AverageNinja
Average Penis Too
Monday the 18[sup]th[/sup] of June, 2012.
I just came home from school. I throw my bag somewhere in a corner and I run upstairs.
I turn on my PS3 and start up Battlefield 3. I’m continuing the Singleplayer campaign.
I play my story as Sgt. Blackburn, a soldier in the year 2014. Together with my squad I have to search for another, missing, squad. It sounds simple, but it turns out to be a really complicated mission. Welcome in Tehran, Iraq.
The power of visuals - Visuals
To kick off this review, I’m starting with the visuals, because damn this game looks and sounds good!
When DICE gave is some teasers, we were all really amazed. A bit of a disappointment when we found out that those graphics were coming from a really high-end PC. But after seeing the game on a console, we can all say that the graphics still look stunning. When we got the opportunity to play the BETA, people where complaining about the amount of bugs and the lag in the game. I suppose people don’t understand that BETA’s are made to test the servers, and are almost ALWAYS old builds. But after the game was released, people stopped complaining, because pretty much all of the bugs were fixed and the game wasn’t laggy a little bit. DICE really did a great job on the visuals. Dust being blown into the air, awesome light effects (look into the sun and you’ll see) and most of all: no or minimal screen-tearing or framedrops. Even on the consoles. Suprising was the lip-synchronising. I didn’t expect too much of that, but it was awesome! The sound is really, really good. Bullets actually sound different when fired from inside a building then when they’re fired outside. Explosions sound realistic and when a building collapses you can really hear it. DICE did a great job on this.
Tehran, Iraq. Doesn't it look amazing?
Battlefield 3 is split up in three segments: Singleplayer, Multiplayer and Co-Op. I’m going to start with the singleplayer.
Expecting highly can only disappoint - SinglePlayer
The SinglePlayer is enjoyable but really not worth it. DICE showed us a lot of cool trailers and I was really excitied to play the SinglePlayer. Well, I was wrong. Remember when DICE showed us the mission with the sniper on a roof in Iraq? I’m sure we all thought it looked spectacular and we could all feel the tension. In reality, that mission was not as spectacular as we thought and was over before I knew it. In the SinglePlayer, you play with more than one character, however the storyline is based around Sgt. Blackburn. This is a positive point, it makes me think about Medal of Honour.
My opinion might sound negative, and it is. But, Battlefield 3 is a game that focuses on multiplayer. And guess what? DICE pretty much made the multiplayer awesome in BF3. DICE took a guess to add a SinglePlayer in Battlefield 3, and it was enjoyable, but monotone, boring and short. But, before we take a look at the immense MultiPlayer, let’s check out the Co-op mode.
Together we stand strong - Co-Op Mode
The Co-Op mode is, as you probably would have guessed, the cooperative mode. This mode is playable as well online and offline en consists of six missions.
At the start, you have to kill waves of enemies, but when you’re progressing in the Co-Op mode, you’ll fly in helicopters, in which one player controls the helicopter, and the other player controls the weapons of the helicopter, and much, much more. Each mission would take about 20 minutes, so it would take about 3 hours to complete all missions. But you gain points when playing this mode, and you unlock weapons for the multiplayer with these points, and this mode is really enjoyable. It’s great to do with a mate and if you both have a headset, it’s even more fun! Definitely something to try out.
Co-Op mission 1. AKA Operation Exodus
Teamwork is the key - Multiplayer
Now, it’s time for the part we’ve all been waiting for: the MultiPlayer!!!
The multiplayer of BF3 contains 9 maps (without the Strike at Karkand / Close Quarters DLC Maps) which all differ in size and environment. On the PC, you can play with 64 players at a time, while on the consoles, this is “only” 24 players. When you play the 24 players mode for the first time, you’ll be amazed. Vehicles drive at considerable speed all over the place, soldiers are going ape-shit and dozens of bullets are flying in all directions! Especially in the map Caspian Border you get the impression that this map is just never ending and this is where you see the true power of the FrostBite2 Engine. Mud is splashing up because of the tankgrenades and when you see a vehicle you can see dust blowing upwards. Maps like Grand-Bazaar are designed for combat on foot. In those kind of maps you run through the streets while avoiding bullets and firing back. This really did amaze me when I was playing for the first time.
