Superpad Unplugged: Battlefield 3

Official Site: http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield3

Source: Youtube Channel eavision

Developer: EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE)

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Platforms: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, iOS

Release Date: October 25, 2011

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Pros:

-Huge maps with a large array of vehicles to utilize

-Sense of camaraderie and of belonging within a unit

-Beautiful visuals and powerful/realistic audio

-Level up system has a lot of depth in customization and item/ability acquisition

-Emphasizes cooperative play a lot more than most FPS games

Cons:

-Single-player is boring and forgettable

-The game is riddled with bugs, glitches, and server lag

-Communication and cooperation can be a problem for console players

-PC players have better graphics, but struggle with even starting a match successfully

-Multiplayer experience relies heavily on the players one sides with

It is clear that all efforts and resources were focused on the multiplayer side of Battlefield 3. If you’re one to look for a strong cooperative, team-based, first-person shooter to play online, then perhaps Battlefield 3 is the game for you. If fighting solo and instant action is one requires in their online multiplayer, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 might be more appropriate. If one seeks a fun and intuitive single-player experience, I would recommend Crysis 2. Cooperative scenario modes are rare, but perhaps Resistance 3 might be a better choice for an FPS player if they want to play next to a friend in the same room. Battlefield 3 may be an FPS game, but it’s not for all FPS fans. Battlefield 3 doesn’t have a very good single-player campaign, but those looking for an extensive online multiplayer experience will be able to enjoy playing the game for the rest of the year and beyond should the community stay strong. There are plenty of vehicles, weapons, gadgets, classes, and unlocks to keep the game fresh and keep players intrigued to try something new. The game does suffer from many technical problems, but the developers have always been diligent in correcting them as quickly as possible should any arise. The game feels a lot more like a sequel to the Bad Company series than the main series, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a lot of fun and challenges even the most experienced FPS players.

Aesthetics

The graphics in Battlefield 3 are beautiful. I think what I really like about the style of graphics done in the game is how bright and inviting it looks. FPS games in the past have been mostly dark, brown, muddy, boring, and difficult to distinguish objects. Battlefield 3 has an amazing lighting system that just makes everything pop out and bring it to life. The physics and effects are very detailed to get the most out of explosions and destructible environments. There’s also an improvement in the audio from Bad Company 2; however, it’s still not as powerful and life-like compared to DICE’s previous work on Medal of Honor (2010) (it still has the best audio for a military shooter I’ve heard so far). While the graphics might be incredible, it’s mainly for those who have a PC that can handle them. Console players will have textures with a lower resolution than the PC, so it sadly has graphics that are great but not incredible compared to the PC put on max settings. The load out screen right before deploying can be a bit difficult to get used to on console as it was set up originally for the computer mouse on PC, but it eventually makes enough sense to utilize. I really like the neon-like layouts for the mini-map, HUDs, and menu. It sets a certain atmosphere to the game that distinguishes itself as “Battlefield 3”. Some of the problems within aesthetics are texture glitches, objects disappearing, players getting stuck in each other or pushed into a wall when spawning, graphics lag from explosions and smoke, and the audio of gunfire suddenly going silence for an entire match. Aesthetics: 8/10

Buttons

Playing Battlefield 3 on console is a lot different than playing on PC. It’s much easier to tag people while still moving on the keyboard. On a controller, the player has to leave their analog stick in order to press the select/back key (PS3/Xbox 360) in order to tag enemy units which sadly leads to players tagging a lot less on consoles. The load out menu is a bit confusing between choosing a class, weapons and gadgets, but it eventually makes sense. Those who have gotten used to the usual FPS settings on controllers will need to adjust a little as keys cannot be customized or changed. The right thumb stick will be to crouch or prone instead of a melee. R2 will be the key used to knife. L2 tosses a frag grenade. The circle face button is used to interact with gadgets, setting a bomb, defusing one, etc. I mainly find the spot key to be the biggest problem as tagging enemies is a pivotal action in team fights but leaves the player vulnerable while doing so. Not being able to customize the keys and switching them around from the norm does make it confusing and takes some getting used to, but it makes sense for multiplayer (for the most part). Buttons: 8/10

Concept & Content

I was very disappointed with the single-player campaign as I enjoyed DICE and EA’s last two game’s campaign modes (Medal of Honor 2010 & Battlefield Bad Company 2). The story was told very similar to Call of Duty Black Ops in that the main character is being interrogated and the player relives all the flashbacks. The progression of single-player is extremely sectionalized with the player just constantly going forward requiring that the player stays undercover for long durations and popped their head out once in a while to fire at the enemy (at least for the more difficult settings). The story wasn’t cohesive, the gameplay was boring, and the level designs were odd considering its core concept (you have to be under cover a lot, but there is VERY little cover in every level and they can be blown apart). One thing I have to praise the single-player for is its incredible settings and environment. Sadly, the campaign mode didn’t feel like there was a lot of thought and consideration put into it. Co-op mode is unfortunately online multiplayer only and won’t be as fun unless you have friends that you know you can play with (and cooperate with). I would’ve been nice to have SOME sort of local multiplayer, but there isn’t one. Thankfully, online multiplayer is really fun (or I would have felt ripped off). There’s a variety of maps that are large (sometimes too large for its player capacity), plenty of things to unlock as the player progresses their level, and an array of vehicles to fly and drive. After a good dozen hours of playing multiplayer, I realized that the game still has problems with glitches; however, I already saw problems from the beta fixed while new ones are quickly addressed and remedied. Multiplayer actually feels more challenging than Bad Company 2 did, but it also feels more balanced. Consoles unfortunately have half the player capacity that PC players do and it can be difficult to find or even see any enemies for a while. I find it upsetting that the DLC was planned from the beginning to be sold separately, but I can’t say I’m surprised seeing how a lot of game developers and publishers has turned to purposely excluding content from a game to be resold to players. Still, the core content within Battlefield 3 is enough to satisfy me on what I want out of it for the rest of the year. Concept & Content: 7/10

