Armory Staff

Just in from EA's Battlefield Blog Vietnam Hardware #2: Welcome to Phu Bai Valley Rice Fields http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/Rice1.png As our blog series on Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam goes into episode 2, we take an in-depth look at Phu Bai Valley -- a map that has been played extensively here at the DICE office. To give you a better idea exactly what this map has to offer, we talked with the guys and girls who built it to get their thoughts on everything from design to loadout and tactics for both sides. http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/400x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/ricebases.png Three bases to rule them all. Hi team! What is the general design idea behind Phu Bai Valley? -- It's the classic, open battlefield. It was originally custom-built for the Conquest game mode, and it's all about capturing and holding base A. B, and C. If you want to win at Phu Bai Valley, you need to use sound tactics in an environment where the enemy can attack from all directions. A good mix of kits and efficient communication within your squad are the keys to success.. Would you say that the focus is on infantry or vehicles in this map? -- There are plenty of options if you like vehicles, with a number of armored vehicles, as well as helicopters. At the same time, the terrain is designed so that small infantry troops can move quickly between covers to get to mission critical areas. What is the gameplay flow like on this map? -- It's ususally a battle for the essential A base, which gives a spawn point with a short distance to both base B and C. The problem is that base A does not have too many vehicles, so you need to keep pressing on in order not to be overrun. The gameplay usually looks a bit different depending if you're on the US or the NVA side, since their home bases don't have the exact same loadout. * * * P H U B A I V A L L E Y M I L I T A R Y I N T E L * * * US base starting hardware: 1 x heli / 2 x tanks / 2 x jeeps Note: Only side with a heli, although the NVA have more armor. US tactics tip: Hold base A while you capture base B, so you can instantly get your second helicopter up in the air. If you keep both helis flying, you will be able to defeat the NVA armor by air superiority. NVA base starting hardware: 3 x tanks / 2 x jeeps Note: Ample supply of armor -- you will need it to defend against the US chopper(s). NVA tactics tip: Establish a strong foothold at either base B or C. That way you don't have to start over from your home base every time you respawn. If you manage this, you will have the chance to use your armored vehicles to gain ground and push back the US side. Keep in mind that you can shoot down enemy helicopters with the machine gun mounted on top of your tank. Keep your tanks alive with engineers to defeat the air threat. Alternate, daredevil tactic: Steal the enemy choppers. http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/Blog_5F00_Map_5F00_002.png Just a quick recon over base B before the start of our Friday playtest. http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=31248 More...

Just in from Battlefield Bad Company 2 Twitter Feed OfficialBFBC2: New screens, info and tactics breakdown for Phu Bai Valley -- one of the maps in our upcoming BFBC2 Vietnam expansion. http://bit.ly/aqbxjw OfficialBFBC2: New screens, info and tactics breakdown for Phu Bai Valley -- one of the maps in our upcoming BFBC2 Vietnam expansion. http://bit.ly/aqbxjw More... OfficialBFBC2: New screens, info and tactics breakdown for Phu Bai Valley -- one of the maps in our upcoming BFBC2 Vietnam expansion. http://bit.ly/aqbxjw

Just in from Planet Battlefield - RSS News Feed BF Blog - Vietnam Hardware #2 The Battlefield Blog has a short Q&ampA about the Bad Company 2 Vietnam map called Phu Bai Valley. A map overview showing the bases is also... More...

