Could have been a lot more
Let me be honest. Since crysis i had never seen an amazing looking game ever atleast in the FPS genre and on the PC platform. Also Far Cry 2 was the last game that pushed every FPS fan's expectation limits.
But it did not turn out quite the game like its predecessor or how everyone expected. Few years later Battlefield 3 is the Next Big Thing. I had similar expectations if not higher especially after watching the front line run and thunder run gameplay videos in HD. Also releasing along side Modern Warfare 3 everyone had already started dissing MW3 without even playing it.
Graphics:
BFBC 2 was graphically a very sound game. However there was nothing ground breaking as such about it.
The highlights of the game is the graphics no doubt about it. It has done what Crysis 2 failed to do i.e. double the benchmark set by the Crysis games. BF3 is the new benchmark for PC gaming. Any game coming after it will now appear pale in comparison atleast till Q1 2012 (Bishock Infinite maybe). But MW3 downright appears pale in comparison.
But graphics is not everything people say. WRONG. These days it makes up for most of the things. Its more about the animation rather than the graphics. If you have a game that plays out fluidly and looks good then you have all its cracked up to be. All you need is a good gameplay and story.
Gameplay:
Yes. BF3 is there. When i played Bad company 2 i liked that game. The gameplay was pretty fluid. I hated the crosshair. Now-a-days all FPS have become right click zoom and Left click shoot. Gone are the days of Half Life when you could jump around and shoot from your side without the need to zoom.
The gameplay of BF3 is pretty solid IMO, the animations only help it make a little bit better. The way you jump, the way you react when something explodes near you, the shooting, the movement is excellent. The crosshair is also better than BFBC2.
My only nitpick is that they could have given more freedom in the hand to hand combats rather than QTEs or probably given some choice in QTEs. If you are trying to make a benchmark for FPS games why not do it overall.
Also the fact that there is more gameplay they could have included like helicopters etc. The game itself is pretty short. Also the freedom to man any turret or any vehicle would have been fun as well. Few points such as these which was refulgent in the Crysis games.
Story:
Yeah he's where it could have sealed the deal. Even if u check gametrailers ratings they have rated 9 and above for Gameplay, Presentation and Design. The story is where this game gets hit.
There is no solid plot to this game. Even if there is, it is told poorly. You are a guy who is interrogated by a bunch of people. Yeah sure it sounds familiar. But who cares, lot of games rip other games these days. Even with a Cliche overused plot one can improve upon it by the way its presented.
For example: When the interrogated person is telling his story what's the need to focus on his face all the time? why not kick in some videos describing what he's saying. That will garner interest and also help etch the story in the gamer's minds.
Overall, if you have a really good graphics card like an AMD 6870 or Nvidia 560 ti you should play this game. However recommed gfx card are 5970 or 6970. I played this on my AMD 5850 and at 1920 x 1080 i was getting an unsatisfactory 30 FPS. So nailed it down to 1280 x 720 and got super smooth gameplay.
Playing this game for the graphics alone is difficult. The second run seems like a chore except for few missions like Airplane and the Thunder run. Had they nailed the story and added a bit of variety in the gameplay this could have been an almost perfect FPS game. Well i am done with FPS games with MW3 and BF3 for this year. Let's see what 2012 brings us.....