Battlefield 3

PROLOGUE – RECOMMEND SKIPPING IF YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT MY PERSONAL STORY

Just as a little prologue to this review, people should know this bit of music is eternally engraved in my head since 2003.

Sitting in a Takapuna internet cafe, long gone replaced by that decadent apartment building.

Little did I know that day, when I was a mere 12 years old, that my mind would be blown in a way I never thought possible: Battlefield 1942 took my breath away, but that’s another story for another day on this website.

For now I’ll turn to focus on Battlefield 3, released 9 years after the first in the franchise, I really just want to reinforce how much this series means to me as a gamer, so naturally there is a lot of bias in here (Although, the first game I ever pre-ordered was Battlefield Vietnam, and it left me so scarred, I wouldn’t repeat that action for another 5 years).

Anyways, I apologise for that, but as per usual I’m writing this in the wee hours of the morning, so I tend to natter on, but hey, you want professionalism I recommend IGN, Gamespot, or some other game company with dozens of writers, whom are paid to write.

With me you get it straight from my incredibly subjective opinion.

BATTLEFIELD 3

Boom!! There are some topics so on we go:

Graphics

I don’t really feel the need to go on about this, suffice to say, this is the most visually immersive and mind blowing graphics I’ve witnessed in an FPS, it makes me look at the Call of Duty series, and laugh.

This is next-generation people, and those fools who make any attempt to defend CoD in this regard, should instantly be disregarded.

Why I believe this: Do you ever just look at the world, and think “shit, things are pretty amazing”. In Battlefield 3 beta, I had one of those moments, I got in, and my eyes strained at how much detail I had to process, unprecedented levels.

For the first time, in quite some time, I just looked at the world, I looked at the sky and saw carrier planes dropping parachutists over Paris, only to hear the roar of anti-air missiles being fired in the park square near by, racing to destroy the aircraft.

I can’t really explain how beautiful this game is, it makes me excited how close we are to true realism in graphics, to think where we’ve come in twenty years of graphics processing consistently astounds me, and we all should give a round of applause to the mathematicians and computer scientists developing these fields.

Gameplay

Forewarning: I play hardcore, I played quite a bit of normal mode, but am now a convert.

Hardcore feels really nice, 5-10 bullets from any SMG, Rifle or MG will put down someone, with generally just 1 or 2 shots from a sniper, I still find it infuriating however, that aside from sniper rifles, no weapon is a kill instantly to the head.

I mean really, 3 pistol bullets to the head at point blank is a little excessive @EA, I’ve seen Jack Bauer disarm a man, and then strangle and finally HANG a man with a conveniently placed chain.

SO A LITTLE MORE REALISM WOULD BE APPRECIATED K!?!?

The supression system brings a new element to any FPS I’ve ever played, basically if you have bullets only just skimming near you, then you become supressed to various degrees, as such your vision and sound become weaker until you find suitable cover, or the means of supression is removed, a truly awesome feature, which I still consciously think mid game “how fucking cool is this!?”.

It’s not all glitz & glam for BF3 though sadly, I find jets in particular to be useful, either (99% of the time) they contribute nothing, and are just a meta-game between pilots OR some person who only plays in Jets and destroys entire servers constantly outgunning his opposing pilots before tearing up entire ground forces.

Also it’s not going to happen but in their next edition in the franchise there needs to be a dive-roll button.

The amount of times I’ve been run over attempting to C4 or Blowtorch an enemy vehicle is F*#(#)%)@(#%)(#@%)(%*)(INFURIATING and I’m not joking, it genuinely pisses me off, while I know one man should rarely be able to take on a tank, a vehicle reversing at only 20km/h from 5 metres away, should not be able to run me over before I can get out of the way.

Online Multiplayer

I haven’t played Red Orchestra 2, but I can’t imagine the combat would compare to BF3, there’s nothing quite like piloting a little bird through the Damavand Peak tunnel, getting 5 kills along the way, flying out the other end to chain gun the enemy Z11W pilot out of his cockpit and have your friend take over, to rain twin heli glory.

It’s fucking exciting and that’s all I can say really, I rarely get pissed off, but I kill and destroy in abundance, this game online makes me feel alive NUFF SAID

Cooperative Experience

It’s ok to be honest, fun in the first play through, and neccessary to unlock some weapons online, I really would have preferred some kind of wave defence mode similar to what they have in Gears of War, or Call of Duty.

The cooperative maps have severe limited replayability, with only a handful being worthwhile the second time around: ‘The Eleventh Hour’ & ‘Hit & Run’ in my mind are worth a few playthroughs. All in all a lot to be desired, plus no co-op campaign, which I would’ve paid an extra $10-$20 for.

Oh well, your loss EA.

Audio

The winner of the 2012 BAFTA Video Game award for audio goes to Battlefield 3 and rightly so, an invigorating palette of audatory delight plays through your ears non-stop while in game, whether an RPG flying over your shoulder or free falling from 600 FT, the audio truly is the cherry on top.

Pros:

  • Choppers = FUN!
  • People generally seem object orientated in this opposed to a lot of games
  • Best audio & graphics in a video game right now, sorry Skyrim, you’re good, but not this good ( <—- Statement makes me +100 enemies, fuck you, get your own website)
  • Genuinely fun and entertaining for hours on end, be nice people treat gamers online like you’d like to be treated in real life, no one wins by trolling

Cons:

  • If you see this and think “oooooooOOOOOOOOHHH, THIS HAS CO-OP DADDY & MUMMY, BUY IT AND ME AND JIMMY CAN PLAY ALL THE TIME TOGETHER YEYYYYYYY” put this down, it’s not worth it CoD:MW3 has better co-op by far, not to mention a multitude of other games
  • Addictive (for me this is a pro, but if you get sucked into this, I should not be held responsible for any losses of income, relationship status, or accommodation loss)

Final Summary

This has a massive THUMBS UP BUY for me and with good reason, if I really was forced at gun point for my favourite game released last year it would be this.

If you’re new to the FPS genre, or new to the series, stick to Normal mode for a while.

If you’re an FPS player, especially on PC, you should have this, I don’t care if you’re a CoD Fanboy / Fangirl, you need to give this an honest play through at a net cafe (AT LEAST!!).

And if you need to practice your shooting skills jump in a Team deathmatch or Squad deathmatch server and find those headshots (Pro Tip: Shotguns + Frag rounds on deathmatch = MVP!! (Beware, people may hate you, but the guns wouldn’t be in their if they weren’t supposed to be used, show them no mercy, they’ll show you none))

Add me on Origin & Battlelog, both usernames are: Jemsin