Just in from Battlefield Bad Company 2 Twitter Feed OfficialBFBC2: Community Worldwide #4 http://bit.ly/csq5iM OfficialBFBC2: Community Worldwide #4 http://bit.ly/csq5iM More... OfficialBFBC2: Community Worldwide #4 http://bit.ly/csq5iM

Just in from EA's Battlefield Blog Community Worldwide #4: Battlefieldcommunities http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/200x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/eurogamres.png@BFCommunities on Twitter. For this week, I've chosen to highlight Paul, aka Phyrefli, from Eurogamers and Battlefieldcommunities. Originally from Great Britain, he now lives in sunny Spain and puts down a lot of time in supplying the community with news, as well as running a website showcasing communities from all over the world. When did you start to play online games? -- I've been gaming for more than 25 years, but started gaming online back in 1997. The MechWarrior series was my first real online love, after that I moved on to BF2142. Played that game from the day the first demo came out to when BC2 was released. Even now I sometimes play it with clan-mates just for the sheer exhilaration. How come you decided to switch over to Battlefield? -- Walkers The idea of piloting huge mecha over large battlegrounds was just too much toresist. Coming from a gaming background where 16 players in a game was considered a lot, into a game which allowed 64 players, was nirvana. That, plus I’ve always been a fan of science fiction meant that BF2142 (the first game I seriously played in the BF franchise) was something I was hooked on from day one. http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/400x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/Walker.jpg.jpg Gotta love them. -- In fact the only break of more than a couple of weeks I took was when Ibroke my back and couldn’t play for 2 months. When BC2 came it was anatural shift into that game, and although it is a “Bad Company” game, ratherthan a “Battlefield” game, I’ve still logged close on 400 hours on it. Like most of the community though I’m waiting with bated breath and crossedfingers for BF3 to come What communities are you involved with? -- I run a clan called Eurogamers, which plays BC2, MOH,BF2142 and SC2. I also run the Battlefield website Battlefieldcommunitieswhich aims to be a central point for clan information, news, interviewsetc. We produce a lot of original articles, especially interviews andCommunity Spotlights, and pride ourselves on helping to focus the limelight onclans or communities that otherwise may not have the chance to become wellknown. Battlefield Communities is also the home of the Who's Who ofBattlefield which aims to highlight the best people, communities and mods forthe Battlefield series. What has the response been like? -- I’ve been lucky in that pretty much every community I’ve approached has been receptive. I’ll give you one really good example: Rush TV. I’ve always had a thing aboutlive casting, there’s just something incredible about being able to watch a live match taking place over the internet. Rush TV do all the live casting for BF2 games in ESL. I’d been to Rush TV’s site and always thought it was well done and that it would be great one day to have a community site half as good as that one. When Battlefield Communities was finished I thought I’d be a bit cheekyand contacted sT0n3r from Rush TV. To my complete surprise he agreed toan interview AND he mentioned the site in several live casts. I find itincredible that people are willing to take the time to help out a new site suchas Battlefield Communities. There are several others; TeamTang, ForgottenHonor, MrGarak from Forum User Battles to name but a few. If you spend alot of time in the forums you can easily come away with the impression the BFcommunity is a very negative one. That’s just not true, and I’m verylucky to have been the recipient of some of that generosity. "Even now I sometimes play Battlefield 2142 with clan-mates just for the sheer exhilaration" What is your goal working with communities in this way? -- With Eurogamers, it is simply to make itthe best clan possible. It is only a year old, yet has a solid core ofgreat players. We are expanding into Medal of Honor and already have ourserver ordered. With Battlefieldcommunities I want to create a site which large and small clans and communities can gettheir news out. Where we interview, and feature, not just theheavyweights but also the smaller communities, the ones you may not have heardof but who can really enhance your enjoyment of the community as a whole. The Who's Who of Battlefield is a part of this - the inaugural #1, MrGarak, isnot a well-known figure around the community, but he spends many hours workinghard to make the Forum User Battles great fun for everyone. That's thekind of person or community we want to help promote and give recognition to. Why do you think the communities need a central place like Battlefield Communities? -- It offers the chance for all communities, not just the large heavy weights, to have their voice heard and their news broadcast. We accept original news from other community sites, clan sites, mod sites and any site connected to the BF universe.We also have a directory where you can add your community for free. Looking to join a clan in Australia? Check the directory. Looking for the latest BF news in Hungary? Yep, we have a site that does that. Want to get your clan’s details out for free to potential new recruits? Just sign up and add your details to the directory. -- We also have a group system which allows our users to setup their owngroups and invite friends in. So, for example, if you want to start aclan but don’t want to setup a website just yet, you can start a group on thesite so that you and your friends have an immediate place to congregate andorganise. You can add videos to the site so that others can view them – Ioccasionally go through the video and photos sections and tweet out links tointeresting ones. There are so many things you can do at BattlefieldCommunities it would take several pages just to get through them all -- As well as taking in news from other communities and disseminating that, we also generate our own news and articles. The Battlefield Who’s Who is one example. The #1 in the first Battlefield Who’s Who was not a personality who’s in the news a lot or who everyone knows. It was a guy who works his butt off to provide a fun, weekly event that members of the EA BC2 community can join. MrGarak is emblematic of the kind of person we look to reward and highlight in the Who’s Who. The 2nd edition of the Who’sWho will include clans, and I’m currently actively looking for clans to be inthere. Again, they don’t need to be the biggest or most well known, butthey do need to be active, interesting and preferably give something back tothe community. -- I’m also looking for blog, news and article writers. If you’veever wanted to try writing articles, or blog pieces, then send some in to thesite. If they’re well-written and original they’ll be put on the site forall the community to see. Personally I believe there is a latent pool oftalented writers in the BF community; with Battlefield Communities they have aplatform to air their articles, news and blog posts. http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=31201 More...

