BATTLE FIELD - 3
For the better part of a year, EA has been hyping Battlefield 3 as the game that will bring down Call Of Duty. This approach has doubtless provided an awareness boost for DICE's military shooter, its advertorial wagon hitched sturdily to the zeitgeist surrounding Activision's mega-selling shooter. "Above and beyond the call," claim the billboard ads that currently clutter major US cities.
Thus, nearly every single CoD: MW3 feature and preview so far has had to address EA's game in some way. The only way you could not be aware of Battlefield 3 is if you have no interest in video games, or if you've been locked in an isolation ward for the past year and a half.
Of course, all of EA's Activision-baiting can't help but impact negatively on Battlefield 3 now it's been released. To wit, there is now the expectation among some gamers, whether fair or not, that Battlefield 3's success depends, to some degree, on it beating CoD at its own game.
This was never going to happen. While there are similarities between the two franchises, they couldn't be more different in the one area most shooters rely on to keep the affections of the faithful tightly in their grasp – the online multiplayer.
With Battlefield, the multiplayer was present and correct long before CoD's sales figures became the brass ring to shoot for. It's not surprising, then, that this mode is Battlefield 3's strongest asset – and is indeed one of the strongest examples of this mode in the medium. DICE has taken what made the franchise great to begin with in the seminal Battlefield 1942 and then refined and polished everything until it gleams with a diamond-tipped edge.
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