Review: Battlefield 3

An explosion rocks me as I stagger before continuing next to my squad mates as we run towards our objective. "Take out the guy with the grenade launcher!" someone yells. I skid to a crouch and aim carefully down my sights at him. He is reloading to send another rain of death. I squeeze of a shot to his head and he drops, one less thing to worry about. I get back up and catch up with the rest of the squad that is all crouched at the base of a hill as everyone reloads and makes sure they are ready for the firefight we will face at the top of the hill. Suddenly a chopper flies over us and we all turn and open fire on it, the enemy clearly waited to play this card until they needed an ace up their sleeve.

I said I wouldn't do it but I did, I got caught up in the craziness that is Battlefield 3. However, after a stint in multiplayer I was convinced that being caught up was a good thing. While the game play is good, the graphics are better. So very pretty and well polished. At times I almost had to remind myself I was playing a game and not watching a news report from the front. After just a good amount of my night spent in the multiplayer I have found out which maps I love, which I hate, and which ones I hate but can't seem to stop myself from playing on them.


Single player is somewhat enjoyable, the story is more believable then Modern Warfare 2 and less ridiculous as it builds on the wars and situations we have in the world currently by using the easy option, Iran. I don't understand why more games haven't gone this way recently. Why create a fictional crazy leader in another country when you have a real one in Iran? If your opposed to Iran then use North Korea but I digress. Not to mention that hand to hand combat is an option and everyone likes that.

Where the game shines is multiplayer. I have been yearning for a multiplayer shooter where people act and operate like a squad and I finally found it. Not to mention that fighting others on multiplayer consists of more then just charging in and spraying bullets randomly. Ammo is not usually laying around all over but the hand to hand combat makes up for it. At one point I ran out of ammo and found myself still pinned down by enemy fire. I was trying to get to a balcony to signal my team that the hallway was clear but I couldn't make it. I decided that charging was the only option. I drew my knife and after the the opposing player shot another burst I charged down the hall and showed up right next to him. I guess he was surprised to see me and before he could shoot me I drove my knife right into him, problem solved. Such things earned the rating it got though.


Battlefield 3 seems to gently force you into that mode as most of the time taking an objective by yourself is suicide and since Duke Nukem is not around, your going to need some help. But not just on the ground, your also going to need some vehicular assistance.I was never a fan in the early Battlefield games of driving things because my driving skill made the insurance rates skyrocket (five jeeps, three strikers, two tanks, and one aircraft) but now I seem to have increased in skill for some reason. After finding that I was much better I jumped in the nearest jet and promptly crashed. After figuring out what I did wrong I jumped into the next game and before long was flying just fine. After a dogfight with a chopper that I prolonged by playing around with him I kept on flying to assist my team on the ground. I spotted my squad and noticed where they were headed. I took off at full speed and unloaded what I could at the objective. After causing quite a few deaths I turned around and after a few more turns found myself just behind the squad as they kept on their course towards what was left of their objective after my pass. A thank you popped up in my chat window as they moved in and took care of the last few defenders left.

On the flip side I found AI behavior to be painful. There were several times in single player where I would look to my right and I would see sweat on my AI squad mate but I would notice his gun was at a resting position while the entire time I was firing at the enemy pouring through the door and he was standing by and watching. Shoot! Don't watch! Not to mention I got shoved off more then a few balconies when my AI squad mates would rush out to help me. I died four times from the same balcony in one level before I had to rage quit and read a book so I could decompress.

All in all the game is good just like its predecessor, the thing that the Battlefield series has always excelled in in destructible levels. You can destroy almost everything in the level. No back door to the house? Create one with a grenade. And honestly, who doesn't like virtually destroying things?

Review
Grade-Harvest It!
Highs-An action packed shooting fest! Multiplayer makes this game good and the single player story is good.
Lows-AI behavior is maddening and some of the vehicles are jerky in control
ESRB Rating-M for Mature, Ages 17 and up
Kid Friendly?There is cursing in single player mode, multiplayer of course will have cursing and the blood and guts, I would say respect the rating
Overview-A great game and tons of fun let yourself get caught up in it.

Saturday Soundboard: Choice Gaming

Many role playing games today have changed into a game that is heavy on story and action and CHOICES. The choice for the gamer specifically. What to say or do. Do you want to offer help, get more information on the situation, or question a man's eyes by doubting him. Maybe you will shoot your disrespectful squad mate instead of calming him. If someone threatens to leave maybe you let them and you don't care. Sooner or later all of these choices come back to affect the game.

This new trend has improved the gaming world, it makes the game more immersing. When you role play in games you are stepping into another person's shoes and a different world. The hero you created will save the world and bringing choices in not only allows you to dictate what your hero looks like, but what kind of person they are. Are they a jerk who doesn't care and always takes the route that is mean and offensive? Maybe they like the middle ground road, not wanting to be mean but not wanting to be nice. Are they straight up nice guy and always doing the right thing?


Choices have been in games before, on a much lower scale though, early Star Wars role playing games would change your light or dark side alignment based on what you did and how you treated people. You could make snide remarks and watch people die to become a Sith. Or you could be nice, calm, and save people to go Jedi. Those games had people playing again to see just how dark they could go and if they could choke people to death with ease or persuade people to give you their life savings as a donation to the Jedi Council.

