Battlefield 3, long rumored, is finally on its way. We always assumed DICE was secretly tinkering with this while making the Battlefield Bad Company series, and while there’s been off-the-cuff remarks from ex-DICE personnel, EA itself hasn’t formally acknowledged the game until last week’s announcement of the BF3 beta being bundled with the limited edition of Medal of Honor. But that’s all that’s been said about it — so we’re still pretty much in the dark as to what we’ll get with Battlefield 3.
All we know is that BF3 seems to be a multi-platform release (by virtue of being bundled with Medal of Honor), so it will not only be on PC, but also on PS3 and 360. That, and it’s likely to use the Frostbite 2.0 engine (as good as Bad Company 2 was, it was still technically Frostbite one-point-something). Basically, we want the aesthetics and destruction of BC2 with the scope and scale of BF2. At the moment, we’re going to roll with a near-future setting; even though BC2 does a pretty good job with the modern-to-future gear, we’d like those aesthetics to be brought into a deeper and more interesting game in BF3. Anyhow, here are some more of our humble suggestions to DICE.
More players: First off, let’s bring back the idea of 64 or more players in a BF match. BF2 demonstrated that absolute madness and memories come about from jamming tons of people onto a map and watching chaos ensue, and the 24-player limit of BC2 pales in comparison to the best of BF2. MAG has shown that it’s possible to do 256 players in a single session on a console, so BF3 needs to step up its player numbers. I realize it’s unreasonable to ask for 256 players plus fully destructible environments, but surely we can get a decent chunk more than BC2′s 24, and still maintain fidelity in demolition.
More command: With all the craziness going on, it’s time to bring back the Commander. Have a player call the big shots for his team out in the field. Have him survey the map, and perform his BF2 duties of calling in bigger artillery, dropping in supplies, and using radar to guide everyone. But in addition, let’s give him more cool tasks. How about calling in (and guiding) a cruise missile? Or maybe designating squad deployment areas — so that individual soldiers can opt to either spawn on top of their squad like in BC2, or jump into one of the Commander’s designated spot.
More vehicles: To complement the massive map size, let’s get back to having something like 30-plus vehicles of all kinds. Why limit the game to light tanks and jeeps? Let’s have APCs and boats and gunships. Let’s have multiple types of heavy tanks. Bring back the glory days of coordinating vehicle rides to cross the expansive maps. Heck, let’s bring back jets. Air power shouldn’t just be helicopters — BF3 could herald the glorious return of F-15s and the A10 while also adding things like the AC130 or a B2. Sure, people will still invariably suck at piloting them, but man alive, the ability to pound the map with 105mm howitzers will make up for lackluster pilots.
