Battlefield 3 beta open to all today

The Battlefield 3 open beta starts today on all platforms, and DICE has laid out easy download instructions for each one.

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If you're burning with jealousy over your friends' early Battlefield 3 beta access, you can quell the green-eyed monster today. The Battlefield beta is going live on all platforms, and the hefty download could be waiting to pick up on your storefront of choice right now.

At this point, we assume there's only a cloud of gamer-shaped smoke in the chair where you used to be, but at the off-chance that you're still here, we'll share some details.

The Battlefield Blog carries instructions for each platform. It appears in the "Free Games" section of the Origin storefront, the "Demos" section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, and under the alphabetical listing on the PlayStation Store.

The team also shares a few helpful tips, like where shotguns are most useful (in the tunnels) and using bipods to improve your accuracy. Following these tips may very well double your time between deaths, giving you a solid 6 seconds of continuous play before you are capped in the head by someone much better than you. At least, that's what will probably happen to me.

This open beta only features the Rush mode on the Metro map, and is available until October 10. Check out some impressions while you wait for the download to finish.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 29, 2011 7:00 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Battlefield 3 beta open to all today.

    The Battlefield 3 open beta starts today on all platforms, and DICE has laid out easy download instructions for each one.

    • reply
      September 29, 2011 7:23 AM

      Servers are getting smashed atm

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      September 29, 2011 7:33 AM

      'This Content cannot be accessed by your account'

      PS3... wtf? :(

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      September 29, 2011 7:38 AM

      Yea Ill take a hit from all of you but every time I try and give EA a redemption pass, they just screw things up more. Battlelog is not only a joke but this game is beyond over-hyped plain and simple. EA and Dice can keep this crap, Activision can keep their crap and all I can be hopeful for now is that RAGE doesn't suck goat balls. Let the flaming commence....

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        September 29, 2011 8:32 AM

        all this over beta? Do you have any interest in the SP portion of the game?

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          September 29, 2011 8:45 AM

          What SP? This game is built on MP and what little SP there will be is going to be shorter than fast food lunch hour.

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            September 29, 2011 8:49 AM

            Yeah most likely, I was just curious because I look to these games mostly for the SP portion, burned out on MP deathmatch games

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            September 29, 2011 9:48 AM

            Ok, this is one point I can get behind. 200 hours in BC2, never touched SP once.

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              September 29, 2011 9:57 AM

              All I played was the SP, wasn't bad, but short yes

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                September 29, 2011 11:26 AM

                Given the legacy of the BF series. I find this sad.

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                  September 29, 2011 5:21 PM

                  Well I did play the old BF games, I just stopped playing all MP FPS games though, no fun to me anymore

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          September 29, 2011 1:35 PM

          SP looks like it's going to be incredible. I'm excited about co-op.

      • reply
        September 29, 2011 8:38 AM

        How on earth could you possibly know that this is "crap"? TROLLLLLLLL

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          September 29, 2011 8:41 AM

          Yes anyone with an opinion other then your lemming self is a troll. Bravo to you

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        September 29, 2011 8:55 AM

        What is it exactly about Battlelog you don't like? I was turned off at first by the idea of doing everything in the web-browser first, but it seems to be working well enough, and certainly as good as any beta BF ingame server-browser I've ever seen or heard of.

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        September 29, 2011 9:12 AM

        Battlelog isn't the problem that you think it is. And from the sound of it, you haven't even used it...much.

        All DICE / BF games have some of the best MP gaming / action, but they always come with the usual goofiness of a DICE game. That said, all the other shit can be dealt with, because at the end of the day, every BF game has been a blast to play (note: never played the console games: whatever the BF2 port was and BFBC1 aside from the demo).

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        September 29, 2011 9:21 AM

        HAY GUYS LOOK AT ME!!! I HAVE EDGY THINGS TO SAY ABOUT SHIT I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT!!

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        September 29, 2011 9:37 AM

        [deleted]

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        September 29, 2011 9:39 AM

        after my first few attempts, I'm inclined to agree. they PUNTED on getting in-game stuff working, they completely just said FUCK IT let's use flash on a web browser!!! maybe we can get that to work!!!

        they completely abandoned how game management is going and want to shoehorn in their own totally disjointed method.

        it fucked up completely the first few times, then spawned another 323425 EULAs to agree to, THEN totally went batshit insane in firefox 7, then the friend requests finally started working, and then it hung on "matchmaking..." then I noticed there were multiple versions of origin running, so I rebooted, and went straight into IE 9 which then actually launched a game.

        I'd rather go back to xfire or all seeing eye than use this shit.