Choices and their effects are allowing people to replay the games countless times, maybe you decided that after playing through nice and straight you want to play through as evil and bent, then maybe you play through making all choices on your own instinct instead of aiming for a path you say what you yourself would say if put in that situation.


But the question now is how to make it better or how to immerse someone more. Character creation and appearance editing, moral choices from dialogue to how to handle squad members, romance, and....well that's the question, and something. Something else in games, much is made about your own companions in games making remarks. To use Mass Effect as an example, bringing certain squad members with you on missions can help. One of my squad members once made a comment that instigated a gun battle. When I replayed the game I brought a different squad member and actually got out of the situation without a gun battle due to the absence of that remark. What about cameos of characters in other games like in TV Shows? Could the make it better or be the "something" we are waiting on? How would Morrigan from Dragon Age react to the self-proclaimed hellcat Chief Ashley Williams from Mass Effect? Which I would pay to see.


Conflict between party members is already creeping in and it is still bringing the gamer back to choice, choose a side. Some games the choice is easy because one of your party members has clearly went dark. But games are now making it harder on who to choose, both party members are important and both has been on missions or quests with you. So who do you help? Who dies and who lives? It makes you question yourself later on. Did you have to shoot Wrex on Virmire in Mass Effect? Was keeping the council alive worth it? Or in Dragon Age, was telling Lielani to leave a good idea?


So what is next for games and choices, more of the same for now and in the end as a gamer I love it and so does the gaming community, it is bringing a little more of yourself into the game and allowing the RPG to work the way you want it to. Your life choices change your life, your in game choices change the game so it you can shape the experience as much as possible. How will it change? Maybe have your party members yelling at you, "Kill the dragon! Shoot the arrow!!"

Shooters don't like to bring too many choices in, the war is already there and so the shooting is natural but what if they did. The small aspect of choice they have is choosing the route into the building whether to go in quiet with knife kills or go in loud with guns blazing. But what if the game gave you choices on what to do to people. What if in a sniper mission you could choose to take out the target or not?


Back on RPGs where romance has been brought in. Your choices and the party members you pay attention to more will react differently. You can ignore someone all game and they will tend to ignore you and not talk to you at all. But if you give tons of attention to a certain party member in games they seem to give plenty back in return. It brings a nice sense of appreciation and gratification to the gamer that their effort paid off for lack of a better term.

In the end, just remember what the well known game maker John Carmack said, "At its best, entertainment is going to be a subjective thing that can't win for everyone, while at worst, a particular game just becomes a random symbol for petty tribal behavior." Perfect if you ask me, maybe the developers will look at our behavior as a cue for the next thing.

Sequel Playthrough: Mass Effect 1 & 2

A laser blast goes by barley missing my head before smashing into the wall and an explosions rocks the nearby stairwell, not exactly the welcome I expected in the office suite of a pharmaceutical company. I simply turn and fire down at the enemies and throw a grenade letting the blast do the rest. I am there for one reason, the computer in the CEO's office has evidence against the administrator, I plan to use it so I can blackmail him into doing what I want. I might be called evil but I need this and the galaxy needs it in Mass Effect.

Since the first Mass Effect in 2007 the saga has enthralled gamers. The choices you make in the game, the relationships, and the way things turn out based on your choices. In 2010 the second game came out and it took RPGs to a new level. After beating the first one you can take your character and transfer him into the second game and continue the story. All your choices from the first game affect how the second game works. I beat the first one as the lap dog of the alliance and the second game remembered that as I noticed certain characters resented me for it and others were more then happy to help me out due to that fact. I beat it a second time as a complete jerk and in the second game I had a completely different experience and I was treated differently.

Mass Effect still holds up to graphical standards well and I am once again back to playing the first game through trying to see if I can get another different ending and another new experience in the second game. Why? Why would I play through the games again, well its simple. Because the tentative release date of March 6, 2012 looms. Mass Effect 3 is on its way and being able to transfer my character over to it is just too big of an opportunity to pass up. You have a character you have had since day one, all his or her choices and actions from the first two games will affect how the third game is played and how you make your way through. Anyone who has played Mass Effect will also tell you that the voice acting is superb headlined by Seth Green's voice as your pilot and he pulls it of well. Seth Green is known for some funny and goofy roles but his role as the voice of your pilot is superb. Star power got bigger in Mass Effect 2 when Martin Sheen's voice played a character known as the "Elusive Man", a rich man bankrolling your mission. The voice acting from Sheen was superb as well.

Any RPG gamer will tell you that gameplay changed by choices is huge. For example, in Mass Effect 1 I had the option to kill or talk down a certain character. I talked him down and in the second game when I ran into him, he remembered me sparing his life and was all to happy to lend me a hand. Another character from the first game remembered the same thing and tried to kill me for it. Mass Effect 3 has been confirmed as the conclusion, it's the end of the triology and I can't wait to see how it ends it. What is the game about? Well there are always trailers for them(See below).

Review
Grade-Harvest Them!
Highs-Missions are good, the storyline is compelling, voice acting is good, and overall the way your choices affect the game is good
Lows-Sometimes you just can't feel the tension in the missions sometimes making the urgency hard to feel ESRB Rating-Both are M for Mature, Ages 17 and up
Kid Friendly?The storyline is for older gamers.I would respect the rating on the game
Where Can I Get It?Amazon has it, but local stores still carry both games, what, that's what happens when your good
Overview-Both are very good and worth the money