The past week has been hectic, to say the least, with Battlefield 3 launching, getting rave reviews, and going on to ship and impressive 10 million units. Here’s the full run-down of the news from the past week.
Top news
News
Media
Comment of the week
This weeks top comment comes from a (former) longtime reader, fierce debater, and, according to our comment rating system, the most disliked commentator ever.
- “I’m leaving BF3blog.com. I’m pretty sure this is happy news for most of you, but for the rest, I am sorry. See you on the battlefield, I have a job to do.” – Skrillex.
We now have our own Battlefield 3 game server for BF3Blog.com, sponsored by the kind folks over at GameServers.com. We’ll be running with Conquest 64 for now, and the current map rotation includes Operation Firestorm, Caspian Border, Kharg Island and Damavand Peak. If you have any suggestions for maps, features etc, let us know in the comments.
Server IP
173.199.92.238:25200
Battlelog link
BF3Blog.com — conquest 64 only
Go ahead, join the server and have fun! And don’t forget to add it to your favorites on Battlelog. Thanks to the guys over at Pantheon for helping us with the setup.
EA just released 6 new screenshots from the upcoming Strike at Karkand map, from the Back to Karkand expansion pack. In addition, EA revealed that Back to Karkand will be coming this December, and will include 10 new weapons (full list here), 3 new vehicles (including the BTR-90 and the F35B jet), and a “new persistence system where players complete assignments to earn their rewards”. In addition, the DLC will include new dog tags and new Xbox 360 achievements/PS3 trophies.
Back to Karkand is free to everyone who bought the Limited Edition of Battlefield 3. The DLC includes 4 Battlefield 2 maps remade for Battlefield 3: Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, Wake Island and Sharqi Peninsula. You can check out the first screenshots of the new Karkand map below:
EA CEO John Riccitiello today announced via a conference call to investors that Battlefield 3 has already shipped 10 million units within a week of release, with 3 million of those being pre-orders. He also noted that the game is in such high demand that many retailers are running out of stock and have re-ordered copies with the publisher. For comparison, EA revealed that Bad Company 2 has sold 11 million units to date, a number which Battlefield 3 should easily surpass by the end of this month.
We’re previously heard analysts estimate Battlefield 3 sales at around 8 to 10 million, but no one had predicted such a strong launch — the biggest one-day shipment in EA’s history, according to EA COO Peter Moore. Battlefield 3′s chief competitor, Modern Warfare 3, is scheduled for launch early next month, and Battlefield 3 has gotten a decent head start in terms of sales. Most analysts and industry insiders predict Modern Warfare 3 will sell twice as many units as Battlefield 3.
The first Battlefield 3 expansion/DLC, called Back to Karkand, will offer 4 maps that have been remade for Battlefield 3. The maps won’t be recreated block for block, but will bring some changes and updates with them.
A new competition from DICE gives players the chance to name a control point in the new version of Gulf of Oman, one of the most popular Battlefield 2 maps. DICE’s new design philosophy is that the new Gulf Of Oman is set “a few years later in time than the original battles”. For a comparison, they’ve released the above screenshots, showing Gulf of Oman’s “beach” capture point in Battlefield 2, and its remake in Battlefield 3. You can check out the competition here.
To all BF2 fans out there, what do you think of Gulf of Oman’s new look?
Many of those who pre-ordered Battlefield 3 on Origin may wonder where their promised “Physical Warfare pack” is — the pack that includes the DAO-12 shotgun, Type 88 LMG, and a couple of other unlocks. The pack isn’t bundled with the game, instead, EA has been sending out codes via email.
So remember to check your email for a Physical Warfare pack code, and redeem it on Origin. After you’ve redeemed it, the new weapons and unlocks will be available next time you play Battlefield 3.
The vast majority of gaming publications have released their Battlefield 3 reviews, and so far they’ve been overwhelmingly positive, getting near-perfect scores from many publications. We thought of doing a Battlefield review ourselves, but what’s the point? It would become the most biased review out there 
Here’s a run-down of the Battlefield 3 reviews so far:
What do you think of Battlefield 3 so far? Use the comments to share your thoughts!
Earlier this year EA announced that PlayStation 3 owners will have an extra incentive to get Battlefield 3 on the PS3: a free copy of the donwloadable game Battlefield 1943. Since Battlefield 3 has been launched, PlayStation 3 owners are wondering where BF1943 is, as it’s not bundled on the game disc.
Now EA has responded to complaints saying, “In lieu of 1943 being available on disk for PS3 customers, EA has made all BF3 expansions available early to PS3 customers.” Which means that since PS3 owners will be getting Battlefield 3 DLC a week early, they won’t be getting Battlefield 1943 after all.
If you ask us, we’d much rather have Battlefield 1943 than a week’s head start on DLC.
Battlefield 3 launched yesterday to great fanfare, and today EA reveals that pre-order numbers for the game have reached “close to 3 million” just before launch. EA says this makes Battlefield 3 the biggest first person shooter launch in company history, and we have no doubt it does. It was only a week ago that EA revealed that Battlefield 3 pre-orders had reached “a couple of million”.
While US gamers are enjoying Battlefield 3, Europeans will have to wait for a few more days, as the game launches in Europe on October 27.
Last night Battlefield 3 launched in North America with very few issues, a bit of lag here and there, some dropped connections, but overall the launch has been a great experience. Battlelog has been working like a charm, and there seems to be plenty of servers out there.
Speaking of servers, BF3Blog will soon be getting its own 64 player Battlefield 3 game server — use the comments section to tell us what you’d love to see from the game server, what maps to play, what game mode, etc.
Also, don’t forget to check out our BF3Blog platoon. While it’s currently filled to its maximum 100 members, you can become a fan and we’ll add you as member as soon as Platoon sizes are increased. Which they hopefully will be.
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