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So here’s a review of my second recently completed game: Battlefield 3

Who am I? Don’t worry, you won’t care pretty soon

I bought Battlefield 3 second hand and immediately bought the code so I could play online (well done games developers by the way, you’ve figured out a way for second hand games purchasing to be a ballache). I’d bought it after being told it was incredible, better than any Call of Duty game (a big claim in my book!) and where the action was at…

Not sure if it’s me, but I don’t get it. The controls – on the PS3 at least – lag terribly and make it a sluggish experience. The maps are overly large and for the most part devoid of action. My experience of the multiplayer is pretty much: spawn miles away, finally make it to the action, see someone, take aim, pull off a full clip, missing every time, then get one shot killed. That on repeat. Perhaps it’s because I’m used to the fast paced COD action, but to me it just suuuuucks. I don’t know.

Anyway with multiplayer forgotten about – I did give it a good few games by the way, especially since I’d paid for the online code – I turned my attention to the campaign mode. Hardcore Battlefield fans will be cringing and shouting already that battlefield is ALL about multiplayer. But in my mind, if its ALL about mutliplayer, surely they wouldn’t have bothered making a campaign. I jumped in with an open mind…

The start of the campaign was great, lots of action on a train sequence, promising for some pretty cool story as to what the hell you were doing there. However the flashback story that then takes over for the rest of the game seemed a little old hat to me. The guy sat being interrogated, telling his story and flashing back to the events… remind anyone else of a certain recent COD game?

The gameplay itself got old, very very fast. I quickly found myself either speeding through entire levels just by pressing a series of buttons or running the entire thing without even flinching, or on the flipside getting continually mauled down, as every enemy AI in certain levels seems to shoot solely for you, and none of your incompetently poor-shot squad mates. There were points that I thought I might just give up because of this, I’d be having to literally creep up the level, hiding more than anything else, and peeping out to try and see where all the bullets were coming from – but as soon as you show the even the tiniest little whisker on your head, it seemed the suddenly incredible-shot AI also had x-ray vision and were just stood pointing their guns at the rock you were hiding behind. Perseverance and patience finally got me through on the couple of occasions that this happened, but it was so boring by the end of it that you just think, “What’s the point in that then?!”

Another particularly poor level is one taking place in a jet. Great, I thought, mix it up a bit. Plus maybe I’ll get a bit of an understanding as to how I’m supposed to fly the bloody things for multiplayer. WRONG! The level doesn’t, at any point, give you full control of the jet- someone else is piloting, you have to boringly take out targets and fire counter flares. I kept waiting for the action but it never arrived. What a let down and a missed opportunity from my point.

A few missions later and I’d literally given up caring about any of the characters or the storyline at all. I could see where it was going and just didn’t give a monkeys about them. I played it through to finish it off though – as my Dad always says by watching a crap film you can appreciate a good one so much more – the same applies with games.

When I did finish it, I felt relieved to be able to put the game disc back into the box and move onto something else. If Battlefield is ALL about multiplayer (and all about PC multiplayer specifically, so I’ve been told previously) then don’t port the bloody thing to PS3 and smash together some rubbish campaign mode!

Utter let down, especially after all the hype.

Final score 3 out of 10

Teachers comment would read: get out of my class and think about what you’ve done.

P.S I’d like to point out that this isn’t some COD fanboys excuse at having a go at Battlefield – I honestly went in with an open mind, tried to enjoy multiplayer, completed the entire campaign… it was just rubbish. I wouldn’t have bought it if I didnt think it was going to be good!