Battlefield 3

I am going to break this down into 3 categories: Single Player; Multiplayer and Co-op.

Here goes.

Single Player: DICE put you in the boots of a few different characters throughout the course of the SP. Staff Sergeant Henry “Black” Blackburn, Dimtri “Dima” Mayakovsky, Corporal Jonathon “Jono” Miller and for one level Lt. Jennifer Coleby Hawkins. Both Miller and Hawkins are played in vehicles and they definitely stand out in the SP compared to a few other missions.

Throughout the time in which is the BF3 single player you get blown up, shot at, fly jets, drive tanks, shoot people on both teams and get owned by Mother Nature. The list goes on for quite a while. The best thing about it all though is that it is fun.

The single player is roughly the same length as the standard FPS of recent times (5-7 hours). I went through it on normal difficulty and unlike most games it was still quite a challenge because the AI is very good. They recognise when you are trying to flank them and adjust their position accordingly, they recognise when their cover has been destroyed and moves and they also try to flank you whilst providing covering fire for each other and proving sometimes quite hard to kill due to them being able to get into a decent foothold and keeping you and your squad mates suppressed until you find a way around (blow a hole in a wall).

There are a fair few scripted events but sometimes the game randomly throws something up at you that is not scripted. For example on Operation Guillotine at the beginning whilst running down the marine in front of me fell over and somebody else came and helped him up. I restarted the mission to see if it was scripted and he just ran down like normal and nothing happened. I will not give any of the scripted events away as they are quite important events in the story. The AI may be good for them but your squad mates do sometimes fail to help you out and you end up having to kill everyone, that is not good when faced with about 20 enemies and your running low on ammo! Another criticism would be that there are far too many quick time events. There are way too many times in which your life depends on pressing the Y button or squeezing the right trigger for my liking. Maybe once or twice but it occurred at least 20 times including the final level of the game which mainly consisted of QTE’s.

I think the main thing that sells this though is the absolute beauty or the sound and graphics combined by the Frostbite 2.0 engine and makes the SP experience what it is. The most memorable parts for me were either taking off in my jet and feeling the acceleration with the sound of it and music going on in the background and near the end when you do the HALO jump and you can just look around at the snow peeked mountains and the forests that surround the bottom of them which also has music going on but is much more prominent than the jet sequence.

Although it wasn’t the full 12 hours that DICE said it was in March it still was great fun, memorable and absolutely beautiful. A well deserved 9.5/10.


Multiplayer: What the Battlefield series is known for.

This time around with the Frostbite 2.0 engine and its full capabilities DICE have pushed the boundaries of the current gen consoles as much as they possibly can so that the people can finally have what they have always wanted. Jets. Oh and a server browser. That is not all that DICE have done though to make it different from the Bad Company series. They have included many more types of vehicles to use, about 5x the amount of weapons, roughly 20x the amount of unlocks and, you know what, there are so many I could be here for days.

With 9 maps, some fairly small (for Battlefield) and the biggest map ever for a Battlefield game (Operation Firestorm) you can sure be in for a few surprises. Every game that you play is a different game. There is never the thing that happens, it is always different no matter what which is why I just keep going back to it day after day without even thinking about it. That is the great thing about BF3 as well. No matter if you are up for it or not you can have fun whilst playing any of the game modes (except maybe squad deathmatch).

With so many maps and them being so big you would expect there to be millions of glitches and bugs but there are a total of 0. Not even 1 (that I know of). Yes there are a few weapon and gadget in-balances but DICE are already working on that (patch due in a few days time). So far I have played the MP for a total of 1 day and 4 hours exactly getting myself 1989 kills to 1386 deaths to make my K/D 1.435 not that it matters because Battlefield 3 is not about kills. It is about teamwork. If you do not help your team capture/destroy or defend the objectives your team shall lose and you will gain nothing for your player except maybe a thousand points compared to somebody who helped their team and got between 3-7 thousand points.

There are a few weapons that I liking a lot, some that loads of people use but I don’t like and some that I think nobody likes. My favourite? The knife or the M1911 pistol. I have spent a total of 4 minutes and 11 seconds stabbing people (each stab takes about 2-3 seconds) so that shows you how much I like it and have used it. Sometimes I have even completely stopped using my weapons and gone on a knifing spree by flanking around the back of people and slitting their throats. To note, the knife on this isn’t like on Call of Duty, it is at least 3 stabs from the from or from behind you go into an animation where you stab them in the neck but this only takes the one knife hit.

