PC Gamer Digital Episode 7 – The Battlefield 3 Special – now available on Steam!
You’re captivated by the elegant figure of an F/A 18 Super Hornet as it roars over the desert and—BRAP B-BRAP!—syncopated machine gun bursts ripple past your head and cut your gawking short. You sprint to cover in time to watch a tank shell devour your last entrenchment and spit out its dusty remains. Alone you’re dead, but above you a UH-1Y Super Huey chops through bursting sun rays and scatters reinforcements like dandelion seeds (if dandelion seeds carried rocket launchers, of course).
I do love hyperbole, but this really (virtually) happened to me. The emergent drama of Battlefield 3′s large-scale multiplayer battles is hard to overstate, which is why we’ve dedicated the latest episode of PC Gamer Digital, which is available now on Steam, entirely to Battlefield 3 and the renowned Battlefield series at large. More details below!
Battlefield 3 devs ask for feedback on future tweaks
Battlefield 3′s core gameplay designer, Alan Kertz has opened up DICE’s Battlefield 3 patch ideas for feedback on Reddit. The discussion, spotted by Games.on.net, has been going for a few days, but includes frank assessments of many of Battlefield 3′s unlocks along with a suggestion from Kertz that “the player is limited in choice due to a few accessories being the clear winners in almost all categories.”
The list of suggested balance changes haven’t been decided on yet. DICE have decided to go to the community for some feedback first.
Crysis 2 most pirated PC game of 2011
Crysis 2 was the most pirated game last year, with nearly four million illegal downloads according to a report on Torrent Freak. The numbers were collated from stats put out by public BitTorrent trackers, and suggest a slight decrease in overall piracy numbers compared to 2010.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution – PC Gamer UK’s action game of the year
Deus Ex: a game so good it gave us actual neuroses about its sequels. Invisible War, a shonky but interesting and sometimes hilarious shooter, became reviled as a crime against gaming for declaring itself to be Deus Ex 2. And when Human Revolution started looking seriously, seriously good, none of us could quite believe it.
Battlefield 3 – PC Gamer UK’s online game of the year
Launch bugs and connection problems can’t dent Battlefield 3’s sense of ambition. Call of Duty might have bagged the ‘modern warfare’ label, but Battlefield 3 shows us what a modern online shooter can really be. Developers DICE have tapped into the potential of modern PCs to create online battles on a massive scale, and with technology that makes its competitors look years out of date.
Battlefield 3 Physical Warfare Pack released for everyone
If you pre-ordered Battlefield 3, you’ll already have the extra guns added by the Physical Warfare Pack. DICE announce on the Battlefield blog that have now unlocked them for all players. The flash suppressor for the SKS rifle isn’t a huge addition, but Support players will jump at the Type 88 LMG. The pack also unlocks the great big semi-automatic DAO-12 shotgun early with some bonus flechette ammunition, which will deal increased damage and armour penetration at range. All we need now is an Emotional Warfare Pack to add loudspeakers to everyone’s helmets for more devastating smack talk.
PC Gamer US Podcast #299: A Galaxy Torn
Tyler, Chris A., Lucas, and Greg discuss the first days of The Old Republic, the last days of Star Wars: Galaxies, and wrap-up 2011 with fond gaming memories and a desperate need for USB coffee warmers and other junk people wrap in paper this time of year.
Battlefield 3 trailer created by Freddie Wong
Battlefield 3 publishers EA have commissioned internet video guy Freddie Wong to create a trailer for their uber-popular manshoot. Wong and his crew were given just 10 days to make the video, according to Kotaku.
And it’s OK. It’s the kind of gameophilic effects-filled extravaganza Wong is very good at making, but bear in mind that Wong is one of those people who probably thinks Michael Bay is good at directing films. According to this making-of video, it also had a proper budget, with real explosions and tanks and $300,000 lenses and everything.
Question is, is it better than CoD’s tongue-in-cheek but similarly Hollywood take on virtual warfare?