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        September 29, 2011 9:42 AM

        Battlelog seems like shit at first, but give it time and then it starts to trump every other server browser out there.

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        September 29, 2011 1:39 PM

        I'm not sure what you expected from this game. Battlelog seems pretty slick to me and the game is fun but it still has a lot of quirks to work out. Prone can be a little bit glitchy at times and there is the occasional odd visual bug. That said, it's nailed pretty much all the basics. Hit detection, weapon handling, and player movement all feel better than it has in any other Battlefield game.

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        September 29, 2011 2:30 PM

        Sorry, I know it's cool to hate EA...but am I the only one getting sick of it? Like this guy had to give EA a "redemption pass"! They're a god damn game publishing company, not the fucking return of Hitler. You must live a pretty sheltered existence if these video game publishers cause you so much turmoil.

        And beyond that, even if you think the Battlelog is the most horrible, shittiest, worthless server browser ever you only have to use it for like 15 seconds to actually get into the game. Take a step back and look at how god damn uptight you are...

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      September 29, 2011 8:51 AM

      Ug, between this and Rage's 25GB, I need to start making some choices about what to kick off my drive. I need to keep ME1 and 2 cause of the save being used from game to game, everything else I've finished is on the chopping block. But I never know when I'm going to feel like a pick up game of UT3. :(

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        September 29, 2011 8:55 AM

        You can just backup the save game files for ME1 and ME2 then remove the games, that's what I did. They are located in your user profile Bioware folder if I remember right.

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          September 29, 2011 9:40 AM

          As someone who spent hours trying to get Doom DM to work over a modem, I'm ashamed to say that sounds like too much work. :P

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            September 29, 2011 9:45 AM

            haha much easier then that I swear. Damn do I remember those days, same thing with Duke3D and Warcraft2

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        September 29, 2011 9:24 AM

        What the other guy said, you can just keep the saves. I think when you un-install it even asks if you want to leave them behind.
        And large hard drives are so cheap now you could get a large slower one for installing games to. Its what I did.

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      September 29, 2011 9:02 AM

      i cant download this at the moment because i already passed the monthly cap or i'll be overcharged :(

      • reply
        September 29, 2011 9:13 AM

        ...download it at work / friends house? Burn to DVD / copy to USB stick?

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      September 29, 2011 9:28 AM

      Bah, caspian border pw changed. Clearly leaked though because all the servers went from empty to half emtpy to totally full.

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        September 29, 2011 9:45 AM

        shoppingcartsareagoodride I think is it but they are all full of course.

    • reply
      September 29, 2011 9:50 AM

      Played the 360 minutes for 15 minutes this morning. Graphically, I think it actually looks worse than Bad Company 2 on the 360, which surprised me. The Metro level is probably not the best showcase for the graphics, though. Gameplay was solid though!

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      September 29, 2011 9:53 AM

      FYI if you're having trouble binding the keys you want, you'll have to look at 3rd party apps like AutoHotKey. Boggles the mind that you can't set the keys you want in a gameplay test.

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      September 29, 2011 9:54 AM

      [deleted]

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      September 29, 2011 12:48 PM

      Maybe I just suck, but I did not like the controls compared to BF: BC2. It also seemed that you go down way faster, like 1 bullet headshots. I hate running for a couple minutes only to be insta killed by some guy proning in a tunnel that I only see for maybe 1 second.

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        September 29, 2011 1:25 PM

        How so? The controls feel remarkably more responsive in BF3 than BC2 (on console).

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        September 29, 2011 1:40 PM

        You do go down WAY faster. Controls and movement are also a lot better.

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        September 29, 2011 2:38 PM

        stop being a retard and charging into an area that you have no vision of...?

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        September 29, 2011 2:40 PM

        [deleted]

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        September 29, 2011 2:44 PM

        [deleted]

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        September 29, 2011 2:49 PM

        I didn't like the controls at first either, but i'm getting use to it.

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        September 29, 2011 3:08 PM

        I much prefer it this way as opposed to the BC2 style of shooting someone like 10 times and not killing them unless one of those shots happens to be a headshot. That sort of damage modeling makes weapons capable of killing in 1 hit (ie Carl Gustav, Sniper Rifles, Shotguns) too desirable.

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      September 29, 2011 1:42 PM

      I tried registering for an Origin account, got this "Sorry, this service is temporary unavailable."

      win!!

      • reply
        September 29, 2011 2:15 PM

        Ya, they are getting hit hard. Steam was super fucked for the first 2 weeks HL2 launched.

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        September 29, 2011 3:12 PM

        I would keep trying once every 5-10 minutes. Their system is getting overloaded, but you should be able to get through eventually.

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