Battlefield 3 is a mythical game most of us thought would never be released. Rumors dating back to the Battlefield 2 heydays have purposed a birth of a predecessor. A game with the same feel as BF2, same large scale maps, jets, tanks, helicopters, squads, etc. While Battlefield 3 has all of the above, it may not be what everyone was expecting.

Battlefield 2 was largely based around squads and teamwork. Battlefield 2142 was decent, and Battlefield Bad Company and Bad Company 2 were more of a competitor with the Call of Duty series. Bad Company and Call of Duty were similar styles with teamwork stripped out making it every man for himself. Battlefield 3 brought back some of the teamwork that’s been missing for quite a while. Below are some things BF3 does well and somethings it doesn’t.

Pros

• The graphics for Battlefield 3 are stunning, to put it simply. Similar to most games, primarily Crysis, BF3 allows different levels of graphics. These range from low to “Ultra” which requires a beefy video card to handle it smoothly. EA even boasted it’s graphical achievement by asking viewers to discern between real life footage and gameplay graphics in the below video.

• The unlock system, while not new, is still excellent. It provides motivation for future gameplay and endless kit combinations.
• They kept with the shoulder mounted anti-air rocket. It’s annoying in air vehicles, but great to shoot down pesky helicopters and jets.
• Ability to spawn on different members of your squad. This is great if you squad mate is in a good sniping position, behind the enemy, or close to a flag.
• VoIP is hosted through the Battlelog website so it’s one less program to open. The quality doesn’t quite match Teamspeak or Ventrillo, but it’s pretty good for what it is.
• The ability to see your progress towards new unlocks in real time, in the game.
• The Battlelog page with your stats is very pretty. Nice, neat and organized, with nice little charts and graphics.
• Co-Op. The ability to play missions with a friend in order to get extra unlocks.
• The multiplayer server browser is nice. You can filter servers by location, map, open slots, and other options.

Cons

• For the majority of the time you can’t create your own squad and invite your friends like in Battlefield 2. This kills the teamwork aspect, especially if you are in the same server as your friends.
• No VoIP in the squads themselves. It’s hard to give direction or criticism without using in game voice. Typing is difficult in a game that requires you to be on the move to stay alive.
• The entire BF3 launching and such is convoluted. To play it requires EA’s Origin, which is similar to STEAM, it requires the BF3 game itself, and it also requires you to have a browser running with the Battlelog website up (resource hungry). To play single player you can either go through the BF3 icon on your desktop, or through the Battlelog website. To play multiplayer or Co-op you’ll need to go through the website portion. To check a list of your stats, configure your profile, join a platoon (similar to a clan), chat with battlefield friends (voice or text), or join a server you’ll need to go through the website. The website requires a plugin by the way which gets installed with Battlefield, I believe. If you don’t have the plug-in, none of the buttons work in Battlelog. If you uninstall origin, you uninstall the game (pending it’s the download version). DO NOT UNINSTALL ORIGIN. You can add friends through Origin, which are not the same as your friends that are in Battlelog. 
• The Battlelog friends list isn’t always live updating. Sometimes it shows friends are online when they aren’t or offline when they are in game.
• Joining servers as a party doesn’t always work. Like…a lot of the times from my experience.
• Only 2 views available in the jets and choppers. You can select third person or inside the vehicle with all the HUD controls displayed. I personally hate this. I don’t need to see any of the gizmos and gadgets inside the vehicles. There needs to be a first person view for these air assets.
• The minimap isn’t that great. The default zoom for the map is too close. I constantly have to zoom in and out of the map to get my bearings and find the next flag. It also can’t be locked from rotating.
• Only 4 to a squad? Usually I’ll have a few friends join the squad and then I’ll want to add a few more players I play with all the time. Four open squad slots isn’t a lot.
• Server Lag and Rubberbanding. It’s kind of expected when everyone and their mother is slamming the servers. This seems to occur on pretty much every server however. Battlefield is patching the XBOX and PS3 servers now to try and correct the issue; hopefully the PC ones are next.
• No right-clicking for secondary weapons in vehicles. Instead you’ll have to first unlock them, then switch to the weapons using your number keys.
• Claymores don’t be as sensitive as they used to be (In BF2). The enemy needs to be almost on top of the mine for it to detonate. I guess it eliminates the “Claywhore” aspect of the game.

While the negatives may seem to outnumber the positives, it doesn’t make BF3 a bad game. It just needs improvement. The single player campaign is pretty good from what I’ve played. Nobody ever buys a game like Battlefield 3 for the single player missions though. The CO-OP piece of BF3 allows you to play with a friend through side missions to unlock more weapons. It’s definitely a cool feature, but again, it’s overshadowed by multiplayer. Also it appears the expansion pack “Back to Karkand” will be going live in December [Tweet]. This will be an updating post so keep checking back. If you have questions or feedback leave them in the comments section below.

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Thanks to OnyxZ32 and Copper280Z for suggestions and game feedback.