Being cautious in Grand Bazaar
The teams in Battlefield 3 are divided in two teams of 12 players of course, but those 12 players are devided in squads. Squads are smaller teams, which work together. Also, not your whole team can hear you when using your headset. Only your squad-members can hear you. Some might not like it to not have the possibility to communicate with your whole team, but I like this. It allows you to create plans without having to many people to make the plan too chaotic to deploy. Squads can exist of a maximum of 4 players, but of course this can be less. You can’t really control in which squad you are, although you can leave and join another squad. On the PC you also have a small in-game chat-room for the whole team and you can even talk to your enemies with this. The console doesn’t have this function, but that wouldn’t work anyway.
The multiplayer also contains a variation of the mode “Gold Rush” in Bad Company 2. This time, the mode is just called “Rush mode”. In this mode, we have two teams. One team attacking and the other team defending. The goal of this mode is to destroy or protect two objectives. When you destroy a few objectives, you can move on to the next bit of the map to destroy the next objectives and so on. I really like this mode because you have to multitask a bit. Protect one objective and killing and running to the other objective at the same time. This requires teamwork and communication. Because if you don’t work together, you’ll be defeated in no time.
Another common mode is Conquest, which is basically capture-the-flag, but with more strategical thinking and it’s a bit more advanced. Conquest is one of my favourite modes, because in this mode, teamwork and strategy is the key to victory. You have to carefully approach an enemy base, wait for a good moment, and then attack. At least that’s how I play conquest. Of course, when you are in a squad with friends with headsets, you can really plan an attack on a base and you can assign tasks to everyone. I really, really like this. Also, in Conquest and Rush you can, in certain maps, use Jets. I really enjoy flying in those. Nothing above chilling in a jet, with your mate in another jet, creating chaos in Caspian Border. This is really enjoyable and certainly something you should try once.
Defending your base
A new mode (at least, in BF3) is the team-deathmatch mode. This is like Call of Duty. The maps are the same, but are made smaller and there are no vehicles. It’s an enjoyable mode, especially if you want to level up fast, but it’s too easy, since most of the players who play this mode often are really bad at this game. Most of the time I ended up with a K/D Ratio of 3.00 or 4.00. Normally, I’m not playing for the K/D, but in TDM I do. And that’s what you should do in this mode. If you’re angry you should play this mode, for some brainless shooting action. Though this is not the real Battlefield, this is like CoD. And I bought Battlefield 3. Not CoD.
The classes are brought back from five to four: Assault, Engineer, Support and Recon.
The Assault focuses on dropping med kits and reviving teammates. The Assault is equipped with an assault-rifle. The Support focuses on killing and dropping ammo-crates and is equipped with a LMG. Then we have the Engineer. The Engineer focuses on repairing vehicles and is equipped with an Assault-rifle and a rocket launcher. As last, but not least, the recon. The Recon basically is the sniper. He focuses on killing people on a distance and spotting enemies for teammates. Spotting is basically just aiming at him, using the button (for PS3 the ‘select’ button) and then everyone can see him on the map. As you can read, every class has it’s own style of playing. Of course you have noobs leveling the Recon with a shotgun, which is really annoying, but it adds some strategy to the game.
Three of the four classes
An weapon on itself - Destrucion/Environment
Battlefield 3 has a really high level of destruction physics. Explosions look extremely realistic, and debris flies in all directions. Debris is deadly though, so you really do not to watch out before you do anything reckless. The environment is a weapon on it’s own in Battlefield 3, but watch out, this is for both sides. I really like this feature, it makes you think. At first I didn’t use it at all, but when I finally knew how, I used it constantly. I still do. Think about breaking a window which is above someone, so the glass does some moderate damage, or breaking the ceiling above someone, so the debris damages/kills him. I love it!