Just in from Planet Battlefield - RSS News Feed BF Blog - Community Worldwide #4 The Community Worldwide article for this week features Paul 'Phyrefli' from BattlefieldCommunities and Eurogamers.For this week, I've... More...

Just in from Battlefield Bad Company 2 Twitter Feed OfficialBFBC2: Community Worldwide #4 http://bit.ly/csq5iM with @Eurogamers and @BFcommunities OfficialBFBC2: Community Worldwide #4 http://bit.ly/csq5iM with @Eurogamers and @BFcommunities More... OfficialBFBC2: Community Worldwide #4 http://bit.ly/csq5iM with @Eurogamers and @BFcommunities

Just in from Battlefield Bad Company 2 Twitter Feed OfficialBFBC2: Community worldwide #4 with @BFcommunities OfficialBFBC2: Community worldwide #4 with @BFcommunities More... OfficialBFBC2: Community worldwide #4 with @BFcommunities

Just in from Battlefield Bad Company 2 Twitter Feed OfficialBFBC2: For a chance to win this: http://bit.ly/cMEdi3 Retweet + follow with [Gamertag] [Platform] and [Veteran status] OfficialBFBC2: For a chance to win this: http://bit.ly/cMEdi3 Retweet + follow with [Gamertag] [Platform] and [Veteran status] More... OfficialBFBC2: For a chance to win this: http://bit.ly/cMEdi3 Retweet + follow with [Gamertag] [Platform] and [Veteran status]

Just in from Battlefield Bad Company 2 Twitter Feed OfficialBFBC2: In Community Worldwide #4 you get to know @Battlefieldcommunities a little better . Post will be live in a few hours . OfficialBFBC2: In Community Worldwide #4 you get to know @Battlefieldcommunities a little better . Post will be live in a few hours . More... OfficialBFBC2: In Community Worldwide #4 you get to know @Battlefieldcommunities a little better . Post will be live in a few hours .

Just in from Battlefield Bad Company 2 Twitter Feed OfficialBFBC2: Good Morning World!! OfficialBFBC2: Good Morning World!! More... OfficialBFBC2: Good Morning World!!

Just in from Planet Battlefield - RSS News Feed BF Blog - Community Wednesday #15 This week's community update has mostly news about the Battlefield competition scene such as the BFBC2 Nations Cup and BF2 Nations Cup. The... More...