DICE hint at Battlefield 2143 with another Wake Island Easter egg
Battlefield 3’s Wake Island might as well be called “Easter Egg Island” due to the amount of content tucked away in obscure corners of the map. What is this hint? A futuristic warrior hiding up a tree? A gunship hidden at the bottom of the ocean? Neither, according to bf3blog.com – who also posted the above image. It’s the numbers “2143” painted on a wall. It could be a hint that the eagerly-awaited sequel to future manshoot Battlefield 2142 is in the pipeline, or it could be that one of the developers wanted to make a note of his PIN number.
In addition, a Reddit user found a toy dinosaur tucked in a cave on one of the maps. Apparently there are six scattered across the map, with this YouTube user on a mission to find them all. To be honest, they’re the most rubbish in-game toy dinosaurs I’ve ever seen. If I was a child and I got one of these for Christmas I would be bitterly disappointed. They make Barney look like the monster from Cloverfield.
Battlefield 3 tops list of games searches for 2011
What were you most interested in this year? According to Google, it was Battlefield 3 that topped the list of games-related search terms on the internet for 2011, making it into the company’s annual top ten of fastest rising queries for the year.
Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand trailer has rather good explosions
Battlefield 3 players have been going back to Karkand since the expansion pack went live yesterday. Those who pre-ordered the limited edition will be enjoying the new weapons, vehicles and “enhanced destructability” of Back to Karkand for free. For everyone else, it’s available on Origin for £11.99 / $15. That seems pretty steep at first glance, the same price as a Call of Duty map pack. Will the extra vehicles and weapons make the expense worthwhile?
Battlefield 3 trailer visits Wake Island, little yellow digger returns
Freeze the video at 50 seconds in. What the forklift is that vehicle? Is it really a forklift truck, is it some sort of small digger? It got a subliminal cameo in the Gulf of Oman trailer, but we get a much clearer picture of it running over men in the new Wake Island trailer. What is it for, and why is someone driving it through a warzone?
The footage is from the PS3 version of the map, because Back to Karkand was just released on PS3. It’s hitting PC next Tuesday December 13. It’ll cost $14.99 / £11.99, unless you pre-ordered Battlefield 3, in which case you should get it for free. It adds four classic Battlefield 2 maps Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, Wake Island and Sharqi Peninsula as well as a host of new weapons and new vehicles, including a high speed buggy, a VTOL jet and the strange little yellow digger forklift truck thing. Give us your best theory as to what it is in the comments below.
PC Gamer US January issue: Hell awaits you in The Secret World
Is it getting hot in here, or is it just the January 2012 issue of PC Gamer US? This issue’s molten center features the exclusive reveal of The Secret World’s Hell Dimension with a whopping eight pages of insight into the paranormal MMO, its character builds, quests, 500-ability Skill Hive, large-scale PvP system, and more. And when you’re done soaking in the horrors of Funcom’s underworld, you can dig into our take on WoW’s Mists of Pandaria expansion, a story from inside the WoW Arena, an in-depth Star Wars: The Old Republic preview, and a look at the best entries in the 2012 Independent Games Festival. Then get the verdicts on two high-profile three-quels, Battlefield 3 and Saint’s Row: The Third, alongside a bevy of other reviews for gems like City of Heroes: Freedom and Might & Magic Heroes VI.
It’s all on newsstands now! Or, if you’re under house arrest, we’re also available on Coverleaf.com and Apple Newsstand.
PC Gamer UK Podcast 62 – World of Warcraft, Skyrim, Battlefield 3
Nothing is safe in a post-Mists of Pandaria announcement world. This month Tim, Tom, Rich and Graham get together to discuss the revelations at Blizzcon. It’s not long before the conversation turns to Skyrim. Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3 and Steam sales also get turned over in episode 62 of the PC Gamer UK podcast.
Download the MP3, subscribe, or find our older podcasts here.
Battlefield 3 patch incoming, will nerf mortars, tactical lights and intefering trees
A big 2GB Battlefield 3 patch is set to arrive tomorrow morning, fixing bugs and making some important balance changes. The fixes range from nice additions like an alternative HUD colour scheme if you’re colourblind, to important fixes for a few extreme errors that I didn’t know existed. Apparently if you run and vault over an obstacle into water, you can instantly die. Time to spend the rest of the day trying to replicate that one on stage one of Operation Metro before tomorrow’s update makes it extinct.
