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.

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Never before has there been a more appropriate ice sculpture. This was the centrepiece at EA‘s exclusive Battlefield 3 community event which took place at Sydney Australia’s Potts Point this week. With just under 2 weeks to go until the game’s launch, a select group of invitees were treated to special hands-on gameplay with Battlefield 3 on the dozen or so display units that were set up at the appropriately themed venue. The feedback from attendees was clear – Battlefield 3, with it’s powerful Frostbite 2 engine, is set to deliver an unparalleled gaming experience. Special guests at the event included some of the actual DICE development team, including Daniel Matros – Community Manager, and also Lars Gustavsson – the game’s Creative Director. I spoke to Lars about his work on Battlefield 3, and he ended the interview with a candid thank you to all of the PlayStation fans in Australia who are patiently anticipating this game’s release:

Nino: Pleasure to meet you Lars Battlefield 3 has been a massive undertaking for you guys – how many years in total development on this project?

Lars: Well it was three, or close to three and a half years just building the Frostbite 2 engine, and then about 2 years (at least) to build the actual game. We’ve been a very busy studio!

Nino: How has it been working with PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray Disc on this particular title?

Lars: Overall it’s been pretty good. As always, you want everything in a game, and there’s the usual struggle making sure that you get things into memory – especially with everything that we have crammed into this particular game. So it is a real challenge, and our team has done an amazing job at prioritizing correctly to keep pushing it.

Nino: These days it’s all about online features, and the PlayStation Network is becoming increasingly important to gamers. How did you find working with the PlayStation Network on this title, and what sort of online experience can gamers expect?

Lars: It’s been great to work with, and we’ve just been hammering away at all platforms really. Overall, I would say that the online features OWN this game, particularly the communication centre where you can connect with friends, join with friends, and then also the Battlelog which constantly keeps you up to date with what your buddies are doing. There are lots of online goodies that we are trying out now as well, which we really hope people will pick up on.

Nino: Downloadable content for FPS titles does big business on PlayStation Network. Having said that, how much effort have you guys placed on the DLC strategy for Battlefield 3, and what can consumers expect from BF3 DLC?

Lars: I can’t, at this point, go into what might appear in the future… but if you know the franchise, and our previous titles, then you’ll know that shipping our titles is only just the beginning. It used to be that when a game ships to retail, then that would be the end of the project for the developers. Now, when we ship a game, it is really only just the start. Right now however, we are only focusing on the game’s launch.

Nino: The PR behind Battlefield 3 has been amazing. EA have almost achieved the impossible in creating so much buzz and support for this title, months before it has even hit the shelves. What message would you like to give to your Austrlian fans who are waiting with such buzz and anticipation for this title?

Lars: First and foremost, just thank you. Thank you for believing in us. Going into a massive undertaking like this, creating a game, pushing the boundaries in so many areas, it’s sometimes a really frightening thing. But to have a dedicated audience who believes in you, and longs for your product, definitely helps on those dark nights when you’re just sitting there, wondering, will it fly? So again, thankyou everyone for believing in us.

Battlefield 3 ships in Australia on October 28th. (Note: Epic Frostbite 2 ice sculpture not included!)

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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

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This is Tommy Rydling from DICE, coming to you, the readers of the PlayStation Blog, with two exciting pieces of news.

First, we are very happy to announce the dates for the eagerly awaited Battlefield 3 Open Beta. The Beta is open to all and will run from September 29th to October 10th. You can join it by simply going to the going the PlayStation Store and navigating to the Demos section, followed by the Latest PlayStation Demos option – from there you’ll see the link to download the Battlefield 3 demo!

Prepare for battle in the bombed-out metro tunnels on the outskirts of Paris in the upcoming
Battlefield 3 Open Beta!

Alternatively, if you have redeemed a Medal of Honor: Limited Edition or Tier 1 Edition Online Pass, you will receive early access via a personal email invitation from DICE that includes 48 hour early access, which allows you to start playing on September 27th.

The Open Beta is your chance to play Battlefield 3 early, try out our free social platform Battlelog, and give your valued feedback directly to those of us at DICE. You participating in the Battlefield 3 Open Beta means that you are not only helping us load test the servers, but more importantly helping us fine-tune the final components of the multiplayer game.

During your time in the Open Beta, you’ll be playing on the map Operation Métro – a map you might have seen coverage of from E3, where we won the Best Multiplayer Game award.

But that’s not all for our PlayStation fans! You’ll be happy to know that, starting with our first expansion pack Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand (released later this year), all full-blown upcoming expansion packs for the game will appear one week early exclusively on PlayStation 3!

