Wednesday May 23, 2012 11:46 PM AEST

Atomic MPC > Features > Game > PC Games > Battlefield 3 interview - 256 players... Please!

PC Games

Battlefield 3 interview - 256 players... Please!

Interview: Atomic was at the unveiling of Battlefield 3 in San Francisco, and yes, we're excited. Get the scoop on the PC focus of the game right here.

We were lucky enough to be invited along to the Battlefield 3 unveiling in San Francisco last week and had some one-on-one time with Patrick Söderlund, CEO of EA Digital Illusions CE (or ‘DICE’ for short). The schedule was all over the place and we were told to stick to a strict 10-minute interview structure. To make matters more interesting, we’d written down a whole bunch of multiplayer-related questions that DICE didn’t want to answer. We still managed to get some interesting nuggets of information out of him. Check it out below.

Atomic: So are we allowed to talk single and multi?

Patrick: Well, mostly single.

Atomic: Okay.

Patrick: But we can talk a bit about multi, but we’re not talking specifically about it.

Atomic: Right. So what little bit about multi can you tell me about?

Atomic: Well, I can tell you that we’re looking at PC as our main platform for the game. We're gonna support 64 players, dedicated servers... that’s basically it.

Atomic: That’s basically it?

Patrick: Yup.

Atomic: Anything else you can talk about in terms of-

Patrick: -A lot of people ask us about 64 versus 128 or 256 players. Technically, we can go to 256, we’ve tried it. We play tested with 128. You’ve got to make a game that’s fun to play. And, arguably, we think that the most fun you can have is when it’s between 32 and 40 players. And we’ve done substantial research into this and tested 128 and that it’s not fun. Maybe we haven't done our design work good enough, but we just feel like there's no point in going higher than 64.

Atomic: So are you planning any sort of dedicated server model for consoles?

Patrick: I can’t talk about that but we're absolutely looking at it, yeah.

Atomic: Cool. I think that's all of the multiplayer stuff out of the way. There was a teaser trailer released not so long ago that had some great little things that geeks like me have been studying. There was some bolt cutters on the back of a character; is that something that’s coming into the gameplay?

Patrick: *Smiles* You'll see, you'll see.

Aliens: Colonial Marines in depth; Z-77 Motherboard round-up; strategy gaming special; Home Server tutorial. PLUS MUCH MORE - ON SALE NOW!

