Tommy Rydling from DICE here, hoping you are excited to go Back to Karkand! You can now buy, download and play Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand on PlayStation 3. To celebrate launch day, here is a brand new gameplay trailer showing Wake Island running on PlayStation 3 hardware. I hope you like what we have done to this classic Battlefield map, and that you enjoy your one week PlayStation 3 exclusive head start on this expansion pack.

Once you have downloaded Back to Karkand, the four new maps (Wake Island, Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, and Sharqi Peninsula) will be available in the server browser and in the Quick Match filter settings just like the nine maps from the base game. There will be servers that mix and match maps from the base game and Back to Karkand, so you will never have to commit to playing either base game or Back to Karkand maps in your gaming session.

That’s it for today; keeping it short and sweet so I can go back to chasing my new Assignments. Hope you enjoyed the launch trailer, and hope to see you online. Let us know what you think about Back to Karkand in the Battlelog forums.

If you are a Battlefield 3 Limited Edition owner, you are entitled to this entire expansion pack at no extra charge and you can get it from the in-game store or the PlayStation Store. Otherwise, you can buy it for £11.99 / €14.99 starting today, from the game’s in-game store or from the PlayStation Store. Every future expansion pack for Battlefield 3 will also be available one week early exclusively on PlayStation 3, just like Back to Karkand.

Score:

• 121 Comments 3 Replies
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

Hi everyone! This is Tommy Rydling from DICE with the latest Battlefield 3 news straight from the studio.

I hope you are ready to go Back to Karkand, as we are releasing our first Battlefield 3 expansion pack Tuesday, December 6th on PlayStation 3 America and Europe – a week early for PlayStation customers! And for our European fans, that’s a day earlier than normal!

To recap, Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand is a massive themed expansion pack featuring four legendary Battlefield maps reimagined in the Frostbite 2 engine. You also get three vehicles (the VSTOL fighter jet, Desert Buggy, and an APC), ten new weapons that you can bring back to the base game, a new layer of persistence with our all-new Assignments, plus five shiny Trophies.
(more…)

Score:

• 78 Comments 2 Replies
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

Hey everyone! The team at DICE is super excited to get Battlefield 3 into the hands of our PS3 fans. And, if initial reactions are anything to go by, you are equally excited….

Don’t forget: you will be able to purchase, download and play the upcoming expansion pack Battleifeld 3: Back to Karkand one week early exclusively on PS3. And hey, don’t miss your chance for everlasting fame and glory – or at least being included in the in-game credits for Back to Karkand. All you have to do to be in the running is to enter our Name it and Claim it! Challenge and submit your suggestion for our new control point on the redesigned Gulf of Oman map. But don’t wait – the challenge closes on October 28th!

But today is all about the launch of the base game. Before I leave you, I just wanted to let you know what Trophies are lying in wait for the skilled and dedicated gamers we know you are. And with that, I hope you enjoy the game. Looking forward to hear from you, here or on Battlelog!
(more…)

Score:

• 73 Comments
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

This is Tommy Rydling on behalf of the entire team at DICE, saying thanks to everyone who played and participated in the Battlefield 3 Open Beta. The information that we’ve gathered from your play time is invaluable and will help to make Battlefield 3 even better!

But it’s not all network load balancing and matchmaking algorithms; When it comes to data the real star is you! Just look at these killer numbers we pulled down from all of you PlayStation 3 players!

Crazy numbers and we couldn’t have done it without you! Just a few more days now before the game launches on the 28th, and as you may know already, PlayStation 3 players will get access to the expansion pack Back to Karkand one week early (please link to our earlier PS3 blog post outlining these details).

But before I leave you, here is a short selection of just some of the hundreds of changes and additions we are making to the game before launch, as a direct result of your feedback in the Open Beta:

Improved Squad Functionality
There will be improved squad functionality in the retail game (including but not limited to): the ability to create squads prior to launching into a game, sticking with your squad when joining a game and continuing together through future games (if team balance on the server allows it), inviting friends to a squad, and changing squads once in game.

More Accessible Settings Menu
The ability to modify your settings via the deploy screen has been added into the retail game.

Improved Kill Cam
In the Open Beta, the Kill Cam would sometimes behave erratically. This has been fixed for the launch of the retail game.

Netcode Optimization
The netcode is one of the many things that we tested as part of the Open Beta and it was not necessarily reflective of the final retail game. The DICE team appreciates, and has heard, the feedback you’ve provided and is further optimizing online play.

Score:

• 78 Comments
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

Starting today, we are happy to invite all PlayStation 3 players to the much anticipated Battlefield 3 Open Beta!

Played on the Operation Métro map in Rush mode that won us Best Action Game and Best Multiplayer Game at E3, this is your chance to experience one of many flavors of Battlefield 3. To download the Battlefield 3 Open Beta, just follow these instructions:

From storefront, click on Demos
Click on A-C or the ‘latest demos’ section
Locate the Battlefield 3 Beta

Alternatively you can search for the Open Beta by typing in the key word “Battlefield 3″ into the search tool.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your great interest in this Open Beta. By joining, you will help us stress test servers, and allow us to run important tests on the game’s back-end and Battlelog. Remember that this software is in Beta and does not represent final quality. For a full FAQ on the Open Beta, head here.

Please leave any feedback to us at DICE via the forums in the social platform Battlelog. Make sure to also head to our free social platform Battlelog to check your in-depth stats progression, start your own Platoon, and see how your friends are doing in the news feed. To get you started on the Operation Métro map, here are some playing tips straight from us at DICE. You can also study the PS3 control scheme in the image below. Enjoy, and let us know what you think!

DICE’S TOP 10 BATTLEFIELD 3 OPERATION MÉTRO TIPS

1. Stick to your team mates, and remember to spawn on them to stay close to the fight.
2. Use your kit specific abilities to help your team mates. Assault can hand out med kits, Engineers can repair vehicles, and Support can hand out ammo.
3. Make sure, when you have armed an M-COM station, that you defend it to make sure it is destroyed.
4. The bombed-out tunnel section in Operation Métro is an excellent place to use a flashlight as one of your weapon attachments. Use it to light the tunnels up – and to blind your enemies.
5. Attach bipods to your weapon and deploy it automatically by pushing up against cover or going prone and zooming in – this gives you a huge increase in accuracy and stability.
6. Use suppressive shooting (fire close to enemies behind cover) to negatively effect the enemy’s fighting capabilities.
7. Watch out for falling debris as this can hurt you. But you can also hurt your enemies by taking out buildings with the Engineer’s RPG.
8. Shotguns are excellent for CQC (Close Quarters Combat) in the tighter tunnels sections.
9. Fire automatic weapons in short bursts for accuracy, or switch to single fire mode if applicable.
10. To grab your enemy’s dog tag as a souvenir, do a stealth knife kill from behind.

You can also find more Battlefield 3 tips from the developer over at eu.playstation.com

Score:

• 106 Comments 3 Replies
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook