A couple new Battlefield 3 stories have been popping up this week, two of which talk about the new dog tag system and the expected online pass. First up, I’ll get the bad news out of the way. Gamerzines is confirming our worst fear, Battlefield 3 is going the online pass route. The game’s executive producer, Patrick Bach, recently did an interview in which he confirmed the choice to include an online pass in the game.
He said that players will “probably” have to register a code which they will receive with new copies of the game. Once registered, only then will they have access to the multiplayer modes.
“I don’t think it’s an online pass, I think it’s our own backend. I’m not sure I want to call our system an online pass. The whole idea is that we’re paying for servers and if you create a new account there is a big process on how that is being handled in the backend. We want people to at least pay us something to create this because we’re paying for it. It was actually a loss for us to have new players. Hopefully people understand why. It’s not to punish people. To us it’s compensation,” said Bach.
In better news, DICE has revealed a new Dog Tag system for the game.
“Dog tags in Battlefield 3 go beyond just having your name on them,” explained Alan Kertz, senior multiplayer designer. “We have hundreds of dog tags that can be your personal calling card. Every time you kill an enemy, they see your tags. It’s your calling card – it’s your place to brag, and dynamic tags can show off how great you are with a knife, a jet, or even show off your personal play style.”
As you may or may not know, you can only obtain a dog tag if you kill an enemy with one of the new knife takedowns, which act as stealth kills in the game.
“[It] makes bringing a knife to a gun fight the risky but rewarding experience it was always meant to be,” said Kertz.
So a bit of bad news and a bit of good news, your thoughts?