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Battlefield 3 dishing out double XP this weekend
Dedicated Battlefield 3 players might have planned on playing this weekend, and following through with that intention will net you sweet bonus points. For this weekend only – starting at 12:01am PT on Saturday and lasting until 11:59pm PT on Sunday – all Battlefield 3 players will earn double their end-round score.This promotion applies to both Premium and non-Premium members – if you plunked down the cash for Premium, you'll also find double the points awaiting you in Close Quarters. You'll find double points spread across every map and every game mode, so long as you're playing on a ranked server.
Battlefield 3 'Premium' service dated for June 4, alongside 'Close Quarters' DLC pack
Our European friends at the PlayStation Blog made a bit of a mistake this morning, it seems, having accidentally outed an upcoming "Premium" service for Battlefield 3, as well as a date (June 4) and pricing across European/Australian regions (£39.99/€49.99/AU$79.99). The game's upcoming DLC pack "Close Quarters" also got a date and price: June 4, £11.99/€14.99/AU$23.95.As you might imagine, someone at Sony quickly realized the issue and pulled the info ... but not before Google Cache caught it in its icy, permanent grip. We've reached out to EA and Sony for more info, but it sounds like the rumored Call of Duty Elite-esque service for Battlefield 3 is more than just a rumor.
Battlefield 3's next DLC gets up close and personal
As advertised, Battlefield 3's "Close Quarters" DLC takes the scope of the game's multiplayer and shrinks it to roughly the size of a few hallways. That kind of shrinkage can lead to some ... embarrassing situations.
BF3: Close Quarters devoid of Rush mode, introduces Conquest Domination
Battlefield 3's upcoming Close Quarters map pack, which focuses on indoor combat and is due out this June, won't support the game's "Rush" multiplayer mode, according to a post by lead designer Niklas Fegraeus on The Battlefield Blog: "We understood quickly that Rush, being a large and progressive mode that takes you on a journey from M-COM to M-COM, simply wouldn't fit physically. So instead, we turned our attention to Conquest. How could we tailor this essential Battlefield game mode to fit our new type of environment?"The result of said tailoring is "Conquest Domination," a new mode inspired by Fegraeus and game designer Gustav Halling's shared nostalgia for Unreal Tournament's Domination mode. "The Domination type gameplay usually takes place on smaller maps, much like the ones we were creating. Inspired by these memories, we used the spawning systems from Battlefield 3 Team Deathmatch and came up with a Conquest mode adapted for smaller spaces."Fegraeus also stressed flag protection is much more important in Conquest Domination, and that while the differences in the new mode are "subtle," they provide "different tactical layers" when used in conjunction with the new maps.
Battlefield 3's lack of DLC: DICE general manager explains
Battlefield 3 launched on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in late October of 2011. Approximately a month and a half later, the game's first expansion arrived: "Back to Karkand." Aside from a handful of tweaks since, EA's DICE studio has kept relative radio silence. So much so, in fact, that one prominent Battlefield fan site publicly declared its own silence until DICE spoke up (the developer released a missive the following day).It is with this recent history -- now four months since Battlefield 3's last content drop, and another three months before "Close Quarters" is set to launch -- that we approached a recent interview with DICE general manager Karl-Magnus Troedsson. In short, what in the world is taking so damn long?"The reason that we haven't followed up with even more content more quickly, there's a couple of practical reasons," Troedsson told us. "Part of that is that we just need to spend a lot of focus getting the game out. The ambition was to get more packs out earlier, but sometimes you have to prioritize between the base product and what you're doing afterwards." Troedsson also argued that DICE's approach was thematic, not "piecemeal" (Call of Duty's approach), which was a deliberate choice on his studio's part."If you prefer to have smaller piecemeal packs every now and then, you can go with that. We prefer to do something bigger that has a specific theme, that has maps, weapons, assignments, persistent upgrades, all this kinda stuff," Troedsson said. Could his studio have gotten out this content earlier? "Probably," he said, but DICE ran into its own limitations. "Sometimes we have limitations to what we can and can't do."But without any other announced projects, and EA's Danger Close taking responsibility for its own multiplayer section in the coming Medal of Honor game (DICE handled the previous game's multi), it's unclear what other responsibilities are keeping DICE from pushing out Battlefield 3 support content more quickly. We'll just have to assume the majority of the studio is head down on a super secret sequel to Mirror's Edge.Beyond "Close Quarters," DICE has two more content packs announced for Battlefield 3, including "Armored Kill" in fall and "End Game" in winter. And yes, Call of Duty's Elite DLC drops continue monthly.%Gallery-150552%
Battlefield 3 gets intimate with 'Close Quarters' screens, trailer
Battlefield 3 gets an overdue expansion with the "Close Quarters" map pack, available this June.As previously announced, it'll be followed by a more traditional outing this autumn with the "Armored Kill" pack. The fall pack will feature "all-out vehicle warfare on huge maps," the biggest map in Battlefield history, and new vehicles, tanks and artillery.Finally, "End Game" is still under wraps, but should hit this winter. In an interview with DICE execs last week, we learned that the aim is to get it out in 2012, but "winter" leaves some breathing room into next year.%Gallery-150552%
Battlefield 3 DLC trio coming in June, fall, winter this year
Expanding on our knowledge base from the earlier Battlefield 3 expansion reveal, EA has confirmed that "Close Quarters" will launch in June, followed by "Armored Kill" in the fall and "End Game" this winter.Hit the break for more details on the punch these DLC packs are ... well, packing.
