Battlefield 3 Xbox 360

Battlefield 3

• From:
• Electronic Arts

• List Price: CDN$ 59.99
• Buy New: CDN$ 54.99
• as of 11/5/2011 06:04 CDT details
• You Save: CDN$ 5.00 (8%)

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WARNING this may contain mild spoilers

This is a review of the 360 version only, PC version might be better I don;t know...

Overall stuff: 

Make sure you have an hdd for this game as you will want to install the over 1gig of HD textures as these will make a world of difference. Right off the bat you will also be prompted to install a 200mb patch...not sure what they fixed...because it's still buggy as hell.


Firstly a single player review 
granted most ppl probably will not play this at all and just bought the game for the online. The campaign is about 4-5 hours long at most. This is WAY too short. There are no collectibles to find no hidden intel...nothing. You get the story and that's it. The first and last level of the game...are the same. You start doing the last mission and then flashback to the start of the story. The entire thing feels like a complete black ops ripp off to me. You are some random soldier being interrogated because you may or may not have done something wrong and every level is a flashback like in black ops. Granted this is probably the best story line that has ever been in a single player Battlefield 3 game. The problems begin right from the start. The AI is simply atrocious. I lost count of how many times I had to restart a level because an AI partner ran in front while I was firing on enemies and gave me the "friendly fire will not be tolerated" game over screen. If that wasn't bad enough, most of my other deaths were caused by an AI team mate deciding he liked my cover and pushing me out into the open as he took my spot. The hit detection is WAYYYYYY off in some cases. I can clearly see an enemy, but it won't hit him...why? because there's a rock slightly to my left even though I;m not behind it it's preventing me from hitting an enemy across the map. I had to reload on the second mission while protecting the soldiers and doctors as they carried the guy that got gunned down at the start. Why? not because I failed or got a game over screen but because 1 of the random soldiers got shot and died and the next "wave" would not trigger unless all of them were at their spot. He could not be as he was dead, so pause and reload previous check point.

For a game that is meant to be "more realistic" than its competitors and that one of its most boasted about features is its destruction it does neither very well. This affects both single and multi. Car windows are some how magically bullet proof. See an enemy behind a car? Have a clear sight through the car windows to snipe him? Too bad those windows are magical huh? This is something that MUCH older games fixed YEARS ago. Some glass is breakable..some isn't. OK well everything is destructible right? I happen to have an RPG, I'll just fire that at the car and it will explode and kill the guy hiding behind it...right? No such luck...again some cars will explode with a few bullets (also not realistic..but anyways) other you can hit with 3 RPG rounds and they still look pristine.

The best parts of the campain are the missions where you play as other ppl than the main protagonist, Henry Blackburn. My favourite parts were when I was playing as Dima, a russian special ops soldier. But this was also fraught with issues. Another great example of why the DICE destruction engine is a fail for me happens when going through the mountain villa as Dima. You get to a door and an enemy will fire a shotgun through the door, one of your AI then throws a grenade through the shotgun blast sized hole and the mission continues. I thoguht "oh I guess I could have shot through doors all this time". I reloaded the check point and shot that door as soon as I could and sure enough...the one part of that door is destructible, nothing else.
Another issue with the game happens shortly after. To be more authentic Dima and his 2 buddies speak only russian and we get subtitles. This is a bad move when they give you tips during fire fights. I don't have time to be reading dialogue while engaged in an intense firefight. This was an issue with the end of that villa level when Kassrov...kaffarov...whatever his name was (entire campaign is honestly very forgettable) runs to a chopper and your teamates tell you to run to catch it...in russian. Having just done another level previously that required you to fire on the fleeing vehicule I figured this was more of the same...fail. I reload and read what they are telling me to do...which is to run to the chopper. By the time I'm done reading and run there it's too late. reload again and this time get it done.

Another great example of the destruction failing yet again... You will see fire extinguishers all over the place. In other game you can shoot them and they will either explode and kill nearby enemies or explode into a cloud of fog to obscure your movements. No such luck here...

Speaking of the previous mission... You are providing overwatch for your team and eventually al-bahsir decides to make a break for it in his SUV. You are given another way point and told to stop him. I run to the way point and there is his SUV not moving...weird. I start firing on the stationary SUV, it disappears and reappears back around the building and comes back towards where the stationary one was and gets away... Ok...a bug..no biggy... Reload run to the qaypoint.stationary SUV is still there...fool me once... this time I got it.

Now for the Multi: 
This would be pretty good...if the servers were up with any kind of consistency. Why is it a game can announce they have 3 million pre orders and that they want to beat the biggest game in the genre and then fail so miserably at keeping their servers up and running?!?
It is now day 2 and the servers are still up and down. If you can get into a game, it's pretty good. If you've played Bad company or bad company 2 this is the same kinda stuff but with fixed team death match (finally). Conquest and rush work the same as always.
My issues with the online are many however. Where as in competing games I never felt over powered just because the other guy was much higher level, I do in battlefield. a scope/red dot/acog whatever makes a HUGE difference in this game. I also understand that "arcade" AKA non hard core mode is meant to take more shots to down a guy...but 3 head shots..and he's still going...really? The spawns for team death match still suffer the same issues as black ops did, meaning it happens way too often it will spawn you right in front of a group of enemies and you will die before you even know what happened. This is not an issue in any of the other modes as you get to pick your spawns. Many will probably argue that you don;t play TDM in battlefield you play conquest or rush. Well thats fine, but those have issues too.

The vehicles are a nice touch and fun to use, but in classic Battlefield  style, you will get players camping helicopter or jet spawns. You will get the idiots that jump into a boat and take alone leaving the rest of you stranded...to either swim for a long time..or stand there and wait. If you can get in a vehicle, it will usually be in the gunner seat/passenger and then you will fall pray to ppl who apparently cannot figure out how to drive a tank/helo/boat etc.

The unlocks and leveling is a nice touch and done much better than previous battlefield games IMO. But again an issue, I cannot figure out how to modify the russian kits with out being in a game. You can go to my solider and pick customize and modify the US soldier kits, but I see no option to switch to the russian side (if anyone knows how please let me know).

It;s happened a few times too many now that I play a round unlock a few things as I'm playing and then the server crashes. Remember all that stuff you just unlocked? Good...cuz the game doesn't.

I finally tried hardcore mode. Don;t expect to see it as a quick match option...you have to browse, hit RS and check the hardcore option. Good luck finding a match..out of all the servers I saw 1 that had 3 ppl on it for TDM. I picked rush instead. Hardcore mode in most shooters means NO HUD at all and higher bullet damage. Well Battlefield 3 does the slightly higher damage but all it removes HUD wise is your ammo/grenade and life bar. You still have the mini map and enemies are still marked on it...

My biggest pet peeve with the game however is the fact that if I finish a round and I'm done playing for the day...I have to sit there and wait for it to load the next map and then I can hit start and quit out. Of course this is solved by hitting the guide button and pressing Y...But it;s still an omission and there is no excuse for it.

Coop: 
Well can't say anything about this as they decided not to let you do split screen...

finally: 
This could have a been a great game. The graphics are indeed very nice (once you install the hd textures). The single player is however too short. The coop should have let you do split screen, The multi will be good if they ever get their act together server wise. It will have it;s fanboys...but I am not one of them.