DICE On Battlefield 3: “We Pretty Much Nailed It”

There are Battlefield fans who believe DICE did an exceptional job crafting Battlefield 3, while others were left disappointed. However, if you were to ask DICE how they thought they performed, like IGN did, they’d say: “we pretty much nailed it”.

That’s what DICE executive producer Patrick Bach told the site in a post-mortem interview, adding that they wanted to create the biggest and best Battlefield ever.

“We wanted to create a game that strikes a balance between depth and accessibility; something that feels fresh and truly next gen,” Bach said. “We wanted to create the biggest and best Battlefield ever. The most immersive and physical first person shooter ever. And we wanted to build the true successor to Battlefield 2 while explore new ground and pushing technology forward.

I think we pretty much nailed it. I am very proud of the game and what the team has accomplished. I feel we have created a great platform from where we can keep evolving Battlefield 3, Battlelog, and the series as a whole.”

So, were there any mistakes made? Bach wouldn’t say, but he thanked fans for the feedback they continuously deliver, adding it has been overwhelmingly positive.

“We absolutely love feedback, and I am very happy that we have such creative and constructive players out there. The feedback overall has been overwhelmingly positive.

At the same time, I think it is important as a developer to listen to issues that can crop up when millions of people start to play your game at the same time. It’s almost like the game takes on a life of its own at that point, and we are listening to feedback and looking at how people are playing so we can keep fine tuning the game.

Some of the tweaks are made to balance what our players feel are non-balanced situations, like the recent IRNV nerf (where the night vision scope was reduced in its effective range to keep it from being too powerful),” he explained.

“On a more overarching level, we try and always listen to our community so we don’t produce games in a vacuum. Case in point: After the Open Beta, we realized that our persistence system at the time made people rank up too quickly, so we tweaked it for release.

It’s the kind of thing you can judge and react on when the community really can sink their teeth into your game and that is hard to simulate at the workplace.”

Now it’s your turn: what’s your take on Battlefield 3, as it stands now?

Thanks, OXM.