Battlefield 3
Battlefield 3 is a 2011 first-person shooter game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sixth main installment in the Battlefield series and a follow-up to Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The game was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in October 2011. The campaign takes place in various locations and follows the stories of two characters, Henry Blackburn, a U.S. Marine and Dimitri Mayakovsky, a Spetsnaz GRU operative.
Development on the game began in 2009 after the release of Battlefield 1943. DICE employed an upgraded version of the Frostbite game engine to present realistic and engaging graphics. An open beta was presented forty-eight hours before it was released to gamers who pre-ordered Medal of Honor Limited Edition.
Following its announcement, Battlefield 3 received much anticipation and hype. The game received mostly positive reviews from critics who praised its multiplayer and graphics, but criticized the campaign and cooperative modes. It sold 5 million copies in its first week of release, becoming one of the biggest launch titles of 2011. The game's sequel, Battlefield 4, was released in 2013.
Gameplay
Battlefield 3 features the combined arms battles across single-player, co-operative and multiplayer modes. It reintroduces several elements absent from the Bad Company games, including fighter jets, the prone position and 64-player battles on PC. To accommodate the lower player count on consoles, the ground area is limited for Xbox 360 and PS3, though fly space remains the same.The game features maps set in Paris, Tehran, Sulaymaniyah in Iraq, New York City, Wake Island, Oman, Kuwait City, and other parts of the Persian Gulf. The maps cover urban streets, metropolitan downtown areas, and open landscapes suited to vehicle combat. Battlefield 3 introduces the "Battlelog"; a free cross-platform social service with built-in text messaging, voice communications, game statistics, and the ability to join games that friends are already playing.
Cooperative
A demo featuring the new co-op mode was featured at Gamescom 2011. Split screen is not available. Battlefield 3s new Battlelog social network, DICE noted, would be tied to all co-op matches, allowing players to try to beat friends' scores and to track their performance. Participating in co-op mode allows the player to collect points that unlock additional content that can be used in multiplayer.Multiplayer
Battlefield 3s multiplayer matches see players take on one of four roles: Assault, Support, Engineer and Recon. The Assault class focuses on assault rifles and healing teammates. The Support class focuses on light machine guns and supplying ammunition. The Engineer class focuses on supporting and destroying vehicles. The Recon class focuses on sniping and spotting enemies. The mechanics of the weapons have been changed to utilize the new engine: compatible weapons may have bipods attached which can then be deployed when in the prone position or near suitable scenery, and provide a significant boost to accuracy and recoil reduction. Suppressive fire from weapons blurs the vision and reduces the accuracy of those under fire, as well as health regeneration. The Recon class can put a radio beacon anywhere on the map and all squad members will be able to spawn on the location of the beacon.Several game modes are present, including Conquest, Rush, Squad Deathmatch, Squad Rush and for the first time since Battlefield 1942, Team Deathmatch. However, more game modes are available through the purchase of extra downloadable content packs. The PC version of Battlefield 3 is by default launched via a web browser from the Battlelog web site. A server browser is present in console versions of the game.
The servers for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, along with Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline were shut down on November 7, 2024.
Synopsis
In March 2014, U.S. Marine Sergeant Henry Blackburn of the 1st Recon Marines is deployed to Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan with his fellow squadmates Private First Class Jack Chaffin, Lance Corporals David Montes and Christian Matkovic, Staff Sergeant Steve Campo, and Captain Quinton Cole, under the squad callsign Misfit 1-3. While on a mission to defuse an IED, Chaffin is wounded in an ambush by the People's Liberation and Resistance, an Iranian paramilitary group, moments before an earthquake devastates the city, though the squad successfully manages to escape. The next day, the PLR stages a coup d'etat in Iran, causing the United States to launch an invasion.In October, after the U.S. Navy conducts an airstrike on Mehrabad Airport, Misfit is deployed into Tehran to perform battle damage assessment and apprehend the leader of the PLR, Faruk Al-Bashir. While investigating an underground bank vault in the target's suspected location, the squad learns that the PLR has acquired Russian suitcase nukes, with two of the three devices missing. Being overrun, Misfit requests backup from an M1 Abrams column, callsign Anvil 3 of the 1st Tank Battalion, including Sergeant Jonathan Miller. Miller facilitates Misfit's helicopter extraction, but his tank is disabled and overrun while the crew awaits the arrival of a Quick Reaction Force. Knocked out and taken prisoner, Miller is executed by Al-Bashir and a mysterious individual named Solomon, with the event being filmed and posted on the Internet.
