Monday, October 24, 2011

This *might* cool your jets until Battlefield 3 releases tonight.


OK since this is the last 16 hours (in the eastern time zone) or so that you will have on this earth until Battlefield 3 hits stores for the official US release, I aim to keep my hunger for all things BF3 satisfied until then. To do so I read the following articles from various game sites with different takes to get a broader sense of what to expect. Let's be honest though, seeing the pictures and reading the words is nothing like getting to experience the pure joy it will be to play out these moments yourself. So read on my gaming brothers and sisters...and prepare yourselves for...well...you know. WAR!

IGN posted their PC Review of the game early this morning - Read here
Destructoid has a great preview by Casey Baker - Read it here
Joystiq has posted their PC review as well - Read here

I will say this, the reviews in Joystiq and IGN are fair and critical as they should be. Each outfit gives BF3 a great score mainly on the merits of multi-player (but we already expected that to some degree) and while they discount single-player somewhat I am not akin to just believing the reviewer all the time. Often times my view of certain parts of a game differs greatly and I think that possibly it is because these journalists are playing so many similar games all the time that their expectations become jaded and their experiences muted. 


Finally, here is a new vid by the superb Freddie W. Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Battlefield 3 Open Beta Impressions

Ok instead of posting a bunch of screenshots or videos that we have all seen already I wanted to share my thoughts on the BF3 beta that is in gamers hands around the world until Oct. 10th. So here goes....

I love it despite its obvious flaws. This is a BETA release people and its an old build to boot. The primary reason for the beta was to test their net code and get a large amount of feedback on the core mechanics of gameplay and weapons. There is a lot of work that needs to be and probably has been done already on the matchmaking, joining games as a squad, launching and exiting, team balancing, and map textures. I can't imagine that these huge things will not be polished in the retail release. It's funny because at first a seasoned FPS gamer will jump into this with a lot of concerns but after getting some games under the belt those things take a back seat to the addicting and rewarding gameplay elements present in this limited beta.

The Operation Metro map is laid out in a superb manner to allow each side to have multiple avenues (not too many) of attack and defense. From the open park atmosphere in the first section to the corridors of the subway all the way to the streets of Paris itself. The guns are well balanced with maybe some slight modifications needed but they sound friggin amazing. My favorite part of this beta was getting a taste of what it was like to play with friends (when it worked) in a 4 player squad. It obvious a lot of thought went into making sure the classes to choose from worked in a 4 man squad. It is a blast to spot enemies for your buddies and then provide suppressing fire on the target while they head for the objective.

This beta is not a very polished presentation of what is surely to come but it does feed the fire. The real excitement comes when vehicles get introduced on the battlefield. Last but not least, EA's stat tracking site battlelog.battlefield.com (which is free compared to CoD Elite) is awesome. I love being able to logon and see what my progress is and what I need to work on to get that next unlock. Very well put together and it even supports clans called Platoons on the site. I created the Zombie Squad. :)

Don't forget 10/25/11 is the release date for Battlefield 3! Reserve your copy!

beegzz