How to Survive on Battlefield 3 Beta

Betas are a wonderful thing. They place everyone on a level playing field and give you the best chance to develop your skills in-line with the opposition.

However, you still don’t want to suck. A poor performance in the beta won’t get your Battlefield 3 career off to a good start, even if it’s only a trial version. To help, we’ve compiled a list of handy tips that should see you successfully survive the Battlefield 3 beta with your reputation intact, especially for those of you heading to Battlefield for the first time.

Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork!

All online first person shooters have some semblance of teamwork, but most of them don’t punish you for totally ignoring your allies. That’s where Battlefield is different. This is a team based game, and if that doesn’t suit you, it will become immediately apparent that this isn’t the game for you. Battlefield 3 is all about strengths in numbers. If you want to survive, to contribute and to win, work as a unified unit.

Practice with future teammates

Teamwork is best achieved if you know who you’re playing with. You don’t dominate a local sporting competition by playing with a bunch of different dudes every week, and Battlefield 3 is no different. You’re best off playing with your gaming friends and learning how they play. You’ll quickly develop a niche in the squad and grow to know what your teammate’s next move is before they’ve even re-spawned.

Don’t run and gun, this isn’t COD!

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 will both be fantastic games; however, they will be very different games. Battlefield is on the rise, and will attract a number of “COD Gamers” due to its hefty increase in status. That’s great for the franchise, but not so good for the Battlefield veterans who have grown to despise the Activision alternative. The onus is on you, COD gamers, to ensure you adapt to Battlefield 3. It’s totally different. You can’t just run around shooting people, that won’t work and it won’t help your team. Stick to your role, go in with an open mind and be willing to re-learn everything you think you know about online shooters (but keep it in the back of your mind for MW3, where the BF3 tactics become moot).

Pick your class carefully

Pick your class carefully. Ensure it’s what you want to do, what the team needs and that you know what’s required. Also be aware that they’ve changed slightly since Bad Company 2, most noticeably by giving the Assault Class medic abilities. Once again it all comes down to teamwork. Don’t run past fallen enemies, secure the perimeter and revive them whenever possible. Likewise don’t attempt something that is clearly beyond your limitations. Work together, with your team, to find the best man for the job, freeing you up to dominate your role. Know what your special abilities are: Assault can hand out med kits, Engineers can repair vehicles, and Support can hand out ammo.

Remember this is a beta

Remember this is just a beta. There will be glitches, there will be limitations and everybody is fairly new to this. Heaps of people will be playing Battlefield for the first time, and even if you’ve migrated from a previous title, your skills might be a little rusty. Aim to improve, but treat it as a practice run. Don’t get too angry with teammates who don’t quite understand Battlefield etiquette, as a beta is as much of a learning curve for the players, as it is the developer.

Battlefield 3 Open Beta Now Open To All

From today, the Battlefield 3 Open Beta is open to everyone and continues until October 10th! You can find the download instructions for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC below. For PlayStation 3 users in North America, expect the Open Beta to be downloadable later today, once Sony completes their weekly update.

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.

Make sure to head to the 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 DICE.

You can also leave any feedback to DICE via the forums in the social platform Battlelog. Remember that this software is in Beta and does not represent final quality. For a full FAQ on the Open Beta, head here.
DICE’S Top 10 Battlefield 3 Operation Metro Tips

• Stick to your team mates, and remember to spawn on them to stay close to the fight.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.
  

• Make sure when you have armed an M-COM station, that you defend it to make sure it is destroyed.

• 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.

• 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.

• Use suppressive shooting (fire close to enemies behind cover) to negatively effect the enemy’s fighting capabilities.

• 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.

• Shotguns are excellent for CQC (Close Quarters Combat) in the tighter tunnels sections.

• Fire automatic weapons in short bursts for accuracy, or switch to single fire mode if applicable.

• To grab your enemy’s dog tag as a souvenir, do a stealth knife kill from behind.

