EG Expo hands-on: Battlefield 3 brings out the big guns
Battlefield 3. The biggest game at Eurogamer Expo this year. And for good reason. Johnny Cullen tells you why the DICE shooter is the one to be at during the show.
Gamers are spoilt for choice with Battlefield 3 at Eurogamer this year. The game's playable on all of of its platforms: PS3, 360 and PC, with both single-player and multiplayer available for all.
But I went hands-on with single-play only instead, giving a go on the newly-shown Operation Guillotine and finishing it without dying. Why am I saying that? It basically means I am a better player at that mission than DICE's own general manager Karl-Magnus Troedsson, as attendees heading to his dev session yesterday would eventually find out.
It's no secret that this is the biggest project DICE has ever done - Troedsson even said as such at his dev session yesterday - but it is literally pulling out the stops in making Battlefield 3 the best game it ever makes. And that will almost certainly be the case because it is just so darn good.
What is there to say about Guillotine that hasn't been said from the trip to Sweden last month at DICE? Well, just as a reminder. Guillotine begins as troops begin sweeping into Tehran from a hill. Throughout the mission, you, as main character Sgt Black, need to set up a mortar to begin the attack, clear out the river bank and MG nest full of PLR enemies.
Once you enter into the fight after the mortar attack is set off, it's action non-stop from here on out, as the PLR forces attempt to stop you entering into the apartment building. Once you've made it into the building, you'll encounter some small resistance on your way out. One of the soldiers catches you off guard whilst trying to breach a door and knocks you on your arse, prompting a "slowmo," where you need to kill the dude before he kills you.
It's easy money to the end, dispatching enemies with a shotgun and meeting up with Captain Brady. After entering a jeep to continue the mission, our demo ends.
It's really easy to convey how much action there is in Battlefield 3. With Guillotine, it's pretty much non-stop. And I'm sorry, but even if DICE won't admit to it, destruction is a big part of the deal here for BF3, thanks to Frostbite 2. It's definitely one of the bigger parts in the game that is attracting potential consumers. It's also one thing to see its graphics in a video, but it's another seeing it up close. The end result was still the same, though: amazing.
No AAA game has reached this much anticipation since Modern Warfare 2 just about two years ago, which should tell you a lot about the hype levels Black Ops had last year. Come October, we'll know if the hype, and EA's big advertising arsenal, has been truly successful. But by the looks of what I, and many people here at the show, have seen, the answer is starting to point towards a very resounding yes.
Battlefield 3 releases on October 25 in the US and October 28 in the UK for PS3, 360 and PC.