Destructions is take at a higher level
Rolling around at the Speed of Sound - Vehicles
Who thinks Battlefield thinks: vehicles. Ok, maybe not directly, but they do play a pretty big role in BF3. And who doesn’t love driving over people, killing people with tanks and flying around a huge map, enjoying the beautiful view of a F*CKING BATTLEFIELD underneath you? I do love that. Vehicles are important, very important. When your enemy is in the possession of a vehicle, and you are not, you are in trouble, a lot of trouble. In this situation it takes teamwork and communication to disable or destroy the enemy vehicle before you’re all dead. When it’s the other way around though, it’s time for some fun, if you’re not being killed by a rocket-launcher though. But as long as you shoot at everything that moves, you’ll be fine.
Flying in a jet with a "F*CKING BATTLEFIELD" underneath you
Lifespan
I think you all know the answer yourself already. Battlefield 3 has a SinglePlayer, a Co-Op mode and an immense MultiPlayer with which you will be able to enjoy yourself for months. The singleplayer might be pretty short, but most of you will probably buy this game for the Multiplayer anyway. If you are someone that buys games solely for the SinglePlayer, I wouldn’t recommend this game to you, because the core of Battlefield 3 is the Multiplayer. The Battlefield Series has made itself really known between all of those shooters, and has made itself even more known with Battlefield 3. Everybody has his own preference of games, but Battlefield 3 has impressed me.
DICE shows innovation and creativity, especially with their new engine, and there aren’t a lot of developers who can say this at the moment…
Conclusion
Battlefield 3 is a game which you really have to play once. Preferably more than once
The SinglePlayer is one big stereotypical bomb with a lot of predictable plot-twists, but it was enjoyable. The Cooperative mode is fun to play, but not a real advertisement for the game. But then you have the Multiplayer. And the Multiplayer is BIG. The MultiPlayer is the reason you would buy the game. Of course there are a lot of other games out there that were released around the period, but Battlefield 3 really deserves the glory and the attention which the developer has invested in it.
Pro’s:
-Amazing Graphics
-Best MultiPlayer of a shooter yet
-The Sound in this game is awesome.
Cons:
-SinglePlayer is really monotone
-Still a few bugs, but most have been fixed since the release.
Score: 9.1
LaunchTrailer:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DM7NsxOS0Q[/media]
I just came home from school. I throw my bag somewhere in a corner and I run upstairs.
I turn on my PS3 and start up Battlefield 3. I’m continuing the Singleplayer campaign.
I play my story as Sgt. Blackburn, a soldier in the year 2014. Together with my squad I have to search for another, missing, squad. It sounds simple, but it turns out to be a really complicated mission. Welcome in Tehran, Iraq.
The power of visuals - Visuals
To kick off this review, I’m starting with the visuals, because damn this game looks and sounds good!
When DICE gave is some teasers, we were all really amazed. A bit of a disappointment when we found out that those graphics were coming from a really high-end PC. But after seeing the game on a console, we can all say that the graphics still look stunning. When we got the opportunity to play the BETA, people where complaining about the amount of bugs and the lag in the game. I suppose people don’t understand that BETA’s are made to test the servers, and are almost ALWAYS old builds. But after the game was released, people stopped complaining, because pretty much all of the bugs were fixed and the game wasn’t laggy a little bit. DICE really did a great job on the visuals. Dust being blown into the air, awesome light effects (look into the sun and you’ll see) and most of all: no or minimal screen-tearing or framedrops. Even on the consoles. Suprising was the lip-synchronising. I didn’t expect too much of that, but it was awesome! The sound is really, really good. Bullets actually sound different when fired from inside a building then when they’re fired outside. Explosions sound realistic and when a building collapses you can really hear it. DICE did a great job on this.
Tehran, Iraq. Doesn't it look amazing?
Battlefield 3 is split up in three segments: Singleplayer, Multiplayer and Co-Op. I’m going to start with the singleplayer.
Expecting highly can only disappoint - SinglePlayer
The SinglePlayer is enjoyable but really not worth it. DICE showed us a lot of cool trailers and I was really excitied to play the SinglePlayer. Well, I was wrong. Remember when DICE showed us the mission with the sniper on a roof in Iraq? I’m sure we all thought it looked spectacular and we could all feel the tension. In reality, that mission was not as spectacular as we thought and was over before I knew it. In the SinglePlayer, you play with more than one character, however the storyline is based around Sgt. Blackburn. This is a positive point, it makes me think about Medal of Honour.
