Dice announces 3 new expansion packs

[Tango51]

Update #1: THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED, CHECK OUT THE NEW INFO @ THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST
UPDATE #2: Added More speculative Information regarding 'EndGame' DLC

Dice, developers of Battlefield 3, have released their plans on 3 New battlefield 3 expansion packs. These packs will follow a set theme and will be released as the year goes by.

The Expansions are:

-Close Quarters
Close Quarters will feature close quarter combat maps in urban environments, inside buildings, and general close combat scenarios. It will feature New weapons and the maps will cater to those who cannot get enough of the fast paced infantry combat.

-Armored Kill
Armoured Kill will feature the biggest map in battlefield history. This expansion will feature large maps and will arrive with a new selection of vehicles to traverse these new open grounds. ATVs, new tanks, and mobile artillery is said to make an appearance in this expansion pack.

-End Game
Top Secret


--RAW INFO STRAIGHT FROM EA--
http://ea.gamespress.com/release.asp?i=1741

-------------Extra Information------------

-Close Quarters Arrives 1 week earlier for PlayStation 3, similar to B2K's Release

-Official BF3 Site for "Close Quarters"
http://www.battlefield.com/battlefie...close-quarters

-Low Res. Screenshot of a spawn screen on a map from Close Quarters
http://i.imgur.com/uNGcc.jpg

-Low Quality Gameplay Video of Close Quarters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5GsPaycjy0

-Vectored map of the CQB Close Quarters Level
http://imgur.com/hGoIe

-Endgame DLC Theory
http://i.imgur.com/QkCxT.png

-Images Of Possible Box Arts of DLC
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/wp-co...03/bfxpand.jpg

-Image Of Endgame Box Art broken down into detail
http://i.imgur.com/9vqPK.jpg

-Possible Reference Of Endgame Boxart
http://i.imgur.com/BXtOi.jpg

-Close Quarters Official Dice Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=am0Kf9GOgCs

[BlakeW5]

Hmm, sounds interesting. Definitely LOVING how DICE likes to step their game up and add new features with every expansion pack. New weapons with a close-quarters pack...hell yeah. Nice to see the ATVs making their return too. Not quite sure what the mobile artillery will turn into but it should be interesting though I'm sure it'll just give people something to camp in in the back of the map. Can't wait to see what the "biggest map ever" will look like. Naturally it'll be VASTLY underpopulated on consoles but neat none-the-less.

[Empty Box]

They can fuck off.

Simply terrible. Close Quarters? Take a look at that map. Supposedly built for 16 players as well, that map shot really does confirm that. Squads? Useless. Spotting? Map is so small it's pointless. Recoil? Who cares, spray from the hip, never far enough away for it to matter. Cant spray from the hip, fire an RPG down the narrow corridors... Congratulations, BF has been pared down to the same fooking level as CoD has been now.



They just killed any and all hopes I had for BF3. An entire DLC dedicated to pretty what BF is not supposed to be. I mean, honestly, this is BATTLEFIELD. I posted a vid on this on you youtube, console players like it, PC gamers want it to GTFO. Wonder why? DICE fucked the consolers over with way too large maps for the playercount, PC gamers got boned with console maps.

I'm going to have to wait nearly a year after release to have 10 maps that are actually Battlefield maps, in Battlefield? Congrats EA / DICE, you just drove me away.

Dont get me wrong, I like TDM in BF3, but an entire fuggin DLC in a BATTLEFIELD (Note, BATTLEFIELD. Conquest is the bread and butter, Objectives should by the focus by a MILE), dedicated to TDM. TBH, maybe this goes back to BF3 being rushed - perhaps this was what TDM was envisioned as, rather than chopped down maps.

B2K was a huge success. So what do they do? Flip a 180 and give half the community the bird all at once. Thanks, DICE.

With the lack of info from DICE, the patch's large delay, then this basically TDM centric DLC, it really makes me say the ship is sinking and I'm not staying on it.

[WaLkAwaY]

They can fuck off.

Simply terrible. Close Quarters? Take a look at that map. Supposedly built for 16 players as well, that map shot really does confirm that. Squads? Useless. Spotting? Map is so small it's pointless. Recoil? Who cares, spray from the hip, never far enough away for it to matter. Cant spray from the hip, fire an RPG down the narrow corridors... Congratulations, BF has been pared down to the same fooking level as CoD has been now.



