We were at C2E2 today in Chicago and happened across a special booth. EA/Dice had setup an exclusive booth to show off new footage of the new Battlefield 3. While the footage was behind closed doors and not to be seen by the public just yet, we were able to ask a few questions about the game that had been bothering us for sometime. The first question we asked was while the PC had 64 players and obviously large maps, if those maps would be in the full glory on the console, or be scaled down to accommodate only 24 players. The answered we received was that yes, the maps would be scaled down from the larger maps that would be on the PC. This led to the obvious second question about the maps being smaller on the console. If they are smaller on the console, how would planes adjust to the size? The answer we received was that planes would actually have a larger airspace and map area to fly around in, versus players on the ground with the “Out of bounds zones.” The very last question we asked and got an answer for was how the graphics would come across from the beautiful looking PC to the consoles which are dated. They said, while the consoles were dated, they were able to make technology which basically made these amazing graphics, then through streaming and pipelines, they could compress the information to run through the console and then uncompress as it fed to the television giving the gorgeousness that you see on the PC to the console counterpart. Unfortunately neither a PS3 or Xbox 360 was to be seen running the game, so only time will tell. Also, we didn’t get a chance to see any multiplayer running on the machines either. Stayed tuned for further updates. UPDATE: One of our writers Ryan Bullock went into the BF:3 show today and they had the game running on a PS3. He said that the game looked amazing and they had a wall size TV they were showing it on. He will update to what he saw today later. UPDATE: Hey guys, sorry for the late feedback, but here is what we were shown: They huddle us into the viewing booth in groups of 20ppl, 3 rows of chairs along the wall infront of what has to be a 100″ Plasma display. One tech guy and one sequirity guard. The tech guy talks a little about their new frostbite 2 engine and how it is a next generation engine running on a current platform. He doesnt go into detail, but rather says its easier to show us than tell us. He walks over to a desk where there is a PS3 sitting next to another small monitor for his viewing, his back to the 100 incher. He loads up the demo. He has a keyboard and mouse hooked up instead of a PS3 controller, so some migh suggest that he is runing the engine off of a PC hidden somewhere out of site, BUT I was in the front row, about 2 feet away, and I could trace the wires and everything looked legit, the PS3 was pushing the demo!! The demo was broken into 3 playable chunks. The first 2 we had seem before, the building blowing up and falling, just before cutting away and the part where the group walks outside, a guy gets hit, and your grab him and drag him to safety. After, he did make an emphasis on these aspects, the pulling a guy to safety and that even after getting hit with an IED and flying thrrew the air a few feet, you can still get back up and keep going, a more real experience he emphasized. The 2nd part was the most interesteing, not graphically, but the gameplay dynamics that are incorporated into this scene. It starts out with you being told to trace a wire to a possible IED down to the basement. He opens an air vent and crawls in. You could see a mouse scurry away, he proceeded to crawl the little maze of the vent system, with what looked like the help of the mouse leading the way, but that could have been coincidents. You get to a vent that is over the basement and you kick it in and drop down to the ground. The animation for this is sick, they fully animate a real person dropping from the ceiling, the impact of the fall to the ground, the stumble to regain your footing, it was all very well done. You start to trace the wire to a caged part of the basement, you choose which wire to pull first, left or right, then all of a sudden an enemy grabs you from your shoulder and a crazy ass fight ensues. The hand to hand fighting gameplay seemed more robust, the screen will populate options for the mouse, you can punch with either hand, counter punch, throw the enemy. It all happened very quickly, but it seemed like you had much more control than every b4 in an FPS in respect to hand to hand combat. Its almost as if they created a fighting system within the game, a real focus for Battlefield 3. There you go guys, it was maybe 15 minutes of footage, I was more impressed with the demo guys gameplay, you could tell he had played this demo a millions times b4. Although the new frotbite 2 egnine has beena huge focus for the media, some of those new gameplay elements, I think< are what is going to make Battlefield 3 a huge contender for GOY come Fall.So it is not a surprise that consoles are going to get a scaled down map, but how do you think jet fighting will fair with ground units in a smaller area? I would think cover and good AA would be needed to help stop the "fish in a barrel" issues. Maybe the maps will still be large enough that this will not be an issue? I guess time will tell.What is a bit surprising is the information about hand to hand combat. What are your thoughts on seeing that in Battlefield? Hope to see it in multiplayer or would it be best left in single player? I personally wouldnt be surprised if its single player only cutscenes for the fighting.
Nice.....can't wait to draw a bead on Notnice head in this.
Notnice posted that vid earlier this month, but i think it got pulled.
Waaayyyy, that vid bring back memories of epic BF2 and 2142 sweats yes.May not have met Woodyear, or Chinara were it not for BF2.Good times.