Just in from Planet Battlefield - RSS News Feed Battlegroup42 1.7 Released Date Announced Battlefield 1942 mod, BattleGroup42 is still going strong and has announced they are releasing v1.7 a week from today on October 20th.Hello and... More...

Just in from Planet Battlefield - RSS News Feed BF Blog - Interview with Sebastian Armonioso Today's Battlefield Blog DICE developer interview is with game designer Sebastian "Sibben" Armonioso. Sibben has worked on... More...

Just in from EA's Battlefield Blog DICE Veteran Sebastian Armonioso: "Game development was a wake-up call for me" http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/400x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/Sibben.png "Sibben" just stares at you if you happen to mention campers. Game Designer Sebastian "Sibben" Armonioso has been an avid gamer since the 70's, when the first arcade games appeared [That would be Asteroids for 10 cents -- Editor's note]. Ever since then, his life has revolved around games. -- Suddenly, I felt the urge to start working with games, as well. Back then, this was hardly an obvious carrier choice -- very few people in Sweden worked with games, and people kind of thought "Do you actually work on games -- don't they just magically appear?" You didn't know who the developers were, or how everything was done. Nowadays, you have loads of university courses in game design to choose from. -- Anyway, I applied for the job as artist at DICE and got it, and I have been here ever since. This was in the mid 90's. What i really wanted to do was game design, but back then, there weren't really any clear cut roles like that -- game design was pretty much something that everyone dabbled in. What was your work samples like when you applied? -- I had done some rendered 3D models at home that I sent to DICE. Since this was pretty long ago, just being able to put textures on stuff meant you were considered pretty cool. They were like: "Nice portfolio -- can you start Monday?" And that was that. I imagine today would be a completely different story. -- This was when DICE had just bought Refraction Games [Where Lars Gustavsson worked, remember? -- Editor's note], so in my interview I actually got to see the Refractor engine that would later give birth to Battlefield 1942. At the time, this was simply a soldier standing still on a field, but just the fact that you could see really far was cool. And for me to get a glimpse of what would grow into Battlefield 1942 felt amazing. What was it about Battlefield 1942 that was so cool back then? -- Well, I think this was when a game usually had either nice graphics or physics. Battlefield 1942 kind of merged all those things: you could run and gun, it had vehicles, and it had huge distances. It was awe-inspiring! http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/400x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/ME1.png Still absolutely breathtaking. Later on, you did level design for Mirror's Edge. That must have been tough, since it's all first person, but contains a lot of traditional platforming elements?-- Yes. The idea was to include the kind of traditional climbing and jumping that we know from Tomb Raider or Prince of Persia -- but it of course became very complicated because of the first person view. For example, it was hard to judge distances to objects. So how did you solve those problems? -- The thing is, we did enormous amounts of prototyping for Mirror's Edge. We created so many different test tracks and tried out all sorts of moves to see what worked and what didn't. That was really key. How do you view Mirror's Edge today? -- Artistically, I view it as a huge step forward. We did a lot of things in Mirror's Edge that hadn't been done before, or that we did in new ways. I think that the protagonist, Faith, is still one of the coolest characters ever, and I love the whole setup with the ultra clean city where oppression lingers everywhere. It was perhaps a bit hard and frustrating at times, and it was kind of niche, but I am very proud of this quirky game that dared do things its own way. I was kind of sad that it didn't do better sales-wise, but I think people see it now as a game that truly broke new ground. And after Mirror's Edge, you moved on to Battlefield 1943 as lead designer? -- Yes. It was kind of funny, actually. At the time, we were unsure what to do exactly. We had the new Frostbite engine that had been used in Bad Company, and me and Patrick Liu were thinking, wouldn't it be cool to try and rebuild the classic map Wake Island in Frostbite? From there, the idea of a bigger remake wasn't far away. We didn't want to make a carbon copy of Battlefield 1942, just pick the very best parts, and when we realized this was too good to keep on a hobby level, we had the chance to experiment with a new distribution method as well. http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/400x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/1943_2D00_2.png Still absolutely destructible. How much of Battlefield 1942 did you simply drag over into Frostbite?-- Well, we played a lot of Battlefield 1942 back then, and sort of rediscovered it. We noticed that it was still awesome, but at the same time, it had some design elements that didn't hold up to the test of time. So we tweaked a lot of things. What kinds of things? -- They were mainly to do with the tempo and size of everything. You had to wait a long time to spawn, and then you often had to travel large distances to get back into the action, for example. Once we had re-edited and polished it, it was very satisfying to see that Battlefield 1943 became a huge hit, and that our instincts were spot on. And after that came Medal of Honor. What did you think when you got the assignment to design the multiplayer for it? -- We didn't want to simply reskin Battlefield and slap on the Medal of Honor logo, that was for sure. At the same time, we wanted to build on our own strengths. So what is it that we can do? Answer: We can build very well-balanced maps with lots of action. I remember thinking: "Can we get closer to Counter-Strike and Quake, while keeping that special DICE touch?" Medal of Honor is much more focused on infantry than Battlefield. How come? -- Partly because this was not supposed to be Battlefield. Partly because the whole theme of Medal of Honor is these small infantry squads that operate in Afghanistan -- they simply don't have a lot of tanks or other vehicles down there. We also thought we had a good approach to the faster kind of infantry battles from working with Battlefield 1943, so we wanted to grab the chance to experiment some more with it, and take it further. Where did the idea for Combat Mission come from? -- We wanted a multiplayer mode that gave a feel of continuity and story. We were actually inspired a bit by Left 4 Dead, where they do this very well, the way they put everything into context. We try and do the same by use of voiceovers and direction, and how the string of objects in the Comabt Missions all fit together. What was it like working together with Danger Close? -- It was cool. We visited them a lot, and they came over here as well. The thing is, for Medal of Honor, we could not simply make up everything we needed -- we relied on the authentic input from Danger Close and the military experts they were working with. http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/400x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/mohmp3.png No time to rest! So how much freedom did you have during development?-- Well, we could choose what we wanted to take from the singleplayer game, and what we didn't. For example, we didn't include lean or prone, even though they are both in the singleplayer. For multiplayer, it just introduced camping and lowered the tempo. What is it really like developing games? -- It's tough. It's a lot of hard work. As a gamer, it's something of a wake-up call to start developing games yourself. You have to learn the hard way that you simply can't include everything you wish into a game. How do you play games now that you are a developer yourself? -- I play them a bit differently nowadays. It's hard to detach from my professional self, so I tend to dissect games, much like a director does when he watches movies, I presume. I kind of miss that feeling of total immersion playing games that I could get in the old days. FOUR FACTS WITH "SIBBEN" Age: 39 Lives: Stockholm, Sweden Secret Skill: Pasta Sauce Cooker Extraordinaire Alignment: Lawful Neutral GAMEOGRAPHY Mirror's Edge Level Designer Battlefield 1943 Lead Designer Medal of Honor Lead Designer http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=31192 More...

