DICE gameplay designer Niklas Fegraeus gives Battlefield 3 fans a deeper look into the upcoming Armored Kill expansion pack due out in September as he details some of the new vehicles and gives his two cents on the brand new game mode, Tank Superiority.
Being heavily focused on vehicular combat, Armored Kill will be introducing a number of new vehicles to the Battlefield 3 experience including tank destroyers, new ant-aircraft vehicles and the brand new AC-130 gunship. Fegraeus details these new additions in a recent Q&A session with GameSpot.
“The new tank destroyers carry a lot of firepower, while sacrificing armor for speed,” he explains. “This means they have the ability to bring the big guns to contested areas much quicker than the main battle tanks, providing your team with great mobility and area control.”
New additions to aerial and anti-air vehicles are also being made. Fegraeus continues, “the mobile artillery, on the other hand, are slow and poorly protected but, properly placed, can suppress entire bases with heavy shelling. There’s nothing better than a skilled artillery gunner to have on your side, softening up a base before moving in for the capture.”
Speaking of capturing bases, there is one base in particular that you’ll definitely want to be focusing all your attention on in most or all of the new maps. Taking control of the new AC-130 gunship can be a game changer and is also a completely new way to play Battlefield 3. “The AC130 gunship brings a completely new experience to Battlefield,” says Fegraeus. “If your team wins control over a specific base, it starts circling the battlefield. When doing this, your team can use it as a parachute spawn and also man the weapon positions. These range from heavy auto cannons to high caliber shells and anti-aircraft machine guns. A fully utilized AC130 can suppress and destroy ground targets with great efficiency, so the other team needs to quickly scramble their pilots and mobile AA to shoot it down.”
If dogfighting isn’t your thing, then you’ll definitely be interested in the brand new Tank Superiority game mode. “Tank Superiority is a vehicle focused mode where large number of heavy vehicles clash in order to control key areas,” explains Fegraeus. He also lets fans in on a few tips to master in order to dominate the battlefield while driving one of these war machines. “It covers vast areas, so tactical positioning and precise long range firing are two very important skills players need to deploy in order to win.”
While many of the new maps like Bandar Desert (a map that Fegreaus likens to Battlefield 1942′s El Alamein) will be extremely large in scale and will provide many open environments, there is still room for building to building, close quarter combat. “For example,” says Fegraeus, “on Bandar Desert, there is a whole town being constructed near the shore, and there’s always intense building to building combat taking place there. However, surrounding this built up area are vast deserts populated by artillery bases and supply lines that are key to controlling if you want to stop the enemy from getting the upper hand.”
So, what about motor-bikes, which are being added in Battlefield 3′s fifth expansion pack End Game? Fegraeus teases, “we are introducing motorcycles in our fifth expansion, End Game. These will of course be nimble and fast transport vehicles, but might offer something else as well.” When asked if players could perform tricks and stunts on these, Fegraues mentioned, “I don’t think I’ve seen a tank do a wheelie before jumping off a bridge!”
Lastly, Fegraeus is asked, “ Armored Kill isn’t out until September, almost a year since the game was released–why the long wait for this DLC?” He responds, “we are truly humbled by our fans’ response to Battlefield 3, it’s been amazing! So when we started thinking about how to provide players with DLC post launch, we wanted it to be something really special that fans would truly appreciate. That’s when we thought of doing “more than just maps” and instead give players a chance to enjoy something suited for their favorite Battlefield experience. And that’s how we committed to the themed expansions we have presented now. We are putting a tremendous amount of work into these, and we just hope that players will enjoy all that these expansion packs have to offer.”