Duration

Single-player wasn’t very long, and that’s alright by me since I didn’t enjoy it that much anyways. I’m not sure what to say about online multiplayer. I’ve barely scratched the surface of multiplayer and I’ve already played 10-20 hours on it. I’m mainly playing as assault as I’ve come to enjoy playing healers in games now (this started when I realized other players not doing their jobs when choosing to play as one). There’s a lot of things to unlock and experiment with and each match can last anywhere from 10 minutes to half an hour. The gameplay is slower paced than most FPS games, but that tension right before a really big fight is what makes the game so exciting. Other times, it’s not but action and both sides are constantly in a fire-fight. I have to admit that I can’t play the game for long durations (it can be a tiring game), but it’s a game I feel comfortable revisiting again and again as long as I feel up for playing it. Duration: 9/10

Fun

I had mixed reactions throughout playing Battlefield 3. I started with campaign first and marveled at the amazing graphics and how breath taking the environment was. The gameplay was okay for a while and then I started realizing how very little safe cover there were in every area. Enemies were killing me in 2 shots if not one and that led me to staying in cover a lot. As the game progressed, it got worse and the story didn’t interest me anymore. With multiplayer, it was difficult to adjust to the controls in the beginning. I died a lot trying to knife but ended up crouching or trying to throw a grenade and accidentally knifing the air. I really hated how the spot key was in a position where I had to leave my analog stick. It was mainly getting used to playing on controller as opposed to keyboard and mouse (I purposely chose to purchase the console version because the PC version had so many problems that I couldn’t even start it). After having a grasp at the concept, controls and area of each map, I began to play a lot more naturally and enjoyed the game. Then there are times when I play multiplayer and can’t enjoy it because no one on my team seems to want to fulfill the main objective and I’m always put in the losing team (which makes sense because the only games with free slots are ones with players leaving a losing game). When all goes well, I get a game where I get tons of kills, lots of points from healing and support, and the whole team wins which feels so good. It’s like a crazy roller coaster ride with Battlefield 3. Fun: 8/10

Overall

The single-player campaign wasn’t that great. Co-op is only online play and it’s difficult to coordinate on console if you don’t have a microphone (which most people don’t even use for team-work in the first place). Content that could’ve been in the game to begin with is cut out to be sold as a DLC. There were plenty of reasons that made me look down upon BF3 and made me wonder why I got it. Battlefield had always excelled in is multiplayer mode, and although BF3’s multiplayer is really fun, it’s not entirely polished. I would much rather have had the developers focus on the multiplayer and take out all the problems before it actually launched, have the content that should have been in there stay there and justify the $60 it charged players, and truly have a complete multiplayer. Still, I thought they did a good job on rebalancing the game from what they did for Bad Company 2 such as changing the roles of each class and the power output of each weapons. Teamwork is still a must and does a good job emphasizing it by punishing those who go off on their own through its game design. The game isn’t entirely up to expectations from all the hype it gathered, but I still ended up enjoying it for the most part. Overall: 8/10

Official Site: http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield3

Source: Youtube Channel XboxViewTV

Before I start, I want to say that Joystiq might actually read some of my posts! They started something called "Deja Review" which is synonymous to what I do for "Retroview". Of course I don't have a problem with that since they didn't use my exact term AND their first "Deja Review" is on legendary Shoot-em-up "Radiant Silvergun" (which I sadly never played before). It's cool to know that I might have contributed to an idea for the guys at Joystiq. Anyways~

Electronic Arts has announced that Battlefield 3 will have an Open Beta Testing for all platforms on September 29th to all gamers. I originally planned on buying this for PS3, but I recently found out that my friend will be getting it on PC since he won't even have his PS3 with him while in college. Along with the fact that PC will have more content (slightly) than consoles, I am now considering getting it on PC instead and get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on PS3 instead. So this Beta Test is a great time for everyone to try out on all their systems and decide which one they want to get it for. You can figure out whether your PC specs can hold out, is the console version good enough to ignore the limited capacity of players, and which system feels most comfortable to play on. And if you're one of the people that has early access beta, Beta starts on Sep. 27th for you. I'm not sure when I should actually buy the game since I'm not desperate to get it the first day it comes out. I'm willing to wait a little while to get a bit of a discount on it. But if EA is anything like Activision in how they market Call of Duty, the price will never go down until the next sequel comes out. Well, hopefully EA has some sort of sale or special discount on their Origin service. I will see you all out on the battlefield on September 29th!

Superpad Unplugged

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

VGCulture - Filler - Battlefield 3 with Super Mario Sounds

Friday, February 10, 2012

GameLight Review - Battlefield 3

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

NewNews - Game Releases

Friday, September 30, 2011

NewNews - Battlefield 3 Beta Begins

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

NewNews - Battlefield 3 Beta on Sep. 29th