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It saddens me everyday to see people buy COD all day long, and 1 or 2 people pick out Bad Company 2. I talk as many out of it as possible, but I fear it's never enough :)

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Top 10 things we wish to see in Battlefield 3
On January 22nd, 2011 in Editorial
1: Commander feature
One of the wonderful ways in which BF2 and BF2142 stood out was the Commander feature: a player would be the commander of his team, with full overview of the map, he could issue orders to squads, had the ability to call in artillery strikes, UAV drones and drop supplies.
With up to 64 players spread out on huge maps, a commander in BF3 would be welcome, perhaps even a must. This feature added a new dimension to the gameplay in BF2 and 2142, and the team with a good commander and leadership had a clear advantage.
2: 64 player support, bigger maps
Battlefield was made popular because of its vast maps and lots of players, it was what truly set the game apart from all other shooters. On top of that are all the vehicles and the rock-paper-scissor gameplay, but we see no way of having 64 players on map sizes like those in the last two Battlefield games (Bad Company 1 & 2).
And 64 players is an absolute must. Anything less would greatly disappoint fans of the series. Consoles will likely see 32 players, however, MAG on the PS3 proved that 256 was possible, but then again, MAG didn’t feature as many vehicles and the level of destruction Battlefield has.
3: More factions
Somehow, a modern Battlefield game doesn’t feel at home without a representative of the Middle East, which was the case with BF2 and Bad Company 1, which both had the MEC: Middle Eastern Coalition.
Since MEC was featured in Bad Company 1, it appears to be fairly straightforward to just port the class into BF3 with the other two classes, US and Russia, as the MEC voice overs and player models are already available. Obviously, it would be interesting with more factions, like China, but those may be added later in an expansion, as with BF2 Special Forces, which added six new classes.
4: Unlocks that are harder to get
Bad Company 2 was well received by fans and critics, but after a few months, the player numbers started to decline, and actually, they’ve been in decline ever since (see this article at Bad Company 2 Blog for more details). A reason behind the dropping player numbers is that most of the weapons and gadgets can be unlocked after a few dozen hours of playing, meaning that players have little incentive to keep playing regularly (other than to work on their stats and awards).
Battlefield 2 demanded more play time and more skill in order to get the unlocks, in order to rank up, and in order to get some of the awards. This was a great incentive to have player keep playing months, even years after the game was released.
5: Bigger squads with respawn only on squad-leader
With 64 players, and possibly more classes, it makes sense to increase the squad size to at least a size where each class can be represented, e.g. six classes = six-man squads.
On top of that, we think it would be appropriate if squad members can only respawn on their squad leader, which would minimize squad hopping, an issue in Bad Company 2, and it was an issue in Battlefield 2 as well, before DICE removed the option. Squad hopping is, in essence, when a player dies, he switches to a squad that’s closer to the action and spawns on that squad, which can give a team an unfair advantage. But more importantly, it diminishes team-play within squads, as players are constantly hopping from squad to squad.
6: Night combat
We know the Frostbite engine can support this, from night maps in Bad Company 2, so there’s no technical reason as to why BF3 won’t include it. Add even if it does, we hope it’s night-combat specific, e.g. players get night vision goggles and other gear (like in BF2 Special Forces, which featured night combat).
Another wish, and perhaps an unrealistic one, is to have each map with a day/night cycle.
7: Faction specific weapons
In Bad Company 2, all players, regarding what team they were on, started with the same weapons, even though US soldiers would never have issued a rifle based on the AK-47 (AEK-971 in Bad Company 2). Previously, each team had its own weapons, the MEC had AK-47-based rifles, the Chinese factions had their own Chinese-designed weapons, and the US had their well known weapons, led by the M16 and its varieties.
In terms of unlocks, it makes sense to streamline it and have everyone start out the same way, but it’s not that realistic and if everyone has the same weapons, it takes some of the flair of playing a certain faction. It takes away some of their uniqueness.
8: Real world ranks
More doesn’t always mean better. Not since BF2 has Battlefield had real world ranks, instead, the ranks were based on fictional ones, and lots of them. The ranks in BF2 were spread further apart, and it took more dedication from players to achieve the higher ranks. There were 20 ranks in Battlefield 2, compared to 50 in Bad Company 2.
The unlock structure in BF3 needs to reflect the previous games, where it took considerably longer to get unlocks and longer to level up as well. There are still thousands of avid players playing BF2 today, working towards the next rank and so on. There was also more prestige in achieving the higher ranks — it’s not uncommon to see someone with a top rank in Bad Company 2, but it still is in Battlefield 2.
As with anything in life, the harder ranks are to active, the more prestige there is in them, the more value they have. Even if its only for showing off.
9: More classes
Our opinion on this matter is well known (read Why Battlefield 3 needs more than 4 classes). The current 4 classes are simply too botched together, instead, we need distinctive classes with their own identities, where players can immerse themselves into a role. Instead of the current I-can-do-it-all, Rambo-style classes in Bad Company 2, which hinder true team-based gameplay Battlefield is known for.
10: Proper widescreen support and field of view
Bad Company 2 was primarily developed with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in mind, and it was later ported to the PC, which means that the field of view was narrow, as it was designed for screens where the player would sit a dozen feet from a TV when playing on consoles. On PC however, it’s barely 2 feet, and most players had problems adjusting to the FOV.
While there is a way of increasing the FOV on the PC (and not an official way through in-game settings), the Field of View never feels natural, and things seem out of proportion because some of the guns take up a lot more of the screen than they’re supposed to — as you can see on the image to the right, the field of view is increased at the bottom image, but the gun remains the same size, and there’s an overall “morphed” look to the view. A proper field of view and widescreen support is a must for the PC crowd.

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2: 64 player support, bigger maps

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3: More factions

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4: Unlocks that are harder to get

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5: Bigger squads with respawn only on squad-leader

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6: Night combat

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7: Faction specific weapons

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8: Real world ranks

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9: More classes

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And god damn that trailer is awesome. I really want to buy a PC this time around.

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