I played it for about 30 minutes, and my initial impression was to go right back to Bad Company 2, because this feels like a step backwards. Gameplay wise, its the same old shit - however, the maps on offer are a disaster of poor design and the gameplay here has changed far too much to be called a true sequel to the terrific Battlefield 2. This is what everyone feared it would be: Battlefield of Duty.
Visually, everything has a... sheen to it. Character models have strange illumination highlights that make them look like plastic, and it really underplays the detail on offer. Its kind of blurry, but in a strange way that Bad Company 2 didn't have, that makes the package frankly unattractive. The graphics aren't "bad" - all the detail you love is there - they're simply not very nice to look at thanks to some poor design choices.
Control wise, everything feels like its floating around and unattached. Bad Company 2 had real weight to your character, gun and movement. You felt like a physical person in a physical place. Battlefield 3, on the other hand, feels like there's no feedback to your movement and gun play in real way. It's all very... subtle, but it adds up. It clearly been done to make the game "smoother" for the CoD crowd, where you're bunny hoping around, and frankly it takes away from what Battlefield was originally about. Considering we're still supposed to sit back and hide from snipers and scoped rifles (read: everyone) the fact that you now move like an energiser bunny really begs the question: are we playing a fast paced action game, or a slower paced tactical shooter? You can't have it both ways.
This is probably my biggest complaint with the actual game: it just doesn't FEEL good to play.
Presentation wise, everything is just too "IN YOUR FACE". Kill a guy, BOOM, neon lights across the bottom of your screen for 10 seconds. The kill tracker in the corner is about 5 sizes too big, and it honestly distracts from the actual game part of the experience. The menus are nice, however you can't cancel out of anything. You have to wait until your in a game to actually do anything. This results in a lot of standing around initially, and a lot of unrequired deaths. This leads me to the biggest issue with the whole thing:
The Battlelog crap is a deal breaker for me. And considering I installed Origin, that should really tell you something.
It's cumbersome, invasive, difficult to understand because they've decided to ignore basically every industry standard for menus, and it in no way improves upon the experience of the end user. On top of this, its slow, glitchy as fuck (Server is full? It has 15/32 players!) and is poorly laid out, badly designed and the simple look of it all is just unattractive.
I was actually on the fence about Battlefield 3, leaning towards an early purchase. Thanks to the open beta, I know to keep Bad Company 2 installed and just ignore this CoD wannabe that feels the need to tie you into your internet browser on top of EA's Origin. Honestly, whats the point of having a fucking program required to install and play the game, if you're just going to then send your players to the internet before they can even actually launch the fucking game?
DICE and EA literally just handed Activision Blizzard the prize they were so badly trying to steal away. Battlefield 3 is the end of the series; it's all CoD from here.
Sad, considering all the hype they tried to build for it.