My opinion might sound negative, and it is. But, Battlefield 3 is a game that focuses on multiplayer. And guess what? DICE pretty much made the multiplayer awesome in BF3. DICE took a guess to add a SinglePlayer in Battlefield 3, and it was enjoyable, but monotone, boring and short. But, before we take a look at the immense MultiPlayer, let’s check out the Co-op mode.
Together we stand strong - Co-Op Mode
The Co-Op mode is, as you probably would have guessed, the cooperative mode. This mode is playable as well online and offline en consists of six missions.
At the start, you have to kill waves of enemies, but when you’re progressing in the Co-Op mode, you’ll fly in helicopters, in which one player controls the helicopter, and the other player controls the weapons of the helicopter, and much, much more. Each mission would take about 20 minutes, so it would take about 3 hours to complete all missions. But you gain points when playing this mode, and you unlock weapons for the multiplayer with these points, and this mode is really enjoyable. It’s great to do with a mate and if you both have a headset, it’s even more fun! Definitely something to try out.
Co-Op mission 1. AKA Operation Exodus
Teamwork is the key - Multiplayer
Now, it’s time for the part we’ve all been waiting for: the MultiPlayer!!!
The multiplayer of BF3 contains 9 maps (without the Strike at Karkand / Close Quarters DLC Maps) which all differ in size and environment. On the PC, you can play with 64 players at a time, while on the consoles, this is “only” 24 players. When you play the 24 players mode for the first time, you’ll be amazed. Vehicles drive at considerable speed all over the place, soldiers are going ape-shit and dozens of bullets are flying in all directions! Especially in the map Caspian Border you get the impression that this map is just never ending and this is where you see the true power of the FrostBite2 Engine. Mud is splashing up because of the tankgrenades and when you see a vehicle you can see dust blowing upwards. Maps like Grand-Bazaar are designed for combat on foot. In those kind of maps you run through the streets while avoiding bullets and firing back. This really did amaze me when I was playing for the first time.
Being cautious in Grand Bazaar
The teams in Battlefield 3 are divided in two teams of 12 players of course, but those 12 players are devided in squads. Squads are smaller teams, which work together. Also, not your whole team can hear you when using your headset. Only your squad-members can hear you. Some might not like it to not have the possibility to communicate with your whole team, but I like this. It allows you to create plans without having to many people to make the plan too chaotic to deploy. Squads can exist of a maximum of 4 players, but of course this can be less. You can’t really control in which squad you are, although you can leave and join another squad. On the PC you also have a small in-game chat-room for the whole team and you can even talk to your enemies with this. The console doesn’t have this function, but that wouldn’t work anyway.
The multiplayer also contains a variation of the mode “Gold Rush” in Bad Company 2. This time, the mode is just called “Rush mode”. In this mode, we have two teams. One team attacking and the other team defending. The goal of this mode is to destroy or protect two objectives. When you destroy a few objectives, you can move on to the next bit of the map to destroy the next objectives and so on. I really like this mode because you have to multitask a bit. Protect one objective and killing and running to the other objective at the same time. This requires teamwork and communication. Because if you don’t work together, you’ll be defeated in no time.
Another common mode is Conquest, which is basically capture-the-flag, but with more strategical thinking and it’s a bit more advanced. Conquest is one of my favourite modes, because in this mode, teamwork and strategy is the key to victory. You have to carefully approach an enemy base, wait for a good moment, and then attack. At least that’s how I play conquest. Of course, when you are in a squad with friends with headsets, you can really plan an attack on a base and you can assign tasks to everyone. I really, really like this. Also, in Conquest and Rush you can, in certain maps, use Jets. I really enjoy flying in those. Nothing above chilling in a jet, with your mate in another jet, creating chaos in Caspian Border. This is really enjoyable and certainly something you should try once.