Just in from EA's Battlefield Blog Community Wednesday #15 BFBC2Nations Cup Tomorrow onthe 14th of October the Nations Cup over at ESL kicks off with some really goodteams battling it out in the first rounds. Check out the results and upcomingmatches here. The BFBC2 Nations cup will be run as a 6v6 and a 5v5. ESL 5v5 ESL 6v6 I want towish all participating teams the best of luck and let's hope for a greattournament! BF2 NationsCup And we alsohave the Battlefield 2 Nations Cup at ESL with teams who have already made itto the playoffs. We have had the privilegue of watching some really goodlive-streamed matches brought to us by Rush-TV. I am sure that these games willbe even more intense and packed with loads of action and epic moments! ESL Playoffs On a sidenote, Rush-zone will be livestreaming the match between France and Netherlands today at 21:00 CET. I'm reallylooking forward to this so I know what I'm doing on Wednesday evening. Rollingwith Awesome Video Competition Now, we have picked out the three videoswe think are the most groundbreaking, humoristic and action packed. It has beena very tough choice since we received a lot of good videos. Thank you toeveryone who took their time to enter the competition. There will be more videocompetitions like this so don't put away your cameras just yet. Vote for your favorite Community Video here! Twitter Giveaway 1. Follow OfficialBFBC2 on Twitter http://twitter.com/OfficialBFBC2 2. Follow instructions on the OfficialBFBC2 Twitter account. http://twitter.com/OfficialBFBC2 3. The Instructions will appear at 10:00 CEST on Thursday the 14th of October 4. The Twitter give-away stretches from Thursday 14th of October 10:00 CEST to Friday 15th of October 10:00 CEST. This week we are giving away These really cool BF 1943 Pilot Glasses. http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/300x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/BF43pilots.jpg // zh1nt0 http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=31186 More...

