Battlefield 3 Beta and release date/info

[SuRroundeD By 1]

So, the beta has ended . . . sad. Good news is DICE has seen the problems the game currently has and they are activly working to fix them!

Along with that there has been multiple releases from DICE's side to keep us entertained. They have already released four new maps, one by the name of Operation Firebase (I know . . . Operation again . . .). O.F. is a large scale map based off of what I could make out as a Oil Refinery. There will be many vehicles, including helicopters, thanks, and our favorite . . . JETS!

To clear up a few issues: You will be RESET for the final game, you will not have anything that you previously unlocked in the beta. Besides maybe the dogtags you had taken from others [not confirmed]

Another issue is how fast you ranked up. The ranking up process in BF3 beta was ACCELERATED. This way more players could unlock more weapons and therefore test them. However in the retail game leveling up will be much slower.

Not every weapon or gadget was in the beta. To name a few the: M16A4, Javalin Ground to Ground Lock on Missile system, and Portable Mortar were NOT in the beta. They will be included on final release.

The game will OFFICIALLY be released on Oct. 25th.

Now, back to other info: The game will have four classes: Assault, Engineer, Support, and Recon.

The Assault class will include: Assault Rifles, and the option to be a medic. No longer will Assaults only have the option of an underslung grenade launcher on their gun. They can now exchange that for a defib and medic pack, currently I am not sure if both can co-exhist.

The Engineer class will include: Carbines, and all forms of Rocket Launchers. Launchers now include more than fire or fire and guide, the Launchers: Javalin, and the Stinger will make an entrance. The Javalin will be able to lock onto vehicles and Stingers onto air vehicles, while regular rocket launchers also exhist. Engineers will also get "blow-Torches" to heal vehicles.

Support class will include: All LMG's, and the AMMO packs. Assault will no longer be able to resupply you, only the Support class can do that. Along with that the Support will get interesting gadgets including: MORTARS. You may be thinking of the goggles you equiped in BC2 and the mortars auto-matically dropped, but rumors are that you will have to deploy and aim these new mortars (only time will tell).

Recon class will include: All Sniper Rifles, and carbines. Recons will no longer have Ghillie suits, they will still be keeping most of the equipment from the last game with a few new gadgets that havn't been released yet. Recon's are NOT Snipers always, you can be a recon guy without having a sniper.

All kit weapons include: Shotguns, SMG's and pistols.

No longer do you unlock sights and gadgets for your guns through just working on the kit. Working on individual weapons will give you more attachments for that weapon, but not others. DICE has estimated that if you played BF3 non stop and tried to fully unlock a SINGLE kit, it should take about 100+ hours. So in total you are guaranteed at least 400+ hours of gameplay.

Along with customizable weapons you also get customizable Dog Tags. Your personal dog tags will be shown when you kill an enemy, and you can steal other enemies dog tags by using a knife animation, and killing them either from the back, or from the side. Killing an enemy from the front with a knife will not give you their dog tags. In total DICE has said that there would be at least: 34,800 (or 38,400 I cant remember) total combinations of Dog tags. Dog tags can relate to how many kills you have gotten total, or total with a single weapon, or number of jets shot down, etc. Basically any attribute you can think of is a dog tag.

You can now unlock things along the lines of personal perks (DONT THINK COD). You get one, and so far, the only two known are: Sprint Boost, and Extra Ammo. However do not uselessly use these, you get your attribute and the other squad mates attributes. So if your using Sprint Boost, and your buddy is using Extra ammo, than you EACH get a Sprint Boost AND extra ammo. So its wise to keep communication with your squad to have the best attribute combination possible. YOU CANNOT STACK ATTRIBUTES! So lets say you have Sprint Boost and your Buddy has Sprint Boost, you only get the effect of one Speed Boost, not two.

There has been a weapon list fact sheet released by DICE, however there are weapons included in the game that ARE NOT on the fact sheet, so expect more than shown.

