Battlefield 3 gets stealthy with brutal knife kills and upgraded dog tag system

Battlefield 3 thumb

Brutal new knife-kill animations and a revamped dog tag system will reward players stealthy enough to get behind their enemies in Battlefield 3. In Bad Company 2, dog tags were straightforward trophies, in Battlefield 3, they'll act as each player's personal calling card. Each tag can be customised with a selection of designs, and engraved with a stat of the player's choice.

A new post on the Battlefield blog outlines the new tag system. Every time you kill an enemy, they will see your tags, making them the perfect place to brag about your proudest stats. Killed 700 people with a knife? Carve that fact into your iron ID. The numbers update dynamically, too, so your enemy will know if they're knife kill number 701.

New knife kill animations add extra incentive to hunt for dog tags. You can see one of them about 15 seconds into this video . Stealing your enemies' tags will certainly be harder in Battlefield 3, but that just makes them that much more valuable. A picture from the Battlefield blog below shows what you're stabbing for.

Battlefield 3 will be out on October 25 in the US, and October 28 internationally.

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.