Why Battlefield 3 isn’t Battlefield 2 or Bad Company 2, And Why That’s A Good Thing
By Rothtana Ouch
In attempting to stuff new magic into a venerated series, DICE approaches game design by creating innovation and not intentional repetition. The developer isn’t interested in recreating their old games, but fundamentally craft new and visceral experiences for players. Essentially, they want to make the only Battlefield game you’d look to play.
“We don’t want to build Battlefield 2, we want to build a new game, so some people get upset because it’s not a copy of the old game. It’s like ‘But no, it’s supposed to be new, it’s new stuff. You can play the old game, that’s fine – it’s really cheap actually!” DICE’s Patrick Bach told Play.tm. “So when we started to design Battlefield 3 we said ‘Oh, we need to do this, we need to do that.’ We want it to feel more realistic, to be a more physical experience, immerse the player even further into the world. ”
“Our goal is of course to make sure that Battlefield 3 is so much better than both of them [Bad Company 2 and BF2] that you won’t have a reason not to play it, and marrying those two communities would be amazing if we could do it,” Bach concluded.
With a next-gen Nintendo console soon to be on the way, the video game industry is starting to see a shift towards new technology and a refresh of current gen systems. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are almost five years old, in that time, PC graphics have changed a ton while consoles remain static. But, Battlefield 3 developer DICE doesn’t see the current generation as a dead end just yet. In fact the technological gap between PC and home systems are creating the perfect setup for an enhanced graphical goal for games headed to PS3 and Xbox 360.
“A lot of people think that we’ve hit the roof on the consoles because they’re five years old but we’re actually finding out a lot of things that you can do on the consoles that haven’t been done before. To us, we’re increasing what is possible on the consoles because we’re aiming higher than the consoles,” said Bach. “Usually you look at last year’s games and try to the same but better, but since we’re aiming way higher than the console specs we’re actually finding new ways to get more out of them with the rendering engine and the animation engine and streaming technology and stuff like that. So it’s really exciting to see what we can get out of the consoles.”
The ultimate goal for DICE concerning BF3 isn’t a redux of the experiences players are accustomed to in previous Battlefield games or about one-upping Call of Duty, instead Bach visualizes a player experience based on individual personality. It’s about creating a custom gameplay for every player in and be first in class in a variety of areas, thusly, Bach refuses to describe BF3 as just an ordinary shooter.
“And it’s not only about shooting people in the head, it’s about helping your team, being more strategic, working together. You don’t have to fire a single shot and you can still win the round, which is I think is a very attractive part of a first-person shooter,” he said. ” And then you have the whole vehicle focus, so you have some people who are like ‘I’m a pilot, that’s what I do. I pilot helicopters and I do that really well so I’m helping the team by being the best possible pilot.’ That’s a layer that most other shooters don’t have.”
What’s the last thing DICE wants players to know? It’s that they’re cooking up something beyond Battlefield.
“We have more than Battlefield in the studio, that’s for sure. Not everyone… a lot of people are working on Battlefield 3 but we have quite a few people working on stuff,” he said cryptically.
What do you think it might be?