To download the Battlefield 3 Open Beta, just follow these instructions:
PlayStation 3 (U.S.)

From storefront, click on View All By Title
Click on B
Click on Battlefield 3
Locate the Battlefield 3 Beta

PlayStation 3 (Europe)

From storefront, click on Demos
Click on A-C
Locate the Battlefield 3 Open Beta


Xbox 360
The Battlefield 3 Open Beta will be visible in the Xbox Live Marketplace under Demos, or you can go to Xbox.com via this link and add the Open Beta to your Xbox 360 download queue automatically.

PC
If you have already installed our new download service Origin, go to the section “Free games”, where the Battlefield 3 Open Beta will appear for download. You can also head to this product page via the web. If you have not installed Origin yet, it will ask you to do so before proceeding with the download of the Open Beta itself.
View images

Battlefield 3 BETA is now live on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in the UK

Yay!, it's Christmas come early for Battlefield 3 fans, well, earlier that it's October release date anyway.

The Battlefield 3 BETA is now live on the Xbox Live Marketplace and the Playstation Network. It's dropping in at 1.30gb

We'll be taking a look, once its downloaded.

Battlefield 3: Official DICE Online Store Goes Beta

DICE has officially launched a beta version of their online store.

Battlefield has just tweeted that “The DICE Store just went BETA! 10% off any item until 24:00 PST Friday using the code ‘BATTLEFIELD3′”

Christina Coffin teased this earlier when she tweeted a picture of a Battlefield 3 t-shirt that you can check out here.

Visit us-store.dice.se to enter your code and receive 10% off all merchandise!

There are currently 14 Battlefield designs, 4 Mirror’s Edge designs, and 6 DICE designs for you to check out and wear proudly!

Make sure to follow @Alt_Reality2011 to keep up-to-date on all things Battlefield!

Battlefield 3: Massive Map Sizes and More On Sound Design

If I were to ask you what’s one thing that was done really well in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, I think many would agree that the in-game audio really stood out. I’m sure many fans are excited to see what kind of improvements they’ve made in Battlefield 3. Check out one of our earlier posts on sound design and soundtracks in Battlefield 3.

Tomas Danko, VO Producer at DICE, has revealed some interesting audio facts about Battlefield 3 on Twitter recently, as well as some info regarding map sizes.


We’ve all seen the tyrannosaurus BF3 pictures circling the internet. One fan suggested to Mr. Danko that it would be rather funny to make a mock VO for it anyways. Interestingly enough, Danko responded to him saying, “Who said there is no t-rex audio in BF3?” What does this mean exactly? We don’t know. But we will make sure to let our readers know at the first sign of any Tyrannosaurus Warfare DLC pack! This fan also asked exactly how many lines of VO are in Battlefield 3, to which Danko responded, “In total around 18 000 wave files of VO, not counting localized languages.”

Bad Company 2 has been known for their intense, and sometimes hilarious VO lines that can be heard during the heat of battle. One fan commented on this subject, asking if soldiers would still be screaming insults every time they knived a door or a fence down. He also added that he though it really added to the immersion of the game. Danko answered, “Never any VO when knifing to begin with.” This could perhaps come as sightly bad news to many, but DICE could have felt that insults did not have any place in Battlefield 3.

Lastly, Danko was also asked about map sizes, specifically, whether or not any maps would be bigger than 2,000 square meters. Danko confidently responded, “How about more than twice that size…”

DICE seems to be hard at work at every aspect of Battlefield 3, including the audio. I hope you’ve all upgraded your sound system just as much as you’re PC or TV.

Battlefield 3 update: Squad leaders can call in artillery strikes

You may remeber that Artillery strikes were last seen in 2006′s Battlefield 2142, where the Commander could call in an artillery strike anywhere on the map. Since there’s no Commander in Battlefield 3, DICE has instead trickled down many of the Commander features to the regular soldier: the UAV is now available to everyone (if UAV stations return), and there will be an unlockable UAV for the Engineer class.

