Battlefield 3 'Premium' Service Offers New and Exciting Way to Give EA Money

I was planning on not buying this until I saw the following Battlefield Premium exclusive:

Strategy guides.

I'm in!

And now battlelog is irrelevant.

It is a good deal if you plan on buying all the map packs. Anyone too dumb to understand what makes BF3 awesome is missing out. But they are prob paying for the CoD map packs. Buncha dummies.

Call of Duty will always be a better value proposition because EA turns off servers. It's a good rule of thumb to just avoid all multiplayer-focused EA games in general.

This is actually a great deal, because dear lord you get so much for your $15 a pack. The work put into the maps is astronomical heights above the work they've done on DLC maps for the last two iterations of that one other shooter.
 
(Disclaimer: I'm that guy who likes the infantry combat in BF3 and was very happy with Close Quarters)

@onan said:

It's a good rule of thumb to just avoid all EA games.

FTFY

I guess if you're getting the DLC anyway you might as well get this.

But EA.. Fix your game first, please.

As a PC player who has 130+ hours of bf3 and was planning on buying all the DLC this sounds great, not really sure why it's getting so much hate. 20 maps, 20 weapons, 10 vehicles, 4 game modes for $50 is more content than I've paid for full games.

"Priority access to server queues"

Wait. What?

I don't recall ever seeing a "queue" in BF3. Is this something they're going to add so that I can pay them to remove it?

Such a douche idea.

I'm starting to really, really like Alex' articles.

This would have been good to know 7 months ago.

Big BF3 fan here. First I was "pfft, what ever. Some other people can throw away their money" -- but when it said it came with the expansion packs in the price... Yeah, I'm getting this. I'm going to buy all the expansions, anyway. BF3 is going to be a regular source of video-game fun for probably another year. Just a personal observation. Works for me.

Hey, remember when games did stuff like this for free?

@umdesch4 said:

I'm sure somebody'll say they read the headline and knew it was an Alex article. But I've gotta admit, this headline nailed my sentiments exactly.

You have to give Alex credit - he writes good article titles.

As soon as I read this i knew....that Alex finally wrote a funny title?

I actually want those weapon camos. That doesn't really make me a bad person.

@Ravenlight said:

Hey, remember when games did stuff like this for free?

Or Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 that released free monthly map packs adding dozens if not hundreds new maps to the game post-release.

@TiE23 said:

Big BF3 fan here. First I was "pfft, what ever. Some other people can throw away their money" -- but when it said it came with the expansion packs in the price... Yeah, I'm getting this. I'm going to buy all the expansions, anyway. BF3 is going to be a regular source of video-game fun for probably another year. Just a personal observation. Works for me.

^And this, pretty much.

Glad I traded this in.

Fires up TF2. F**k you EA!

"EA hasn't exactly been shy regarding its turgid feelings over Call of Duty's Elite service."

hahahah thanks Alex

@GreggD said:

I actually want those weapon camos. That doesn't really make me a bad person.

I'd say that you were, but then I just bought a bunch of Skylanders, so Dino-Rang and I should probably just keep our heads down and stay out of it.

@radioactivez0r: I'm with ya. With BC2 I got the impression while playing that I could respond to attacks and defend myself under most circumstances. With BF3 I'm constantly 1 second away from death which most of the time I can't do anything about. Makes it a completely different (and in my opinion less fun) experience.

To address the topic at hand: Fuck this service, especially the server queue priority. Even if it were a good deal, and it's not, I'd be against it out of sheer anti-greedy fuck principle.

This game is going down hill fast. EA is so fucking hell bent on "beating"(lack of a better word) Activision or making an extra $ that they have lost sight of who is paramount to video games, the player. DICE went on record saying something to the effect that they didn't really care what the player wanted, that they were going to do what they wanted to do. Money-fucking-whores!

I loved BF3 when it came out and didn't really mind that they pushed it out the door before MW3. Sure, the game was a little broken, but it was fun regardless. Then, a few months back we got that update that seemed to fix a lot of problems at first, but after putting a few more hours in to the game I could tell they nerfed the shit out of a lot of guns, made recoil WAY more reoil-y, and using the SOFLAM was damn near impossible.....enough bitching, fuck this idea is what I'm getting at. It seems to me that EA, naturally, is more interested in making a buck than satisfying the gamer.

Oh! I chortled heartily at that title.

