DICE clarifies Battlefield 3 beta, alpha

By Robert Purchese Published 26 July, 2011

Alpha "closed" to Medal of Honor owners.

The Battlefield 3 alpha test is not the same as the beta test, DICE has explained. Therefore, Medal of Honor: Limited Edition owners are not eligible to join the alpha test.

"The alpha is a closed test and by invitation only," wrote DICE on its website.

"If you'd like to have a chance to be called upon, make sure to register for our newsletter and ensure your Veteran status is up to date.

"We are also not giving away keys to the alpha trial on any of our social networking platforms."

DICE explained that the alpha trial will be a "highly tech focused test period" concentrating on "server related tests".

"The open beta will start in September," DICE went on to state. "The exact date for when Medal of Honor: Limited Edition players can join the Beta will be announced at a later date."

The newsletter that went out to MOH Limited Edition owners recently is notification of eligibility for the BF3 beta. "It is, however, not a ticket or a code," DICE wrote.

"If you purchased a copy of Medal of Honor with the Battlefield 3 beta sticker on it, you are eligible for the beta.

"If you have not received the newsletter, make sure you opt in on your EA Profile to receive them.

"Also, if you haven't received the newsletter and own a copy of Medal of Honor: Limited edition, you are eligible to play in the beta."

Note that second-hand copies of the MOH Limited Edition don't count.

Battlefield 3 multiplayer.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 10 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Bibbo #1 10 months ago

    I was lucky enough to get a Alpha invite. Very very good, PC runs it a treat! I could run it on high with AMD x3 @ 2.4Ghz 4GB RAM 1GB Radeon 5670, just to give the PC speccy boys a heads up.

    I was terrible at it (Not a PC gamer me!) But got a few knife kills (@Stivayou). What is good about it, is that you download the game from Origin, and you launch a game through your web browser. (Via Battlelog - Server browser)

    No killcam, Spot system is lovely, and Squad leaders get points for squaddies spawning on them. Also when a Squad Leader is lit, there's a star next to their name. So if you take them out, you effectively eliminate that squad's mobile spawn.

    Looking forward to the Beta for 360. Back in my comfort zone!

  • aphex187 #2 10 months ago

    I have friends who don't even know what the feckin Veteran status is! The only game they have played is BC2 where as i have every BF game on every system going, yet they got into the Alpha! And another thing that pissed me off is that they are whining on how it's nothing special and have basically gone back to CoD.......

  • rudedudejude #3 10 months ago

    Ooooh they have brought back the squad leader only spawn from BF2?

    That was ok, but mostly meant if you were squad leader you'd have to stay out of the action to act as a mobile spawn point and could be a bit boring sometimes...

  • duckmouth #4 10 months ago

    I got an Alpha invite but don't have a gaming PC. Is there any way I can (safely) give it to anyone on the EG forums?

  • aphex187 #5 10 months ago

    Just sent you a PM duckmouth ;)

  • metallicorphan #6 10 months ago

    I also got an Alpha invite but don't have a PC good enough,so i gave it to my friend who is really looking forward to the game on PC(while i am really looking forward to the game on 360),unfortunately even with the code,he could not sign up for it

  • Teamallstar #7 10 months ago

    I got an invite for the alpha, but it wouldnt run on my Mac.

    It would be great if they did one for the PD3 or 360!

  • aphex187 #8 10 months ago

    @metallicorphan

    Code must be tied into your Origin name then :(

    @Teamallstar

    They couldn't do an Alpha test on console in fear of it breaking ie RROD/YLOD etc, that's what i heard from the BF3 forum bud.
    Edited by aphex187 at 26/07/11 @ 09:49

  • arcam #9 10 months ago

    @Bibbo

    Can you reassure me about the amount and mix of vehicles in the game and the size of the maps? Does it feel like BF2?

  • Gromit #10 10 months ago

    Hopefully unlike the last two games on PS3, they can put this testing to good use and provide servers that don't kick you out of games so frequently.

