Battlefield 3

I was extremely disappointed in the beta released for this game just weeks before it launched. I went from hyped up to let down. I went ahead and purchased it anyway because a few of my friends were getting it, and am I glad that I did. Why EA/Dice chose to use Rush Mode - Operation Metro for the public beta is a business move I will never understand, because it was misleading in a bad way. There were no vehicles to be found, the combat was shallow and generic, weapons did way too much damage and on top of that many feared the bugs in the beta would not be ironed out by release. They were wrong, and so was I.

It turns out I personally don't care for Rush Mode, it is very similar to Demolition (not to be confused with Domination) from the COD series where you have an offense side trying to invade the enemy base and plant a bomb in 1 of 2 locations. This mode to me seems very partial to the defending side and I just don't care for it. This was the mode presented in the beta along with the party issues, the ridiculous damage (which was changed in the retail - you no longer die in 2 bullets), screen flicker, infantry only map, camping, etc. It is no wonder the beta made so many people sceptical of the finished game.

Now enter Conquest Mode, the bread and butter of real Battlefield roots. This is what Battlefield games are about. This is much more akin to (again) COD's Domination mode, although Conquest has been around much longer. You capture various flags across the maps and try to keep the enemy team from taking them. You have a set amount of points or tickets that slowly drop as the match progresses, the first team to reach zero loses. Once a flag is capped you can spawn in that area. You can also spawn on anyone in your squad at any point during the match as long as they aren't in a vehicle that is full.

There are vehicles of all sorts, from boats and amphibious to choppers, fighter jets, tanks, hummers, there are multiple ways to navigate the maps. There a 4 classes to choose from - each having a unique set of abilities and they all have a purpose that benefits yourself and your team mates. Unlocks galore from class specific to universal (can be used with any class). Even the vehicles have multiple unlocks to open as you gain XP from using them. You will not see everything this game has to offer for a very long time. The game can be played lone wolf and still be enjoyable but it rewards team players more with squad bonuses. The maps vary greatly in size from the infantry only Operation Metro to the large scale battles of Caspian Border. The destruction is toned down slightly from the Bad Company series, but there are plenty of walls/buildings/obstacles that come apart throughout the match progress.

The online play is silk smooth and offers filters for everything. If you only want to play a specific map, you can. You can filter player count, gametype, maps, and best of all, DEDICATED SERVERS! No host advantage, no getting screwed over by some guy who is 100 millseconds ahead of what your seeing on the screen, what you see is what is happening. You can filter the servers by region and see what your ping is to any of the servers before you join a match. BEAUTIFUL! Why can't other games have this option? There is no excuse for big name titles any more to ignore what we have been asking for FOR YEARS on console games.

If your on the fence because of that nasty beta, please give the full finished retail game another go. It really is a great game so long as you have internet, the campaign is a one and done deal and not worth the price of admission by itself. Battlefield has never been about single player though, in fact BF2 didn't even have a single player option. Think of it as a bonus to the multiplayer - the real reason to buy this fantastic game.

To begin with, the single player is shocking, but when it comes to Battlefield 3 who really cares? It is all about the multiplayer and this is were Battlefield comes on and obliterates all opposition. Cod i found to be generally quite repetitive but, like its predecessor in Bad Company 2, Battlefield seems to be endless fun. Whether it be small squad based action or large vehicle dominated maps, the game rules all in the abundance of pleasure you get from long range sniper headshots to the close range knifing and awesome power of the Abrams tank, have fun because i just cant get enough!

To put things in perspective, I've owned all the Call of Duty and Battlefield games in the past, so I'm used to comparing the two. I've put hundreds of hours into COD games, it's a simple, addictive, polished kill fest.
Battlefield is a different beast.
Multiplayer is the arena where most players will spend most of their time, I haven't actually touched the campaign yet. Here are the things which have been most noticeable for me.

Firstly, teamwork. You can try and play the game like COD but that won't work. Constant streams of reward points flood in if you are doing your job right. Picture the scene; a fierce firefight for control of a flag - medics reviving downed players and laying down health packs, support gunners keeping enemy heads pinned down (the effect of a bullet narrowly missing your head is genuinely disorientating), engineers flaming rockets over your head into an tank, and snipers cracking shots into enemy melons from hundreds of metres away. The combined effect is immersive, loud and a bit scary. Just like war should be. (apart from the actual dying thing...)

Secondly, vehicles. These are genuine game-changers as opposed to pastimes. Just yesterday morning I faced the situation where my team were 2-1 down in terms of controlled flags of a map. So I jumped in a chopper with two other guys, cruised over to a contested flag and was having a dogfight with another helicopter as my teammates were parachuting out to secure the flag. No microphones involved, people just work together. And who doesn't want to fly a fighter jet?

Finally, it's not COD. Call of Duty have over the years produced some great games. However increasingly these games have only been great because a) you know exactly what you're going to get and b) everyone else is getting it so you're pretty much going to have to. By all accounts, Modern Warfare 3 is going to be a carbon copy of Modern Warfare 2, with new maps.

Try something different, I wont be buying COD!