BF3 blog update discusses building the game "from the gun out"

DICE has updated the Battlefield Blog to chat a bit about weapons in Battlefield 3 and how varied guns will be in order to reflect different play styles.

According to the blog:

"The arsenals of U.S. Marine Corps and the Russian Army are both featured prominently in the game, since those are the sides you play in both single and multiplayer. Building from that base, we selected a number of additional weapons that are returning classics, competing designs, and alternate combat roles. Each weapon choice means it gives the player an additional tactical choice: Get in close with a carbine, PDW, or shotgun. Hit from long range with a sniper rifle. Engage tanks with an RPG. Or lay down suppressive fire with a light machinegun.

"We’re not just giving you weapon A or B, take it or leave it, though. Each main weapon will be heavily customizable to suit different roles. The majority of weapons in Battlefield 3 can be tailored by the player to fit anything from close quarter to long range combat, or something in between. But we’ll save that for a later Battleblog post, when we will go deep into weapons customization."

Senior designer Alan Kertz said on the blog that authenticity "is really important when you’re doing a modern day game like Battlefield 3," and since players look critically at the in-game guns, the firm brought in experts like Andy McNab and other military advisers to hep not only "get it right," but help understand "why it’s right.”

"Compared to both Battlefield 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2, there is a larger focus in Battlefield 3 on authenticity and real life handling," said Kertz. "This comes down to details like reloads, mobility, bullet trajectories, and even how the caliber and barrel length of a gun determines muzzle velocity and energy. For Alan, this approach clearly leads to better gameplay.

"With authenticity as a base, you get a natural balance because all real life guns are based on trade-offs. It really pulls out the personality of each weapon system to use the authentic stats and features. Each army selects a different weapon, for a different reason, and we pass those selections on to our players.”

Read up on it yourself through the link, and check out a couple shots of weapons below from the Paris level (via D'toid). We think the sands and tank shot is old, but we tossed it in because we can no longer be too sure.