Modded Battlefield 3 Beta Servers Could Result in Bans

Intrepid players of the Battlefield 3 beta (which began last week) have taken to hacking servers to boost the player count from 32 up to 128. Joining such a server, however unwittingly, may result in your EA account being banned.

An official post from developer DICE on the game’s forum (seen above via Rock, Paper, Shotgun) asserts that playing on a hacked server can compromise your account and “may lead to having your account banned by EA.” A follow-up post states, “If your account gets banned it does mean any EA game you have on your account would also be unavailable.”

While reports of any actual bans have yet to surface, this is still troublesome for beta players. The hacked servers appear in the official Battlefield 3 Battlelog, the game’s browser-based server selection site, and as such are relatively easy to join – thereby making it quite easy to get banned and locked out of other EA titles you’ve purchased.

Hopefully rather than issue scores of bans, DICE/EA will use this as an opportunity to test and bolster the security of their servers. In the meantime, beta players should tread carefully and avoid servers running any extra game modes or player counts higher than 32.

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

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NVIDIA Releases Beta Drivers Specified for Battlefield 3

NVIDIA has released beta drivers which have been coded with Battlefield 3 in mind. The drivers are named as GeForce R285.38 and are available immediately from NVIDIA's site. Supported products range from as old as the GeForce 6 series to the latest GeForce 500 series. 

The release comes at a good time since the open beta of Battlefield 3 will be available on Thursday 29th (27th if you pre-ordered through Origin). NVIDIA claims up to a 38% performance increase in Battlefield 3, as well as overall stability improvements. The beta drivers add better support for SLI configurations in a few other games too, such as Diablo III and Saints Row: The Third. 

Source: NVIDIA

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AMD Releases Catalyst 11.10 Preview for Battlefield 3

With today's launch of the Battlefield 3 early beta, AMD has released a preview build of their Catalyst 11.10 drivers specifically for Battlefield 3. The Catalyst 11.10 Preview driver improves BF3 performance on the Radeon HD 5000 and 6000 series for both single-GPU and CrossFire configurations, and adds support for 5x1 Eyefinity. The full release notes are below:

Improves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing, and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 Series for single GPU configurationsImproves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing, and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on CrossFire configurations using the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 SeriesEnables support for Eyefinity 5x1 display (portrait and landscape) configurations  using the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 and AMD Radeon™ HD 5000 SeriesVision Engine Control Center:    User Interface enhancements have been implemented for the CrossfireX, GPU Overdrive, and Information Center pages.

Source: AMD

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Battlefield Play4Free Impressions

First off, let me start by pointing out that if your hoping for some sort of inside scoop, videos, or screenshots of the games closed beta, you won't find them here! This Closed Beta comes fully equipped with an agreement that all participants must adhere to. Something I do not plan on breaking. So no game details or information that's not already available directly from EA, sorry.

If you want in, go sign up at http://battlefield.play4free.com or follow the Community Team on Twitter as they are giving out beta keys daily this week (Dec 13th to 17th), and who knows when else!

http://twitter.com/#!/ShadeShooter_EA/community-team

http://twitter.com/#!/bfplay4free

OK, on to my "vague" first impressions, and my opinions on how I think the game will turn out.

Battlefield Play4Free is, by EA's own words, and I quote.

Set in the modern theater of war Battlefield Play4Free is a first person shooter with realistic graphics containing the best of the Battlefield series including all-out vehicular warfare, sandbox gameplay and intense 32- player battles online. Featuring the most popular maps from Battlefield 2 combined with the familiar classes and powerful weapons of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, players have access to 16 vehicles including the F35 VTOL jet fighter and the massive Russian T-90 main battle tank.

They are not just saying all that to make the game sound good, from what I have seen so far, it's a great game in the making!

The graphics for a free game are actually very nice. I was pleasantly surprised how good the game looks cranked all the way up and at high resolution. The graphics are probably some of the best I have seen in any free FPS, and I have played most all of them at least once. They did a wonderful job and I think people will love how the game looks.

The battles can truly be intense. I am not going to go into any class or vehicle details obviously, but lets just say than any Battlefield action junkie will find him, or herself, right at home in Battlefield Play4Free as well. No matter if you are more of a foot soldier like me or a vehicle gear-head, it's all here! This game truly does "feel" like Battlefield!

If you want to know more about the game, go sign up and follow them on Twitter, it's not hard! You can get in and give this, what I think is going to be a great addition to the Battlefield Series, a spin for yourself!



First impression rating: 10/10

Overall I think this game is going to be very popular. I have to take my hat off to EA on this one. I think Battlefield Play4Free will not only be a hit with fans of the Battlefield Series like myself, but with many other gamers as well. It may even be a great way for people who have never played a Battlefield game to jump in and get their feet wet. Great job on this on EA!