Warning, some of the youtube videos posted below contain some spoilers.
I think I’m easily pleased—I’ll always find something positive to say about anything and games are no exception. It would take a very shite game for me to have nothing positive to say about it, “the logo is nice.”
Then there’s Battlefield 3; EA’s latest FPS that released here in Australia yesterday. With each year and each incarnation of the big shooters, we see technology and production values that push games closer to the level of the interactive movie and/or simulator.
GFX
BF3 leans toward the latter. For instance, the graphics (on the PS3 version) have come a long way over its predecessor, BF2: Bad Company. Where BF2 was decent, BF3 has some really nice touches that make for a more engaging experience. For example, the ambient light is really impressive. Following one of my team through an alleyway that had drastic changes in light, I noticed the ambient light reflecting off a wall on to my buddy’s CamelBak. I don’t know if that’s genuine raytracing (which was always a computational challenge) or some other kind of trickery. Regardless, it was a very nice touch that I haven’t seen in a FPS before.
The graphics all round are very impressive—I can only guess how good they look on a tricked out Windows PC. A prime example of this is the F-18 Hornet stage (I think they’re F-18s) early in the game. This stage is all about eye candy. Starting off the stage in a discussion with your commanding officer, you snake your way through the inside of a ship until you find yourself up on the deck of a USN aircraft carrier.
You and another pair of pilots are about to sortie to clear the skies above your fleet. The next few minutes of game play are akin to being inside a Discovery channel documentary. Perhaps my not being sober contributed to it and perhaps having my mate greening out on the couch next to me enhanced the experience, but I tripped out over details like the wind blowing patterns in the water sitting on the deck! This stage summed up everything that I gleaned from my warplane books as an awkward teenager—it’s a treat.
Gameplay
The game play can vary but overall, it’s pretty good (I’m talking about the campaign here). I’m playing on ‘easy’ difficulty… let's just say I get bored easily when things don’t go my way. But interestingly, this baby level still throws up some challenges to the player. Whether by design or not, it isn’t always clear what you have to do next. I find this refreshing because FPS’ generally guide you a bit more.
The best example of this so far is when I came up to a ledge over-looking a parking lot. There were a few PLR boys down there throwing up a fair amount of hot rocks (I got the impression they didn’t want me there). With a couple lads unexpectedly coming at me from behind, I wasn’t sure if I should press forward into the well-armed welcoming committee or if I should hang back and wait for something to happen.
After many ‘life lessons’, I figured out that I needed to slowly pick them off one by one before gingerly slinking down to the next waypoint. So far there is a nice balance of learning/intuition vs. guidance.
Generally, enemies keep coming at you until you move to the next waypoint or trip the next series of events. Most of those you meet are pushovers who can only take one or two hits versus your Halo style, magical recoup which allows you to take a good 10 hits before needing to take cover. Standard FPS fare.
Imperfections
It’s not perfect. I found this out in the very first scene of the game. Your first kill is on the floor and his corpse disappears right before your eyes. Now, I expected this kind of thing to happen ten years ago, but not today. There wasn’t even a massive memory requirement either. I was in a very confined space and there was one more dude way down the other end of the space. Is this 1999?
Movement in the game is generally pretty cool. Watching other characters move and especially run, really gives you a sense that work was put into the animation design. But it’s funny watching your buddies break their falls with commando rolls and clamour under a fence to scale down a wall as you just jump and land below, standing perfectly vertical.
I’m sure I’ll find other things to complain about, but so far I don’t have anything major to site.
Never been to war, but have played paintball
There were some interesting quotes in the game too. At the first stage, somewhere in the Middle East, you’re in “a pretty fucking bad area of town” where you rendezvous with a chap named Cole who directs you into the theatre of war (by literally turning a corner and opening a wrought iron gate).
As part of his talk, Cole makes the distinction that the locals aren’t our enemy, but the PLR (insurgents pushing in from Iran) is. It’s refreshing to have this tiny point made—all too often there’s a blanket assumption in games that all ‘foreigners’ you encounter are the enemy.
Another nice quote occurs between two of your company when you’re moving between skirmish venues; “Bro, America was founded by terrorists for terrorists. What do you think the civil war was? History is determined by the motherfucken victor.” Again, it’s nice for the game to challenge western players’ views.
That said, further in, I found myself fighting my way back to an extraction point THROUGH A FUCKING CARPET BAZAAR! I mean seriously guys, why am I hiding behind stacks of carpets in the Middle East? I’m confident that they sell goods other than Persian carpets there? I just found this to be a little bit shallow.
Not boring
I’m not one to finish games—I get bored and/or frustrated. The last two games I finished were BF2: Bad Company and Uncharted 2, before that and CODMW2 before that. But generally, once the initial excitement of the new game dies down—I’m over it. I’m confident that the campaign mode of BF3 will have enough in it for me to follow it through to the end.
I haven’t even touched the online portion of the game yet. I’m looking forward to doing an online co-op—that’s my favourite kind of gameplay. Likewise, I’m yet to hit the servers for some multiplayer action. I read on Twitter that the BF3 servers weren’t handling the load.
Most tweets are very positive, but of course, you can’t please everyone, “BF3 sucks cock. I played it for 1 hour & I want to return it.” Yes mate, you return it and go back to playing CS2.
Overall, I’m thoroughly impressed and I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into the variations on gameplay (so many more vehicles to use). The game’s developers, DICE, have done their homework. It’s as if they sent their programmers, artists and voice actors to Iraq on a field trip because this shit is as real as it gets in a game.
Just buy; I had to
For some reason I didn’t get a review copy of this game *is not shaking fist in mock anger*, but I’m not sad I paid full retail price for it either *nearly chokes on words*. The game is still worth the $108 EB Games charged me for it… don’t even care that JB Hi-fi will be selling it for $89 from today. It was worth the $19 difference for me to get this story out today. So if you like FPS—buy Battlefield 3.