User blog:Pedro9basket/My Transition to Battlefield: Last Impressions and BF3 Review

Didn't remember my old post with this name, did ya? HA!

Well, for who doesn't know yet or don't remember anymore, I'm a relatively early bloomer to Battlefield, starting to get involved with it in April. Yes, all build-up on the learning curve, training as infantry and with vehicles, all was done in this time period. As you probably might've seen, I started like a complete noob to this franchise, having learned everything with you guys. Since then, starting with Play4Free, stepping to Heroes (quite briefly tbh), and BF2 and BF2142 demos, finally found what would end up being my base game: Battlefield 2142. Still remember having my thrills when had a complete comeback in BF2142's demo's Sidi Power Plant, retaining with a little squad all missile silos in Titan, in which the strategy would be based on, in the article and the 8 winning spree in Suez Canal, rightly followed by the full game purchase (on which the article would be based on as well).

I honestly have to give a big thanks to all (mainly the "senior") editors of this wiki, helping me give the online experience in video games I always wanted to (and, although never met directly, I've got to thank Zealot Guy for his guides, that greatly helped me step up to the ol' vets more and faster than I could ever do myself).

Without going too away from the discussion, let's now go to the main topic you're probably expecting: Battlefield 3's review.

Single-player and Multiplayer Presentation
Battlefield 3 shows off as a sequel to BF2 in the Single player portion, having the apparent defeat of the Middle Eastern Coalition, as a Coalition led by US Marines are in pacification operations in Iraq, part of the former MEC and having MEC insurgencies called the People's Liberation and Resistance. The continuing of the story doesn't feel original, having the traditional nuke threats shown in-game, and being the story's focus. Although some missions were quite nice, the story itself wasn't much. In spite of that, Battlefield was and is a multiplayer-focused game, having DICE giving little to no attention to the singleplayer, making me give it a pass.

Multiplayer is pretty much like the classic Battlefield experience, with a tried-and-tested formula used multiple times. You have four classes, which each have their influence in the front-line. Having a strong squad guarding your back, working with each other will give you one of the ebst experiences in a video-game. The game has a ton of costumizations on the gadgets, vehicle upgrades, weapon attachements and that will keep you busy for a crap-load of hours.

With the PC platform having games to up to 64 players, this game "escapes" from the Bad Company experience, re-introducing as well prone. Rush was kept though, as long as Squad Deathmatch. I honestly don't enjoy either, and after forcing myself to Squad Deathmatch for the L85A2, I decided myself that after having a decent Party and pulling off the 5 wins, I'll never touch SQDM again.

Fortunately, I have Conquest to support on, which is and should be the game mode in the spotlight of the reviews. The experience are similar to the old games, being one little soldier in an army, fighting for the seizing of the control points on the maps. It's intense the outstnading views and sound given by the Frostbite engine do feed up to some unforgettable moments for your online history book.

Gameplay and Feel
Battlefield 3 was the first Battlefield game out of the Bad Company series to use the newly re-formulated engine created by DICE, Frostbite 2.0. Players may hate it ot love it, but the truth is that this engine is known for really being a very powerful one, able to give the called "Five Pillars of Frostbite 2": Animation, Rendering, Destruction, Audio and Scale. And it didn't seem to fail at any of those in my opinion, having the ANT animation running perfectly, giving a very smooth movement and feel, including the ability of quickly go over obstacles, without changing much the pace of the game. Destruction, although a little bit downgraded from Battlefield: Bad Company 2, aims a little more to the realistic feel this feature was intended to. Rendering is beautiful, although the light of the Sun has a glare of a very, very big radius. This helps a portion of players, including letting you take use of the first rule of Dicta Boelcke: If possible, keep the sun behind you (I think it explains by itself).

Here's the "counterpart" of bringing Frostbite to Battlefield 3: It is really, really, really smooth, originating hatred from veterans from Battlefield 2, where the Refractor engine wasn't smooth and much more appealing to the PC's keyboard and mouse. I shall discount for that, as that, as they say, "makes it feel more like a Bad Company 3 than the promised direct sequel to Battlefield 2". Sure, unlike BF2, BF3 is a multi-platform, which was publicly said through all development that it would have the PC as the lead platform. As DICE admitted that they switched lead platforms to consoles in mid-way to the development a couple of days after the release, I believe I shouldn't give it a pass.

Interface
Battlefield 3's main interface is Battlelog, that gives players the ability to chat with friends, create platoons an create parties, but also acts as the PC game Menu and Server Browser. That gives PC gamers the need to restart the bf3.exe application over and over, having both Origin and the Internet Browser working for the game to work. To add more to this, is (as far as I'm concerned) the apparent lack of clan support, having the inability of making ranked private servers for scrims and what not, literally making platoons a bit useless to the most competitive clans.

Single-player and Multiplayer Presentation
Unoriginal Campaign --> - (Not counted)

Blasting Classic Multiplayer --> +

Wide Customization of Classes, Weapons, Vehicles and Gadgets --> +

Gameplay and Feel
Great visuals and sound --> +

Destruction Upgraded to 3.0 --> +

Smoothness appealing to consoles (unlike PC-based development) --> -

Interface
Battlelog --> -

Final Result
Result - 8.5

Thanks all for reading. I'll probably be off after tomorrow. Not sure if I'll be able to see the comments or not. In any case, tell your thoughts on the review and/or my "message" to all BFWiki editors.

If I don't get on Friday or following days, have an enjoying and prosperous Entrance to the New Year. Hopes you all have a 2012 full of health and luck.

Regards --Pedro9basket (talk)  01:59, December 30, 2011 (UTC)