Battlefield 3

One of the most anticipated first person shooters of this year, EA games will be releasing Battlefield 3 in the EU tomorrow. It’s the eleventh instalment in the Battlefield series, and if you want the PC version you’ll have to sign up with EA’s Origin (a lot like Steam, sign up and download the games straight to your PC). It looks like it’s going to be good, and people are wondering if it will overtake Modern Warfare 3 in both sales and popularity this year. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with that one – it’s sure to be an interesting result.

Let’s take a look at the plot

2014, SSgt Blackburn leads a five-man squad on a mission to locate and return a US squad that’s investigating a potential chemical weapons site which was last controlled by the hostile PLR. Later, Blackburn and his squad are sent to Tehran to apprehend a valuable target known as As-Bashir. Whilst investigating an underground vault in a local bank, Blackburn and his team discover that PLR had access to portable nuclear devices that had been made by the Russians (it’s always the Russians with these games, isn’t it? Always seems to be an American protagonist too). They then realize that two of these devices are missing. Suddenly overrun by enemies, they request backup and an M1 Abrahams convoy led by Corporal Miller is sent to aid Blackburn’s team. However, Miller ends up being captured whilst waiting for a Quick Reaction Force to arrive. Miller is then executed by Solomon and Al-Bashir and the execution is recorded.

As this is occurring, Blackburn and his squad track down and find a wounded Al-Bashir who reveals Solomon’s plans to detonate the missing weapons in Paris and New York. They also discover who the arms dealer is (a Russian named Kaffarov). It’s a race to find Solomon and stop him before he is able to detonate the missiles. Not only that, but a second team is tracking the arms dealer. It is vital that the terrorists are stopped, and time is running out...

Gameplay

“Battlefield 3 features the maximalist combined arms battles that made the series popular across single-player, co-operative and multiplayer modes. It reintroduces several elements absent from the Bad Company games, including fighter jets, the prone position and 64-player battles on PC.” -Wikipedia

EA stated in Game Informer magazine that Commander Mode will likely be taken out of the game, which is disappointing to hear as many players really enjoyed this feature (including us).
A lot of the game will take place in urban areas, mainly cities, streets and downtown, although there will be some open landscapes for vehicle combat and the like (can you imagine trying to get a bulky vehicle through narrow city streets?).
If you want to play with friends, you can now use the ‘Battlelog’ which has a built-in text messaging service as well as the ability to communicate through speech. You can join a game that your friend is already playing and vice versa, but you do have to be on the same console (as would be expected).

Multiplayer mode


In Battlefield 3 you can take on one of four roles: Assault, Support, Engineer and Recon. Each class have their own unique abilities and features, as can be seen listed below.
-       Assault: equip defibrillators and medical kits. Like the healers of the game.
-       Engineer: is able to use a flashlight to blind other players (handy weapon, in my opinion).
-       Recon: can place a radio beacon anywhere on the map so that all squad members are able to respawn there.




The following game modes have been announced for multiplayer mode.
-       - Conquest
-       - Rush
-       - Deathmatch
-       - Squad Rush
-       - Team Deathmatch (Like Battlefield 1942)

Weapons Guide

We went on to the EA website to look for the weapons that can be found in Battlefield 3 so that you don’t have to. Here’s a list of all of them.

Sniper Rifles

M39 EMR

M40A5

M98B

MK11 M0D0

SKS

SV98

SVD

Shotguns

DA0-12

M1014

870MCS

SAIGA 12K

USAS-12

M26 MASS

Personal Defence Weapons

AS VAL

PDW-R

MP7

P90

PP-2000

UMP-45

Machine Guns

M27 1AR

M60E4

M240B

M249

PKP PECHENEG

RPK-74M

TYPE 88 LMG

Carbines

G36C

SCAR-H

M4A1

SG553

Pistols

G17C

G18

M9

93R

M1911

MP412 REX

.44 MAGNUM

Rocket/Grenade Launchers

FGM-148 JAVELIN

M320

SA-18 IGLA

RPG-7V2

FIM-92 STINGER

SMAW

Assault rifles

AEK-971

AK-74M

AN-94

M416

G3A3

Sadly, I can't get information on gear and equipment as EA has not yet put it up on their website, which is a shame as it would have been good to give you guys that kind of information. However, I can give you a little bit of information on the kind of vehicles available to you in play. 

Vehicles

- Jets

- Tanks

- Helicopters

- Naval Transport

- Fast Transport

- Armoured Transport

Here's a video from EA that shows you a little more on the vehicles available to you.