Battlefield 3 (PC) Review

In a long-overdue review, here’s our take on Battlefield 3. I’m doing this in a particularly objective fashion, for one reason: I suck at this game.

I won’t lie: It was tempting to just write, “I suck, I hate this game,” in 36 point type here and call it a day. The multiplayer mode is death on a stick for me – I don’t last more then a few seconds before I’m shot by someone I don’t even see. So, I’m going to take my subjective ire for the game out of the equation, and rate it on it’s more objective merits. Wish me luck.

The game is solid for me, and I can say that for all it’s good looks (and there’s a heap of ‘em), Battlefield 3 runs very well on my lower mid-range system with most settings turned up. 45-60 FPS is common for me, even during the most heated action. The particle effects are particularly stunning, as is the lighting engine.

Shooting feels very good and you can really see the effort put into the balance. Dodging around the battlefield doesn’t feel Unreal Tournament-style floaty, nor does it seem to be bogged down or trudging like in ARMA 2. It seems to find a comfortable niche between the action movie style gameplay of Battlefield 2 and a more realistic sim, without overdoing either style. That alone is commendable.

The audio also adds to the ambiance of the game, with deafening explosions and the pinging of small-arms fire around you. The built-in dialog like spotting is also sound and I couldn’t find a fault with it while I played. It never sounded out of place or jarring, and that’s really all I want from it here.

The single player campaign, though, can go to hell. I’m sorry, I have no remorse for it. There was zero enjoyment in it for me. I liked getting blown away in multiplayer more then I did playing that campaign. Simply put, it was a failed endeavor and one I hope isn’t repeated. QTEs, terrible characters, and on-rails action don’t do a thing for me.

The game is launched via the Battlelog, which tracks your stats and achievements and keeps logs of your games – for a time. After some time, the match summaries are deleted, which disappointed me since I’m a data nut and enjoyed going back and seeing the results my older matches. I honestly have little to complain about with Battlelog. It’s intuitive and may well be the way to control this sort of game in the future. Time will tell.

In summary, BF3 is a really good game. It retains the Battlefield feel while sharpening it up for modern gamers and tech. The Battlelog may be the wave of the future and the action – if you don’t suck at it – is pretty damn good.

(I still hate it, though)

Alphasim out.

[starreviewmulti id=2 tpl=20]