Battlefield 3. Gamer Review.

Any avid FPS gamer should know the hype and excitement Battlefield 3 caused the moment it showed off its teeth. Back then, I was hell bent on buying Modern Warfare 3. I wanted Battlefield to suck ass so much because I really wanted to buy Modern Warfare 3 and because I was always a fan of the Call of Duty series ever since its first title. Much to horror of other Modern Warfare fans (and me included), it seemed like Battlefield 3's new frostbite 2.0 engine bit off the head of the seemingly rehashed engine of Modern Warfare 3. Slowly, little by little, with every released trailer coming from both sides, Battlefield 3 was quite the sassy fox in slowly coaxing me to invest some emotions to her, and Modern Warfare 3 simply looked like what the past iterations have been, and that's not sexy. There simply was too much destruction, too much attention to detail, and too much awesomeness for me to ignore. When the Battlefield 3 Beta came out, that definitely sealed the deal. I was preordering Battlefield 3, bug ridden beta and buried in med school or not.

As far as the campaign goes, I'll say it out first, this is the first game I didn't bother going through the campaign before hitting multiplayer in the longest time. In as much as I'd like to offer a complete review, I'm simply too hooked with the multiplayer for me to be bothered by a heavily scathed single player that majority of critics bash as uninspired and boring. Of course, ever since Skyrim came into my life. It's been roughly adultery with both games with me jumping out and back in every now and then.

Simply put, the multiplayer is outrageously awesome! The long tested formula of Conquest game modes along with the relatively newer Rush game modes are maddeningly addictive and immersive. There are also the common place gametypes deathmatches and some modifications of such for those that like it old school. The concept of a team based gameplay where in team work between squads, armored vehicles and air support is heavily rewarded is highly different from the world of repetivive FPS deathmatches and capture the flags. The mix and variety of play styles and vehicles give the game the impression of being multiple different games in one neat explosive package. People definitely have roles to fulfill and make you feel like you're actually contributing to a large part of the battle regardless of your kill:death ratio being as lame a noob's noob. The game has a progression system which allows unlocks for weapons, vehicles and perks. Now, don't go believing perks will make this game an unbalanced perk dependent game reminiscent of Call of Duty. Those only bestow supportive abilities that doesn't necessarily give you the edge of majority of the players. This game is definitely skill based and relies heavily on team work to bring out the ultimate Battlefield 3 experience.

The visuals are stunning; clearly setting the bar a notch higher for high-profile FPS games out there. The newly developed Frostbite 2.0 engine exuded a captivating yet destructive package of textures that pays homage to whatever deities that grants whatever it touches superb visuals. Smoke and fog are well built and portrayed and can be used to gaining an advantage if you are able to utilize such elements of the engine. Explosions are highly dynamic which produces massive destruction to whatever gets caught in it. It can even renders a highly dynamic and realistic sequence of lighting that occurs when such an explosion lights up the dark nooks and corners of the game. What pleasantly surprised me though was the fact that even though my relatively ancient rig was running everything at the lowest settings, the graphics are still captivating and detailed. You honestly wouldn't be able to tell that the game was running at the minimum capabilities of the engine. I have yet to try it on my brother's super computer which sports a double Radeon 5870 running under crossfire, but I bet the level of detail promised by DICE on that beast should be razor sharp enough to detach the retinas in my eyes or something, but really, I'm too lazy to set  up and get all the updates working on that abused workhouse of his. Maybe when I get sick of playing, I'll consider such an adventure, but for now, I simply am very content with playing Battlefield 3 in a dinosaur rig.

The level of detail and emphasis DICE gave to sound effects and audio is simply brilliant. When you drop into the game, you'd be able to distinguish the difference directly when you compare other FPS sound effects with such. Gunfire sounds highly distinct up close and get muffled and distant as it originates farther and farther from your position. Bullets whiz by and begins to get more ominous when they get to their mark too close for comfort. Such an experience immediately can send a player into a flurry of panic and excitement as he attempts to avoid or counter such situations. Explosions are deafening (of course, in a good way) and sends you into the mute ringing in your ears phenomenon if you survive such up close.

The game itself right out of the box, like most games, may have some balancing issues with certain weapons and bugs that may give users a distinct edge to those unaware of such, but it seems the developers are hard at work when it comes to game balancing and tweaking and are churning out updates and fixes as fast as they can. DLCs are being promised to bring out more for your game and add more content and replayability in the future. With time, I hope the game achieves the level of prestige and fun it rightfully deserves, and can give people with less than ideal bandwidth like me, a fighting chance in a huge game where sometimes a hundred millisecond or two could spell death and frustration to laggy connections. Yes, I'm totally bitter at people I unload shotgun shells and come out killing me with full health

There is much room for improvement in such an awesome game with massive potential. In my opinion, some features seem to be wrongly executed such as the lack of in-game voice chat for the PC version of the game, which is annoying because I either have to go into this mime war and hope people are thinking the same thing, or I have to connect to Skype to be able to coordinate with my friends in-game. The game offers a robust stat tracking service under Battlelog which is a good thing, my only complaint though is the lack of a in-game menu and lobby for connecting to games. Connecting to games through a browser is pretty peculiar and feels awkward for me, honestly. There are many more improvements people demand and have the potential of even further improving the game, especially those of Battlefield 2 veterans who miss certain elements of the predecessor.

To wrap things up, Battlefield 3 is a great game. I hope I didn't come out as a Battlefield fanboy, as I wanted to make this as unbiased as possible. It THAT certain must have title for any FPS loving gamer out there for the year of 2011, in my honest and unbiased opinion. It has some certain rough patches here and there, but I'm fairly confident that with some more tweaking and polishing, those limitations can be overcome. Play it with friends, and you're bound to have an awesome grand time of fun and laughter as you guys get to go on a rampage or be rampaged on. For the record though, You certainly can call me a convert. I certainly hope I'll still have the time to play some rounds next year when internship comes to take me away from this world. I'll probably get withdrawals and will need to steal some sedatives in the hospital or something.

Rating: 9/10