  • Machetazo #11 10 months ago

    Now, there's accessible Alphas, thanks to the continued misuse of the beta term. If they're concerned about damage to people's machines, yet they're allowing public access all the same, then they're hosting a beta.

  • DwarfyP #12 10 months ago

    No one has ever mentioned that they didn't release a console version because it could damage hardware on the BF3 Alpha Forums.
    Whoever said it has made it up.

  • neems #13 10 months ago

    @arcam - this is just supposition, but all the alpha test footage I have seen (and there is quite a lot out there if you look around) seems to be from the same map - the Paris Metro one - which seems to be primarily infantry focused (and is using Rush mode, which was never in actual Battlefield games AFAIK).

    The map does feature an APC, but that's all I've seen so far.

  • arcam #14 10 months ago

    @neems

    Ah, the alpha is all based on the same map we've seen already? Thanks for the info.

  • Tryhard #15 10 months ago

    So in short if you have the MOH LE disk and it isn't 2nd hand.Then you get into the MOH LE beta that will be before the Open beta.
    And just heard from the Dice Community manager that the beta will not be on Operation Metro map.

  • Matfink #16 10 months ago

    Great that squad leaders are back. Hope they've improved the scoring though - like the SL gets a % of the points scored by anyone that spawns on them or summink...

  • ajaxpliskin #17 10 months ago

    What's the big deal with exclusivity? Does no one have the virtue of patience any more? In 5 months time, everyone will be playing this. In 5 years time, no one will care about it any more and people will be clambering to play the next big thing first before anyone else.

  • Gastrian #18 10 months ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • Bradach #19 10 months ago

    @Bibbo
    If the 360 is your comfort zone, plug a 360 controller into your computer. That way you get proper HD, better textures and double the framerate!

  • todoso #20 10 months ago

    Maybe 'cause I haven't sipped my first coffee yet, but what the fuck does this article say?

  • Bagpuss #21 10 months ago

    "@Bibbo
    If the 360 is your comfort zone, plug a 360 controller into your computer. That way you get proper HD, better textures and double the framerate! "


    ...and get utterly pwned each and every round going up against Mouse & KB players....seriously DO NOT go down that route...despair and feelings of utter inferiority will be the result.

  • devilmyarse #22 10 months ago

    I have a fairly mediocre system (Q6600 @ 3.2GHz 4GB RAM and AMD HD69502GB) and it runs the game at 60~ FPS on High. So those people who think their system isn't good enough should at least give it a shot. There's likely a reason they gave you an invite, as said before, they need to test the game on as wide a range of hardware variances as possible.

    Anybody who got into the Alpha add me on Battlelog. Name is Niode. Thanks.

  • Bradach #23 10 months ago

    @bagpus
    Good point, well made

  • arcam #24 10 months ago

    Does BF3 support a 360 controller natively?

    Would never use one for multiplayer, but for relaxing downstairs on SP it could be useful.

  • Bibbo #25 10 months ago

    The map is fantastic, quite a closed one and the APC goes like lightning! For a squaddie spawning on a leader it was something like 10 points, Also when someone kills you, on the top right of the "Killed by" screen it has a handy little You Vs Them counter.

    I didn't play enough to Rank up and unlock loads because of just waiting to play the console version more than anything. But people had Red Dot, Sound Suppressors, 4x Scope. What I laughed at with the red dot, is like a laser pen, you aim at someones face, and aarrgghh, they're like blinded while they shoot the shit out of you. Suppressing fire is good, blurs people's visions, and snipers have wobbly aim. Grip's unlock too, to steady aim.

    Also you have like a "warm up" at the beginning of a round of 30 seconds which you can't wander too far into their base.

    Also they love to say "Motherfucker" alot. i.e "Kill that mother-fucking soldier!"

    My fave though was... "There's a sniper around here... I can fucking smell him."