Battlefield 3

For the more hardcore among you, the release of Battlefield 3 signifies one of the biggest divisions between gamers of late. Battlefield 3 is squaring up against the current titan of the consoles: Call of Duty (COD). Activision has kept Santa busy for three straight years with their record breaking series, and for many, the only way to play if you wanted a shooter was Modern Warfare or Black Ops. That’s not to say EA wasn’t present. The Battlefield Bad Company franchise made a lot of noise and impressed many with destructible environments and the inclusion of vehicles neither of which were present in COD. Now, on the eve of another set-to-be smash hit Call of Duty, DICE have tempted many a-loyal COD-ian again with Battlefield 3 and with good reason.

Of course, you can play both. There aren’t many people who are so loyal to a game that they refuse to play anything else (though I’m sure you’ve met those lovely types through your headset and in the forums before). However, there are quite a few Call of Duty fans who wouldn’t even give Battlefield a second glance and EA are keen to grab attention this time with what is a truly ground-breaking title.

The majority of people will pick up a copy of Battlefield 3 for the multiplayer. For the veterans it has all the tell-tale signs of Battlefield but you won’t be able to pick up where you left off from Bad Company. There’s a strange unfamiliar essence about everything; a leveller effect that allows everyone to start on the same footing. It doesn’t take long to outgrow the need to creep around and check every corner though and soon everyone is clamouring for the jets and dashing for the anti-tank turrets amidst a hail of rounds and shells. It’s frantic and chaotic but leaves you at the end of a long night squeezing in just one more game before bed. And for those who can’t get enough, DICE have launched Battlelog as well; think Facebook for Battlefield complete with all your hard-earned medals and hundreds of unlocks.

Putting the online war aside for one moment though, there’s an engrossing and rich campaign to tighten up your skills with before unleashing yourself on the world. The focus is on epic. Epic scale, epic visuals, epic firefights and most peculiarly, epic sound. One thing you find yourself noticing when playing is the noises. Weapons and explosions make a wondrous cacophony unmatched by any game before and I’m sure you’ve never enjoyed a jet going overhead until now. The screen is constantly bombarded with vision filters and flares which add that extra element of realism and force you to think about your positioning to maximise your view of the fight.
It’s difficult not to compare to Call of Duty though. Activision have changed the way people view shooters in the last few years, not only online, but in campaigns. No regular gamer will be able to run for the back of an aircraft under fire without thinking about when Price saved them from falling out of the Chinook in Modern Warfare. These things are difficult to avoid. There are only so many scenarios that could be (reasonably) believed and created by developers when designing a shooter. It’s expected now that a player will find themselves on a rooftop with a sniper rifle covering a squad’s advance at some point because these are fun and exciting things to do. It’s also expected that in between those moments when you personally are winning the war, that you might have to do some footwork.

Unfortunately, in these moments some cracks do appear. The AI at times is bulletproof and it almost seems as though you have to wait for them to be ready to be shot. Sometimes it’s easy to get ahead of the game as well, especially on occasions when the events are scripted and you find yourself unable to advance whilst the game catches up. These are fairly infrequent though, and on the whole the player is left with several ‘wow’ moments that make you forget you’re in control at all and leave you staring at the screen in awe.

What Battlefield 3 excels at though is the moments when you get behind the wheel or, as many have been eagerly looking forward to, into the cockpit. I’ll admit to you that I got goose bumps being catapulted down the runway in the third mission, a sensation that I’ve never felt with Call of Duty. When Battlefield remembers it doesn’t have to follow in COD’s footsteps the game truly shines and delivers an experience that has kept the loyal fans coming back time and again. Yes it’s the near future, yes it’s a nuclear threat, yes it’s every book Tom Clancy’s ever written, but DICE has kept it fresh and invigorating in the face of CODian adversary.