Just in from Battlefield Bad Company 2 Twitter Feed OfficialBFBC2: Community Wednesday #15 is out! OfficialBFBC2: Community Wednesday #15 is out! More... OfficialBFBC2: Community Wednesday #15 is out!

Just in from Battlefield Bad Company 2 Twitter Feed OfficialBFBC2: Community Wednesday #15 is out! http://bit.ly/95Aiwy OfficialBFBC2: Community Wednesday #15 is out! http://bit.ly/95Aiwy More... OfficialBFBC2: Community Wednesday #15 is out! http://bit.ly/95Aiwy

Just in from Battlefield Bad Company 2 Twitter Feed OfficialBFBC2: Alright quick on the keyboards-people. Typo.. 5300 ppl voted. Make it 10.000 ! http://bit.ly/aWNq4Q OfficialBFBC2: Alright quick on the keyboards-people. Typo.. 5300 ppl voted. Make it 10.000 ! http://bit.ly/aWNq4Q More... OfficialBFBC2: Alright quick on the keyboards-people. Typo.. 5300 ppl voted. Make it 10.000 ! http://bit.ly/aWNq4Q

Just in from Planet Battlefield - RSS News Feed Forgotten Hope 2 - Big Game Hunting Forgotten Hope 2 just released v2.3, but they are back at work on some new content. Check out these three new renders of the Sherman Jumbo tanks and... More...

Just in from Battlefield Bad Company 2 Twitter Feed OfficialBFBC2: Don't forget to vote in the Community Video Competition: http://bit.ly/c70D3Z OfficialBFBC2: Don't forget to vote in the Community Video Competition: http://bit.ly/c70D3Z More... OfficialBFBC2: Don't forget to vote in the Community Video Competition: http://bit.ly/c70D3Z

