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 CoD 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.

Your embrace of End Game will largely depend on just how much you like burning around on dirt bikes and chucking sick wheelies. Its four seasonal maps feel primarily built around the belated appearance of Capture the Flag, which means crossing vast distances from your base to theirs and trying to come back again with the goods. The only way to consistently do this is by way of all those frequently respawning bikes, and you’ll have to learn to love ‘em if you don’t already or quit the cigs and go jogging. The latter is not fun, especially when you clock a few K’s and a sniper pegs you with his crappy silenced pistol at your destination.

Luckily two guys can perch on one bike, and while they scream along at a solid pace and can pop the front wheel up to get extra air off angles (and curious ramps), they don’t respond well to a few bullets. It can start to make some maps a little predictable, particularly on the more linear A-to-B affairs like Operation Riverside: Everyone’s Engineers mine up the main roads, so you take your bikes off the beaten track where the opposition is invariably waiting for you. Doesn’t take long to learn the best places to stake out, either.

That aside, CTF itself is one of the biggest highlights here, and if nothing else End Game is an even mightier throwback than Back to Karkand because of it. It’s a reminder that one of the earliest FPS multiplayer modes arguably remains its best, with neither the cut ‘n thrust intricacies of Rush nor Conquest’s tidal ebb and flow anywhere near as artful as: YOU HAVE THE FLAG. It’s genuinely thrilling stuff. It’s a long way back to base and even when you get there, if your own flag is missing, you have to dodge probable death until someone retrieves it before scoring.

Epic great escapes ensue: Moments after hooning into the enemy’s base and ditching your bike in the face of one too many RPGs, you make a mad scramble for the flag. You get it, but your bike is a smoking wreck and they’re coming for you. BAM: Some guy power-slides right up next to you, honks in a comical way, and you jump on, speeding away through the smoke and debris and near-misses of rockets. At its best, there is nothing else like it. If End Game boasted the same “HD” destruction seen in the likes of Close Combat (why doesn’t it?), it would go from “This is insane” to “Who needs employment?”

If it wasn’t for Air Superiority, this whole deal would unquestionably rule BF3’s DLC roost by leagues. You don’t have to play this sky-centric variant, but in your online journeys you’ll undoubtedly get stuck in a few games of it. Some peeps love BF3’s jets, but they’re a minority if the lacklustre efforts on display here are to be believed. It can be really tedious, and immediately favours anyone who’s managed to rank up their jet with badass accoutrements. You spawn in a flyer and can’t eject, so no creative maneuvers like this classic. You just sort of have to fly around dying until your drunk housemate trips over your power cord. It actually ends up being kind of funny, with people doing all kinds of stupid stuff in the air to amuse themselves. It doesn’t speak that well of the mode itself though, and for those looking to take it seriously, there will always be a tobosaurus nuzzling your exhaust with the nose of his F/A-18 Super Horny.

If you can avoid ever having to attend Top Gun, End Game is a must. Happily spend your money. Parachuting out over the snowy wastes of Sabalan Pipeline from a mile-high dropship dutifully requisitioned by the taking of C is a buzz and a half.

Good:

• CTF on motorbikes is a great addition
• New maps offer great opportunities to catch sick air

Bad:

• Some maps are a little predictable
• Air Superiority needs rebalancing and shouldn’t be played seriously

Product for this review supplied by the author at their own expense.

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).

Operation: Riverside, an autumn-themed map with an electrical substation and a small river:

Nebandan Flats, a desert full of wind-power generators and a secret weapons and munitions depot hidden in an abandoned warehouse:

Kiasar Railroad, where a railway stretches across a map filled with pine trees and undulating hills:

Sabalan Pipeline, a snow-themed map traversed by an oil pipeline, with a central base:

Read up on all the maps, including supported game modes and where to find fully sick air on a dirtbike, at the official blog.

Source: BF Blog

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.

An easter egg has been discovered in Battlefield 3: Aftermath that appears to be a reference to Mirror’s Edge. Is it another hint that a sequel is coming our way, or just a reference to a game past? Atop a building on the Markaz Monolith  map, facing the vasty nothingness, are Faith’s running shoes. They sort of stick out like a sore thumb in all that beige.

On top of that, if you walk over to them — you can hear young Faith breathing.

So take that as you will. Is this further proof that Mirror’s Edge 2 is “general knowledge”? Or is this an attempt to “gain credibility by association”? (I know that one was a bit of a stretch, quiet you.)

What do you think it means? And what would you prefer? Let us know in the comments.

