By far the best multi-player FPS I have played in a long time. Battlefield 3 doesn't cut corners when it comes to encouraging team based tactics or...well tactics in general. You're given credit for almost any contribution you make in this game. Whether it be laying down covering fire and suppressing enemies for your team mates or throwing down ammo pickups, med kits and reviving team mates without a single kill. You are rewarded nicely (if played well) in these areas where you would not be in other FPS games. The multi-player is still a little bit similar to Bad Company 2 but developers did listen to what players had to say and this was shown not only in the early release but as an ongoing thing. Aside from that the multi-player is extremely fun especially if played with friends and the tactical advantage can be increased extremely just by adding voice chat to the equation, although I warn you this can result in you feeling like you really are a soldier once you start sneaking around an entire map with your squad mates and start giving them directions using the compass points and all the way to a point where you start yelling orders at people who aren't even in the voice chat with you. Having vehicles sounds like it can be overpowering, and nothing is worse than trying to capture a point while fending off the occasional enemy than hearing the sound of an enemy tank roll by when you have nothing to fight it off with. But this is why you'd have a squad mate with anti tank rockets and anti tank mines or even a squad mate flying around in a helicopter that you can call on. Either way it all eventually balances out and boils down to every individuals personal skill level which makes Battlefield 3 a truly unique FPS. And this also applies to you whether you're getting shot by a sneaky engineer in a tank or shot down by an anti air in a jet or helicopter you've only been flying for 20 seconds, having the ability to use vehicles adds some variety to the game play that can add great amounts of joy when you fly you and your squad mates to their fiery death but also reduces the amount of time you have to spend wondering around on foot to get to capture points .Although at times some of the guns may seem a little over powering but at least you can feel good knowing that the person, who uses the gun with absolutely no recoil and bullets that kill you just by touching you, didn't have a kill/death ratio of 50/0 but a more reasonable 18/4. So at least you know someone killed them for you...either that or they went insane from winning so much and committed suicide a few times but that's highly unlikely. Speaking of overpowering leads me to one other great addition the developers made and that's a knifing animation, where some might see this as a waste it not only makes it look cool seeing yourself get stabbed or stab someone mercilessly in the chest but during this animation period the person initiating the attack is venerable and this can allow your team mates to end them before they end you.
I would have liked to have given this a 10/10 just based on the multi-player alone but the 10th point is missing due to the unfortunate campaign which had potential, slightly lacking co-op and a few glitches and hiccups in the party/squad system. The campaign is still decent though and the quick time events add a nice unique touch but at times it can feel fairly boring, dull, even frustrating if you randomly die in a situation where you honestly shouldn't have. The story itself doesn't do overly too much to make you feel attached to the protagonists ( ****SPOILER ALERT***** apart from the bit where miller gets his throat slit). The Co-Op was a very nice addition to the franchise but it was still sadly lacking. It could have been better with the addition of 4 player co-op and a better variety of missions but this is still a new release and we can hopefully expect some more DLCs which might change all this, but regardless of this I would NOT recommend skipping the co-op as playing it with a friend is great fun (especially in the stealth missions where coordination is a must with possibly even voice chat) and you also unlock items for use in multi-player.
Battlefield 3 does a great job at drawing players into the modern warfare area of FPS games. The visuals are extremely good to look at (not that you will with mortar bombs landing only a few feet from you) from the scenery down the blood spatter of an enemy soldier and the sounds are nice and realistic that you feel like stopping during a match just to hear the gunfire and bombs going off at a very long distance, although this sadly does not last long due to that gunfire in the distance being a sniper shooting directly at you. I've given this one a well deserved 9/10 and would recommend this game to anyone who wants a true tactical military FPS.
I'm not even going to review the single-player as I have little interest in it. Battlefield 3 is an excellent sequel to BF2, returning are the 32vs32 and the ability to go prone, two things desperately missing from B... Read Full Review
Good: -Hands down the best graphics I've ever seen in a shooter. But it's not just the graphics that make it good, it's the visual effects such as dynamic lighting and fire that sets BF3 apart visually. -The campaign, ... Read Full Review
