What Battlefield means to me.

In the self promise of keeping up posts on the site on a semi-regular basis I figured I'll drop something about one of my favorite gaming franchises: Battlefield. I would have loved to throw in some personal screenshots of the beta and maybe a video but I couldn't find a way to take screenshots, much to my dismay. But with that being said here goes!

In the multiplayer arena there are always good games present to bring the pinnacle of specific skill to the surface. Quake brings the best of the arena gaming players out, and even so much to create the biggest esport legend: fatal1ty. For many years (and it still is, in my opinion) cs1.6 has brought out the best tactical shooter players to the forefront in a game that's spanning generations. Although not the forefront man shoot that it once was it still holds a meaty competitive scene, despite time. But personally for me my favorite tactical shooter has always been battlefield. BF2 brought the elements of class based tactical shooting to the forefront and added armored warfare to the mix among huge maps and present day armaments. Battlefield, to me, is not just to bring the infantry players into the mix but to get the armor players out from their hibernation. Few games are dedicated to vehicular combat and tactical infantry play together. Skilled pilots of the vehicular kind adds a layer of teamwide depth beyond the simple gear setups on foot. The simple presence of vehicles allows one to pit your skill against larger situations and harder challenges, and with airpower being present you're required to not think of the combat in a 2-dimensional plane. The combat becomes much more when you're worried about all the angles, not just other footsloggers camping corners or covering killzones. The open nature of the maps promotes a much more careful and aware gameplay, rather than enemies coming at you from a few preset ways their forced into like rush or any smaller TDM gametype, all your sides are exposed and your situational awareness kicks in sharply.

Which immediately brings me to battlefield 3, having been an avid battlefield player since 06' I cant say with enough enthusiasm that I am excited for this. They've taken elements from recent FPS franchises and reworked them to be an addition and not a necessary burden. First and foremost: customization. Where in Battlefield Bad company 2, you restricted yourself to tool up your chosen weapon, by missing out on other upgrades, to slap on that scope or sight. In Bf3 every weapon has a large quantity of attachments (around 10-17 usually per weapon) and 3 slots on each to tool up your weapon at no expense of personal upgrades, its simply always present. Vehicles are now the same way, as you play in your iron beast you'll unlock a heap of options for your ride, which also has 3 upgrade slots for you to configure however you want. This is nothing compared to the fact that this gameplay also comes smooth and flows well, even on gigantic maps that are equal to small regions. Everything feels great and responsive which just makes the deal sealed in my case.

The beta was not without flaws and the glitches and problems we're aplenty for sure. But DICE, being the good developers they are have stated that the 1.0 release of battlefield 3 has most, if not, all of the major problems fixed. We were given the true nature of a "Beta" release. Not a perfect product, but a glimpse of the vision their reaching for the final product.

Battlefield, to me, isn't about specifics. Its about all those things together in one package, all of those elements together in an open warfare environment. Where solutions to freeform situations are created by the player leading to a constantly changing combat landscape.