They just killed any and all hopes I had for BF3. An entire DLC dedicated to pretty what BF is not supposed to be. I mean, honestly, this is BATTLEFIELD. I posted a vid on this on you youtube, console players like it, PC gamers want it to GTFO. Wonder why? DICE fucked the consolers over with way too large maps for the playercount, PC gamers got boned with console maps.

I'm going to have to wait nearly a year after release to have 10 maps that are actually Battlefield maps, in Battlefield? Congrats EA / DICE, you just drove me away.

Dont get me wrong, I like TDM in BF3, but an entire fuggin DLC in a BATTLEFIELD (Note, BATTLEFIELD. Conquest is the bread and butter, Objectives should by the focus by a MILE), dedicated to TDM. TBH, maybe this goes back to BF3 being rushed - perhaps this was what TDM was envisioned as, rather than chopped down maps.

B2K was a huge success. So what do they do? Flip a 180 and give half the community the bird all at once. Thanks, DICE.

With the lack of info from DICE, the patch's large delay, then this basically TDM centric DLC, it really makes me say the ship is sinking and I'm not staying on it.

Didn't they release the developers kit? I thought I saw people making maps for BF3 or it might have been BF2.

[BlakeW5]

DICE fucked the consolers over with way too large maps for the playercount, PC gamers got boned with console maps.

Part of the reason I'm interested in seeing how this DLC turns out. I could totally hate it, but it'll bring some action to the consoles, which even if it does turn CODish could be a good thing (can't believe I said that). I LOVE large maps, but with only 24 people in them and 3/4 of those in vehicles the large maps like Kharg, Caspian, and the abortion that is Firestorm can get rather boring. I'm tired of riding in tanks just to find people and I'm really tired of fighting an endless wave of vehicles on foot by myself. The large maps turn into flag hopping on PS3. For instance, on Caspian I've spent entire games running back and forth between the C and D flags (the hill and gas station respectively) as we'll start to lose one the instant I'm capping the other and this is without me hardly ever finding the ONE guy doing the same thing I'm doing. The large maps literally turn into a fight at the flag as the other 80% of the map is NEVER used. It's not that the maps are too deep, they're too wide for consoles. Flanking routes are a good thing, but it's been taken to the extreme on consoles. I've almost went back to just playing Rush as it fits console numbers better, but I vastly prefer conquest.

*Another thing, I'd really appreciate it if they'd change the stationary AA gun where it can be destroyed now. Yeah, I know it helps combat spawn rape but being invincible is whack especially on Kharg where the guns can each shoot halfway across the map. Get more than bit tired of some douche camping it for an entire game. Before anyone says "but they're not really helping their team"....I don't care, the shit gets flat-out annoying Pretty sure using the easy mode stinger helps fight spawn rape as well.

[FunkY]

Didn't they release the developers kit? I thought I saw people making maps for BF3 or it might have been BF2.

Closest thing to a developers kit on BF3 that I've seen is an rcon plugin that lets you edit the playable areas of the maps. I doubt if they'll ever release a proper mod tools kit that would allow the community to actually create it's own maps. Much like Ubishaft, they no longer support community created content. It means they'd have a hard time selling their DLC.

With regards to the DLC, I don't get why so many people are kicking off about it. If you don't want to play the smaller close quarters maps, you don't have to. If you don't want to play the biggest BF map in the history of BF, you don't have to play that either.

Personally I'm looking forward to all of it. The more content they release the better as far as I'm concerned. You never know, by the end of the year they might do what they did with BF2 and release a patch that unlocks all the content for everybody... We can always hope.

And Blake... "Easy mode stinger"?????? WTF lol... The stinger's little more than useless, you can use it to annoy pilots, but if the pilot has the slightest clue what he's doing a stinger isn't gonna take him down... I've never been shot down by a stinger alone. It takes 4 people to shoot down an attack heli with stingers (compared to one with a javellin if there's a soflam up).

[Vnzuelan Dude]

I'm a little skeptical about the Close Quarter maps, they could lead to a lot of camping around.
We'll just have to see how they turn out at the end.

[BlakeW5]

And Blake... "Easy mode stinger"?????? WTF lol... The stinger's little more than useless, you can use it to annoy pilots, but if the pilot has the slightest clue what he's doing a stinger isn't gonna take him down... I've never been shot down by a stinger alone. It takes 4 people to shoot down an attack heli with stingers (compared to one with a javellin if there's a soflam up).

Maybe not with jets, which remain mostly harmless unless you're in another jet that is. Stingers are a considerable threat to choppers if more than one guy using it and choppers are really the only air vehicle that can considerably spawn rape a team. I'm not talking about jets gunning down other jets while they're still on the runway.