In November, Misfit manages to capture Al-Bashir, who is fatally wounded when they cause his escape vehicle to crash. In his dying moments, Al-Bashir reveals Solomon's plan is to detonate the nukes in Paris and New York City. From Al-Bashir's cellphone, Misfit gets a lead on Russian arms dealer Amir Kaffarov, who was working with Solomon and Al-Bashir. They attempt to capture Kaffarov from his villa in northern Iran, but come into contact with a Russian paratrooper battalion, also after Kaffarov, and are forced to engage them. In the ensuing chaos, Campo and Matkovic are killed in an enemy strafing run. Meanwhile, a Spetsnaz GRU squad led by Dimitri "Dima" Mayakovsky assaults Kaffarov's villa. Kaffarov tries to bribe the squad but is beaten by Dima. Blackburn arrives at the villa and finds Dima with a deceased Kaffarov. Dima reveals Solomon's plot to Blackburn and requests his cooperation to prevent "a war between nations." Meanwhile, Cole arrives on the scene and Blackburn is forced to shoot him before he can kill Dima, resulting in Blackburn's arrest and interrogation by the CIA in Hunters Point, Queens.
During Blackburn's captivity, Dima's squad attempts, but fails to stop the attack on Paris, and the nuke detonates, killing 80,000 people. Meanwhile, the CIA do not believe Blackburn's story since Solomon is a CIA asset, and there is no concrete proof of his involvement in the terrorist attacks. They instead believe that Russia is responsible for the attacks and that Dima has tricked Blackburn. After Montes is also brought into interrogation, he and Blackburn break out of captivity to stop the attack in New York. Evading police, Blackburn manages to sneak into a hijacked Long Island Rail Road train full of Solomon's men and explosive charges. He fights his way to the front car, where Solomon ambushes him. In the melee, Blackburn gains the upper hand by activating the detonator to the charges, causing the train to crash. Blackburn pursues Solomon through the sewers and up to street level. Having obtained a vehicle, Montes picks up Blackburn and engages Solomon and the PLR in a brief vehicular chase, ending with both cars crashing in Times Square. As a bewildered crowd watches on, Solomon shoots Montes. Still, Blackburn manages to kill Solomon by bludgeoning him to death with a brick in the ensuing brawl and prevents the nuclear bomb from detonating.
The epilogue reveals that Dima survived the Paris detonation, albeit suffering from radiation poisoning. He writes about the efforts of both himself and Blackburn to stop Solomon's plan "to set fire to the world." A knock comes from his door and Dima gets up to presumably defend himself.
Development
Battlefield 3s lead platform was originally the PC until it was switched to consoles midway through development. The Xbox 360 version of Battlefield 3 is shipped on two discs due to the disc size limit; however, the PS3 version ships on one Blu-ray Disc. It is the first game in the series that does not support versions of Windows prior to Windows Vista as the game only supports DirectX 10 and 11. The PC version was exclusive to EA's Origin platform, through which PC users also authenticate when connecting to the game; however the game eventually arrived on Steam in June 2020.Battlefield 3 debuts the new Frostbite 2 engine. This updated Frostbite engine can realistically portray the destruction of buildings and scenery to a greater extent than previous versions. Unlike previous iterations, the new version can also support dense urban areas. Battlefield 3 used a new type of character animation technology called ANT that has been used in EA Sports games such as FIFA, but for Battlefield 3 is adapted to create a more realistic soldier, with the ability to transition into cover and turn the head before the body, as well as "drag fallen comrades into safety and mount weapons on almost any part of the terrain". EA stated that Commander Mode was unlikely to be included, which was met with some criticism on the EA forum.