Just in from EA's Battlefield Blog DICE Veteran Patrick Liu: "Developing games is a dream job" http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/300x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/Liu.png Drawing on the experience from destroying and remaking Battlefield. Having led the design of runaway hit Battlefield 1943, Patrick Liu just put the finishing touches on the multiplayer portion of Medal of Honor. But Patrick was not sure that he would end up in the gaming industry at all. Lucky for us, he switched the laboratory job of mutating bacteria for developing kickass games here at DICE. -- In my youth, I didn't really have any ambitions towards the game business, and I actually have a Master of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering. I did write some news pieces for the Swedish gaming site Fragzone, though, and Pinball Dreams was one of my favorite games on the Amiga. But I couldn't imagine back then that I would one day come to work for DICE. Yet here you are! How come? -- Well, I found out I was good at leading projects, which I did at Starbreeze for a while. Then DICE offered me a job I couldn't resist -- being responsible for destruction! Specifically in Battlefield: Bad Company, which sounded really interesting and innovative, so that was an easy choice. I am motivated mainly in my work based on what I get to do, so that's why I ended up here. I pretty much want to build what I want to play, and when I started at DICE I also knew that Mirror's Edge was under development, which made me even more curious coming here. What was working on destruction like? -- It was good fun. I was deciding what objects were to be destructible, and how. I had to come up with different reasons for destroying stuff in the singleplayer and multiplayer modes. In singleplayer, you can do more bombastic scenes and make up just about any reason for destroying the scenery. In multiplayer, it's mainly a way to remove obstacles, and we built the bases in a certain manner so that some parts of it were meant to be destroyed. -- It's also about what kinds of things are fun to blow up, and finally about balancing the hardware resources. Having destructible objects puts a lot of strain on our limited memory and rendering budgets, so we can't go crazy just for the heck of it. I especially like what we did with our trees in BC1. They are very physics-laden. For example, there's a big difference how it behaves if you drive over one as opposed to blowing it up. I guess you could say I was obsessed with creating the perfect destructible tree! And I think people liked the feeling of mowing them down in a tank. And then you moved on to Battlefield 1943, right? How did that project happen? -- Yes. It felt very fresh, and it was a very spontaneous project that just sort of... happened! We just tried a bunch of stuff out, based on the idea that it would be cool to recreate Battlefield 1942 using our new Frostbite engine we had developed for Bad company. Pretty soon, we noticed that it was a lot of fun and decided to make an Arcade/PSN release of it [it only became one of the best-selling downloadable games on XBLA ever -- Editor's comment]. So that was a lot of fun. http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/400x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/1943.png Fact: You can never get too much Wake Island. What was it like, remaking Battlefield 1942 several years on?-- Well, it is actually very hard to make a remake of a game that people have such fond memories of, without destroying them. So Battlefield 1943 had to be modern and easy to get into, while preserving the feeling of Battlefield 1942. The development actually gave us some ideas for Medal of Honor -- how we approached the game in terms of accessibility, menu flow, spawn times, instant action, and so on. Moving on to Medal of Honor, where you are the multiplayer Producer. What does that mean that you do? -- I am kind of the guy who points out the main direction and sets the high level vision for the whole experience. I don't really plan everyone's schedules or anything, rather I state what we should do, and then the lead designer performs the bulk of that work. I have also been heavily involved as a spokesperson for Medal of Honor [Like when Liu did 70 interviews in two days at our latest press event -- Editor's note]. My role is perhaps above all to bring the best out in my colleagues. To challenge them. So I'm perhaps not the most creative person if you count the number of gampelay ideas I churn out. It's more the kind of thing where I immediately know a good idea when I see it. What was that high level vision you set out to achieve? -- I knew we got the offer because of our track record with Battlefield. At the same time, I knew we didn't want to make a Battlefield clone -- that would just not make sense. So what could we do instead? And what was the answer to that question? -- Well, if you look at some of our Battlefield 2 players, they play Strike at Karkand, but mod the map to exclude any vehicles. They just want the infantry fights in an urban setting. That's an interesting signal from the players that we wanted to cater for in Medal of Honor. So the second map we built for it was Kabul City Ruins -- an urban environment strictly for Team Deathmatch with infantry. Why do you think some gamers prefer to turn the vehicles off? -- I think playing as infantry only is somehow more approachable and tangible. As soon as you include vehicles, it automatically means a higher level of complexity. Battlefield is fantastic in its own right, but there is a certain charm in keeping things simple. http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/400x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/battlefield_5F00_bad_5F00_company/MoHmp.png Blurring the line between singleplayer and multiplayer. How are you keeping it simple?-- It's a bit more of an old school approach, I would say, with the main focus on the actual shooting. That goes for the level design as well, with the flow of the deathmatch maps. Some games nowadays have a level design that brings Swiss cheese to mind: they are full of holes all over that players can navigate through. Our maps have a more obvious flow, so there is a skill element there -- just like in old school games -- of predicting and anticipating enemy movement. Quake is a good example of this from the past. You mean like when you played Quake in the 90's, and you knew that everyone would head for the central chamber where the grenade launcher was? -- Sort of. I mean, we don't have those kinds of "honey pots", as we call them. But take the game mode Objective Control, for example. There you have sectors to capture, so that makes it natural for players to gravitate towards specific areas. What do you think is the main draw of the Medal of Honor multiplayer? -- Playing online with regular gamers, I think it is very addictive. It's so easy to play just one more game. It's quick and easy to restart, and it's a pure kind of gameplay. At the same time, I think we still have the depth in there. Coming from Battlefield: Bad Company 2, some players probably would miss the characteristic teamplay actions? -- The thing is, we have teamplay actions in Medal of Honor as well, albeit in a slightly different form. So for example, you can gather your skill points into different defensive support actions, like a health upgrade. When in-game, you can instantly give your teammates a health boost with the D-pad, even though you don't physically throw a medkit onto the ground. Or you could choose to spend those points offensively towards a rocket launcher, so there is a tactical choice there, even if it's not that obvious at a quick glance. The single player mode was created in Los Angeles. What was it like creating the other half from here in Sweden? -- It was a very special situation, developing one half on a game in another continent, and on another game engine at that. But we decided early on that we would do more or less one game each -- Danger Close defined the tone and theme, but apart from that, we had a lot of creative freedom in terms of level design and game modes. Say I am only going to play one multiplayer mode and map. Which should I choose? -- I am very fond of team deathmatch, so Kabul City Ruins is undoubtedly one of my personal favorites. It's fast, it has a lot of vertical gameplay, and there are some opportunities for sniping. The Combat Mission mode is also cool, where we have a storyline and some fiction -- that you are advancing in the map for a reason. Combat Mission-wise, I would opt for Helmand Valley, where the US side needs to get to an enemy fort and mark it for bombing. A lot of fans probably think game development is a dream job. Is it really? Yes! You get to entertain people, and it's incredibly creative work. I also think games is the medium to be in if you want to create something that is truly cutting edge. FOUR FACTS WITH LIU Age: 31 Lives: Stockholm, Sweden Secret Skill: Dynamite Sourdough Baker Top Three Traits: "Open-minded. Patient. Logical." GAMEOGRAPHY Battlefield: Bad Company Producer Battlefield 1943 Producer Medal of Honor Producer (Multiplayer) http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=31166 More...

