Battlefield 3 to have dedicated servers, leading on PC
Game Informer's cover story on Battlefield 3 reveals DICE's plans to support dedicated servers, and delves into some of the particulars of its multiplayer offering. Once again, you'll be able to select between four classes -- executive producer Patrick Bach calls this number "the sweet spot" -- and Bad Company 2's four-person squad mechanic will be expanded, though no specifics are given. "Squads are really easy to set up, but how can you take that further? We have some really cool things that we'll show later when it comes to dictating how you play with friends," Bach teases.
Furthermore, due to BF3 using a new version of DICE's game engine, Frostbite 2.0, mod tools won't necessarily reflect earlier Battlefield mod functionality. "We will not deliver mod tools in the way that we delivered them for Battlefield 2," Bach says. "Creating mod tools today -- dumbing them down -- takes a lot of energy and what we are discussing more every day is, 'Where do we put our focus?' Right now our focus is to create the best possible multiplayer, single-player, and co-op game -- the core game of Battlefield 3. We're still discussing how we handle modifications of any kind," he adds.
And though the third Battlefield title will arrive on launch day in Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 flavors, the game's primary development platform is the PC. "We won't make it for console and port it to PC -- that's not how we do things," Bach says. "We're focusing on PC first, and then we fiddle with it to fit it onto consoles." Frankly, we wanna fiddle with it wherever it is.
