Battlefield 3 developers say they are not taking shortcuts but optimising for console performance
There has been a fair share of controversy in the gaming community following the announcement from Electronic Arts that there would be slight variations between the PC and console versions of their upcoming first person shooter, Battlefield 3.
When the announcement regarding the difference in the maps and the number of players who could simultaneously play in the same match on consoles, namely Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and on the PC, there was an outcry from console gamers
who felt they were being sold short.
Electronic Arts were quick to respond and explain that it was not the case at all, but rather the changes were made because the consoles did not have the power to cope with the number of players PCs could. Arguing that the game was not ‘cut’ but rather optimised
for console performance, as consoles could not handle the size of the maps and vehicles and players at the same time, it seemed to have satisfied the gaming public to some extent.
However, this time around DICE, the developers known for their destruction friendly Frostbite engine, have also come forward to reinforce that statement. Patrick Liu, the producer at DICE, attempted to reassure the public, “They’re (console gamers) definitely
not getting less of a game.”
While that in itself is not enough to reassure anyone, he continued with an explanation, “It has the same amount of destruction and the same amount of visual fidelity.”
He also confirmed that certain rumours regarding the lack of fighter jets on consoles not being available were not true as he said, “It’s also a misconception, I’ve seen on the internet that the console version won’t have jets – that’s not true.”
Moving on to the old explanation of optimisation the producer conceded, “We’ve scaled the maps accordingly for consoles so it makes the pacing all right and the balancing is good.”
Apparently, all the maps have been ‘balanced’ for the two types of platforms which the game will be releasing on. While the argument does sound convincing, one can expect a section of gamers to be unhappy and remain dissatisfied with the move by EA and DICE.
However, if one looks at it objectively, the developers do have a point.
The question arises that would a gamer risk performance and gameplay issues over cramming a few more players on to a map. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Killzone 3 and Resistance 3 all have 16-32 player caps on their respective game modes and seem to be
doing just fine. Whether or not gamers will be satisfied when the game releases, is another story altogether.
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