EA Games executive vice president Patrick Soderlund has admitted that DICE perhaps spent a bit too much time worrying about what Call of Duty was doing.

“Even though Battlefield 3 was a gigantic success for us, I would say we may have looked a little bit too much at our competitor,” said Soderlund to GamesIndustry.

Soderlund stopped short of actually naming Call of Duty, but… well, it’s not a stretch of the imagination.

“And we’ve been criticised for that, especially on the single-player side,” he continued. “But when we started doing Battlefield 4, we said we were going to make the game we think is the right game for us and the consumers. Again, you can’t be arrogant about it. You have to be a little paranoid about what others are doing, but staying true to what you’re doing is the key.”

Check out our thoughts on Battlefield 4‘s multiplayer, fresh off the E3 show floor, right here.

Source: GamesIndustry via VG247

If you don’t have Battlefield Premium, or perhaps you’re bored on a Wednesday night, or indeed any number of other reasons, you might want to check out the Close Quarters DLC for free.

To acquire this DLC for yourself is quite simple: just fire up your Origin client and enter ‘BF3E3′ into the Redeem Product Code section (it’s under the ‘Origin’ menu at the top).

I’ve just done it myself with no dramas, so presumably you (like me) will need to own a copy of the game but not the expansion itself. Anyway, enjoy!

If for some reason you don’t already own Battlefield 3 — which is unlikely — then you’re in luck! For tomorrow only, EA are knocking the price down to a pretty ridiculous $5. Yes, five dollars.

The special will go live on Origin at noon tomorrow (12:00 PM AEST) and be valid until 11:59 PM tomorow. Since the game usually costs $50, that’s a pretty ridiculous saving. If you don’t get in during this twelve hour window, you’ll have to pay the full price.

If you do though, you can use the money you’ve saved to buy Premium access, even, and get yourself five themed digital expansions including of course the latest one, Endgame, which features CTF on motorbikes. Radical.

Source: Press Release

Say what you like about EA’s emergent monetisation of the Battlefield series (actually please don’t, I hate it when you fight), it’s hard to direct the same vitriol at DICE. They have been supporting this bad-boy like demons with some excellent DLC, and although that goes some way to justifying EA’s whole Premium deal, so far it’s been mostly worth it.

Back to Karkand was good for retro thrillage, personal fave Close Quarters ruffled a few feathers with its CoDdy methodology (but look at all the things that explode), Armored Kill made the rivetheads that much happier, and Aftermath’s environments went full retard. Sounds like there are no more bases left to cover, but End Game finalises the quintet of extra bits with something mostly alien to Battlefield’s considered advance: speed.

That’s 8PM AEDT (Sydney/Melbourne time) of course. And, of course, EA and DICE have released this launch trailer, which reminds you exactly why you should be playing this final piece of Battlefield: namely, Capture the Flag on the back of motorcycles. Oh, and air superiority as well I guess. And dinosaur easter eggs! Okay there’s a lot of reasons, fine. Enjoy:

Source: Battlelog (Thanks, PalZer0)

Battlefield 3‘s lead designer Niklas Fegraeus has used this new trailer to discuss the new maps that we’ll be seeing when their final DLC, Endgame drops (hopefully later this month). The dropship is also discussed, with Fegraeus explaining that the dropship can result in “surprise tanks”.

“This is basically a rapid deployment idea, which means that if you control the central base, you control a dropship which means that you can spawn inside an IUV dropping out of the dropship onto the battlefield through parachute. So you can get a surprise tank coming down from the sky to help your team, which is pretty cool.”

Check out the video below.

Source: VG247

We’ve already seen the hi-res screenshots of Endgame’s four new maps, but have we seen them… in action? No, we haven’t — well, unless you count seeing them in the background of this CTF reveal video. Anyway, the point is: here is a new video, and it’s snazzy as hell. Take a look below and see why Battlefield 3 is still one of the best-looking games around.

Source: VG247

In the video below — which switches to English around the 1:18 mark for those of you who, like me, don’t speak French — DICE discuss what’s coming up in the forthcoming ‘End Game’ DLC for Battlefield 3. While we already know about CTF mode and dirtbikes, producer Craig McLeod also discusses Air Superiority mode, which returns to Battlefield in this DLC and delivers 12-a-side dogfights where everyone in the game can jump in a jet and try to shoot each other down. Take a look.

Source: Via PCGamesN

‘End Game’ is looking like a very, very interesting addition to the Battlefield 3 stable. With high-speed motorbike chases on offer in Capture the Flag mode as well as four new maps, it’s going to radically change the flow of play.

Now, DICE have revealed exactly what those maps are and what they’ll look like in a new blog post. Check out all the screens below (click to enlarge).

(more…)

If there’s one thing definitely missing from Battlefield 3‘s impressive warzone coverage, it’s high-speed motorbike chases. In the video below, Capture the Flag mode turns into a no-holds barred motorbike race across open terrain, with players blasting away at each other, buzzing overhead in helicopters, and bursting through clouds of smoke. It looks pretty rad.

Endgame is out sometime in March, and marks the final expansion for Battlefield 3 — just in time for this year’s release of Battlefield 4.

Some scant details about the upcoming and final Battlefield 3 DLC, ‘End Game’, have now been revealed. CVG is reporting that the DLC will feature the return of Capture the Flag mode as well as the game’s “most high-speed warfare to date across four vast maps”.

Key features are listed as four new maps “designed for high speed combat and action”, three new vehicles including dirt bikes, and a new dropship designed to “provide support to ground troops with vehicle drop capabilities”.

The new dropship is said to “introduce the ability to turn the tide with rapid deployment air drops of troop transports”.

Source: CVG

Battlefield Premium owners on PC today enjoy the release of the Aftermath DLC, after PS3 owners have been enjoying it for a week. Aftermath adds four new urban maps, a new game mode, and new assignments.

As EA would tell it, “with operational capacity severely compromised the opposing forces must adapt and engage in vertical and horizontal urban combat amongst the dust and rubble with cracks and fissures in the terrain providing unexpected cover and paths to objectives. Additional support comes in the form of heavily modified troop transports and civilian vehicles specially adapted to deliver deadly force to the enemy.” What they aren’t telling you is that the game features earthquakes happening while you play. Oh, and that the Markaz Monolith map contains the shoes of Faith from Mirror’s Edge.

You can check out the launch trailer to see if it’s the game for you by clicking right here.