions?

Prone is back because the community wanted it so badly! It's a bit of technical challenge to get right with the animations, but more importantly it needs to be balanced with the other second-to-second gameplay

 
If you're in a jet, do you have an unfair advantage over people in tanks and on foot in multiplayer?

Of course not. Battlefield has been built around a rock-paper-scissor mentality - there's always something to counter the other. Anything from infantry carried Stingers to mobile AA vehicles will give pilots a challenge.

Have you ever had a real battlefield experience? If so when and where?

Several parts of our team spend time hunting down the right reference material during pre-productions. This means going to military exercises to capture audio or to shooting ranges to evaluate weapons handling.

Will the console games ever have the number of players available to PC gamers?

Consoles are not as powerful as today’s PCs. Running 64 player matches would mean scaling down things like vehicles, destruction etc. These are key pillars of what Battlefield is all about, so this makes it a no for us

Will there be expansions for #BF3 such as the Special Forces exp for BF2?

Yes, there will be PDLC post launch. We've announced the Back To Karkand pack but there will be more to come.

Last question - and one that a lot of people are asking . . .
When will the Beta come out? #GAMEfest #BF3

Soon, be patient! :) As soon as we can, we'll announce the date.

Interesting stuff! Hopefully more will be revealed at Gamefest this weekend! Those of you who haven't signed up yet, do so quickly! Thanks again to Gamedigital for holding this session and shedding light on a great looking game.

I don't like it, don't want to like it, don't make me like it: Bulletstorm Demo

It's rather odd to say but I really wanted to hate Bulletstorm. I think its because of reading Total Biscuit's comments on twitter about it, perhaps it was because Xbox Live struggled to download the demo, maybe I've just not been getting enough fibre in my diet. No matter the reason, I sat down expecting to thoroughly loathe Bulletstorm. Sadly I was disappointed when I found I actually enjoyed it. How dare 'People Can Fly' and 'Epic Games' make a game I actually enjoy? The rotters.

From the start you feel that you should be expecting a standard shooter with all the usual duck and cover and frantic shoot that normally entails. Something that feels like Serious Sam and Gears of War had a strange love child, a nice simple amalgamation of arcade gun fights in a post apocalyptic setting which happens to be cartoon land. The game itself is quite happy to let you treat it as such but you will soon realise you've been missing the point somewhat. This isn't about just meeting objectives or getting to the end of the levels, no this game is about being over the top. The protagonist Grayson Hunt, voiced by the excellent Steve Blum, even tells you this as he breaks the fourth wall to introduce you to the demo.



Rather than your assault rifle being just an assault rifle it has an alternate fire that’s a shotgun, instead of a revolver you have something that can fire rockets into characters and have them fly off into space, nice. Then you find the flail which lets you pull enemies towards you who are then suspended in a state of slow motion weightlessness where they float around waiting for a rocket up the back side, brilliant. Soon you realise you can kick your enemies sending them again into slow motion but this time flying away from you, excellent. Combining these abilities lets you turn anyone you don't like the look of into a human sized yo yo, at least until you accidentally impale them on spikes, whoops.

Armed with the knowledge of how the game works you begin trying to rack up more and more outlandish kills using the above tools and any other set pieces that you can lay your hands on. A convenient trap door full of rocks placed over a bad guy's head? Why thank you Bulletstorm and thanks for all those lovely points. It's then that the realisation hits. You're hooked. Its not enough to kill someone, you have to utterly destroy them just so you get a better score for the level. Soon you will be replaying the level over and over just to get a higher score.

So that’s the demo finished and shamefully it has successfully convinced me to buy the game. Now I need to find something else to hate. If you would like to volunteer to be the target of my wrath please feel free to get in touch via twitter. Expect to be abused within 5 to 10 minutes.

Marvel Vs Capcom 3: Fate of two worlds (Preview)

The Meadowhall retail shopping centre in Sheffield was lucky enough to have a Marvel Vs Capcom 3 (MvC3) preview event today and as that's a game I'm quite curious about I thought I'd head along.



MvC3 is a bit different from your typical fighter game, instead of a 1 on 1 fight over a couple of rounds you're given 3 characters and the fight ends when they are all unconscious. You can switch between characters when you want and even summon them to throw the odd punch or fire the old laser now and again. If you're really clever you can have all 3 characters do their specials to devastating effect.

Combining the worlds of Capcom and Marvel has resulted in an interesting roster, the likes of Chris Redfield from Resident Evil squaring up against Magneto is often a very bright and entertaining fight.

The game itself looks absolutely stunning, its the same cell shaded 3d look as the Street Fighter games but with additional effects added to emphasize the special moves. The split second introduction as a character breaks out their special moves is also nice, especially as it can give your opponent a chance to react. The backdrops are all unique and feature some really nice effects. I particularly liked the firework display going on in the background of Tronne Bonne's stage. Often the levels seemed to react to whats going on in the fight for example a few too many big smashes on the Resident Evil stage and the glass breaks and all the monsters wander the stage.



Game play wise it's fairly simple to get into, even a novice like me was able to put together a few moves and win a few rounds. The aerial combat while tricky to master is quite a big part of the game so it helps to master that quickly especially seeing as a number of characters are capable of flight. There was no single player version available at this demo, only 2 player but I'm hoping there's some effort towards a story line particularly as Marvel Vs Capcom 2 was so lacking on this front.

Finally the event itself was good fun, there was some really nice people there and we all got talking about our thoughts on the game. For the most part we all were enjoying it and the time went quite quickly. There were a few Street Fighter "veterans" who were unimpressed with the simplicity and flashiness of the game in comparison to a more pure game but even they still played a few rounds. Lots of thanks to the kind soul looking after the event who gave out some stylish free shirts.

All in all a great event and a game that I definitely look forward to!



(Just as an aside apparently this game won't be getting an arcade release. The arcade machines we got to play here were former Street Fighter ones re-purposed for this event!)