Kudos to you, sir, kudos!

Basically, it's Battlefield Elite.

Honestly, I don't see a problem, it's just a season pass. EA probably should've had it ready from day one, but if its like Call of Duty Elite, the net result is that people who are big fans can actually save some money with the deal, since they'd spend $60 on the same amount of DLC separately. I personally feel that the DLC map packs tend to be overpriced in general for the big FPS games, but thats a whole other argument.

It's not really giving EA any more money, its letting them collect that money earlier.

I'm a pretty hardcore BF3 player and like none of this is enticing at all. It's irritating that they include B2k in there as most players either got it with their limited edition purchase or bought it afterwards already. All of the other things like dog tags and knives and assignments are pretty useless. The ability to save my 5 favorite battle reports? Yay. And this far into the game, who cares about double xp? Most people I know were only driven to hit 45 due to the achievement. I don't care what the number is next to my name since it really makes no difference at all to the game.

If this will apply to my account and not just my "soldier" I might be interested. I play BF3 on both PS3 and PC. Getting all of the DLC for both platforms may be worth it.

Who am I kidding, That will never happen.

Just when I was thinking about getting back into Battlefield.

This is just wrong on so many levels...

@vonFlampanker said:

@radioactivez0r: I'm with ya. With BC2 I got the impression while playing that I could respond to attacks and defend myself under most circumstances. With BF3 I'm constantly 1 second away from death which most of the time I can't do anything about. Makes it a completely different (and in my opinion less fun) experience.

To address the topic at hand: Fuck this service, especially the server queue priority. Even if it were a good deal, and it's not, I'd be against it out of sheer anti-greedy fuck principle.

It actually is a good deal. The subsequent four map packs are going to be 15 dollars a piece, so that's ten dollars less, plus all the other small perks. I'm taking advantage of this, as BF3 is my favorite MP game right now.

BF is just another COD clone now disgusting I miss the old BF COD ruins everything great about games.

@vonFlampanker said:

@radioactivez0r: I'm with ya. With BC2 I got the impression while playing that I could respond to attacks and defend myself under most circumstances. With BF3 I'm constantly 1 second away from death which most of the time I can't do anything about. Makes it a completely different (and in my opinion less fun) experience.

To address the topic at hand: Fuck this service, especially the server queue priority. Even if it were a good deal, and it's not, I'd be against it out of sheer anti-greedy fuck principle.

It actually is a good deal. The subsequent four map packs are going to be 15 dollars a piece, so that's ten dollars less, plus all the other small perks. I'm taking advantage of this, as BF3 is my favorite MP game right now.

@GreggD said:

The subsequent four map packs are going to be 15 dollars a piece,

Holy crap, really? I haven't really been keeping track, and don't go in for things like map pack DLC, so I didn't know this. So, $60 for 4 map packs, or $60 for an entirely new and complete AAA title.

I guess it's up to people what they want to spend their money on, and where they see value, but wow...just...wow...

@PandaBear said:

@GreggD

@vonFlampanker said:

@radioactivez0r: I'm with ya. With BC2 I got the impression while playing that I could respond to attacks and defend myself under most circumstances. With BF3 I'm constantly 1 second away from death which most of the time I can't do anything about. Makes it a completely different (and in my opinion less fun) experience.

To address the topic at hand: Fuck this service, especially the server queue priority. Even if it were a good deal, and it's not, I'd be against it out of sheer anti-greedy fuck principle.

It actually is a good deal. The subsequent four map packs are going to be 15 dollars a piece, so that's ten dollars less, plus all the other small perks. I'm taking advantage of this, as BF3 is my favorite MP game right now.

I can get behind this. It's cheaper than buying the map pack individually. But I honestly believe after Close Quarters has its time to shine people will continue to setup "large conquest maps, 200% tickets" only servers with the other maps.
Anyway, love the shit out of the game and I want all the map packs, so I guess I'm in. Everyone has Back to Karkand but this will still save me 800MSP...
...that queue jumping stuff is pretty dodgy though.

I rarely get into a situation where a queue even exists. That's hardly a reason to invest in this, and anyone thinking it's gonna create problems probably doesn't use the server browser too often.

They just keep doing their best to ruin BF3. :(

@umdesch4 said:

@GreggD said:

The subsequent four map packs are going to be 15 dollars a piece,

Holy crap, really? I haven't really been keeping track, and don't go in for things like map pack DLC, so I didn't know this. So, $60 for 4 map packs, or $60 for an entirely new and complete AAA title.