Just in from Planet Battlefield - RSS News Feed BF Blog - Interview with Patrick Liu The Battlefield Blog posted another developer interview today featuring Patrick Liu.Having led the design of runaway hit Battlefield 1943, Patrick Liu... More...

Just in from Battlefield Bad Company 2 Twitter Feed OfficialBFBC2: Check out our interview with developer Patrick Liu, producer from Bad Company, Battlefield 1943, and Medal of Honor: http://bit.ly/cuFTT9 OfficialBFBC2: Check out our interview with developer Patrick Liu, producer from Bad Company, Battlefield 1943, and Medal of Honor: http://bit.ly/cuFTT9 More... OfficialBFBC2: Check out our interview with developer Patrick Liu, producer from Bad Company, Battlefield 1943, and Medal of Honor: http://bit.ly/cuFTT9

Just in from Battlefield Bad Company 2 Twitter Feed OfficialBFBC2: RT @zh1nt0: Giving away this Qpad with #bfbc2 logo http://bit.ly/cr8LLF Follow + retweet! #giveaway ends at 18:00 CET today. OfficialBFBC2: RT @zh1nt0: Giving away this Qpad with #bfbc2 logo http://bit.ly/cr8LLF Follow + retweet! #giveaway ends at 18:00 CET today. More... OfficialBFBC2: RT @zh1nt0: Giving away this Qpad with #bfbc2 logo http://bit.ly/cr8LLF Follow + retweet! #giveaway ends at 18:00 CET today.