If you've never been taken down by a stinger while in a chopper you're either lucky or smarter than 99% of other chopper pilots. Hell it's as easy as catching one in the open, and having another guy with a stinger around to make up for the slow reload. Seeing most idiots fly 300 foot in the air taking them out is easy. It takes flares 30 sec (I think) to regen so two guys can take 'em out easy. Add to it that most pilot/gunner combos don't talk so if the gunner is smart enough to throw flares they usually throw them the same time the pilot does....30 sec. of a helpless chopper. Add in guided tank shells, a OHK, and that's all the chopper defense you need. It's probably VASTLY different on PC but console pilots are mainly idiots who can't figure out flying low and behind cover.

Not to mention the complete lack of sufficient cover on some maps, Kharg being one of them Noshar being another (though not nearly as bad). Yeah, there's a building or two on Kharg but they have open walls and often not enough cover to break locks. So now I've got to high-tail it out of the stingers ridiculous range to wait for flares usually all the while being pestered by kamakaze jet pilots. I've been offed by more idiots slamming into me than I have anything else.

The point still remains that the stationary AA shouldn't be invincible, at least not with the range and line-of-sight it has on some of the maps. It was destructible in BC2 and I still more than managed to take out 80% of the choppers that I ever came across with it.

But I'll agree to an extent. I've never been hit when I've got a competent gunner/pilot with me or when I can talk to them. At the same time, I still think the stinger is a potent weapon against the average player.

On a side note: I REALLY miss the tracer dart from BC2...was so satisfying sticking a chopper. The higher flight ceiling and larger airspace make it almost obsolete but I'd love to see it's return. I got too damn good with that thing to not want it back, just change it so flares/smoke don't knock it off and make it usable only against air support.

I'm a little skeptical about the Close Quarter maps, they could lead to a lot of camping around.
We'll just have to see how they turn out at the end.

Oh, there'll be camping all right, don't sweat that.

The video makes it look like a hotel so there should be plenty of flanking routes, though if they follow the formula they're currently using there probably won't be lol. The big problem with the current small maps (metro, bazaar) is the lack of sufficient paths. Both follow the COD-style where there's really only 3 routes to take making holding them down easy. With enough paths a small map could make for some interesting play that makes the map much bigger than it is. They REALLY need to neuter the frag/USAS combo to keep it from degrading into the cheap-fest that Metro almost always turns into. If the map is destructible enough camping won't be nearly the issue that it could be....just hope they make the walls "shoot-through" like a real interior wall would be. Wall-banging camping fools is just so satisfying. One of my biggest peeves is that you can't shoot through the cargo containers that are so common on the maps despite the fact a rifle would swiss-cheese one in real life.

Either way I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Even if there's a chance it turns out really bad there's still the chance it turns out really good too.

[WaLkAwaY]

Closest thing to a developers kit on BF3 that I've seen is an rcon plugin that lets you edit the playable areas of the maps. I doubt if they'll ever release a proper mod tools kit that would allow the community to actually create it's own maps. Much like Ubishaft, they no longer support community created content. It means they'd have a hard time selling their DLC.

It is unfortunate that companies go this route. Ubisoft killed itself with that DRM and no user supported content and now the BF franchise. It is really getting to the point where people are going to start going back to the guys like ID software and such.

[ishoturfaceese]

Dice, developers of Battlefield 3, have released their plans on 3 New battlefield 3 expansion packs. These packs will follow a set theme and will be released as the year goes by.

The Expansions are:

-Close Quarters
Close Quarters will feature close quarter combat maps in urban environments, inside buildings, and general close combat scenarios. It will feature New weapons and the maps will cater to those who cannot get enough of the fast paced infantry combat.

-Armored Kill
Armoured Kill will feature the biggest map in battlefield history. This expansion will feature large maps and will arrive with a new selection of vehicles to traverse these new open grounds. ATVs, new tanks, and mobile artillery is said to make an appearance in this expansion pack.

-End Game
Top Secret


--RAW INFO STRAIGHT FROM EA--
http://ea.gamespress.com/release.asp?i=1741

-------------Extra Information------------

-Close Quarters Arrives 1 week earlier for PlayStation 3, similar to B2K's Release

-Official BF3 Site for "Close Quarters"
http://www.battlefield.com/battlefie...close-quarters

-Low Res. Screenshot of a spawn screen on a map from Close Quarters
http://i.imgur.com/uNGcc.jpg

-Low Quality Gameplay Video of Close Quarters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5GsPaycjy0

soooooooo what you're saying is, i should buy BF? lol