Oh man I will be looking forward to this, drm infested or not, my boycot will hold true to ANY other game (unless it doesn't live up to my expectations of course)
Also can't wait to see some screenies

Best news I've heard all year! This is EPIC. Hopefully, Dice can pull it off again. I'm not a fan of the console Battlefields, but BF2 on PC was awesome. Most fun I've had playing a PC game.

Please Dice, no Frostbite engine for BF3. Leave that for the consoles, please.

PC only please!

I'm looking forward to this.

BF2 was a awesome game. I lost the serial for online play however. This mixed with a repartition.

BF2 may be a fun online game, but it's still missing features that I want.

For example...
I want a real all out war.
2+ factions to choose from for your online account.
Epic battles consisting of 200+ players.
Complete ranking system involving generals, liuetenatants, squad commanders, etc.
Somewhat squad based front line combat. Say, 3-24 people per squad, each with 1-2 commands, with mixed roles (not required, but say, squad 1 has a medic, sniper, 3 anti tanks, and commander with a heavy machine gun. Squad 2 has a tank, 2 heavy machine gunners, a medic, engineer, trapper, jeep, and commander with light weaponry. Squad 3 is just a group of say, 3 fighter jets and 1 bomber. Squad 4 is 11 basic infrantry and two commanders). 1 commander in a tank to control squad 1-5, another in a jeep to control squads 6-10, one in another jeep to control squads 11-15, a commander to control the artilery, and a general to control those 4 men from a fortified bunker.

All. Out. War.
My ultimate idea of a wargame. Battlefield has the potential, and I honestly don't believe it'd be hard to integrate all that (though one hell of a server would be required for 200+ players).

Sweet! I was getting bored of all the futuristic-ness of 2142. Well maybe not 'bored', but it didn't really feel... engaging? (can't find the right word lol). So much more fun if we could associate it with modern day life Now we've gotta wait for Modern Warfare 2 lol.

+1

Which is why you aren't a game developer.

Right now that is impossible. And it will be for several years

Go play Arma then. (great game, I'm not knocking it).

Personally, I hope they keep BF3 as "Arcadey" and unrealistic as possible.

Battlefield 1943: Pacific is also due out this summer. Its a download only, multiplayer only pc game similiar to HF2: Portal. Its kinda like an update to 1942, having Wake Island, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima.

BF2 was an fantastic game I was looking forward to the next one BF3 but I see it will have the rubber stamp from EA ( securom DRM ) on it so I gues it will rubber stanped by me as ( Boycot )
Gazz

This is great news and a max of 80 players sounds awesome.

how many several-hundred megabyte patches will this game require to work almost like it was supposed to?

BF2 you can mod it to what, 128 players? In co-op too! but it manages to lag most machines out big time (havnt tried it with a dedicated server yet)

oh and im not badmouthing the Battlefield series - one of my favourites - it was just a lot of headaches getting my 3 player lan setup and actually working correctly, compared to say, the Unreal Tournament series

Awesome news. I can't wait to see what the graphics look like. This is exciting news.

I play BF2 ALOT!!!. But whoever coded BF2 (Dice or whoeva) U are a punk. BF2 constantly locks up and reboots servers online all the time. Ask ANY BF2 guy in the game. I only play on ranked servers that are beefed up with all the bandwidth it needs. T1/DS3.. WHATEVA. Server code is so stupid and buggy, game will reboot/crash server. Ask any player in game who's an admin they will tell ya..... EA U suk the big one and your BF2 game is fabulous play UR CODE SUKS AND YOU DON'T PATCH JACK RIGHT AND CAN'T FIX YOUR KRAP.

Cool.

Please include bots for offline play! Sometimes it's fun to just horse around or my bro and I can play 2 human + 8 bots vs. 30 bots.

Oh yeah, and don't make me do all this online registration just to play offline. That was majorly retarded in BF2.

something to add to my game server. I've been looking to expand from BF2.

Only 40 players?! Booooooooooooooooo!

God I hope they go back to the ole days of Battlefield 1942 when you can get into a sub or a aircraft carrier and just drive it around. Battlefield 2 sucks compaired to 1942 IMO.

I call BS. I play just about every night, and almost never see server crashes anymore. Only time it crashes are when idiots try to command hack. It's an awesome game that gives as good a balance between vehicle fighting and infantry as any out there. BF1943 is coming in Sept, and will add destroyable terrain, ala Crysis. Not sure what that will do for the gameplay, but I'm dying to try it.

BS my butt, I call double BS! I know guys are always tryn to hacks and maybe thats why it's crashs. I admit it has gotten better but still crashes. Like you said ".....anymore." They also need to code the game so one install will work under multiple profiles. Don't know if thats screwrom thingy or not. What server u playin on if every night?

Hacks are a reason consoles gained favor, for sure. The console version of BF is AWESOME! I don't want to look how many hours I have logged, days even. Great product. Very good uptime on xbox live servers. Not every call of duty lover likes this series but a true FPS gamer like myself loves BF. If there was a way to compete I would be rich. JK Go Dice

I am not really looking forward to this, or any EA games to be honest.

I find their lack of realism disturbing, give me armor values and accurate projectile physics, not the same old health point system.

Add to the fact that all their titles end up infested with cheaters within a week of release and their continued lack of appropriate customer service.

EA is not the company it once was and the customers suffer for it........

^
What the hell are you talking about, Project Reality (BF2 mod) is the best realistic FPS out there without a doubt. You cant really blame them for being infested with cheaters, people cheat because of the games 10 dollar price tag, its no real loss if you get banned.

BF3 + MOD + recession + higher price tag = less cheats + more realism.

I've pretty much settled on Wake. I play on US, xXx, and Insomnia's servers the most. Lots of good admins always on. Used to play a lot on Axxium. You might say I have a very generic screen name, if your looking.

As far as EA and Punkbuster go, I've never understood why they haven't put forth an effort to shut down sites that sell hacks. It's not that they put forth any effort to hide. For example, www.roothack.net sells hacks, and has been doing so forever. Seems they could contact their ISP and have the site shut down. Probably an excercise in whack-a-mole, but they should at least try.

ah, that was roothacks.net

Nice...can't wait. Just hope it's not going to turn out to be another Starcraft II.

I play on xcf, fub or box servers and they are generally good admins. Played this weekend actually and a few comments from their clan members agreed, EA can't or don't code good enough. Actually not EA but... game still buggy. I also use slysoft's gamejackal so maybe some in part is my client but even before that. Love the game hate the code . I must agree bout punkbuster & EA not caring to shut down jack as far as hackn their codes. This weekend a guy was using a name hack and punkbuster never caught it... go figure.

dude.. lets face it, in every game there is someone cheating, cod4 or cod 5 u name it but still bf2 own, even it has crashing problems or server bugs etc. lets hope bf3 gonna be a kick a** game and am sure it will be.