Most of the maps are good. Operation Metro is quite good considering it has no vehicles, Grand Bazaar is an awesome map as most people just try to funnel down the main alleyway where as I prefer to try and flank round and get some nice knife kills or if I am support then just mow them all down. Caspian Border is one that I feel is overrated because of the trailer shown at GamesCom in August but you can still do some awesome things like fly jets, helicopters, drive tanks and jeeps around aimlessly or try to go by it on foot and spend your whole time trying to reach a destination but keep getting killed by the many in vehicles. The jets are a good inclusion but I just don’t get why everybody rushes for them. I understand they are new to a console Battlefield games but after month you would expect the hype for them to die down but it is still every Caspian Border or Operation Firestorm there is the mad rush for them. Maybe it is me sucking in them I don’t know but they are still an easy way to get from deployment to any flag quickly or if you decide you want to do a 1000 metre skydive onto C!


The multiplayer will keep you coming back again and again as it is just so good and for that reason I give it a 10/10.


Co-op: The newest addition to the Battlefield series but by no means bad at all. With 6 missions to fight your way through with one other friend you can be sure to be kicking yourself out of bed late the next day as some of the missions are incredibly hard and some of them quite long but still fun.

You go from defending two points from swarms or enemies to providing covering fire to the people below in an attack helicopter to sneaking through a building to find an informant. That there are three different missions explained in little detail. Compare that to any other co-op out there and you won’t find anything else like it. Again it is down to the Frostbite 2.0 engine for you to be able to do all these things.

The first mission sets you and your friend in Tehran to make sure that the enemy doesn’t infiltrate the lines whilst POW’s are being extracted to safety. Whilst doing this the level throws snipers, RPG’s and LAV’s at you so that you never feel comfortable especially when the cover is being destroyed all around you. This may sound like something of a challenge, it is but it makes a simple boring concept fun. The next mission gives you a completely different task. You either control the pilot or gunner seat of an apache attack helicopter where you defend a squad of people trying to find a high value informant. You face mortar team, infantry, RPG’s, mobile AA ad LAV’s so if the pilot isn’t very good at flying you can be sure to fail until either you take over the pilot seat or you find someone that can fly.

I will not go into any more detail as you may want to discover for yourself but I will say this: The co-op is one of the best stand alone co-op modes of pretty much any FPS yet so it is definitely worth taking a look at it especially with achievements/trophies for each missions and online leaderboards.

For it’s awesomeness (yes it’s a word) and complete variety it definitely deserves a wonderful 10/10.



So overall Battlefield 3 is just totally wicked and fun. If you just want to shoot some easy targets quickly then I suggest the simple player level with the HALO jump because of the HALO jump to begin with and the fact it has a target range in it. If you want some an awesome battle with your mates then the multiplayer is a MUST (actually is a must for everyone). Finally, if you just want to shoot some easy targets with one of your mates then co-op is again a good shout.

Battlefield 3 may not be perfect but to me and I think to a lot of other people it is exactly what we wanted and I am sure DICE will continue updating it and providing a lot of DLC in the future.

Score breakdown:

Single player: 9.5/10

Sound: Didn’t really say much about it but with a pair of Turtle Beach’s on you can be sure to be completely immersed. A 10/10.

Graphics: 10/10 (Only with the HD texture pack installed).

Multiplayer: 10/10

Co-op: 10/10

Lasting Appeal: 10/10

Although not all got areas got a 10 I still think it deserves one so:

Overall: 10/10!

Nice review..

Battlefield is awesome!

That it is. I think I have put nearly 70 hours into the MP now and finally have reached level 45!!

great review although I would say single player should be rated less, it was over way to quickly

I think we all know this game really is a multiplayer game with a short single player tacked on for good measure, the same can be said of cod as well

The thing is though, all FPS games nowadays have short single players so to mark it down would be unfair. I marked it on how much fun I had whilst playing it.

fair enough, I bet 90% of the time perhaps more played on fps games now are in multiplayer. I know quite a few people who buy say cod or bf and just played multiplayer so I guess its no surprise single player has gone by the wayside

I know a lot of people who don't even think about going onto the SP of CoD or BF3. They say if they want SP then they will play Skyrim instead.

skyrim is a fantastic game you get your moneys worth with that game!

You certainly do! I know someone who has put about 150 hours into it and has only got about halfway through the main story line!!