Ads by Google

22 Comments

xXJackXx Mar 9, 2011 3:35 PM	holy shit! This is sounding awesome. and oh please let the game be able to take mods! I wanna see someone mod it to handle 256 players. That would be a true battlefield game!
jdog Mar 9, 2011 3:47 PM	if mods arent in the PC version then its not a "true" battlefield game.. good interview! now to wait for the beta....
sirtrancealot Mar 9, 2011 3:52 PM	I guess we can assume that this will have no LAN option? that would have been my first question for sure!
philo-sofa Mar 9, 2011 3:54 PM	I 've been frankyl nursing a semi just from looking at the gameplay footage (the one with a glimpse of jets and stuff). All this sounds good, but I do hope that they don't let the realism of player movements detract too much from the ability to own slower/less skilled players a-la BF2. Other than that, this does look amazing so far :)
nesquick Mar 9, 2011 4:04 PM	256 Carl Gustavs? not thanks it'd be like a bloody katusha rocket barrage.
codecreeper Mar 9, 2011 4:23 PM	I liked Kellys Heroes it was a damn good movie. Question: what sort of activation will be required for this game? As it seems very dependent on LAN and such ,will you need to be connected to the Internet whilst you play this game in any mode. Or is it too early to say anything in this respect.
xXJackXx Mar 9, 2011 4:31 PM	@nesquick classes would HAVE to be restricted to a certain amount each side for a 256 player battle to work
Hawkeye Mar 9, 2011 4:32 PM	Well, the interviews over, sadly :) Not sure on activation. And nesquick... imagine if it were a 256 player world war II game... where you could 256 players in 256 katyushas! YES!
jdog Mar 9, 2011 4:55 PM	Activation methods,LAN play (proper) and Mods these are the three issues i wouldnt mind finding out. if you could,please hawkeye?
wraith676 Mar 9, 2011 5:35 PM	jdog, from a previous article written it they have posted due to the complexity of the game engine development software they will not be releasing these to the public. As for the activation methods its most likely going to be another steam integrated game.
Espie1979 Mar 9, 2011 6:11 PM	The game Joint Operations supported 150 players back in 2003-2004. It was (still is) a great game, and the way the game was designed, it meant more players made it much more fun. I doubt more players in a game like battlefield would be that great - I think the playability of battlefield games falls short of fun.
NachosJustice Mar 9, 2011 6:37 PM	Believe me, I wanted to ask a whole lot more questions about multiplayer, but they shot that down really early on! They wanted to focus on single-player as that's all they showed at the unveiling. Soon enough more will be revealed. The great news is that they seem to be genuinely apologetic that they didn't have the resources to make the Bad Company more of a PC title (hell, we didn't even get the first one). Now that they have the resources, they're looking to make amends.
wraith676 Mar 9, 2011 6:51 PM	Yea i really like the sound of them working on getting the toolkit made to fasttrack development time, and a damn nice engine to go with them :D
ArcaneMagik Mar 9, 2011 9:04 PM	Bags being a clerk filing request orders in the 256 player match.
Zelph Mar 9, 2011 11:16 PM	@codecreeper & @jdog The Activation for BC2 (on PC) was optional for singleplayer. But if you did choice to activate online (once), then you didn't need the DVD in the drive. Multiplayer is different and there's no lan play because the dedicated servers where all "managed". So you had to be an ISP or similar to be approved to run servers. So you could have a LAN and play, but you'd need the internet to hit the server. I couldn't imagine much changing for BF3, but some more options including mods on the server side would be sweet.
GhostFaceKilla Mar 10, 2011 10:07 AM	I see no mention anywhere at the moment of an offline Bot mode. I couldnt give a stuff about a single player campaign - BF has never been about that. What I have always loved though is the offline Bot mode. Its a great way to learn the game and have fun in your own right by doing stunts and so forth and doing generally crazy stuff that you couldnt do online for obvious reasons. I still fire up BF1942 in bot mode every so often for some laughs. I would be sorely pissed off if there was not a BOT mode.
Hawkeye Mar 10, 2011 11:47 AM	I'm going to be chatting to my local EA rep soon, guys, so rest assured I'll mention that BF3 is one of the biggest things you guys are waiting for, and I'll see if I can cue up some dev-access.
V1RUS Mar 10, 2011 12:48 PM	This is excellent Prone is back, jets are back, and a brand new engine as an old BF2 player i can not F****** wait XD
Splinter277 Mar 13, 2011 1:37 PM	@nesquick and @xXjackXx They could always use a Project Reality style setup were you're forced into squads who work together, with specialised members, marksmen, grenadiers, light At etc.
[WaW]Arc9 Mar 16, 2011 3:30 AM	"And we’ve done substantial research into this and tested 128 and that it’s not fun. " That's just bloody stupid. The 128 player servers for project reality and forgotten hope 2 and battlefield 2 are the most fun i've ever had, regular 64 players for BF2 is terrible and boring and dull and 64 for forgotten hope 2 is "meh" because nobody even uses teamwork unless there's 32 more enemies that can kill them.
800_series Mar 22, 2011 5:22 PM	MAG for the PS3 had 256-player capability. I've played a couple of rounds with near-200 players, and it does mess with your head, but at the same time it is awesome.
Dazerath Mar 25, 2011 2:45 AM	I think even 100+ players for bf3 would be killer! with those incredible large maps in bf2 I always wished they could house more players. Imagine a line of 25 tanks vs 25 tanks and 100 players running towards another 100, it'd be EPIC!

Comments have been disabled on this article.

Atomic Magazine

Issue: 137 | June, 2012

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

Every month we bring you the latest reviews of new technology and PC components, in depth features on everything from overclocking to console hacking, and gaming previews and interviews.

What's in this issue?