In anticipation of Battlefield 4, all this week I’ll be taking a look at the series and it’s games as well the next title in DICE’s arsenal of FPS games! So to kick to week off what better way to get us all pumped for the newest game by remind us all why the Battlefield series kicks serious ass!
Battlefield Bad Company 2 really got the ball rolling for Battlefield on consoles with it’s multi-player component still one of the best multi-player experiences to date. Battlefield, in case you hadn’t head of it, is a FPS hailed for its open, large scale maps along with a near-endless choice of vehicles and weaponry.
There are 4 classes in Bad Company: Assault which is the typical infantry man consisting of a Assault Rifle, grenade launcher and ammunition boxes allowing you to resupply your team with much needed ammo. The Engineer is exactly what you’d imagine it to be, featuring the feared rocket launcher and the repair tool which repairs friendly vehicles and tears apart enemy troops and vehicles! If you do get torn to shreds by the Engineer the Medic is your guardian angel, taking lives with light machine guns or saving them with defibrillators and first aid kids. Then you have the Recon Class, the sniper, these guys can pop your head from 1000 meters away, if they miss, they’ll call in a mortar strike and obliterate everything in their way.
There’s always a catch though, Battlefield features real weapon physics, for example if you spot a guy 1000 meters away and plan to nail him with a sniper, you better account for gravity and bullet drop. With LMG’s the more you fire the more accurate you are and with Assault Rifles it’s the opposite. There’s a learning curve to every weapon and every attachment and bullet type that it comes with, while this can be said for a lot of FPS games that aim to provide a more realistic scenario than running in all guns blazing, few have mastered this like Battlefield have.
Battlefield’s best feature though (other than chasing down quadbikes with a helicopter) is the immersion. The sound effects on bullets, explosives and vehicles are all pitch perfect. You fire a gun inside a room and it’s a loud, deafening bang whereas outside it leaves a trail. The shockwave alone from a tank firing a shell shatters windows, and on the receiving end of that shell there is a disorienting blast. The soldiers around you also react, they scream and shout depending on what’s going on. If you take an objective they’ll scream abuse at the enemy and suggest we “Run those motherf**king bitches down!”, if we’re being pushed back they’ll say things like “Ah we’re getting f**ked! F**king get them!” while curse words are hardly poetry, in the moment it massively adds to the game – there’s also hundreds of lines recorded so you’ll hear plenty of choice words.
On the eve of Battlefield 4 and next-gen Battlefield I strongly implore you to re-visit this gem! It’s still massively populated online but if that doesn’t like your cup of tea then why not take a step back in time…
Battlefield 1943
1943 was a downloadable title featuring the same engine as Bad Company (Frostbite 2) with the same features such as blowing the hell out of everything. Paying homage to Battlefield 1942, it has four fan favorite maps, the best being the beautiful Wake Island. A major standout moment was pushing a Japanese assault back into the woods and cutting trees down while I fire chaotically into the forest.
Fighter planse were also a nice touch and providing a close airstrike on your friends and saving their asses makes for fantastic fun. Speaking of airstrikes, if you manage to get to a radio tower you can control and formation of bombers a drop and payload of bombs on any target you please! It really is hard at times to believe that everything that happens involves real people not AI bots but Battlefield really brings out the best from players!
Rounding off 1943 was the nicely added Air Superiority, which is JUST planes but a lot of fun to be had there even more so if you haven’t a clue what your doing!
Battlefield 3
Battlefield 3 debuted the Frostbite 3 engine which in my opinion features the best graphics in gaming to date! However, the fully destructible environments were cut back almost completely but while you couldn’t reduce a building to rubble you could blow away it’s walls so that was some compensation at least! Every gameplay aspect is fine-tuned to perfection!
With the addition of Battlelog which charts everything you do per game in comparison to your friends jumps up the competition! I had many a sleepless night trying to beat my friend’s longest headshot, when I finally got the 632m shot I bragged and bragged and to this day continue to gloat over him!
Jets were also brought back after Battlefield 2! There’s always that one guy who rules the sky, if he’s on your team, don’t bother trying to shoot anyone just mark them and in a few seconds they’ll disappear into a cloud of dust. If he’s on the enemy team, forget the objective it becomes a player wide goal to bring it down!
Before I wrap this up and you rush out to buy the Battlefield games (because you have to!) it’s worth mentioning the various DLC!
Battlefield Vietnam – Battlefield Vietnam was similar to Battlefield 1943, same engine as Bad Company (same game even!) but different time period. Flame throwers, Hueys, Gunships and classic rock music galore in this magnificent DLC! Shame it was standalone!
Onslaught – This was essentially, Bad Companies answer to horde mode! You and three friends take on the world! Simple chaos.
Back to Karkand – This was the one that really kicked off the run of fantastic DLC for Battlefield 3, which included four of the best maps from the game as well as heap of a new of guns.
Close Quarters – My favorite one of all! This dropped the open all out warfare of Battlefield and placed you into tightly packed areas, perfectly capturing the chaos of Battlefield! With conquest-domination as the new game mode, which is not for the sane.
Armored Kill – Essentially the exact opposite to Close Quarters, featuring the some of the biggest maps Battlefield has ever seen! This is jam packed of tanks, armored cars, rocket trucks, coppers, jets and AC-130s! With the addition of Tank superiority
Aftermath – All of these maps were set in Earthquake struck cities, all the vehicles have been replaced by makeshift tanks and cars, as well as makeshift crossbows! Oh the joy! Scavenger was the new game mode, where you start with a pistol and find guns in the rubble.
Endgame – A beautiful send off to Battlefield 3! With gameplay empathizing on speed as you tear through maps on dirtbike, also, you can parachute a tank form a plane! WHAT?!?! Fan of Air Superiority on Battlefield 3? Imagine that with jets!
