treads throw up dust, as does popping
holes in a wall with your M4 – and when
vehicles go down and things start to
burn, everything is blanked out in dark
smoky clouds. I think we are all going to
spend a lot of time blasting at shadows
in the smoke!
Dice has updated its Frostbite engine
to V2 and it’s looking better than ever.
Buildings collapse left and right and, if
you need to get into a building from the
back, you can simply blast a hole in the
wall and hop right through. It doesn’t
appear that building size is limited – hell,
if a sniper’s terrorising your squad you
can take down a whole hotel just to take
him out.
Vehicle capability has also been
updated, with planes making a grand
return. Pilots better dig out their old
joysticks – it’s going to get savage up
there.
Multiplayer classes have also been
tweaked, and rearranged a little since
Bad Company 2.
‘Engineer’ is the only class that
remains untouched. ‘Assault’ class can
no longer dish out ammo, though it can
use paddles to resurrect teammates
and dish out med-packs. The idea behind
these changes are that they are on the
MEDIA REVIEW
frontline, and therefore closest to the
shooting. ‘Support’ class has taken over
control of the ammo, hefts the big gun
and can now also deploy a bipod to
massively increase accuracy and reduce
recoil – at the cost of mobility.
‘Recon’ is the new name for what
was previously the ‘Sniper’ class. Dice
has shifted the emphasis of this class
from long-range kills to more of a scout
role. You are still armed with a rifle but
there’s no more quick scoping – for long,
accurate shots players are going to have
to hold their breath. Playing as this class
is therefore now more about locating the
enemy and guiding the other classes in
and around obstacles.
Overall, Battlefield 3 is shaping up to
be a very worthy next chapter in the
Battlefield saga. But is it seriously about
to knock Call of Duty off the throne? Only
time will tell.
I’ll see you on the Battlefield... 3.
Created by Dice
Published by Electronic Arts
Due date: 28th October
www.airsoftactionmagazine.com
075