Defending your base
A new mode (at least, in BF3) is the team-deathmatch mode. This is like Call of Duty. The maps are the same, but are made smaller and there are no vehicles. It’s an enjoyable mode, especially if you want to level up fast, but it’s too easy, since most of the players who play this mode often are really bad at this game. Most of the time I ended up with a K/D Ratio of 3.00 or 4.00. Normally, I’m not playing for the K/D, but in TDM I do. And that’s what you should do in this mode. If you’re angry you should play this mode, for some brainless shooting action. Though this is not the real Battlefield, this is like CoD. And I bought Battlefield 3. Not CoD.
The classes are brought back from five to four: Assault, Engineer, Support and Recon.
The Assault focuses on dropping med kits and reviving teammates. The Assault is equipped with an assault-rifle. The Support focuses on killing and dropping ammo-crates and is equipped with a LMG. Then we have the Engineer. The Engineer focuses on repairing vehicles and is equipped with an Assault-rifle and a rocket launcher. As last, but not least, the recon. The Recon basically is the sniper. He focuses on killing people on a distance and spotting enemies for teammates. Spotting is basically just aiming at him, using the button (for PS3 the ‘select’ button) and then everyone can see him on the map. As you can read, every class has it’s own style of playing. Of course you have noobs leveling the Recon with a shotgun, which is really annoying, but it adds some strategy to the game.
Three of the four classes
An weapon on itself - Destrucion/Environment
Battlefield 3 has a really high level of destruction physics. Explosions look extremely realistic, and debris flies in all directions. Debris is deadly though, so you really do not to watch out before you do anything reckless. The environment is a weapon on it’s own in Battlefield 3, but watch out, this is for both sides. I really like this feature, it makes you think. At first I didn’t use it at all, but when I finally knew how, I used it constantly. I still do. Think about breaking a window which is above someone, so the glass does some moderate damage, or breaking the ceiling above someone, so the debris damages/kills him. I love it!
Destructions is take at a higher level
Rolling around at the Speed of Sound - Vehicles
Who thinks Battlefield thinks: vehicles. Ok, maybe not directly, but they do play a pretty big role in BF3. And who doesn’t love driving over people, killing people with tanks and flying around a huge map, enjoying the beautiful view of a F*CKING BATTLEFIELD underneath you? I do love that. Vehicles are important, very important. When your enemy is in the possession of a vehicle, and you are not, you are in trouble, a lot of trouble. In this situation it takes teamwork and communication to disable or destroy the enemy vehicle before you’re all dead. When it’s the other way around though, it’s time for some fun, if you’re not being killed by a rocket-launcher though. But as long as you shoot at everything that moves, you’ll be fine.
Flying in a jet with a "F*CKING BATTLEFIELD" underneath you
Lifespan
I think you all know the answer yourself already. Battlefield 3 has a SinglePlayer, a Co-Op mode and an immense MultiPlayer with which you will be able to enjoy yourself for months. The singleplayer might be pretty short, but most of you will probably buy this game for the Multiplayer anyway. If you are someone that buys games solely for the SinglePlayer, I wouldn’t recommend this game to you, because the core of Battlefield 3 is the Multiplayer. The Battlefield Series has made itself really known between all of those shooters, and has made itself even more known with Battlefield 3. Everybody has his own preference of games, but Battlefield 3 has impressed me.
DICE shows innovation and creativity, especially with their new engine, and there aren’t a lot of developers who can say this at the moment…
Conclusion
Battlefield 3 is a game which you really have to play once. Preferably more than once
The SinglePlayer is one big stereotypical bomb with a lot of predictable plot-twists, but it was enjoyable. The Cooperative mode is fun to play, but not a real advertisement for the game. But then you have the Multiplayer. And the Multiplayer is BIG. The MultiPlayer is the reason you would buy the game. Of course there are a lot of other games out there that were released around the period, but Battlefield 3 really deserves the glory and the attention which the developer has invested in it.
Pro’s:
-Amazing Graphics
-Best MultiPlayer of a shooter yet
-The Sound in this game is awesome.
Cons:
-SinglePlayer is really monotone
-Still a few bugs, but most have been fixed since the release.
Score: 9.1
LaunchTrailer:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DM7NsxOS0Q[/media]
