Last night I spent quality time with Dice’s upcoming mega-shooter Battlefield 3 on my PlayStation 3. As a fan of the Battlefield series and a dedicated Battlefield: Bad Company 2 player, I was thrilled to see what Dice had done with the series and what technical marvels had been achieved. What I found was not what I expected.
We’re talking Battlefield 3 here, so the big question on gamers’ minds has undoubtedly been how the latest installment will appear on consoles when compared to Dice’s bread-and-butter platform, the gaming PC. If the beta is any indicator of what we will see at release next month, I am sad to report that the answer is not good. Now, before fans of the series and my fellow console gamers alike, scream for my head on a platter, let me make clear that I understand that this is a beta and not necessarily representative of the final product. Feel me? I recognize that changes, improvements, updates, patches, etc… can and will likely come between now and launch on October 25th. In fact, the beta very may well be, and likely is, older code than is actually scheduled to appear on discs purchased in stores next month. Whew.
Okay, now that my proverbial “butt” is covered, I will speak plainly:
The Battlefield 3 beta on Sony’s PlayStation 3 looks bad. I mean DAMN bad; bad enough that it took about four seconds of total playtime for me to verbally note “Wow… this looks…bad.”
To be specific, the beta is sporting some nasty-low resolutions, major pop-in issues, regular clipping trouble, screen tearing, and ugly aliasing out the wazoo. To be fair, Battlefield 3 is also sporting massive multiplayer levels, 24-player character counts (64 on PC), and environmental destruction far above what most other games in the genre offer. However, granting these genuinely resource hogging factors, weren’t we promised more? Isn’t this the mighty, hyped beyond belief, Frostbite 2 engine destined to change everything in gaming and beyond?
Sadly, it isn’t difficult to find examples of the problems mentioned above. The resolution on a menagerie of surfaces, from tree trunks to barriers, graffiti to stones, was hit and miss without pause. Where one part of a wall would look great, another point three feet from it would harbor a resolution one would expect on PlayStation 2. Moving on, ground details and other small objects would regularly pop-in about fifteen in-game feet from me, a literally constant phenomenon most notable in outdoor environments. As for clipping, I watched in fascinated horror as a teammate crouched while going up a hill with his entire lower half buried in the ground. Needless to say, it was weird. Lastly, near as I can tell, there is zero anti-aliasing work being done on console. Virtually every object had jagged edges and, as is common in gaming, shadows were the absolute worst offender.
So… “What about the title of this piece?” you now say. “Didn’t you claim that Battlefield 3 is fun?”
Yes, it does, and yes, it is.
And thus, I arrive at the most intriguing aspect of all; despite the myriad technical and visual problems in the Battlefield 3 PS3 beta, I had a blast. Within ten minutes, I found myself not caring about the visual anomalies surrounding me, I was in a warzone fighting for my life with a dependable team at my side.
My friends, Battlefield 3 is a shooter with a solid, nay, downright brag-worthy competitive formula. The game places you in squads by default and is designed from the top down to motivate you to work together. Within minutes, I was spawning with my assigned squad and communicating enemy positions, the status of our objective, and tactical options. Honestly, I’ve NEVER played a game that so easily and genuinely motivated me to work with strangers for the good of the team. Not only did this make my time with the beta shockingly fun, it made for one hell of a victory in the second round I played. :D
Fun. Isn’t that what really matters? Now, I certainly would appreciate some performance and visual improvements to Battlefield 3 on Sony’s lovely console, but if it never happened, I’m more confident than ever that I would still return to Dice’s latest effort for the sheer joy of the game play.
In other words, dearest reader, the Battlefield 3 beta on PS3 is a dichotomous experience that inspires me to make a simple suggestion. Rather than worry about how Battlefield 3 looks on your respective platform, rather than compulsively gauge the tech behind the title, simply enjoy the game. Contrary to everything you may have heard, Dice’s achievement here (clearly) isn’t revolutionizing console technology; it’s creating something shooting fans will love inherently. Battlefield 3’s game play is solidly constructed. Battlefield 3 is engaging. Battlefield 3 is a hootin’ and hollerin’ good time even if it isn’t running on your PS3 like you and I both hoped it would.
Cheers.
P.S. If my recommendation to simply enjoy the game isn’t your cup of tea because you’re an admitted graphics whore, well, get the PC version. Duh.
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The Alpha was a blast, the Beta rocks. Is there any doubt that BF3 will be as epic as life itself? I think not.
I must admit I have been looking forward to playing this game for months, we’ve all been bombarded with great video footage of slick looking graphics, I even took a trip to the GameFest at Birmingham recetly, only to be met with 3 hour ques to get a look at Battlefield (which I couldnt be bothered with incidently). I downloaded the Beta and sat excitedly waiting for the action to kick in, my first impression was to be really disappointed with the graphics, I completely understand the whole Beta thing, but I just wonder how much they will improve in the final release. I also get that the enjoyment should be the main point of any videogame, but surely with all the hype behind the FrostII engine we should have a bit of both….. Just have to wait and see.
Great game, just needs to fix it’s graphical miscues. I really wanna believe what people are saying about it being because of the small size of the beta and that it’s an old version of the game. We can all hope, and hold our collective breath until the first game we play post-release.
Yasser, well said. A beta is inherently a thing of change. Let’s hope that the final product is a polished affair.
There reason there are bugs right now because that’s what a BETA is made for. BETAs are made so that developers can find bugs and fix them up before launch with the help of the community.
Communicating?Did you say you were communicating with your teammates? In bf3 beta on ps3? Yea, right. IT’S NOT WORKING!
The only reason that the textures are how they are, is because DICE reduced the quality of them to keep the beta download size down. (1.3 GB still is a lot).
Well, I sure hope things get tightened up and these issues are addressed! It looks like a mighty fine time.
It looks like a decent game. I’ve had the urge to play a modern military shooter lately that isn’t CoD. BattleField seems to be exactly what I’m looking for, I hope the bugs get fixed though. Stupid graphical glitches drive me insane.