Source: MP1st

Aftermath, if you’ll pardon the pun, looks set to really shake things up. With maps plagued by random earthquakes, modified vehicles, crossbows and destructible terrain, it seems like it’d be one hell of an interesting place to fight on. The Aftermath expansion is now available for BF3 Premium users on PS3 only, with the glorious PC-gaming master race (and XBox 360s) being forced to wait until December 4. If you’re not a Premium member you’ll have to wait even longer, until December 11 (for PS3) or December 18 (for everybody else).

Source: Press Release (and Makena!)

The upcoming Battlefield 3 patch, which goes live overnight for console players and “no later than December 4″ for PC players, has been detailed in a new Battlelog update.

Aiming at fixing the horrific input lag and audio lag that has been plaguing the PS3 version, it also tweaks weapons, rebalances the Gunship (again), and fixes an exploit where some of you naughty players were hiding inside rock formations on Alborz Mountain. Check out the full patch notes below.

1) Addressed “input lag” on PS3
If you have been experiencing “input lag” playing Battlefield 3 on PlayStation 3, we now believe we have significantly improved this situation for all players.

2) Improved audio stability on PS3
The audio dropouts reported by some PlayStation 3 gamers playing Battlefield 3 should now be fixed for the majority of players .

3) Weapons balancing
Based on detailed community feedback and data analysis we have made some minor weapon tweaks to recoil and accuracy. The goal of these tweaks, and the overall goal in Battlefield 3, is to give each weapon a unique feel and competitive performance to other weapons of a similar type.

M416: First shot and horizontal recoil slightly increased. This should make the choice between M16 and M416 more interesting again.

L85A2: Slightly reduced horizontal recoil.

AUG: first shot recoil slightly to increase weapon controllability.

FAMAS: Slightly reduced horizontal recoil.

G53: Vertical recoil reduced to make this weapon more controllable.

QBZ-95B: Slightly reduced horizontal recoil.

LSAT: Hip accuracy has been increased to highlight the weapon’s role as a highly mobile LMG.

Type88 LMG: Recoil has been decreased to make it a viable option when compared to the M249.

M5K: Increased horizontal recoil and decreased vertical recoil to focus this weapon as a high damage, low control PDW.

UMP45: Decreased fully automatic fire to differentiate this weapon from the PP2000.

MP412: Increased its accuracy to better distinguish it from the .44 Magnum.

M26: Increased aimed accuracy to be in line with the other shotguns.

4) Weapons bug fixes
Fixed the MTAR’s range not being correctly reduced when equipped with the sound suppressor.

Fixed a bug where suppressive fire had reduced effect on the M16 and M5K when compared with other weapons.

Fixed a bug where the M5K’s Flash Suppressor had no effect on accuracy.

Fixed the L86A2 Heavy Barrel’s hip accuracy penalty being far larger than other weapons.

Fixed an issue with the Mk3 shotgun’s ACOG being low resolution.

5) M-COM disarm fix
Fixed an issue where M-COM stations couldn’t be disarmed from the left side while standing up.

6) Alborz Mountains rock fix
Rocks and stones collision tweaked on Armored Kill maps. Players should no longer be able to exploit a collision issue that allowed them to hide inside rock formations.

7) Operation Shield/Alborz Mountains Tank Superiority area fix
Tank Superiority visual combat areas fixed on Operation Shield and Alborz Mountains. There was earlier a 10×10 meter patch on the mountain that became out of combat for US. This was technically already fixed server side, however this will update the actual visuals to be correct.

8) Death Valley collision fix
Collision tweaked on the railroad tunnel roof. This fix prevents players from being able to hide inside the railroad tunnel roof.

9) Sharqi Squad Rush spawn fix
Players would sometimes spawn out of combat if spawning shortly after the first M-COM explodes on Squad Rush on Sharqi Peninsula. With this fix, spawn points have been moved back to prevent this from happening.

10) Alborz Mountains Squad Rush fix
Cameras were incorrect in the spawn menu, pointing to old locations and not where you would actually spawn in. This has now been fixed.

11) Gunship balancing changes
We have now removed the gunship FLIR view (the position is still available, just not the black/white view) and decreased the damage radius of cannon explosions. This was done because of balancing reasons. Previously it was too easy for the gunner to get visual contact on enemy soldiers on the maps, and the splash damage is reduced to make it harder to kill infantry from the cannon seat.

12) Mobile Artillery spawn bug fixed
Two players can no longer spawn into the Mobile Artillery. This was a spawn-in-menu bug on the Operation Shield map which has now been fixed.

13) Tweaked hard to get medals
Looking at the persistence system, we could see that a number of the hard to get medals were actually too hard to achieve (in our opinion based on our intended design). While we never meant for all medals to have an equal distribution, the hardest ones were still intended to be more achievable than they have proven to be so far. Therefore, we have slightly decreased the prerequisites to achieve a number of the hardest to get medals in the game. One positive side effect (if you like playing Recon) is that we will likely see a slight bump in the Recon kit’s average Score Per Minute overall.

