Battlefield 3 PC main menu is Battlelog

By Robert Purchese Published 19 August, 2011

Still no sign of Camaros.

Gulp, here goes: Battlefield 3 stat-tracking feature Battlelog acts as the PC game's main menu, DICE has revealed.

You browse and choose your multiplayer servers there. If you want to switch servers, you must quit your current session and head back to the Battlelog menu.

"Battlelog is the PC main menu," stressed senior gameplay designer Alan Kertz on Twitter. "You go straight from Battlelog to playing. No splash screens, no menus. Just straight to the playing."

"You Alt-Tab or close the game and go to Battlelog.

"In fact," added Kertz, "you can get to the main menu of the game from anywhere you have the net.

"Check your stats at work. On the toilet. In your mom's basement. Whatever."

Kertz said the way Battlefield 3 switches servers on PC is no different to how Battlefield: Bad Company 2 switched servers on PC.

"In Bad Company 2, if you wanted to change servers, you had to quit the round and then load another map. This is no different at all," Kertz explained.

DICE yesterday confirmed a server browser function for the console versions of Battlefield 3.

Console versions of BF3 will also have some of the Battlelog functions in a bespoke Battelfeed feature. DICE hopes that most players will have Battlelog open on a nearby PC while playing BF3 on console.

Alan Kertz said nothing about vintage Chevrolet Camaro cars making an entrance in Battlefield 3.

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.

You may also like...

Comments (28) Latest comment 9 months ago

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

  • WiZZyWiGG #1 9 months ago

    Incoming moans from PC players.... when in fact it actually works very well indeed!

  • neilka #2 9 months ago

    Not VW Beetlelog?

  • arcam #3 9 months ago

    So how do you get to the options menu?

    But really, who cares what the menu looks like - I'm fine with this.

  • SClaw #4 9 months ago

    It feels wrong... but yeah, from the Alpha it actually works well. Bit or surfing (we still use that term, don't we?) while you wait for a match to come up then off you go. If you have a short attention span like me... wait, what was I saying?

  • Whizzo #5 9 months ago

    C4m4r05 surely?

  • Whizzo #6 9 months ago

    Battlelog is actually pretty nice really, I was quite impressed with it in the alpha.

  • Whizzo #7 9 months ago

    So how do you get to the options menu?

    Press escape when the game is running.

  • abigsmurf #8 9 months ago

    It has been confirmed that in Battlefield 3, you will battle logs. Logs have often featured in games as obstacles but this is perhaps the first game where you actively have to fight and destroy them. It is not clear if they will feature as static objectives that you have to seek out and destroy or if they will walk around and carry gins.

    Famous logs include those seen in Log flumes such as Loggers Leap in Thorpe Park and arguably the most well known Log was the one that featured in Ren & Stimpy as a hit toy product from Blammo.

  • Golgo #9 9 months ago

    Fair play on ripping the slash out of yourself, Bert. Everyone has brainfarts now and again.

    :)

  • uiruki #10 9 months ago

    The only issue I can really see is having to go ingame to change settings. Having a light webpage as the server browser sounds like a massive improvement on the buggy Gamespy infested crash explosions that previous Battlefield server browsers were.

    Actually, does that mean they're doing away with the five minutes of unskippable videos you get on startup? That doesn't sound very EA.

  • HL706 #11 9 months ago

    Server browser for console!? This is one very happy gamer - I've missed this feature sooo much!

  • coolbritannia #12 9 months ago

    neilka, don't do car jokes, you get banned...

  • ShineDog #13 9 months ago

    Confirming as an Alpha player that battlelog was fast and slick. In fact, it does it's loading in the background - you can happily poke away at your stats or forums while the game loads. It's aces.

  • Buran #14 9 months ago

    I had only 2 problems with battlelog in the alpha trial: the first one was the absence of "favorites" as option to save servers. The second one that in my 2560 x 1440 display the game started in window mode, and when I changed to full screen the HUD was cuted at the borders by the display.

  • wanted_0012 #15 9 months ago

    @uiruki There weren't any in the alpha. I'm guessing the single player game will launch as previous games have and will include all the usual videos there instead.

    I was skeptical about using the web browser to launch multiplayer games to begin with, but it actually worked well. Same goes for Origin actually.
    Edited by wanted_0012 at 19/08/11 @ 10:55

  • aphex187 #16 9 months ago

    @WiZZyWiGG

    The only problem i had with the browser was that when i scrolled down and found a server i had to scroll back up to hit the connect button, unless i'm missing something there haha!

    But yeah i have np's with this at all!

  • MerricK #17 9 months ago

    DICE hopes that most players will have Battlelog open on a nearby PC while playing BF3 on console.


    Whats the point in that? The more I hear about bf3 the more i worry. I love the bf series however I don't rate EA & their crappy port of BFBC2 on pc so am unsure about this. its a shame i want it to succed other MW3 so much but i doubt it.

  • AphoticCosmos #18 9 months ago

    The first time I opened the Alpha and it took me to a webpage I was like "WTF DICE I HATE U FFS".

    And then I calmed down and played it, and it actually works perfectly well. You change options in-game on the fly. The Battlelog is pretty cool.

  • carlitoswagon #19 9 months ago

    "Console gamers now have in-game server browser, while PC gamers don’t. Oh the irony."

    Not my words but true words spoken.

  • deadstoned #20 9 months ago

    I've used it and it works fines, hope its flashier than what it is now though :-/ .

  • WiZZyWiGG #21 9 months ago

    @aphex187

    Yeah it has a few little niggles but all things that can be fixed before launch.

  • DirectAim #22 9 months ago

    well I read the article and was preparing to rage about how lame this idea sounds... then I read the comments... Sounds pretty cool!
    Edited by DirectAim at 19/08/11 @ 11:41

  • Zyklonbzombie #23 9 months ago

    Also want to add that I liked it in the alpha. I do hope, however, that there is some means of playing the single player campaign offline :-(

  • ISmoke #24 9 months ago

    I didn't like that in the Alpha. Then again i didn't even like Origin so i guess i'll survive.

  • tankboi #25 9 months ago

    This seems so bizarre and disjointed, but I have heard its ok from people who played the Alpha. fingers crossed. I really don't care about the front end (or stats really), just so long as tweaking options and settings are easily done. I am left handed and have to remap all the f***** key bindings every game I play so this is really important to me.

  • ISmoke #26 9 months ago

    I know this is a weird question and completely unrelated to the topic at hand but how do you have your keys set up?
    I couldn't imagine using anything else other than WASD. though when i was younger i used to use the arrow keys.

  • devilmyarse #27 9 months ago

    A lot of people are moaning about this. However, on the Alpha, it switched from game to browser very quickly (faster than pretty much any game I've ever played in full screen mode). The one thing I'm hoping they sort out is being able to quit at any time (you had to die to be able to quit :\ ) or adjust your control settings in game. It wasn't possible in the Alpha. There was just settings for resolution and graphics quality (Auto, Low, Normal, High) nothing else.

  • apoc_reg #28 9 months ago

    Damn that looks good, MUST RESIT ORIGIN. EA/DCE I hate you!