With a great multiplayer to back it, the story can be overlooked.
Bad: Bland story, vehicles can become annoying at times, bullet drop creates a steep learning curve, requires an online connection.
Note: Even though my computer can only run it on its lowest settings, I am blown away by the way the game looks and plays each time I log in.
The story-line in Battlefield 3 failed to keep my attention past the first two levels. What I did manage to find in it that I did like was by the end of the second level, you had a good feel on just what the new engine could do. Beyond that, the game still kept a realistic feeling of what war is like.
Despite the story's lack of pushing motivation into the player, the co-op missions offer a nice flavor of war as you and a teammate battle through six different stages together. Unfortunately, to this point, it is only those six stages. However, the fun is also doubled by the ability to unlock weapons in multiplayer by achieving set numbers of points. To add to that, if you find yourself stuck on one, but know you only need a few more points, you may go back to previous missions and replay them for the extra points.
Coming out on top, however, is definately the multiplayer experience. Polished and sharp, the combat in multiplayer offers a wide variety of gameplay, changing based on class, weapon, vehicle, experience, and the skill of other players. While the match-making does little to help new players play with other's at the same skill level, it does allow players to decide the type of game-mode, the map(s), the size of the match, and other restrictions. The game is run by dedicated servers, so depending on the server, anti-hacking protection (once again, Punkbuster) will be required or not required. The game has a realistic feel to it in most aspects, mainly the gun-play. Newer players will find that bullets drop at a certain distance. This can be difficult to get used to, but provides something most other games do not provide. The game can be rather slow-paced at times due to the size of the battles, but in the same aspect, it can be extremely fast-paced (I'll never forget the first time I had to run from an enemy chopper). Speaking of vehicles, the game offers a wide variety. From tanks to am-tracks, to jets, the game has most different types of combat vehicles, as well as a few non-combat vehicles. These may get annoying as players often like to camp in them, and some classes have little to prevent them from doing so. Often, unfortunately, it feels like to capture a point or place a bomb, you have to be in a vehicle or covered by one. However, the actual operations of vehicles is absolutely great, not to mention, they add an edge of strategy. In addition, vehicles have their own levels, giving benefits to players as they use them. The four classes have been freshly balanced, mainly by taking medical abilities to players mainly using assault rifles, and ammunition resupplying to light-machine gun users. Balancing the game, it offers a slight change from all previous battle-field games.
To sum it all up, Battlefield 3 is a superb shooter, and has found a way to live itself up to its legacy. Worth every cent you may put into it, I suggest it to any shooter fan, and anyone who wishes to get into shooting games.