Source: Battlelog

I think we all like a good tank from time to time, don’t we? But even more important, I think, is seeing a tank do something wacky. Well, here today is your annual (?) dose of wacky tanks – a tank getting explode-o-flipped on to a skyscraper in Battlefield 3. It comes courtesy of 1080PixelGaming.

Really, there’s not a whole lot more to be said about this one. It’s just done perfectly and looks great. Check it out below — perhaps you can replicate it?

We already know that Battlefield 3‘s next expansion, Aftermath, will involve crossbows, ruined, post-apocalyptic landscapes and random earthquakes. But all we’ve seen so far is some shaky game footage, not a good look at the maps you’ll be playing on. Overnight, DICE revealed this flythough of the new ‘Epicenter’ map, and it looks excellent — with lots of passages to explore and tunnels underground, it could be a sweet place to shoot your mate through the neck with a crossbow. Take a look.

More info about Epicenter can be found over at this Battlefield blog post.

If you’ve still not played Battlefield 3, then… well, what are you doing on games.on.net, for starters. But let’s look past that: this amazing fan-made machinima for the game was put together in a week with 15 extras all working together to film some of the spectacular moments that make Battlefield exactly what it is. Check it out below.

Source: PC Gamer

First there was a mod that let you get rid of colour grading, but DICE said it was a hack and could get you banned. Then, they said that they’d include a console command to disable it in the next patch, because people clearly wanted it. And now, they’ve changed their mind again: there will NOT be a console command. Why? To preserve the “unique identity” of Battlefield 3.

A follow-up post from DICE senior programmer Mikael Kalms reads as follows:

“After discussing this further with my colleagues, we have decided to not implement this feature. This is the studio’s take on this matter, and I support this decision:

“As a studio, it is extremely important for us at DICE to have a unique identity in our games, not only from a gameplay perspective, but visually as well. While we appreciate that some players might want a slightly different look to the game, we are proud of the visual identity of Battlefield 3 and do not wish to change it.”

I apologize for getting anybody’s hopes up, and if you have any further questions on this subject, I will refer back to the above statement.”

That’s that, then.

Source: Blue’s News

Earlier in the month we learned that DICE officially disapproved of a mod which removed the colour grading from Battlefield 3, and warned about the possibility of bans. Now it seems the community’s confusion over that position has resulted in a vague capitulation from the developer, who will be adding a console command in the next PC patch to disable the colour grading in the game.

“There will be a console command for disabling the color grading entirely in the game included with the next PC game client update,” writes Mikael Kalms, senior programmer at DICE, on the Mordor HQ forums. “We believe that turning it off gives no major competitive advantage/disadvantage. IRNV scope and a few others which turn the image into greyscale or greenscale don’t work properly without color grading and will look real ugly.”

“There will be no in-game UI for turning it on/off. We are unlikely to handle support questions and bug reports regarding stuff that happens when color grading is disabled.”

Source: Blue’s News

The new trailer for the next Battlefield 3 expansion, Aftermath, has just been released — and although it doesn’t show us very much, we do get a few sweet glimpses. Crossbows appear in this expansion, which quite frankly is awesome, and the post-earthquake environments are looking excellent as well. Take a look below.

Source: Thanks, PalZer0!

A Battlefield 3 server patch released by DICE overnight is now making its way to servers around the world, including ours here at GON. Primary changes include a continued tweaking of the gunship, which now only respawns after the enemy has destroyed an M-COM, as well as a 60 second spawn delay in Conquest no matter the server spawn delay setting.

Knife fighters will also be happy, as the bug which prevented two people from doing a knife takedown at the same time on the same server and made you stand around like an idiot instead has now been fixed. Viva la stabbing!

Check out the full change log below.

Gunship balance tweak in Rush mode
The Armored Kill gunship received major tweaks already in the last server update. We are now further tweaking it based on community feedback. It now only respawns after the attackers have destroyed an M-COM in Rush.

Rationale: The gunship has been a bit overpowered and spawning too fast in Rush, especially on servers running modified vehicle spawn times. This tweak makes the gunship only spawn for the attackers after each crate, except the initial spawn on round start. In effect, this means that after the gunship is destroyed, a new M-COM needs to be destroyed before the gunship can respawn at all.

Gunship balance tweak in Conquest mode
The gunship will always have a 60 second spawn delay in Conquest no matter the server spawn delay setting.

Rationale: The gunship has been spawning too fast on servers running modified vehicle spawn times, making it hard to regain control of the flag controlling the gunship. This tweak will make the gunship spawn every 60 seconds independent of server settings.

