15 Days from total mayhem So, now that the Battlefield 3 Open Beta has officially ended, I thought it was time to give a little review of my impressions on the state of the game. It's probably already a given that I've preorded this one, but I'm gonna do my best to highlight my impressions from the last week and a half of playing the BF3 Beta. What I liked: The graphics, in my opinion, are the best a FPS has offered to date. The new Frostbite engine is literally a thing of beauty. From the lighting of objects all the way across the map, the sun glaring in my eyes during intense sniper battles and the sheer boner-factor from the destructible environment, this engine blows the predecessor from Battlefield: Bad Company 2 out of the water. The audio, while I've yet to play with true 7.1 surround, is also remarkable. The EA/Dice team is known for getting the sounds of war down to a science, but the jarring nature of an explosion nearby never ceased to give me a start even after several days into the beta. The squad-based gameplay really sets Battlefield 3 apart from the competition (CoD). The perks and support gear for each "class" really fit things well, even though I do have some qualms about why they changed the loadouts for each class from BFBC2. (noted later) Vehicle control still feels ultra-crisp and responsive in ways that, I think, stay true to the nature of each vehicle. Hitting some air in a jeep leaves you meeting the earth with some serious whiplash, jets and helos are not easy to master and tanks are big and slow to react, a perfect yin-yang opposite to their sheer brute power. Unlocks for each weapon, and different unlocks depending on whether you are playing RU or US, are, IMO, an excellent addition. What really killed my interest in BFBC2 was when I had nothing else to unlock and was just using the same old gear game after game. Knowing I have 18-some attachments to unlock per main weapon will definitely keep me going for months to come. What I Didn't Like: While the change up to class loadouts is welcome, I'm not sure it makes sense. I liked the fact that engineers were known for explosive ordinance, snipers for long range spotting and artillary requests and support for medic roles. The switch-up doesn't leave me totally satisfied, if for no other reason than I feel like "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I suppose time will tell. No VOIP test for PC players was a bummer. I was hoping to test that out, see how things work in a 64-player scenario. Will VOIP comms be limited to your squad like BFBC2? Will they cut out some of the other radio callouts if my teammates are talking? Lots of questions around something I personally think is mad important and can sway the battle every time. Clipping and graphical glitches were all over the place, as well as bad hit registration. I'm not really counting this as a negative, though, as what we played was equivalent to a late alpha build. The final code, I hope, is much more solid. Was still an annoyance none the less. Disabling vehicles, while a cool concept, doesn't do it for me. Especially when considering ground-to-air situations. I must have disabled 25 jets throughout the beta, but I can only remember one or two times that I got a kill out of it. Seems there were an awful lot of suicides instead. While this definitely helped the team out, I want the credit for taking out the baddie. The text chat system was blatantly weak. I'm sure it was another case of simply being a beta-build situation, but still, I would like the option to discuss the last game during that 30 second window between rounds, if for no other reason than to build camaraderie. Here's hoping it makes it into the final code. The Battlelog is a cool addition, but launching the game via browser was really odd. I'd like to think this was a beta thing, but seeing as there are co-op and campaign buttons present, it seems like this system will stick around for the release. Maybe the whole social-gaming idea will take off and be really cool, but I think there will certainly be a lot of growing pains in this area.