When Electronic Arts confirmed that specific weapons would be made available for purchase over the Xbox Live Marketplace (and included in the special edition) for Battlefield: Bad Company they assured gamers the balance of the game would not be compromised. Despite that claim, the fear from the community is that the paid weapons will be overly powerfull and that gamers who decided to opt out of the purchase would be punished at a multiplayer level.
Ever viligant in our quest of the truth, this very special edition of X3F TV will compare the free weapons in the Battlefield: Bad Company beta to the special weapons that will be featured exclusively in the Gold Edition of the game and for sale over the Xbox Live Marketplace when the game launches this summer.
Using the in-game comparison tool included in the closed beta of Battlefiled: Bad Company, we've compared each paid weapon for the five soldier classes to their free counterparts. The results may surprise you.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
4-02-2008 @ 12:52PM
Jayslacks said...
Good stuff guys. I'm curious if EA shot themselves in the foot. Will they lose sells? I'm not going to buy it. If the guns were free and unlockable, then maybe. But I think, as a community, we need to make a point and protest this game. We can't have Call of Duty 6 try to pull this crap on us.
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4-02-2008 @ 1:25PM
Sporia said...
Yep, thats what we should do , people have to remember that EA has no power , we have the power , we choose not to buy it till its all free , this so pure bullshit, EA has to stop this crap, for NFS they had down loadable content even tho , the data/information was in the disc a;ready that u already spent £40/$60 on WTF?
4-02-2008 @ 1:00PM
theBIGd said...
Nice job Xav,
I've been a long time fan of Battlefield series, and i was lucky enough to play the beta last night. I'm pretty much sold, i'll be picking up the standard issue though, and maybe purchase the one powerful weapon off marketplace. Later guys, and nice job on the podcast.
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4-03-2008 @ 2:10AM
Steve said...
"i'll be picking up the standard issue though, and maybe purchase the one powerful weapon off marketplace. "
...And therein lies the reason why we will continue to get raped on DLC by game publishers. Bravo retard.
4-15-2008 @ 11:00AM
Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) said...
@steve
How so? Last time I checked, even if you buy the game, you don't have to buy the dlc.
4-02-2008 @ 1:03PM
haukke said...
when compared to the other unlockable free guns they are not really that over powered.if EA did not thiink they could get away with it they would not even try.the amount of people that buy the stuff from them has to be overwhelming for them to do this.i personally am home bound and buy pretty much everything from the marketplace.i will buy the game and probably buy the weapons.sorry to say i am one of those people you all hate.when you get tired of a game you can walk out of your house and do something i cannot and need whatever i can to occupy myself inside.
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4-02-2008 @ 1:04PM
Seb656 said...
This is standard EA bs tactics. I hate EA, because they try to milk you for every last penny. I mean they want you to pay for something they easily could have put on the disk.
Its sad though because battlefield is such a good series.
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4-02-2008 @ 1:07PM
Saccia said...
This is why I'm all for the boycott: http://sarcasticgamer.com/boycott
I don't think you get it Xav. The point is if they've already "balanced" the weapons and created the models/textures/etc as part of the initial game release then why the hell are they charging separately for it? It should be in the game from the start. And I don't buy the idea that the sniper rifle having less power but a higher rate of fire is "less powerful". One-shot-one-kill isn't always what it is about. Of course, you do want to hit that target but if you somehow slightly miss and don't get the full hit someone with a higher rate of fire is going to get the kill. Any weapon no matter how "balanced" it may seem from a in-game tool can be completely different when you put it in players hands. And on top of that, it's B.S. to release content that should have been part of the original release and make people pay for it.
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4-02-2008 @ 1:12PM
Free Lono said...
thanks for the plug Saccia. Fight the power. Stop the DLC BS ASAP!
4-02-2008 @ 1:10PM
Free Lono said...
balance or unbalanced, that's not the point. The point is that they've broken the game up and are attempting to sell it to consumers piece meal to take advantage of the fan base.
what kind of multiplayer shooter ships with only five weapons? This kind of add on's are crap.
Go to Sarcasticgamer dot com / boycott to show your support and check out their kick butt parody video.
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4-02-2008 @ 1:41PM
SAGExSDX said...
i heard you say "only five weapons" both on here and on GTR's podcast. This is completely false as the game ships with 10 weapons unlocked initially.
As you play, you can unlock up to 10 more weapons. This is similar (in concept, not execution) to COD4 and how you have to level up and earn the other weapons and attachments. In COD4, you initially only have access to 1 weapon per class. Pretty much the same thing.
It is, as the kids these days say, "teh suck" that they are charging for unlocking content already on the disk but I think most/all people can live without these pay-to-play weapons. I don't see why a complete game boycott is necessary. How about a boycott on buying the weapons?
I'd also put blame on people who buy things like this and horse armor for Oblivion. Not solely on EA. EA is doing it because they know people will dish out for it.
4-02-2008 @ 2:20PM
Free Lono said...
It's five weapons per each playable faction. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but that still doesn't make me not want to bring this to the forefront and say that I'm tired of being sold an incomplete game by EA.
It's not right and I know I'm not the only one that feels that way.
4-02-2008 @ 1:13PM
Perno said...
I would like to know the results, but not enough to watch a video. Just tell me.
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4-02-2008 @ 1:14PM
Xav de Matos said...
@Saccia: I think you missed the point of the video. We were merely showing the statistics of the weapons. If a weapon has a lower accuracy and damage stat than another then that original weapon is less powerful. The line of the rate of fire was to express the only strength that weapon has.
I urge you to listen to the Fancast where we discuss our opinions on the matter. Personally no one sees the merit in doing this, but expression that kind of opinion was not the intention of this feature.
When the game launches it's very likely that you'll be able to download these weapons on the marketplace and not see this information, so we provided it here so people can make the most informed decision possible.
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4-02-2008 @ 1:35PM
Jayslacks said...
Word up. What Xav said.
4-02-2008 @ 1:29PM
Anticrawl said...
Eh I'm not going to boycott a DICE game just because EA did a few shitty things. You guys are going to pass up supporting a fantastic developer to simply spite EA?
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4-02-2008 @ 1:36PM
Paulo Eifel said...
Well I think this is not different from selling car packs just like e.g. Forza does. I wonder why nobody is angry about that because I heard some of the purchasable cars are way better then the original ones.
That said I won`t give any cash to those greedy d+uches from EA! To hell with them and their nickle n dime tactis!!
Cheers
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4-02-2008 @ 1:43PM
SAGExSDX said...
the difference here is that the car packs you download for Forza2 are brand new content vs content already on the disk.
4-02-2008 @ 1:41PM
C YOU 1N HELL said...
EA is the DEVIL dam them 2 hell this is an outrage and WE AS GAMERS MUST STAND 4 OUR SELFS AND BOYCOTT EA and no longer support them. 4 gods sakes there was 1 game that had DLC on XBM b4 it was released now EA whats 2 join them as THE LOW CLASS devs. EA GO TO HELL I HOPE U ALL DIE U RUINED BFBC & 4 THAT I HATE U. I WILL NEVER BUY A EA GAME 4 THE REST OF MY LIFE SO HELP ME GOD. really guys lets not be pushed around only we have the power 2 change the DLC BS going on now a days WE MUST BOYCOTT I luv BF and DICE but im not gonna 2 buy this no matter what im not gonna 2 be EA's bitch. REALLY EA GREAT WAY TO TREAT US BF FANS THIS IS SO F#CKED UP RIPPIN US OFF AND SCREWING US LIKE THIS wow EA sux
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4-02-2008 @ 2:26PM
NCteacher said...
I can not imagine how you were feeling when horse armor was released...