Battlefield 3

by Ryan Cope
previewed on X360
...What is it good for?
War! It always attracts much attention, and is something that people will always be interested in. There are countless military first-person shooters, third-person shooters and real time strategies out there in which players have to face off against digital enemies while developers also take up arms against each other in a war for your hard-earned (or given to you by your parents, as the case may be) cash. As the fighters on all sides constantly look to surpass each other there may never be a victor, but this generation of war games may have its top contender in the upcoming Battlefield 3.
Same old story...
Military shooters generally consist of one of two storylines: World War II or modern/future warfare. It’s true that not every game picks one of these but the majority seem to focus on these popular events. Why? Because it hits players where it matters. Either reliving the death and horror of the famous and bloody WWII, or giving people a situation where their comfortable lives could be threatened will get a reaction out of them. For contemporary folk the latter should be more effective as most video game players these days were not around during the war. The age of the World War II shooter seems to have passed and most titles are aimed at a modern/future setting, e.g. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Battlefield 3 is one of these games; it deals with a modern day/near future scenario that draws inspiration from current world problems, including the war in the Middle East.
Set roughly in 2014, Battlefield 3 takes players to the Middle East where US forces are fighting against a hostile insurgency along the Iraqi/Iranian boarders. Their mission is to stabilize the region and bring peace back to the land, but due to ongoing resistance the fighting has become tough and takes place in desert and city alike. Players will take on the roles of Staff Sergeant Henry ‘Black’ Blackburn and Sgt. Miller. Blackburn, part of the United States Marine Corps, leads a small squad of men through the Iraq/Iran boarder while Miller commands the guns of a tank team near Tehran.
Beautiful battles
Battlefield 3 looks incredible. From the trailers and gameplay demos alone it seems to have already shot to the top of the military FPS war. Its nitty-gritty and realistic and will have players in awe at the scenery alone. Using the new Frostbite 2.0 engine, Battlefield 3 will look, feel, sound and play even more spectacularly than its predecessors Battlefield: Bad Company 1 and 2. This will be the Frostbite 2.0’s premiere in the gaming world and speculation suggests it will be a stunning event. Battlefield 3’s trailers have already started showing off the power of this engine and it doesn’t look like it will disappoint players. The Frostbite 2.0 will improve the graphics, audio and environmental textures, making the world of the game much more realistic, vibrant and believable.