[1] Modern first-person shooters have started to resemble big-budget Hollywood blockbusters in recent years, a trend that has received both praise and criticism from gaming audiences.
Battlefield 3
For: PC. Also available on Xbox 360, PS3
From: Electronic Arts/Dice
Style: 1 Player Shooter (64 players online)
Rating: Mature
Being shuttled from one explosive set piece moment to another can be thrilling, but when this formula is overused it feels like you're on an on-rails Disneyland ride.
While the Battlefield 3 campaign isn't devoid of this feeling, its multiplayer offers a much more natural (and rewarding) sense of large-scale action. With dozens of players battling across nine massive maps in tanks, jeeps, helicopters, jets, or on foot, multiplayer matches feel like a genuine war rather than a small-scale skirmish.
Whether you're playing through the tense campaign or spending countless hours in multiplayer, Battlefield 3 greatly benefits from the stunning Frostbite 2 engine. If your gaming computer is capable of supporting the highest settings, you're in for an aesthetic treat that tops everything else in the genre.
Character animations look smooth and realistic, explosions have significant weight to them, and environments get torn apart in showers of concrete and debris. The stellar audio design matches the high quality bar of the graphics, featuring realistic sound effects, Hollywood-calibre voice acting, and a great soundtrack.
Rather than delivering sweeping changes to the series' multiplayer format, Dice chose more subtle tweaks for Battlefield 3. As with Bad Company 2, players can choose from four classes, but the assault and medic classes are now merged (with the now-open fourth slot dedicated to the LMG-toting, ammo-dropping support class). I loved both classes in Bad Company 2, so the ability to throw medkits and revive team-mates while using assault weaponry feels ideal. In a move that should please snipers and potentially annoy sniping victims, the ability to go prone returns.
It's as annoying as ever to get picked off by camping recon players, but the kill cam and scope glint should tip players off about their location.
[2] Available on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Rush, Team Deathmatch and the squad variants are solid modes, but with the return of 64-player matches, Conquest is once again the star of the multiplayer show. In my time on the game's pre-release servers, I never encountered lag. Even in battles featuring dozens of players and vehicles competing over a single flag, the action proceeded without a hiccup. The size of the maps, variety of vehicles, and scale of Conquest rounds make for fantastic moments that couldn't be recreated if you tried.
All nine maps that ship with Battlefield 3 are fantastic regardless of mode, and unlike Bad Company 2, you can play each map in any mode right out of the gate.
As exciting as the in-game action is, the method for jumping into matches is a hassle. Forcing players to exit the game menu to the Battlelog website when they want to switch modes seems unnecessary, and I would have preferred to chat, manage my party, check server lists, and look at my stats from inside.
Forming a party is easy if your desired squad members are already on your friends list, but communicating isn't trouble-free.
Text chat is supported in standard multiplayer, but you'll have to back out of the game if you want to communicate with a co-op partner who does not have a headset. No matter what mode you're in, you'll have to hold the left shift button to speak to your party.
Considering this is the same button as sprint, you'll run when you don't want to and your teammates will be able to hear you any time you're scurrying to the next objective.
While Battlelog does have its issues, the act of forming parties and getting them into your game is simple (as long as you don't mind backing out of the game when you want to invite a friend).
Most Battlefield fans spend most of their time in the rewarding multiplayer, but this entry also delivers the series' most ambitious single-player campaign to date. While players filled the shoes of the jokesters of B Company in the Bad Company campaigns, Battlefield 3 presents a dead-serious narrative about a nuclear threat.
You'll primarily play as Sgt Blackburn, a soldier being interrogated about missing warheads as the story plays out via flashbacks.
As I progressed through the seven-hour campaign, I couldn't ignore the elements directly pulled from the Call of Duty format.
By the time the end credits roll, you'll have assumed the roles of several globetrotting characters, taken out ground targets from a circling aircraft, witnessed dramatic slow-motion deaths, taken part in sniping with a fellow soldier, raced against the clock to stop a nuclear explosion, and sat through a scene clearly meant to shock players.
While derivative, the campaign is consistently entertaining throughout.
Tight gunplay, exciting set piece moments, and a more focused narrative than its primary competitor help to make this the best shooter campaign since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
Battlefield fans hoping for the most polished entry in the series won't be disappointed by this massive sequel.
Multiplayer maintains the high level of quality Dice is known for, and the campaign is the best in franchise history. The only down side is the lack of substantial changes to the multiplayer formula. However, that should not stop fans and newcomers from enjoying one of the best FPS experiences in gaming.
THE CONSOLE DIFFERENCE
Playing Battlefield 3 on consoles is mostly the same experience as the PC version, but it's not identical.
The game looks gorgeous no matter what system you're playing on, but you'll notice more pop-in and framerate drops on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Framerate tops out at 30fps, but the odd dip will occur if there is concentrated activity or several vehicles at the same time.
In terms of changing gameplay, the only significant difference between the two is the 32-player limit on consoles. These 32-player matches are great fun, but they don't have the impact that massive 64-player PC battles do.
Maps are scaled down to accommodate this lower limit, so PC players will be playing on giant versions of maps that console players will never see.
Even with the lower player count, I noticed occasional lag during console multiplayer bouts that I never ran into on PC. Console multiplayer may not operate on as big of a scale as the PC version, but at least it doesn't require you to deal with Battlelog every time you want to play the game or switch modes. Battlefield 3 is a fantastic game regardless of system, but the PC version has the edge on its console brothers.
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