Battlefield 3

Ah Battlefield. Generally the shooter of choice for people wanting a more tactical, team based offering rather than the lone-wolf run and gun of Call of Duty. My love affair with this game stretched back to the 2005 Battlefield 2, which is still the best multiplayer shooter ever made in my mind. Battlefield 3 is the latest offering, and unless you've been hiding under a rock you've undoubtedly seen their "Call of Duty killer" advertising. So where to start with the review?

Well single player is probably the best place to start. Aptly given on disc 2 it is clearly the inferior portion of the game, riddled with infuriating and now-outdated quick time events (push b before the other guy stabs you!) and scripting of the most linear nature. There is no deviating from the path that the game INSISTS you take, or it kills you, with essentially no explanation. There's some hilarious bugs for example, enemies are invincible while going through a scripted animation. Someone getting out of a jeep, easy target right? Don't even bother taking aim, you physically won't be able to kill them until the animation is done. Bizarre. There are some good missions, but in a lot of ways it's tried too hard to BE Call of Duty rather than beat it (I'm sure the interrogation premise was in Black Ops?). Expect it to take anywhere between 4-6 hours, but don't expect any replay value. If you're thinking of buying this for the single player alone, don't bother.

The multiplayer is a completely different affair however, and it's when Battlefield comes into it's own. 24 players (PC gets 64 but frankly 24 is enough) go head to head using a variety of weapons and vehicles (tanks, helicopter, fast jets) to complete objective-based goals to lead their team to victory. And here is the fundamental difference between Battlefield and Call of Duty. Call of Duty rewards those with the keenest eye and quickest trigger fingers. Kill the most people and die as little as possible and you're the best player. Battlefield rewards team-based play, picking up big points for completing objectives, and smaller points for things such as suppression assists (if you're laying down fire pinning someone down but a team mate gets the kill, you'll get points for suppressing the enemy) reviving team members and of course kills. It's still very much a shooter at heart, but it's quite simple to top the leaderboard without getting the most kills by helping out the teams cause. It's a mentality difference essentially. Sure you can run and gun and get the most kills, but if your team lose because you didn't pull your weight, you're not the best player. Teams are broken down further into squads, and helping out your squad members nets you even more points.

So I've covered the rewarding, what about the frustrating? The game is no doubt fantastic to look at (if you have a hard drive for the installable texture pack). It's one of, if not the best looking game on 360, the lighting in particular is simply astonishing in places. That said, this generation of consoles are ageing hardware, and it looks very superior on a powerful gaming PC. However, the engine is quite buggy. You will fairly often see people clipping through walls, or sprinting on the spot. There are also some major annoyances that I'm surprised made it onto the final game without someone saying "Hang on, why are we letting this happen?". You should be invincible for a second or two when you spawn. Unfortunately you're not so if you choose to spawn on a squad member when they're under fire, it's likely you'll spawn and die within the same second. Pick who to spawn on carefully! The best asset of Bad Company 2, the destructible environments, also appear largely to have been abandoned. All destruction in the campaign is entirely scripted and it's been toned right down in the multiplayer. In Bad Company 2, every game would end in practically every building completely gutted or just destroyed. This changed how the game played out over the time of the round, as cover would come and go and you had to pick different routes to places. This simply isn't the case in Battlefield 3. Cover can be chipped away at without ever really being destroyed. Some walls can be taken out but not even remotely on the same scale as previously. It's a massive shame because it was one of the USPs of the series and was ground breaking in a lot of respects.

The main frustration however, is undoubtedly the fact that yet again EA haven't put in place the correct server capacity for the launch, meaning you will regularly try to join a game, only for it to throw back a message blaming your connection. I've had probably at best a 1 in 10 success rate in joining. Hopefully this will improve over time. As for the bugs and glitches, they may be sorted out with future updates, but who knows.

So, is it a Call of Duty killer as EA will have you believe? Hard to say, it's a very different experience, and one that I personally think is more enjoyable. Teamwork and tactics are the name of the game, and vehicles add a whole new dimension which Call of Duty just doesn't bring to the table. However Call of Duty does what it does very well. Battlefield 3 is a great multiplayer experience and definitely worth getting. Seasoned Battlefield players will immediately settle into the more tactical gameplay, and will probably be pleased with the noticeable graphical update from Bad Company 2, but will also probably harbour annoyances that the destruction is nowhere near as good as it was. Players new to the series will get a very solid and enjoyable online FPS that may give them a surprise if they're more used to Call of Duty-style shooters.

