EA returns official DICE servers to Battlefield 3

Publisher Electronic Arts has responded to public opinion by returning DICE-controlled servers to the console versions of Battlefield 3 today.

A search of the PS3 server browser now reveals in excess of 170 official DICE servers, covering all geographical regions and all multiplayer modes.

[Yi-Long]

... I quit the MP (and thus BF3 completely) once I kept getting dropped in unofficial servers (plus I've been having connection-problems with PSN/EA disconnects...)

Might check the MP again soon to see if it's now any better.

[ShabbaRanks]

same here. But the patched really f**cked me up too. I dont know why they couldnt just fix the USAS and FAMAS instead of changing everything :(

[Soldierone]

I agree, there wasn't a whole lot of complaints elsewhere. there were minor tweaks needed, but not an entirely new game.....

i mean who honestly complained about the tanks? then they go and "tone it down" to make them almost useless in most cases. I stopped playing for the day after a tank shell directly hit a player 2 times and he somehow survived and the blast radius wouldn't kill him because he threw down a med pack.

[brish]

I didn't even buy BF3 because it's EA.

This isn't the first time they screwed multiplayer gamers in an attempt to make more money.

[glennco]

your loss, seriously. you will not find a better online experience. it is an absolute blast to play with mates (pun ignored), one i have never been able to replicate with any other series

[brish]

@glennco

EA took away their servers so they could charge people for multiplayer servers.

This caused a lot of problems because users were having difficulty getting into games. If they did get into a game they were experiencing issues like getting kicked from games.

I wouldn't call that the best multiplayer experience.

EA was recently forced to bring their servers back online because their actions hurt the BF3 online community to the point that a lot of people stopped playing BF3.

EA's actions screwed the BF3 online community.

EA also shuts down servers all the time for games in an effort for force people buy new versions of their games.

I know Activision has a bad reputation but you can log in to any COD game right now and you will find players, and have a good connection. This is a big part of the reason that COD dominates that market. Their products are playable online unlike EA products that can't even seem to get their current game's online servers working.

[Skate-AK]

Hmm I never end up getting disconnected but I have froze a couple times. I'll be happy to play on the official servers again.

[ian72]

I have had my PS3 freeze many times since the patch.
I thought it was my PS3 ready to break, but it doesn't happen when playing any other online game. Bringing DICE servers back is also good, I'm sick of getting team swapped and kicked for no reason.
The only thing I didn't like before the patch was frag rounds, now no-one uses them.

[F7U12]

Whoever runs dice needs to be fired and quick.

[KaBaW]

That would be EA, and I agree.

[F7U12]

the own a part of DICE they don't not the whole thing.

[KaBaW]

They do control a lot of what happens at DICE, if I'm not mistaken..

[F7U12]

holy crap that sentence was awful. lol not my day.

that's sad to hear KaBaW, no wonder BF3 was such a train wreck.

[HeavenlySnipes]

I actually have more fun playing in user servers than DICE ones. O_o am I in the minority? Never been kicked either (PS3)

[v1c1ous]

well aren't you an unique snowflake

[MrMister]

@ HeavenlySnipes

You must not be much of a formidable opponent, and thus the host doesn't kick you. Good players get kicked a lot. REALLY bad players get to stay and be cannon-fodder for the Admin and his team of high-level stacked noob-punisher's, so they can boost their stats "legitimately" at the expense of poor noobs.

[ExPresident]

Just gotta find a good server that doesn't do that.Good communities are formed on private servers where people get used to play against the same people.

[gtxgamer2]

Wow EA actually made a smart decision.

[SybaRat]

Compared to COD servers? BF3 would win in the middle of a thunderstorm.

[WeskerChildReborned]

Finally, i kinda dislike having to play in servers where people can kick who they wan't and sometime's could abuse it and just kick people who are doing better.

[Sucitta]

with all B3s faults, it's still leaps and bounds ahead of cod

[Siren30]

How is it leaps and bounds ahead of cod? Is it the stupid quick match? Hard time getting in the same room and same team with friends? Input lag? Big map but spawn right in front of enemy?

[glennco]

non of what you just wrote is true for me. i have never had a single problem playing with friends but then i'm on a 360 so I am already in a party with them. 7 days worth of MP gametime says you are full of shit. i noticed you didnt say anything about actual gameplay, just petty things you have read in blogs.

Sucitta obviously is just not a fan of arcade shooters, like me. CoD bores the crap out of me.

however if we are talking single player, they both suck as bad as all the other linear hand-holding respawning crap SP FPS out there and i refuse to play another minute until they make the SP interesting to play again.

[Soldierone]

Lmao....I play BF3 all the time and loved it up until the recent update....but to say it has none of those issues? Some are exaggerated yeah, but there is no denying they exist....

You will spawn in front of the enemy if you play long enough. It isn't like COD, but it will happen. especially in conquest when you take all the flags.

Quick match sucks with all the custom servers. There was/is a clear issue with parties getting in the same game, no denying it. There is CLEAR input lag, and not just one person is reporting it (on one of my TV's I witnessed it too)

It isn't game breaking, and to be fair COD has no dedicated servers, poor graphics, hackers/cheaters, worse spawn points, terrible hit detection, and tons of lag.