Another cool feature in BF3 is the vehicle disable feature. In BF3 your vehicle is disabled after taking (presumably) 75% damage. The vehicle cannot move until repaired. You may have heard about vehicle armor regeneration, this only works if you have a set amount of armor, after you take enough damage, armor regen will not work. If your vehicle is disabled passangers are killed in relation to where the rocket hit (this may apply to where the vehicle was destroyed not disabled, I'm not sure yet).

Knives and grenades are equiptable, you can't just press one button to knife, do it and instantly pull your gun back out. You have to pull out your knife to use it. Guns now have fire modes, you can choose between full auto and single on an AK-74M, or three burst and single on an M16A4 (ALMOST EVERY GUN has select fire, these are just the examples I used).

Bolt action Sniper rifles will not be a 1sk unless your shot to the head. This way it takes skill to snipe, and not everybody with a recon kit can instantly be good. Along with this Snipers now have sway, and you have to account for bullet drop and velocity. If you are using a high powered scope (6x or above) and stay in one place for too long that other players will see glint. This can be fixed by changing positions or (assuming) switching to your pistol.

ALL GUNS NOW HAVE BULLET DROP.

Consoles have a server system. I still don't know how it will work for us, whether or not we can create servers, or just find games in progress is to be seen.

Core damage systems have been fixed, and Core BF3 is more like Hardcore BC2 except with a HUD and maybe one extra shot to kill.

You can now tactically reload, meaning if you still have bullet in the chamber and you reload, you will recieve all ammunition from your mag, and the extra bullet in the chamber. So if I'm using an M4 and I use 22 bullets but still have 8 in the mag, I will reload and have a total of 31 bullets instead of 30.

Now in BF3 is the suppression effect: All guns can suppress an enemy. Your duration of being suppressed relates to how long you have been fired upon. When suppressed your vision will blur a little bit and you will suffer penalties to aim. If an enemy is killed while your suppressing them, you get a +10 point bonus (Kills=100pts).

Health regen in core has been nerfed. It takes about 20 seconds for your health to start regenerating (unless next to a medpack) and it takes about 5-10 seconds to become fully healed if at 1% health.

see you guys on the Battlefield.

[VerbotenDonkey]

Inb4"wakemeupwhenSeptembe rends"reference.

And not to be "that guy" but where did you get your info from? Sources please? Cause I hadn't heard about some of that stuff.

[bazongaman502]

kinda talked about this in the last Podcast...

Beta is ready... for PC at the moment

[SuRroundeD By 1]

Inb4"wakemeupwhenSeptembe rends"reference.

And not to be "that guy" but where did you get your info from? Sources please? Cause I hadn't heard about some of that stuff.

Everything I listed has been either confirmed by DICE in past tweets (I am not going to travel their hundreds of tweets to find certain ones) or have been seen in gameplay video's (either ones put up by DICE or Alpha video gameplay). I follow the US BF3 forums and find a lot of info confirmed that way. If you have a question about something I have posted just ask: "What was [insert topic here] about?" I will gladly answer you and tell you how I found that information.

[Choca Cola]

When it comes out we NEED to have an event to celebrate, and thanks for the clarification.

[SuRroundeD By 1]

Rumor has it that DICE is going to announce the beta TOMORROW. I highly doubt that it will be the actual beta but as of tomorrow we will most likely know the date. For confirmation visit DICE Battlefield 3 FACEBOOK page, or a few tweets from: zh1nt0

http://twitter.com/#!/zh1nt0

Basically he has hinted to the beta coming out soon. I will add this to the OP also.

[SuRroundeD By 1]

Good and bad news everyone!!!!

Good news: Beta date announced!

Bad News: Date is Sep. 29th . . .

I'll update OP.

[Choca Cola]

Luckily I have another Profile (Tacos) thats right, I made and control both. Sadly I pay for both, but it shows I'm not completely ignorant.

[SuRroundeD By 1]

? Huh? Does two accounts matter? You can play both the open beta and closed beta with one profile . . . I'm confused on ur logic.

[Acid]

THAT'S TOO FAR AWAY!!!!