Battlefield 3 Beta

Played it on: Xbox 360
Available on: PS3, Xbox 360, and PC
Played it for: 5-10 hours

RATING: 7/10

Review:
Well, this is glitchy.
Also, I didn't bother with a summary on this one, as the only thing in the Beta is the multiplayer.
The game is looking to be very good. While the graphics aren't as incredible on console as they are on PC, I can say that I was very impressed with the overall feel of the game. It is an interesting mish-mash of Call of Duty, Halo, previous Battlefield titles, Counter-Strike, Medal of Honor (2010), Crysis 2, and Homefront, taking elements from each, and combining them into a modern war game. With that said, I think the three it most resembles are Homefront, Crysis 2, and Medal of Honor (2010).

With respect to the actual gameplay, (minus the physics and graphics and all that), it plays most like Medal of Honor (2010), and this makes me very happy. Unlike many CoD addicts, I thought Medal of Honor was the epitomy of what it meant to be an FPS, and the work that EA put into it really shows. The way that many guns handle in the BF3 Beta is very similar to MoH in recoil, damage, and firing speed, and the map included in the Beta (Operation Metro), has the feel of the MoH map Helmand Valley, my personal favorite.

But enough about comparisons. While the BF3 Beta appears to be very good, once you begin playing, you realize that the game is far more glitchy than you would anticipate. There are multiple sections of the map where it is possible to go below the ground when laying down, and kill people by shooting upwards out of the Earth. In addition, the lag throughout the servers can get unbearable, forcing you to quit. If that wasn't enough, the flashlights that you can strap onto the end of your gun seem to work even better in the day time than at night, somehow managing to put off light comparable to that of a few large suns. This is incredibly annoying when you are working on an objective, then all of a sudden find yourself blinded by someone across the map and killed. The lazer sights operate on a similar principle, except they give you instant eye cancer, followed by a few bullet wounds in your face. My final complaint about the current working physics is the shotgun. It is understandable that in real life, a shotgun has more range than just the few centimeters that CoD gives you, but when using a shotgun with a lazer pointer and red-dot sight in the BF3 Beta, you essentially become the finger of death, and can kill anyone within a 17-mile radius.

To summarize, Battlefield 3 promises to be a good game upon it's release in the next couple of weeks, but if they actually plan on anyone playing the multiplayer for more than five seconds, they have some serious problems they need to fix first.