The floodgates are opening and embargos are being lifted all over the Internet today for Battlefield 3. Let's take a quick look around at just a few articles.
There are also previews from Kotaku, IGN, and more. Feel free to link any others that you find in the comments below!
From PC Gamer
This year, Battlefield is going to mount a full blown assault on CoD’s dominance. The good news is: it’s built for the PC, to showcase what the PC is capable of. And it’s the best looking PC game in the world right now.
The demo opened with a precis of the tech. Frostbite 2 uses animation systems developed for sports games to give characters heft and weight. As the soldiers turn into doorways, you can see the weight shift on their feet. The destructability of the old Frostbite engine has been ramped up; bullets can chip away at masonry and concrete, while full bore explosives can tear down entire buildings. And when buildings collapse, they don’t vanish in a cloud of smoke and magically transform into burning husks – the destruction is more complex – signage wobbles and shakes, concrete awnings tumble down. The sound is as violent and deafening as Bad Company 2; bullets echo and snap with nightmarish cracks.
But it’s the sheer visual quality that’s the real star. I think it’s down to the lighting – the bright sunshine of the Iraq level was extremely impressive. When the demo transitioned to the indoors, shafts of sunlight shone through any open windows, creating gorgeous pillars of dust. It absolutely looked a step ahead of last year’s big shooters.
Destructoid
After the carnage you see in the trailer, the group makes its way to a rooftop, all while the sniper continues to shoot at the squad taking cover. Every time the sniper rifle is fired, the screen blurs just a little bit; it's a nice touch that gives a real sense of urgency.
The squad belly-crawls to the furthest point on the roof, where the player is given a rocket launcher and takes down the hotel across the way, where the sniper is holed up. Boom, no more sniper. Multiple stories of the building explode; it looked really impressive, but I'm not sure that it wasn't just a scripted scene. The Frostbite 2 engine may very well be able to pull this off, but I want to get my hands on the game and just go crazy taking down buildings with rockets to see if the game can really handle it.
Later on in the mission, the player has to defuse a bomb. While doing so, he's jumped by an insurgent, and a quick-time event kicks in. The two trade blows in a mostly scripted scene with a few QTE prompts popping up.
After this part, the player is thrown into a large-scale fight, where he has to man a .50-caliber gun and mow down waves of terrorists rushing his position. A helicopter is providing cover, and there's just complete carnage everywhere.
Then, all hell breaks loose when an earthquake hits. The ground cracks wide open. The player falls down. A building collapses on him, taking a helicopter down with it to mark the end of the demo.
The credits kick in, and we're teased with some more footage of the game, including vehicle combat in tanks and jets. The jet footage was maybe three seconds long, but good god, did it look badass.
This year, Battlefield is going to mount a full blown assault on CoD’s dominance. The good news is: it’s built for the PC, to showcase what the PC is capable of. And it’s the best looking PC game in the world right now.
The demo opened with a precis of the tech. Frostbite 2 uses animation systems developed for sports games to give characters heft and weight. As the soldiers turn into doorways, you can see the weight shift on their feet. The destructability of the old Frostbite engine has been ramped up; bullets can chip away at masonry and concrete, while full bore explosives can tear down entire buildings. And when buildings collapse, they don’t vanish in a cloud of smoke and magically transform into burning husks – the destruction is more complex – signage wobbles and shakes, concrete awnings tumble down. The sound is as violent and deafening as Bad Company 2; bullets echo and snap with nightmarish cracks.
But it’s the sheer visual quality that’s the real star. I think it’s down to the lighting – the bright sunshine of the Iraq level was extremely impressive. When the demo transitioned to the indoors, shafts of sunlight shone through any open windows, creating gorgeous pillars of dust. It absolutely looked a step ahead of last year’s big shooters.
Destructoid
After the carnage you see in the trailer, the group makes its way to a rooftop, all while the sniper continues to shoot at the squad taking cover. Every time the sniper rifle is fired, the screen blurs just a little bit; it's a nice touch that gives a real sense of urgency.
The squad belly-crawls to the furthest point on the roof, where the player is given a rocket launcher and takes down the hotel across the way, where the sniper is holed up. Boom, no more sniper. Multiple stories of the building explode; it looked really impressive, but I'm not sure that it wasn't just a scripted scene. The Frostbite 2 engine may very well be able to pull this off, but I want to get my hands on the game and just go crazy taking down buildings with rockets to see if the game can really handle it.
Later on in the mission, the player has to defuse a bomb. While doing so, he's jumped by an insurgent, and a quick-time event kicks in. The two trade blows in a mostly scripted scene with a few QTE prompts popping up.
After this part, the player is thrown into a large-scale fight, where he has to man a .50-caliber gun and mow down waves of terrorists rushing his position. A helicopter is providing cover, and there's just complete carnage everywhere.
Then, all hell breaks loose when an earthquake hits. The ground cracks wide open. The player falls down. A building collapses on him, taking a helicopter down with it to mark the end of the demo.
The credits kick in, and we're teased with some more footage of the game, including vehicle combat in tanks and jets. The jet footage was maybe three seconds long, but good god, did it look badass.
There are also previews from Kotaku, IGN, and more. Feel free to link any others that you find in the comments below!
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