Battlefield 3 Review

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Does EA strike the first critical blow of Shooter Season ’11?

So what about the campaign? Well, I have left that to last, as that seems to be the way EA wants it to be (if you buy the 360 version, the single player campaign is on disc tw!). It must be said that the single player story has to be the thing that resembles a Call of Duty game the most. In fact, it feels a hell of a lot like Black Ops in the way that it is structured. For the most part, you will be playing as Henry Blackburn, A US Marine who has found himself on the wrong side of some shady US officials. They believe him to be in league with some Middle Eastern terrorists (again?) and are trying to find out if he is a traitor or not. This leads to all of the missions being played out like Flashbacks. There are a few missions that involve you taking control of someone else, but these are mainly vehicle based missions. They even try to pull a ’Modern Warfare’ moment (you will know it, when you see it). The story doesn’t really push any new buttons; it’s the sort of story you have come to expect from modern military FPS games.

What was great, however, was the way in which all of the characters interact with one another. They seem to work like a real Marine unit, not that I have ever been in the Marines, mind! The way that they move through buildings, tackle their objectives and engage the enemy certainly had an authentic feel to it. This really did enhance the overall atmosphere of the game. Which is then counteracted by the amount of glitches in the game and the way it becomes artificially difficult in order to prolong the games running time!


The glitches are once again at the forefront of my complaints against the game. From disappearing squad mates, to events not triggering; there are parts of this game that feel unfinished. You can then add to that an AI that is stupid most of the time (both teammates and enemies), but then turn into geniuses when the game wants to make a level last longer. Overall, the pace of the game is well thought out. The missions don’t drag on too long, and the gameplay is broken up in the right places with vehicle missions.

As you can imagine, the game looks stunning, even on the consoles, with a lot of effort put into lighting, not to mention the detail of your surroundings. The game especially looked good during the nighttime levels, giving a real sense of immersion. There is a level of detail to the game that has rarely been seen before. From the texture on the walls, to the way the rain hits the ground; everything looked amazing. Occasionally the game did freeze for a few seconds during the odd firefight, but nothing to worry you too much.

Of course, the PC version has the highest quality graphics, but you will need some serious hardware to get it running on the Ultra settings. If you have a beast running under your desk, the game should look like nothing before it, but there are plenty of options that will allow less powerful machines to get in on the action. But considering that the Frostbite 2 engine was really built for the PC, they have got it running just fine on the consoles. However, if you are going to get the Xbox 360 version, you will need to install the HD texture pack (found on Disc 2) to your HDD; otherwise the game looks terrible. What, you don’t have a HDD? Well, that’s unlucky. Just another argument for Microsoft to adopt Blu-Ray technology.


Another thing that really stood out is the audio. DICE have done a fantastic job of not only making the game look like a battlefield, but sound like one, too. The gunfire, the sound of casings hitting the floor, explosions and vehicle combat all sound incredible, so much so that I wanted to turn the volume up on my TV just to enhance my game. Fair play to DICE, they don’t just make good looking games, but ones that sound super sexy, as well.

Playing Battlefield 3 upsets me to a point. It is such a shame because when the game works, it is truly amazing. It’s the thinking man’s FPS, and in some areas, miles ahead of anything Activision could come up with (well, maybe not Battlelog). Beautiful to look at and to listen to, Battlefield 3 should have been a masterpiece; but as of writing this, the game has been let down severely by EA’s handling of the whole launch. Of course, we can expect the game to be fixed by various patches over the next few months, but by then everyone will be playing Call of Duty.

Review copy provided by publisher. Primary play on Xbox 360.
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Written by
News Editor/Reviewer, he also lends his distinct British tones to the N4G Radio Podcast. When not at his PC, he can be found either playing something with the word LEGO in it, or TROPICO!!!

10 Comments

  1. Was EA & DICE were too worried about MW3 so that they released it early on with the glitches? If that’s the whole story then they lost this round and will see how stupid they were by the time and if MW3 will rock this year.