I am writing this review in response to some of the sheer bafflement I have experienced when reading some of the 1 star reviews.

Some people say the graphics aren't up to much WHAT??????????????. The only thing I can think of is that either they aren't playing the game on a HDTV AND using a HDMI cable which makes a serious difference or they have some major eye problem and really ought to see an optician. One deluded individual even commented that they weren't much different to Homefront. That person really does need that HDMI cable or those new glasses.
How DICE have got something so beautiful to run on a SIX year old console well its witchcraft I tell you. Fire and smoke effects that look so real, amazing lighting effects, gritty realistic scenery, it's just so immersive. Just imagine what DICE will be able to do with the next generation of consoles.

Some one remarked (albeit not a 1 star review) that the game is aimed at teenagers WHAT????. I am 42, the majority of people I play regularly with are well into their 30's. No I'm not a sad gimp, I'm happily married with a child thank you very much.

One chap was moaning that the maps are to big for the guns WHAT??????. All I can think of is he's trying to compare it to COD. It's not COD. I like COD and will buy MW3 but they are completely different games. COD is an arcade blast, BF3 is a war simulator. It's epic in scale. He says that he can't hit anyone from 200-300 metres away. Hmm perhaps he ought to have a go on a real gun rather than a COD laser accurate toy and see if he could hit something at 200-300m away.
The joy of BF is that every kill gives satisfaction, it's not easy to get kills, it's challenging and closer to real than COD will ever be.

I understand some of the complaints about the initial multiplayer issues. However DICE have straight away put a message up on the game itself saying they are working to fix it. The server browser works fine and the game runs smooth as silk.

One thing I think EA should have done is to release 2 versions of the game. A cheap, say £15 single player only version and the full price with single and multiplayer. I haven't played the single player game but by all accounts it's a bit short. Doesn't bother me as multiplayer is where it's at.

Just as an example of what makes this game special. I shot down a helicopter with a Stinger missile, it crashed to the ground and landed straight on top of a jeep thing whose gunner was pinning down some of my team mates. That 1 shot killed 3 players on the chopper, the jeep driver and the gunner. Totally unscripted and the chances of ever doing it again remote. But for me that just summed up the game.

If anyone has any doubt about getting this then don't just get it. You will be rewarded with hours and hours of multiplayer action second to none.

In summary all the 1 and 2 star reviews can be pretty much ignored as they just don't make any sense and bare little if any relevance to the actual game. No in fact read them, play the game then laugh at the ludicrousness of them.

This will keep you entertained for months if not years and DICE are well known for supporting their games and continually improving them. Can't wait for the Back To Karkand DLC, I played those maps on BF2 and can reassure you they are well worth the short wait we have till they come out.

Ok 1st COD MW3, I was really looking forward to this as I was disappointed by Black Ops, but consoled myself that Infinity Wards offerings are better than Treyarchs. The single player was quite enjoyable, having followed the exploits of Cpt Price and co. I wanted to see where the story went. I was anticipating a fresh multi-player experience with many of the things that annoyed me from previous incarnations gone, boy was I dissapointed. The maps feel cramped and claustraphobic, I think MW3 has taken a big step backward, ok TDM is just run around and shoot, but even the tactical offerings are essentially the same and you can still Quickscope ahhhhhhhhh, I hate this you put 2 or 3 rounds into someone and they just shoot you dead with 1 shot. BF3 is a different beast, single player is comparable with MW3, but the multi-player is where BF3 really excells. the maps are large and varied, the selection of weapons, gadgets and vehicles is awesome, still can't hit crap with a plane though, I even enjoy playing as a sniper on occasion, my proudest moment so far is a 302m headshot. Teamwork is rewarded and rewarding, trying to battle through to take the central flag on Metro or trying to cling on to the position as gunfire, grenades and rockets go off all around is a just brilliant. There are a few gripes, spawning right in front of an enemy is anooying, but all in all BF3 beats MW3 hands down. COD you have been served.