[Hanilugtehul]

totally agree:-)played mw3 last week and its just average and boring,it gave me that "been there done that" feeling. Battlefield does everything better Peace:-)

[KontryBoy706]

now I MIGHT return to BF3. Got tired of choosing a game mode and being thrown in some some fools endless ticket server that's not even the game mode I chose to play

[TronEOL]

Wow, finally. I guess I'll try it out on PS3 again. I was tired of all the Battlefield 3 "pro's" stacking their team. Those guys are pretty much equal to boosters in Call of Duty.

Well, at least this means those who actually want to play the game can play it, and get better at it legitimately.

[TheDarkTyrant]

Finally!!! I'm fucking sick of getting kicked out of servers just because the host doesn't like getting killed more than once.

[KontryBoy706]

^^ this! Exactly

[TheModernKamikaze]

And when you play so good you get messaged that you hacked the game and you're playing in PS3. :/

[SignifiedSix]

Happened to me on the 360. I destroyed 5 guys in a row with the mp443. 5 seconds later, I was kicked. Pretty funny but pissed that I lost my hard earned points...

[Oschino1907]

(I only play HC mode and on PS3, just bought a few weeks ago after waiting months for some of the bigger flaws to be adressed)

Got to love when they have a long list of rules along the lines of "No spawn camping", "Play the objective", "No TKing", "No stealing vehicles from home bases", "People will be moved to balance", "Have fun, don't be a douche", etc......
But what they really mean is don't do those things to the Admins team, they can do whatever to whoever they want. TKing for a jet or vehicle just to drive around like an idiot playing no objectives and base raping is cool when THEY do it. Oh and balancing teams means when you are doing good they kick you or switch you to their team to keep the rape one sided.

Lol and while I am at it, WTF DICE, HC mode is practically a JOKE now. I mean I already feel like I paid way way to much for a game that I only want to play Conquest/Rush (every other game mode and non HC for me is just a waste of space) especially since almost everything in the game was designed around higher player counts so it feels gimped. But then you got to and mess up the only mode that I care for. Its the sole reason I logged almost 600 hours into BFBC2.

I feel like they just tried to do way too much and change things up and in the end for me its almost a KZ2-KZ3 kind of deal where for everything they improved and did right they took two steps backward (or attempted to leap ahead and fell flat on their face) in other departments. Give me BFBC2 HC mode, controller response and level of balance and I feel like I could look past many of the other issues big and small. Hahaha as if any BF game is ever close to balanced, although who is playing and how can make all the difference in a game with sooo many variables.

And sorry BF fanboys but this time around MW3 is the more polished and finished game especially if we go from launch. MW3 won me back after I gave up on MW2 just months after release, its on pace to take over COD4 as my most played online game (BFBC2 is 2nd). I can understand if you are new to BF and played every COD this gen but if you played both all this gen then its basically "been there and done that", they are both just more of the same but one (MW3) played it safe and made a great overall game and the other (BF3) tried to be a little too ambitous on console and has been trying to get it right for over 6 months now.

If they actually keep working to make BF3 better then I will probably get some of the expansions cause I just like BF and big conquest/rush maps even though its prob my 3-5 current choice for online gaming. I want to see it work out, but I saw all this comming back when they announced BF3 last feb/march (2011). I got the downloadable version so I have it for good. I really want it to keep improving and getting better and better to the point that I stop thinking back to BFBC2 and wishing BF3 was more like it.

[Hufandpuf]

I've never been kicked from a user server.

[chadachada123]

Same here, and I've played with a few owners/admins before and they've always seemed cool enough (and not like the kind of douche that would ban someone for being good at playing).

[noctrnl13]

I never got kicked either and there was one server where I was delivering all kinds of rape to the other team. I had a score of about 15000 and a K/D of about 3.2 and never got kicked. Added the admin and it was all good. I've seen douchey admins but I have never experienced this phenomenon.

Either way good to have DICE servers back up, I hate to see you guys shucking your duty for some kid to buy out and run stupidly.

[Truth]

I've been kicked and banned from quite a few servers because of the severe "rape" I was dishing out. I was almost at a 2.60 K/D ratio when they switched to user only and then had to deal with stacked teams nearly every server, dropping me to just under a 2.50. Now I can actually go into a server and not have to worry about being kicked or having one team ridiculously stacked so I'm happy.

http://battlelog.battlefiel...

If anyone wants to add me and play.

[ZBlacktt]

When it comes to online. The sad fact is, there are to many elements to say someone is the best or better player. With issues of lag, server advantage, etc. It's not like you can raise a weapon faster every time then every player in the game. So many games I go into have me shooting player's 6 to 7 times with a DAO-12 in close combat only to be killed with one shot by them. It's rather frustrating.

[TheModernKamikaze]

As it should.

[glennco]

the option to play on DICE servers is a must. the option to play on rented servers should have always been that, an option. i'll will be checking when i get home as last night there were zero DICE servers avail in Oz.

it is still fun to play on higher ticket games every once in a while though, or different game modes.

[spektical]

thank you dice. finally, I hate jumping into games with 300 tickets for attacking rush, and you get landed on defense.

[MasterD919]

I'm tired of the ridiculous rules gamers make up on these servers.