The Clackamas print., November 02, 2011, Page 4, Image 4

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‘Battlefield 3’ wages war on ‘Call of Duty’
By Brian Baldwin
E d ito f-in -C n ie r
O n Oct. 25, game studios Electronic
Arts and D ICE released their latest first
person shooter game,“Battlefield 3.” The
game boasts crisp graphics,, an intriguing
storyline for single player, a new cooperative
mode and includes the multiplayer mode
that most Battlefield fans have come to love.
As many fans, may know, “Battlefield”
and Activision’s “Call o f Duty” franchises
have taken on a “friendly rivalry,” often
taking pot shots at each other such as in
“Battlefield Bad Company 2,” when one
o f the main characters pokes fun at special
forces using heartbeat sensors from“Call o f
Duty.” However “Battlefield 3” seems to
have taken some influence from “Call of
Duty: Black Ops.”
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In the single player game you begin
handcuffed and fighting your way through
a hijacked'subway train.Upon completion
you flash back as Sgt. Blackburn o f the
US Marine Corps being interrogated by
two agents o f unknown origin about a
claim Blackburn made o f a nuclear threat
to New York. T he interrogation continues
throughout the game and you flash back to
a different character throughout the world
and play through their \experiences as you
track the progression o f three stolen nuclear
warheads.
T hat sounds very familiar. Perhaps it
could be that "Call o f Duty: Black Ops”
had the same storyline? A soldier goes
insane and other mysterious agents are try ­
ing to piece together an imminent chemical
weapon plot on the United States before it
happens.
Despite the almost identical storyline
“Battlefield 3” is a lot o f fun. Several o f the
characters you play are a focus on some
o f the new features in the game, such as
jet and tank warfare. In total you play a
Marine rifleman, a tank commander, a
Russian GRU agent and the co-pilot o f a
fighter jet.
; enemies, to m y personal feyorite: piloting
My biggest issue with the single player an attack helicopter.This mission was m y
campaign is the inclusion o f quick-tithe favorite because it provides an opportunity
events where the player must press the for the players to learn how to fly helicopters
appropriate buttons presented in order to in Battlefield. W ith the lack o f any tutorials
successfully pass the event.
for helicopters h r jet aircraft in the past I
Cooperative play offers another view have always struggled to figure out how to
o f “Battlefield” that also harkens back to fly. W ith any luck, this, may decrease the
the “Call o f Duty” franchise’s Special Ops am ount o f times that I or another player I
mode. Two people work together to com­ am playing with will crash into a mountain
plete a series o f missions where both players after three seconds o f flying.
are required. Missions range from sniper
Multiplayer mode is perhaps the biggest
support and a defense against approaching part o f “Battlefield , 3” that caught m y eye.
W ith the major upgrade that D IC E gave
to the Frostbite engine, the world envi­
ronm ent is more destructible and much
more crisp in m y opinion. Buildings have
more points where they can be "damaged
and with much more debris than has
been shown in the past. Several pieces of
the world seem to have a more “durable”
tolerance to explosions that would make
someone raise an eyebrow and ask why they
áre not looking at a respawn timer, such as
empty cargo containers being hit by a high
explosive tank round.
D IC E also added several character ani­
mations, that still seem to be in testing,
like the one grabbing an edge o f a wall
and bounding over it. Several times I have
become stuck bounding over a destroyed
__________
wall into a staircase.
A body movement that D IC E added
was the ability to become prone again.
This also helps to serve new tools in the
game, like bipods on sniper rifles and light
machine guns that players can. activate to
increase their accuracy.
W ith the addition o f fighter jets,
increased team sizes, additional tanks, and
other ground vehicles D IC E increased the
size o f the battlefields dramatically. This
constantly leads’to times where you are
hiking several miles to the nearest battle or
objective because there are no teammates to
start with or any vehicles to get you there.
Also with the upgrade o f the Frostbite
and the graphics looking as crisp as they
do, enemies seem to blend into the back­
ground, making them hard to spot in the
distance o ru n til they are right on top o f
you.
“Battlefield 3” is w orth the $60 you put
forward, but the single player story lacked
the imagination that can , make a perfect
game. Cooperative play is short but is a
great breather between the campaign and
multiplayer. Multiplayer is still the pow­
erhouse that it claims to be with massive
vehicular warfare presented with a simple
“go forth and figure it out yourself” phi­
losophy.