I guess it's up to people what they want to spend their money on, and where they see value, but wow...just...wow...

The big two shooters, BF and CoD have been charging 15 bucks for expansions ever since MW2. Honestly, though, I think BF gives you more value per pack, considering the first two in addition to the four maps per pack, add ten new guns each. And the next couple are adding new vehicles, so that's more stuff to do and play with. Whereas CoD only gives you multiplayer maps and co-op missions. Occasionally a new mode, but apparently at least Close Quarters is adding new modes too.

Remember last E3 they were touting how their service was free, basically poking fun at COD. I wish I had a time machine.

I remember when Zinto swore an oath that this would never happen...

@GreggD said:

The big two shooters, BF and CoD have been charging 15 bucks for expansions ever since MW2. Honestly, though, I think BF gives you more value per pack, considering the first two in addition to the four maps per pack, add ten new guns each. And the next couple are adding new vehicles, so that's more stuff to do and play with. Whereas CoD only gives you multiplayer maps and co-op missions. Occasionally a new mode, but apparently at least Close Quarters is adding new modes too.

Ok then, that I can sorta get behind. New guns and vehicles demand much more dev work, testing, and QA which goes a long way towards justifying the price. I was under the impression that map packs were basically just maps. My ignorance about modern FPSs is starting to show. Last time I was really good at a FPS, and right into it, people had LAN parties.

How much more money do these people want from gamers? We're paying for xbox live gold, actually no let's start from the beginning. We're paying for the internet service so that we can access xbox live gold, which we are paying for so that we can play the game we bought online with friends (but mostly strangers) and now we should pay again for a service for a game? DLC is bad enough but seriously these guys should relax with all this stuff. The thing that makes it even worse is that many many people are willing to pay to get "exclusive skins" and weapons. If Halo 4, which I'm already skeptical about due to its CODifications, also implements a similar service, I'll just give up on FPSs and consoles in general and pirate pc games to play.

I'm pretty sure server queue priority manipulation violates unwritten TOS for the original game.

It's a bit like Sony removing Linux support from the PS3, but less understandable. And skidgier.

People need to realize this isn't CoD Elite. You don't get the privilege of a mobile app to see your match results. We already have that via battlelog.

This is just pre-BUYING the DLC, which most of the hardcore BF players will do anyway. The other crap added on is just to entice a few more people. I see this as a $10 savings for stuff I would already buy.

Plus, BF maps actually have some substance besides a 10x10ft low-res frag cube CoD calls maps.

@WilltheMagicAsian said:

EA is really pushing these F2P market strategies in their non-free games.

? The article was about a paid subscription service.

@dr_mantas: I don't get the hate for stuff like this. These (Elite and this) are completely optional and aimed squarely at the most hardcore of hardcore. If you were already going to buy the map packs, this is a good value. Only in movies and the video game industry is giving your fans the content that they crave seen as evil.

• Priority access to server queues (translation: jump ahead of the non-paying gutter trash!)

No good can come of this, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see more and more of this in the future. You want to play online and not have to wait, or have access to the best, fastest servers? Pay up, chump. It's basically the online equivalent of a VIP room or the velvet rope. The sad thing is I bet too many gamers will some how justify this and even defend this practice by EA and other publishers.

@mlarrabee said:

I'm pretty sure server queue priority manipulation violates unwritten TOS for the original game.

It's a bit like Sony removing Linux support from the PS3, but less understandable. And skidgier.

You can't be serious.

Seems fine to me for those who are into the game enough. Like others have said it's like pre-buying the DLC and getting perks with it such as early access and queue priority. I'm not into BF3 enough to go in on this, partially because I could care less about the Close Quarters pack and will save a few bucks buying individually if I skip it.
 
They should definitely offer some of these features to regular folks as well. Resetting your stats (and presumably unlocks) should be available to everyone since unlocking things and getting new stuff is part of the reward system of the grind. It's why Diablo 3 works.

@adamazing said:

$50 for all BF3 expansions? That doesn't sound too bad.

...and if those expansions are anything like Close Quarters, then I have no personal interest whatsoever.

Wait, what am I saying? I quit playing Battlefield 3 two weeks after Karkand got released. That game was not as good as it should've been.