Not only that, according to DICE’s Karl-Magnus Troedsson at the recent Eurogamer Expo, squad leader will have the ability to call in artillery strikes. This is in addition to the unlockable mortar strike, which is available to everyone playing the Engineer class.
While we were disappointed with the lack of a Commander in Battlefield 3, it’s good to see DICE keep many of the assets and spread them out to the squad level.

Battlefield 3 More info: Burst Firing, Weapons, Friendly Fire and More

• On the topic of friendly fire: “Friendly Fire misunderstanding: FF is Off by default, On by default in Hardcore. Server option as well. Spread the word.”

• When asked to confirm there’s no “Dragons Breath” ammo for shotguns: “Yeah. And no bottle rockets. Both have similar effectiveness.”

• When asked if the SU-39′s cannon will have different balance/stats due to it being powered by gas-blowback (versus electricity for the GAU): “Given it fires 3000rpm and actually has less spin up than the GAU, they are very similar in game and life.”

• When asked if burst firing would be harder in Battlefield 3: “Tap firing has a larger recoil than the same rounds fired in full auto actually.” He then followed up with: “If you tap fired as fast as full auto the spread would’ve the same. Control recoil and pace your rounds it’s better.”

• When asked about the M1911 pistol, and who gets access to it: “The M1911 is available to both Gun Club [members] and Veterans, however there are additional Veteran bonuses.”

• When asked about Medal of Honor Limited Edition owners and the Battlefield 3 beta keys they should be receiving: “You don’t need a key, if your EA account is entitled to MOH LE then you get the beta access automatically early.”

• When asked about the under-barrel grenade launcher and its one-hit kill shots: “Much smaller splash, minimum arm timer, and only direct.”

• When asked about DICE’s support for the game once it’s released: “We’ve planned updates and additional content support, plus there is always other projects…”

Battlefield 3 Beta Released!

DICE has officially announced the Open Battlefield 3 Beta to begin on September Medal of Honor owners and Origin pre-orders will have a 48 headstart. View more details here!
http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield3/1/beta
I cannot wait any longer for the Battlefield 3 Beta, and DICE has just hinted at a big announcement coming tomorrow.

After weeks of denying many beta rumors, DICE has stirred up the pot with 3 hints. On the official Italian Battlefield page, DICE teased “guys, tomorrow follow us, there is news about something you have been waiting for a long time.“ However, the teasing didn’t stop there. Dainel Matros, Battlefield’s global community manager, tweeted “this week is going to be off the hook BF3″, and his coworker, David Goldfarb, reassured that this week is “gonna be a great week. BF3″.

My guess is that the long-awaited Beta will go live tomorrow or will be announced tomorrow to go live next week.

If you were wondering whether you’re going to get a taste of the singleplayer in the upcoming beta, DICE’s Ian Tornay re-clarified “BF3 beta is multipalyer only. There are some rumors to the contrary circulating.”
So, there you have folks, now at least we have something to cling on, tomorrow should be the big day we’ve been dreaming about.
Make sure to follow @MPFirst on Twitter for all your Battlefield desires and also to get some gaming sessions going with MP1st’s readers and editors once the beta is up!

What do you think tomorrow’s announcement will be?

More BF3 Beta News:

Medal of Honor Disk is NOT required for early access

BF3 – Beta Stats & Unlocks Won’t Carry Over + Waiting For The Beta

Battlefield 3 Beta Running on Xbox 360

An EA employee from the UK posted on his personal twitter account a picture of the Battlefield 3 beta running on Xbox 360. His twitter account has since been deleted, but the yfrog account still has the picture and comments. This might suggest that the Battlefield 3 beta has been approved by Microsoft and awaiting release. The Xbox 360 in the picture does not appear to be a dev kit.

Update: Community Manager, Daniel 'zh1nt0' Matros tweeted that the image was real, then reverted it and said it was fake. So we'll let you decide what to think.