Battlefield 3 - Does anybody still care?

[NILL]

Not that I really liked BF2 and I had no plans on buying it anyway but after hearing about the brick-and-mortar preorder only weapons and now EA is pulling content from Steam I have to wonder about the reaction here.

And just in case anyone hasn't heard about it:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011 ... y-fans.ars

http://geek.pikimal.com/2011/06/15/ea-r ... rom-steam/

Also boycott plans.
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments ... um=twitter


When I make a movie, it will have different exclusive scenes added to it depending on what cinema you go to. notch, Minecraft
http://twitter.com/#!/notch/status/80221497184108544

[GenTsoChiken]

As far as the pre-order bonus' go, I'm not particularly peeved with it at the moment. They're freebies, what's there to complain about. The only thing bothersome about it is that the announcement, so far, was only for the UK. Here's the FAQ regarding the bonus' on EA's battlefield blog...

http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/battlef ... wered.aspx

Your questions on Physical Warfare Pack and Back to Karkand pre-order items answered

BY: HBrun
POSTED: Jun 13, 2011, 12:00AM

Q: Is the Physical Warfare Pack available in all regions, or just in the UK?
A: It will be available worldwide at select retailers. It was first announced in the UK. Exact details for other countries and retailers will be announced at a later date.

Q: Will Physical Warfare Pack imbalance the game?
A: The three exclusive items in the Physical Warfare Pack were specifically chosen not to be overpowered or imbalance or break the game in any way.

Q: Why do I want the Physical Warfare Pack?
A: Owning these items will give you a more varied arsenal, but it will not give you a significant advantage on the battlefield.

Q: Is the Back to Karkand expansion pack exclusive to pre-orders?
A: No. You can also buy it separately if you do not pre-order Battlefield 3. Back to Karkand will be available the exact same date after the launch of Battlefield 3 no matter if you pre-ordered or buy it separately.

Q: When will the Back to Karkand expansion pack be released?
A: We have not yet announced the Back to Karkand expansion pack release date.

Q: How much does the Back to Karkand Expansion pack cost?
A: We have not yet announced a price. However, it will be included in the Limited Edition at no extra charge.

Q: Do I have to choose between Back to Karkand and the Physical Warfare Pack as my pre-order bonus?
A: No. There is no way you can pre-order Battlefield 3: Limited Edition and not end up with the Back to Karkand expansion pack at no extra charge. On top of this, select retailers all over the world will carry the Physical Warfare Pack. Exact details for other countries and retailers will be announced at a later date.

Q: Why do you offer pre-order bonus items?
A: Because we believe in rewarding our core fanbase with special offers -- such as giving them the Back to Karkand expansion pack at no extra charge.

As for it not being on Steam, fair and simple, competition. EA for some time now has been trying to get it's own digital download distribution store going, several iterations have been put up and most failed because Steam has gotten pretty damn large. I don't know the exact numbers of how many they've tried but this has to be the 4th or so that I can remember. At least this iteration seems to be kicking off with quite a few heavy hitting games.

Regardless of the digital distribution, I'm a hardcopy kind of guy, for the most part. Granted there should be a way to "lock" the key to you, similar to what steam and blizzard has done. Although, it's not that far off by using battlefield's career/achievement tracking...

[NILL]

I took the liberty of translating this from Marketing to English

Your questions on Physical Warfare Pack and Back to Karkand pre-order items answered

BY: HBrun
POSTED: Jun 13, 2011, 12:00AM

Q: Is the Physical Warfare Pack available in all regions, or just in the UK?
A: We could only convince a few trailers in the UK to pay extra for the right to sell the complete game, but we hope to start gouging whole world very soon.

Q: Will Physical Warfare Pack imbalance the game?
A: No these weapons suck. No one really uses them and even if they do it wont make a difference.

Q: Why do I want the Physical Warfare Pack?
A: Because they're great. You'll get so many more kills with them then you would otherwise.

Q: Is the Back to Karkand expansion pack exclusive to pre-orders?
A: Remember when UT2k4 came out and Epic included the classic Face CTF map with it? Yeah where not doing that. Oh and we're charging for it to.

Q: When will the Back to Karkand expansion pack be released?
A: Considering the layout of the map has been done for years now it would be embarrassing to admit we haven't even started making it yet.

Q: How much does the Back to Karkand Expansion pack cost?
A: More than the difference between Normal edition and the one with the foil embossed box.

Q: Do I have to choose between Back to Karkand and the Physical Warfare Pack as my pre-order bonus?
A: No. Give us all your money and give it now.

Q: Why do you offer pre-order bonus items?
A: Because we want to punish people who wait for reviews and sales.

[Murdock]

This explains it a little better.

http://www.battlefield.com/uk/battlefie ... -this-year

Reading the links in the first post...I was willing to wait it out. I'm having enough fun with BFBC2, I could wait. After reading the link above, I may pre-order.

As for them parting ways with steam...this makes me sad. I would have paid MORE to get it on steam. If they didn't want to share all that money with Steam, then they could have marked it up for Steam, and it still would have sold.

[GenTsoChiken]

that still doesn't change the fact that the announcement was only for the UK release and not the USA release. If/when they announce the Physical Warfare Pack for the USA, then I'll consider getting excited for it.

[GenTsoChiken]

Hey, did you guys here about this?

Battlefield 3 PC Specs Are Tough But Fair
http://feeds.g4tv.com/~r/g4tv/thefeed/~ ... -fair.html

Every shred of Battlefield 3 revealed by DICE so far has been impressive. So much so that the PC gamers among you have got to be wondering what it's going to take to run this thing. You may have your answer now, thanks to what appears to be an accidental weekend posting of the October-releasing game's PC specs on the company's website.

Here are the specs:

Minimum
Hard Drive Space: 15 GB for disc version or 10 GB for digital version
OS: Windows Vista or Windows 7
Processor: Core 2 Duo @ 2.0GHz
RAM: 2GB
Video Card: DirectX 10 or 11 compatible Nvidia or AMD ATI card

Recommended
Hard Drive Space: 15 GB for disc version or 10 GB for digital version
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU
RAM: 4GB
Video Card: DirectX 11 Nvidia or AMD ATI card, GeForce GTX 460, Radeon Radeon HD 6850

Pretty reasonable on the low end, and about what you'd expect for a 2011 AAA video game release for PC. Interesting to note that the disc version requires an additional 5 GB of storage space. That can't all be copy protection, can it? The specs may not be accurate of course, but it's hard to imagine this information popping up on GameStop's product listing without it coming from somewhere.

Read more: http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/7 ... z1RtSFQkvz