As you may or may not have heard, Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand is a themed expansion pack containing four of the most loved maps from Battlefield 2, boldly reimagined in the Frostbite 2 engine. It also features new weapons and vehicles, unique in-game dog tags, new persistence, and new Trophies.

Be sure to stay tuned for more on the PlayStation version of Battlefield 3 and all things related. And do let us know what you think of the Beta once it’s up and running. For more stories on Battlefield 3, feel free to check out the official Battlefield blog where I post from behind the scenes under the name “H Brun”.

I also wanted to say thank you for your continued support for DICE and Battlefield 3. Meeting our fans in person is always very rewarding and exciting. We went to GamesCom with the PS3 co-op mission Exfiltration, and at Tokyo Game Show we let visitors play the single player mission Operation Guillotine. The response so far has been overwhelming, and we look forward to showing you more action from Battlefield 3 before the European launch on October 28th.

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Hi all! This is Tommy Rydling, Product Manager at DICE. Having just come back from a great GamesCom show in Germany, here’s your chance to learn all about the co-op campaign in Battlefield 3 that we showed off on PS3.

We designed co-op is designed to be the perfect blend between the strong narrative from single player and the open-ended action from multiplayer. We are fusing the replayability of multiplayer with a pick up and play mentality to create a totally new flavour of Battlefield.

Co-op follows the same philosophy as our award-winning multiplayer game mechanics. Teamwork is practically never forced upon you, but working together will make things much easier and — more importantly — lead to victory.

“Snake-66 is mission go!”

The missions in the co-op campaign are for the most part asymmetric. This means that one mission can have you piloting a helicopter while your friend is the gunner, for example. Other situations have one player disarming a bomb and the other one defending him. Or (as you could see in our press conference playthrough at GamesCom) you can do tandem kills to avoid detection. There are also other mechanics requiring teamwork, such as spotting enemies to make large firefights easier, or the essential concept of reviving one another to avoid ending up at the game over screen.

The co-op missions in Battlefield 3 all take place in the same world as the single player campaign, and follow a unique series of events that lead up to an explosive finish. Players in co-op will take the role of soldiers that are not tied to any one particular branch of the Armed Forces. This is an intentional design decision to allow for a vast variety in gameplay in the different co-op missions.

Extract Hamid El Zakir
At GamesCom 2011, we ran Battlefield 3 in co-op for the first time, with the mission Exfiltration on 10 PlayStation 3 stations. During the five days of the show, thousands of fans and journalists got hands-on time with Exfiltration.

The mission revolves around a defecting informant, El Zakir, that you and your co-op friend need to escort to safety. The mission starts outside the building where El Zakir resides. You need to move in, remove any opposition, and extract the target. If you can make it that far without raising a single alarm, there’s a little bonus in it for you. Part two of Exfiltration has you clearing a path for your convoy so you can reach the outskirts of the city, before entering two of the vehicles and assisting by manning the top-mounted machine guns. There’s much more to the mission, but that gives you an idea of what to expect.

Man down! Give your co-op buddy a helping hand to stay in the game.

Lend a helping hand
To survive through the co-op missions, you’ll need to stay close to your buddy. If he goes down, lend a helping hand with the new co-op “Man down!” mechanic, that lets you revive him in the heat of battle. While being down, you can still use your secondary weapon to defend yourself, while slowly crawling to a safer spot where your friend can help you without getting shot. If both of you go down, it’s game over.

You fight together. You die together. And you score together. After having cleared a co-op mission with your friend, your total combined score will be displayed via Battlelog, our suite of free social features that connect all Battlefield 3 players. Missions are designed to be shorter than single player missions, so you can easily do multiple rounds in an evening to try and beat your friends’ high score. The best score of your Friend will be displayed for each mission, so you know what to aim for.

Difficulty is high. We are definitely going for a tough challenge in all missions. Also, since competitive players will likely try each mission several times, all of the co-op missions contain randomized elements to keep every playthrough fresh. Clearing the co-op missions not only gives you scores and bragging rights – it also has benefits for your multiplayer career. There are a number of weapons that you can unlock in co-op and take with you to the regular multiplayer modes. These unlocks are based on your combined scores accumulated throughout the co-op campaign.

We hope you enjoyed this first look at Exfiltration. It was very rewarding meeting our fans at GamesCom, and we hope you stay tuned for more blog posts here at the PlayStation blog as we move ever closer to launch. And don’t forget there’s an upcoming Open Beta in September!

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