The upcoming first-person shooter arms race is just around the corner. Can the awesome new features of Battlefield 3 take down the Call of Duty giant?
By Sal Basile 5 hours ago
5 Frostbite 2 Engine
The biggest noticeable change, by far, is the use of the new Frostbite 2 engine. Everything from the movements of the character models to the smoke and particle effects of the level have been greatly improved.
When players jump over obstacles, the animation is a fluid hurdle in which you see the character's legs stretch out over the obstacle. A small change, but this is what was instantly noticed about character fluidity and movement. Battlefield 3 also approaches the dreaded knife kill in a completely new way. The kill animations don't just look exceptional, but the new realistic feel is also a welcome change to the annoying knife kills we're accustomed to in first-person shooters today.
As we were running through one of the new Rush maps, it became obvious that the new engine not only improved visuals, but audio as well. Infinite sprint is back and feels better than ever as bullets were whizzing by our heads and tank shells blew up next to us. The key here is fluidity. While you're dodging enemy fire, hurdling over obstacles and then ducking behind cover, it doesn't feel like you're inputting these commands into a controller. It feels as if you are doing them yourself.
Not only do the characters come alive, but the environment itself is a living, breathing, changing character on the battlefield. The buildings crumble from gunfire and explosions in ways never before seen. Every single brick falls realistically off these structures if hit by a rocket or tank shell. Bullet holes and debris litter the playing field so naturally that you barely notice the feelings of desperation and anxiety are being caused by a video game.
4 Countering the Knife Attack
The best of us have been bested by the knife attack. Whether it was a completely fair kill from behind or a glitchy out-of-this-world kill from 300 yards away, everyone is guilty of yelling out "oh, come on" after we see it was the dreaded knife that ended us. What is Battlefield 3's unique take on this first-person shooter standard? Add a counter.
Much like the dog attack sequences of Black Ops' single player campaign, players have a split-second window to hit a button and push the attacker off them. We did this accidentally while playing, but, with a little practice, knife anxiety could be a thing of the past.
3 The New Classes
Everyone has a favorite class when it comes to Battlefield. When DICE announced it was playing around with their class formula, fans were a bit sketchy. Being able to play around with the new results, however, has made us believers.
Combat Medic: It was realized by DICE that the courageous Assault players were always at the frontlines, doing what they do best. By combing the Assault and Medic classes, the Combat Medic becomes one of the most interesting changes to the Battlefield series. Run and gun lovers can now heal themselves and revive their fellow Rambos in the middle of battle.
Engineer: The Engineer seems to be the least changed of all the classes, with its primary focus being the upkeep and destruction of vehicles. In Bad Company 2, the Engineer's primary weapons were sub-machine guns. Is seems that they will be using carbina asault rifles in Battlefield 3.
Support: The new Support class is reminiscent of the Battlefield 2 Support class with a new twist on it. This class used light machine guns that can be mounted on surfaces for added accuracy. It can also equip a more-powerful-than-usual flashlight that can blind enemies. The most interesting aspect of the Support class is its new "Suppressing Fire" ability, which causes enemies screen to blur when you shoot in their proximity.
Sniper: Sniper's are more dangerous than ever now that they can go into prone. To combat this, DICE has added a lens twinkle to make sure Sniper's don't get too comfortable. Sniper's also retain their mortar abilities, a favorite from Bad Company 2.
2 Personalized Dog Tags
An addition influenced by the Call of Duty series, players can now customize the look of their dog tags. The Battlefield twist on this is that dog tags are collected when you successfully execute a knife attack. Collecting dog tags will definitely become the sole objective of some ambitious players. The dog tags display a dynamically tracked stat of choice and appear on defeated enemies screens. So, when you get that 800th pistol kill, your nemesis will know he was that 800th kill.
1 Going Prone
One of the first questions everyone always asks when they play Bad Company 2 for the first time is, "how do I prone?" Although a minor thing to get used to, being told you can't prone is usually met with a quick, "huh? What the hell, why not?"
It's minor, miniscule and trivial.
It is also the most important thing in the history of everything. Ever.
Now that we can dive into prone, prone behind cover and prone beneath gunfire, you will think of all the times you wanted to prone. You will begin to realize you've wanted to prone every single second of every single game you've ever played.
