I prepared myself that Battlefield 3 would absolutely awful. The trend nowadays is to release broken games, dumbing everything down for the console crowd, bringing in changes that spoils the game for the fans who played the other titles in the series. Bad Company 2 was a major shift from what the previous Battlefield games offered, it should not have had the Battlefield name in it, since it was not at all what Battlefield was about.
All the little bits of information about BF3 indicated a more Bad Company type than Battelfield game, which is another way to say that its a COD with Battlefield technology.
However I was pleasantly surprised. The game looks stunning, even with low settings and runs pretty well. Hit-Reg, a big problem since the dawn of Battlefield is finally sorted. Although suffering from the occasional game freeze, it otherwise runs perfectly.
With the different type of maps it caters for the different type of players. Some maps are for the Bad Company lovers, linear with lots of choke points, other features large open maps. However, even the large open maps are still small to what BF2 offered, but not so small to be a problem.
Vehicles are fun and easy to handle, but requires some practice to master completely. The balance is also well done, in BF2 aircraft pretty much dominated the Battlefield completely, now they can be a problem, but similar to the other vehicles on the map.
The classes are also working nicely, its nicely balanced so that one class cannot completely dominate. My favorite class, the Engineer who was so under powered in personal defense in Bf2 is now a force to be reckon with.
All in all I have to say BF3 provides a solid experience and while not completely what I wanted as a sequel to BF2, it delivers in the fun factor.
The question is whether it will be popular as long as BF2 was, or will it fade within the next two years. The only way to keep the game going will be in the release of new maps frequently, to prevent people from getting bored playing the same maps over and over again.
I still miss the commander, I miss the in-game voice chat between squads, but overall the game is very enjoyable.
The Battlelog function works, its like a Facebook for Battlefield. Origin however comes across as a cheap Chinese rip-off of Steam.