Option to remove minimap in Hardcore mode
We now allow disabling the minimap in Hardcore mode.

Rationale: It’s been a requested feature from the community to be able to remove the minimap in hardcore mode. We are now adding a new preset on consoles for server admins to use called “Hardcore no map” which disables the minimap and keeps the rest of the Hardcore settings intact. On PC, you disable the minimap with the server command “vars.minimap false” that is now permitted on Hardcore servers. Enjoy!

Improved server stability
Improved connectivity between game servers and the back end, significantly reducing the number of times a server times out and kicks players.

Knife takedown fix
Fixed so that there can be multiple knife kills at the same time on a server.

Rationale: We had a bug where only one knife takedown could take place at any one time on one server. If you attempted a knife takedown at the exact same time as someone else on the server, the takedown animation wouldn’t play, and your opponent wouldn’t take any damage. This has now been fixed.

MVP Premium member score fix
Fixed so that MVP and best team is calculated using normalized score (removing the advantage Premium members sometimes received in obtaining these ribbons)

Rationale: Earlier, Premium members would get an inflated chance of becoming MVP/best team during Premium exclusive double XP events, since these ribbons were calculated based on total score. Using base values all across the board now removes this artificial advantage.

Kill list fix
Fixed the bug where a kill was listed as a vehicle kill when the player actually killed someone with a mine or similar weapon. Another example where this would occur was if you fired a Javelin, then entered a vehicle before the Javelin hit its target.

Radio beacon exploit fix
Fixed the radio beacon exploit where you could place it above the roof and then spawn on it to access areas that are not meant to be accessible. This glitch was reported on Operation Métro and has been removed.

Ladder/vehicle entry fix
Fixed so that players can no longer enter vehicles while climbing a ladder.

Crash fix
Fixed a rare potential crash issue when loading a new map.

Source: Battlelog

Regular readers may remember back when some curious players discovered the existence of Half-Life 2‘s gnomes inside Battlefield 3‘s Alborz Mountain. Well, some more trigger-happy Battlefield 3 types have discovered that this gnome — and another inside the same level — hold a secret all their own. Take a look at the video below to check it out.

Source: PCGamesN

A recently-released mod for Battlefield 3 that removes colour-grading from the game — and does nothing else — has been Officially Disapproved Of by DICE. The mod, Colour Tweaker, essentially just ditches the blue-tinted gradient for more natural colours.

Asked for his opinion on the mod, DICE designed Gustav Halling twittered that it was “Too colourful” and “I wouldn’t use those hacks if you don’t want a perm ban on your account.” When people incredulously asked “for reals?”, Gustav followed up with “Its a surprise for the cheaters modifying game files. The hack is not only a ‘brightness modifier’, its a proper cheat.”

Some Reddit users are already claiming to have received bans for using it, so use at your own risk. If you’d like to see what it does, here a photo album and a comparison video.

Source: PC Gamer

Hot on the heels of the release of the last expansion, EA have released a new video for the next Battlefield 3 expansion, Aftermath. It’s really only a teaser at this stage, so there’s not too much to glean from it, except that there is an earthquake whose magnitude has been estimated at 8.1. So that’s pretty big, I guess. It also promises new maps, new vehicles, a new game mode and urban warfare in post-earthquake environments.

Everything you’ve ever wanted in a Battlefield game? Watch the teaser below.

EA has announced their purchase of the Swedish web development firm ESN, creators of the Battlelog software that powers Battlefield 3. Why? So that they can refocus all their efforts onto Battlelog rather than doing anything else, naturally.

“The ESN team is extremely happy to announce that we now are a part of the Electronic Arts family,” said ESN on their blog. “During the past few years we have been working closely together with EA and DICE to build Battlelog for Battlefield 3. We couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity and the team is looking forward to focus all of its energy on DICE, Battlelog and the Battlefield series.”

This move does mean that anybody who doesn’t like the Battlelog system is unlikely to see a reprieve soon: if EA are willing to lay down some cash on buying the very company responsible for it, they probably think it’s working out pretty well. Similar systems can reasonably be expected to pop up in future Battlefield titles and presumably in other games as well.

Source: ESN

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Battlefield series and, to celebrate, EA are having a sale! The primary game of interest for many will of course be Battlefield 3, which is on sale for a paltry $20 (although not nearly as paltry as the $10 our US friends are paying for it).

You’ll also find savings across the rest of the Battlefield range: Bad Company 2 AND Bad Company 2: Digital Deluxe Edition are both $10 (bizarre), and Battlefield 2142 is also down to $10.

The sale runs until September 24.

Source: Origin