Chuck "Magnum" Ankenbauer reviews the latest installment to the EA Battlefield series.

http://www.simhq.com/_land3/land_128a.html

Great job on the review Magnum, I had lost my enthusiasm for BF3 after trying out the beta with all the spawn camping on Metro map, but now that the final version is out and I've played it a few days it has really wowed me and I really love it.

thx... a game like this is more "who" you play with that can make it or break it.

Just a quick note - you can play the single player game if your internet is out or even on but you don't want to log on. You have to start Origin, make yourself offline then just start the game normally and you can play the campaign.

good review! I agree with most of the pros/cons. My main irk is Battlelog...great idea, bad implementation. Trying to get myself and my other two roommates on the same squad in-game is a chore in itself. It's "clunky", absolutely no queue system (wtf???!), having to click "accept" like 3 times just to get into a game (especially when joining with friends), having 4 different tabs with blinking notifications for every little thing that happens, etc. etc...overall just a PITA. I don't see any reason why they couldn't just have made an in-game server browser with double-click functionality lol

Oh, and the game crashes like clockwork the first time you load/run Origin (either by closing it and then loading it up or just a fresh reboot of windows); and my roommates and myself have had game crashes when loading levels (although not as frequent).

Anyhoo, still a fun game; but if they don't improve some of the blatantly obvious flaws then I will never buy one of their games again. It's like they took a step backwards with interface design (at least for the PC)

I've no issues with Origin or Battlelog. The only time I see origin is when I click the BF3 shortcut and it brings it up. Battlelog is great as a stat tracker. Inviting friends can be clunky and hit and miss but no crashes so far.

An interesting Review, However it reinforced my view on the Menu problem. I and most people in my clan/community think the same as you over the battlelog. The graphics are awesome, but I also don´t like the exclusion of the commander mode, this will make non-clan games pretty chaotic.

Still Origin is the dealbreaker for me, there is no way I´m going to accept that massive breach of privacy.

With in-game web browser interfaces like Awesomium the external browser plug-in route seems odd. I like being able to bring up Chrome and view stats, maybe join a game but I'd like to do that in-game too.

Here I am replying to a review of something I already have. I wasn't going to buy BF3, the reason I did was Battlelog, just wanted to check out how it worked (that and the Frostbite 2 deferred rending engine). Some very nice lighting trickery used throughout.

What amazes me most of all, especially after being repeatedly shot in the face and back on the SimHQ server last night (until my game crashed), is the audio. It's masterful and worthy of an award IMO.

Good review although I must admit I have no personal experience with the game play. I bought it and went through the install and when I got to the part where I had to sign in to Battlelog to play single player...that crossed the line for me. I uninstalled and returned it for a refund the next night.

My two biggest gripes are the requirement to have all the online crap installed/running and that the game is yet another "follow the dot" offering (i.e., scripted missions). I personally think it's sad that game development is now driven by the herd mentality of the social media craze. Everyone is saying consoles are taking over the gaming market and of course console users have no problem with this for obvious reasons. But what's being overlooked is the loss of spontaneity "in game". Missions (and campaigns) are better when all the parameters are randomly generated and you have to use your wits to achieve a goal or objective with whatever resources you have to start and find during play. The emphasis on multi-player takes developers' time and effort away from creating thoughtful and creative campaigns for single play. Single play is nothing but an afterthought at best.

I read from a review of this game on Amazon that EA is steering Origin to become another competitive social media service (like Facebook) and as such, it is tapping information from the user and his PC that is a bit beyond simple game ownership authentication. It wouldn't surprise me if this were true. For myself, I don't play online...never have...never will. It's a shame the market's attitude towards people like me is "too bad".

To all of you raging against Origin.... Do you have a credit card, cell phone, email? Your privacy was breached long ago.

Sign in or sit out.