Battlefield 3: Endgame design decisions explained

New information about the last piece of DLC for Battlefield 3—Endgame—has been revealed through an interview of Niklas Fegraeus by GamesHQ. The interview reveals the general design decisions that DICE has made in the new DLC, its maps and its new game modes.

The biggest new thing in Endgame is the inclusion of bikes. According to Niklas, the bikes are part of DICE’s philosophy that the DLC should be all about speed and agility. The bikes allow for high-speed chases and combat, including epic moments like jumping over tanks while throwing C4 down at them. To help with the speed, DICE has also made the maps bigger. This is mostly because if a map is small, it’d be difficult to get any momentum going.

The maps in the new DLC are all based around the four seasons—spring, winter, autumn and summer. They also have ramps that players can use while riding vehicles to get some hang-time. The ramps help with traversal of the maps and have the added benefit of making you look totally awesome.

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Fegraeus also shed some light on the two new game modes that will be in Endgame—Capture the Flag and Air Superiority. Capture the Flag is a classic game mode that’s present in almost every multiplayer FPS out there. This would mark the first appearance of the game mode in a Battlefield game since the first game in the series—Battlefield 1942. Air Superiority is a game mode that is comprised entirely of aerial dogfights. The game mode is a lot like Conquest, where you have to capture blimps around the maps.

It looks like Endgame is going to End the Game. Get it?

DICE had earlier revealed information on the maps in Endgame. The company says that the maps are comparable to fan favourites Caspian Border and Operation Firestorm from the base game, with the flag layouts having more in common with maps from the vehicle-based DLC Armored Kill.

The company also says that while the maps have been made with the new dirt bike vehicles in mind, the new anti-air vehicles will also see heavy use on them. “This new transport has a roof mounted turret that can switch between rockets and anti-air missiles to protect your infantry and combat air threats,” says the blog post.

The four maps are named Operation Riverside, Nebandan Flats, Kiasar Railroad and Sabalan Pipeline. The game modes supported by the new maps are the new Capture the Flag mode and the new Air Superiority mode, along with the classic Conquest, Rush, Squad Rush, Team Deathmatch and Squad Deathmatch modes.