Battlefield 3 was one of my most anticipated games of this fall. It is the latest iteration in a long-line of beloved shooters from a team of developers who know what theyāre doing, but I also love a good fight. Iām not just talking about the endless gun battles you get into in the game. Iām talking about the tooth-and-nail brawl that pits Battlefield against Call of Duty. Things tend to get better when two developers are trying to be the best at something. So how did it work out for Battlefield 3?
Brian Crecente, who will be reviewing the game and has played through a chunk of the campaign and online: Battlefield 3ās multiplayer is as good as its single-player campaign is bad.
Dropping into an online match of Battlefield 3, on computer or Xbox 360, is a bewildering first-time experience. Iāve played all of the Battlefield games, all of the Call of Duty games. First-person shooters are my football, my baseball, my basketball. This is what I play when I want to kill a little time in the evening or relax with a beer. So Iām not new to the different forms an online match can take in a military shooter, but falling into a match of Battlefield 3 is still awe-inspiring, distracting, immersive. The gameās use of sound, its massive battlefields, the disintegrating cover, the vehicles, the push to get players to act in concert, all combine with a new level of graphical detail and smartly sharpened leveling up and unlock system that delivers the deepest play experience Iāve ever had in an online shooter. This is the new bar for online first-person shooters, when it works. Launch day jitters hit my PC matches with some dropped play and an occasional bungee run back and forth on a couple of maps. The Xbox 360, after valiantly delivering mostly fault-free gameplay for a half a day, just gave up. The developers later said they were investigating server outages.
Where does sublime online multiplayer leave Battlefield 3ās campaign? At the other end of the spectrum. Iāve played through maybe a third of the campaign so far, so itās possible that the game will shape up by the time Iāve finished it and Iām writing my full review next week, but I doubt it. Battlefield 3ās story is a confused hodge-podge of events that still hasnāt delivered a single spectacular scene. I donāt mind a game leading me by the hand, but it needs to take me somewhere, and this one hasnāt yet. Worse still, the Xbox 360 version of the game shows significant slow down during key firefights. Iām not sure why the game stutters and slows, but I suspect it has to do with the destructible environment, something thatās a nice touch but isnāt worth the cost if thatās what is causing this problem.
Should you buy Battlefield 3? Absolutely, just donāt expect to spend any time playing it alone. If thatās all youāre looking for, go somewhere else. Yes
Evan Narcisse, the guy whoās spent chunks of time with Battlefield 3 in researching an article for Time Magazine: Iāve always hated the argument that multiplayer makes up the main portion of the modern-day FPS experience. Mind you, I recognize that itās become more true in recent years but I dislike the thinking thatās led to single-player campaigns that have so obviously been given short shrift. Yet, my time with Battlefield 3 just backs that notion up in spades.
In the run-up to the gameās launch, it seemed like DICE was putting as much effort in crafting a single-player game that would fold in some of the lesson they learned from their multiplayer successes. They specifically talked about creating moments of surprise for the solo portion of BF3 but thatās exactly what itās lacked to me so far.
However, surprises abound in the multiplayer. Whether itās the big ones of building falling on people or tank-vs.-jet skirmishes or the little ones of how interconnected the assist and XP systems feel, the times Iāve stepped into BF3ās online conflict have left me blown away. So, my thinking is if you keep expectations low and think of single-player as a training ground, Battlefield 3 is a must-play game. Yes.
Luke Plunkett, who has played a ton of the game at events, but waits patiently for Battlefield 3ās Australian release: Iām giving it a conditional yes. A half-assed response, maybe, but this seems a half-assed game. Battlefield 3 is a multiplayer game. If you want to buy something to shoot at people over the internet, this is it, especially if you own a decent PC. If you value a blockbuster singleplayer campaign as much as multiplayer, though, you may be slightly disappointed, as what Iāve seen and played of Battlefield 3ās seems a little bland.Yes.
Gut Check is an off-the-cuff impression of what we think of a game: what weād tell a friend; how weād respond on Twitter or Facebook or over a beer if someone asked us āWould you buy this game?ā Our lead writer, who has played a lot of the game, decides. Other writers chime in for additional points of view.
You can contact Brian Crecente, the author of this post, at [emailĀ protected]. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