  2. The game may look amazing on console but the screen tearing is killing me!!!

  3. Overall after playing this game online and campaign for a few days i agree with this review. When this game works it is incredible. Still I have spawned right in front of enemies about 1/5 times that I respawn. This game possibly has one of the worst spawn systems I have ever dealt with. Also I don’t know if it is a connection problem or a problem with the hit boxes but it seems that pray-n-spray combat dominates trying to be accurate and aim for head shots. I seem to be killed mostly from unknown angles and have to resort to camping the entire match in a controlled location to keep a decent ratio. Navigating the menus also is a pain. I don’t know why the “B” button is to change anything and not just back, i don’t know why you cant immediately make changes to your kit when you die, and I don’t know why you are forced into another game with the same team members and not allowed to change your kit/perks/etc in between matches but instead forced to do that all before you deploy.

  4. Battlefield is a multiplayer series. The single player campaign is solely practice for multiplayer. Battlelog is great you can see all your stats, future unlocks, friends stats, and form clans (platoons). It is a great system I just can’t understand how some reviewers do not even understand the purpose behind some of the features in the games they play.

    Since day one me nor any of my friends ever had trouble getting into a match.

    Your complaints about battlelog are just annoying. You do not like it because you have to get up and use the computer. NEWS FLASH BATTLEFIELD 3 IS A PC GAME. The entire battlefield series has been developed as pc lead. This is the only “Battlefield” game ever to grace consoles. If you do not like the features then go play the games design for console (bad company, modern combat). It is pretty sad you are so lazy that imputing a name, password, and email is to much work for you. Maybe you would of liked battlelog better if you had to pay for it and was available for pre-order.

    • Battlefield shipped as a package with multiplayer and single player. If EA had not wanted us to review a single player experience, then one should not have been included.

      Other multiplayer focused games have included true “multiplayer training” experiences rather than narratively-driven campaigns. EA did not choose to go that route and, therefore, should be judged on what was presented.

      As for your assertion that Battlefield is a PC game, certainly using Battlelog when playing the PC version is *less* annoying, but having to run a separate browser to access the features rather than have that in-game is folly. Additionally, the game DOES appear on consoles and EA has made no effort to make it a friendly experience for those users. Having to add friends through that system rather than the game taking advantage of PSN/XBL is frustrating and confounding.

      Your thinly veiled assertion that there is some slant toward Call of Duty is the ranting of a fan looking for any reason to discount a valid opinion of a game that clearly has flaws.

      I am thrilled that you have had no problems getting into a match, but clearly, you are lucky in a way that so many other users simply aren’t.

      We are certainly glad to discuss and debate points, but you need to start with civility. Calling our opinions “annoying” and asserting that we are “lazy” because a mechanic is far more cumbersome than it ought to be in this generation diminish your own credibility and viewpoints.

      Certainly, you would rather not be a troll… right?

      • That was awesome. Finally someone from a site does something about comments of their articles. Well done Michael, well done. I think I’ll be comming to this site more often.

        • We try to respond to as many comments as possible. I think it’s important for people to remember that there are real people with their own opinions that play and write about the games.

          If anyone ever has a question about a game, review or opinion piece, we’re here to answer. We love talking with our readers and would love to count you among them.

          Thanks for reading and for commenting. :)

  5. Somebody is in Activisions payroll.

    • I would urge you to look out our review guidelines. Unlike other sites, we use more than 7 – 10 on the scale. A 7.8 is an extremely respectable score that indicates a very good game with some pronounced flaws.

      7.0 – 7.9 (Good)
      This is the famous middle ground where the game is definitely enjoyable, but that full price tag may scare you. Don’t let it, this game is definitely worth checking out if you enjoy the style.

      It’s already a stretch when people argue that publishers pay for review scores (especially here… do you see any advertising?), but to go so far as to argue that they pay for bad review scores for games they don’t even consider to be in competition?

      C’mon. Take off the tinfoil hat.

  6. I’m suffering issue with battlelog, they better fix it soon specially on PC. i mean why opening a browser for the game to start? its a big chunk of hassle.

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