At the 2011 E3 expo, EA DICE were offering all that would queue long enough the opportunity to go hands-on with their hugely anticipated shooter Battlefield 3. As part of the coveted “Media” contingent, we would usually enjoy the benefit of skipping past these lines, but on day one of the show things weren’t running to schedule and so great was the popularity of the BF3 demo that we too were resigned to waiting over an hour turn (many of the general attendees would have been in for a much longer wait).

Had it been any other game, I don’t think we would have stuck around -- there’s so much to cover at E3 that spending that kind of time standing still (without a controller in your hand) is an enormous waste of productivity. But it was Battlefield 3, dammit, and there was no way I was leaving this year’s event having missed this first hands-on opportunity and the first look at the game’s most important component -- multiplayer.

When the cordon finally lifted we were ushered into a ready-room and the presentation kicked off with a quick boot-camp session hosted by DICE Product Manager Tommy Rydling. Tommy gave our group of 16 a quick overview of the demo’s content, what to expect and what to look out for.


Battlefield 3 E3 2011 "Operation Metro" Multiplayer Gameplay Trailer
At these events we’ve long become accustomed to demoing these kind of games on console with controllers, which is understandable given the logistical advantages of setting up a few Xbox 360s with wireless controllers versus full gaming PCs with desks to sit down for (the far superior) keyboard and mouse control. So when we finally made it in to the demo room, I was elated to discover that DICE had 16 PC stations waiting for us, all decked out for kb/mouse play and even mic’d headsets.

The game mode on offer today was the familiar Rush, which involves either destroying or defending a series of objectives depending on which side you’re on. The map -- which is showcased in the above multiplayer debut trailer -- was called Operation Metro and as the attacking team (16 meatbags versus 16 AI for 32 players total), our goal was to advance through Paris and destroy the Stock Exchange.

The player classes in the game are the four that appear to have become the franchise standard: Assault, Engineer, Support and Recon. Assault being the frontlines run-and-gunner with the medic equipment; Engineer is the specialist for both repairing and destroying vehicles; Support is the heavy weapons guy and Recon -- love them or hate them -- is the sniper.

Although weapon customisation was unavailable in the demo (due to time constraints), we’re told that BF3 would offer the “most customisation options and weapon modification abilities ever in a Battlefield game”. Each primary weapon will support three attachments which you can customise with the usual optics, silencers, grenade launchers and extended mags etc. For the purpose of the demo however, we were given set loadouts for each class, the most interesting of which was the support class’ bipod weapon-attachment.

With a bipod attached to the light machinegun, the support class obviously enjoys improved stability and accuracy when the gun is deployed with the usual iron-sight manner. Further, not only will it automatically deploy when you go prone, but also when you simply walk near a window sill or a heap of rubble. But there’s more to it than that because BF3 introduces a new core mechanic for heavy gunners -- suppressing fire.



When deployed on a bipod, your shots in the vicinity of an enemy actually induce a new visual effect and physically destabilise them similar to a flash-grenade. The technique seems to work quite well and adds another new element of teamplay that makes covering fire more meaningful.

Getting into the demo itself, I immediately chose assault and charged in to try and absorb as much of the game as possible. It’s hard to overstate how impressive the game looks in person as the environments on display were the most realistic looking that I’ve seen rendered real-time in a game to-date. Of course, this might all be leading to disappointment from console gamers if it doesn’t end up so hot on those five-year-old platforms, but we can only talk about what we’ve seen and that is PC and it is every bit as spectacular as it looks in the trailers.

Incidentally, our team was not victorious against the AI defenders, but if the other players were anything like me, that’s simply because they spent most of their time wandering around in awe and playing with the various weapons and equipment trying to take everything in. That and there was a couple of them whining over the headsets about not being able to play without a controller (I know, how depressing right?).

While we were limited to a single round of Rush, Rydling also confirmed that Battlefield’s staple Conquest mode would obviously be included, and was also happy to announce that Team Deathmatch would be making a triumphant return to the franchise. DICE are clearly gearing to take on the competition on all fronts here and as he explained with a rather thinly-veiled dig at Call of Duty: “taking out those two first stations probably feels pretty good and if you were playing another game from one of our competitors that might have been the whole round. In Battlefield 3, that’s just the start of a longer journey”.

As you can see in the mission overview image, the Rush objectives progress the battle sequentially through four different zones and DICE weren’t kidding when they boasted that each of these sections was large enough to have a self-contained (Call of Duty style) match in. The starting area was a lush Parisian park, followed by an underground skirmish through a war-torn subway tunnel and metro station and after that, up into the streets of urban Paris en-route to the Stock Exchange.



Despite being artificially contained in these areas by the usual “return to the battlefield or die deserter” messages and a few invisible walls, within the areas themselves I was really surprised by the amount of freedom of movement. In other games that feature such aesthetically-rich urban environments, your movements are restricted a lot by cunning level design. A fallen beam here and a pile of rubble there, but in Operation Metro these were largely only employed at the perimeters of each area with full access seemingly enabled to many of the buildings encountered within the battlefield.

Add to this BF3’s phenomenal environment destruction and it makes for an incredibly dynamic experience. Destruction is undoubtedly the game’s trump-card, however in the brief time we had with the game, it was difficult to get a bead on exactly how much of the buildings in Operation Metro could be destroyed. I did witness some entire facades crumbling, exposing the enemy combatants within and the rubble and debris that is littered from each explosion serves to further decorate the already intricately sculpted scenarios.

Vehicles are obviously another massive factor in any Battlefield game and BF3 is no different, however, the Operation Metro scenario is a more infantry-focused map and appears to have been chosen to show off the game’s amazing new city-scapes and keep things simple for the newcomers.

So while the full game boasts everything from helicopters to boats, tanks and even the return of fighter jets, there was only one vehicle on the demo map and with everything else to take in, I only caught one brief ride in it and didn’t get a chance to drive. The LEV25 is a light-armoured infantry vehicle, fits six soldiers and has several mounted weapons. We’re also told that vehicles will be “heavily customisable” but it wasn’t explained how that would function.



Finally, dog tags are also back, offering a little customisable trophy that dynamically updates based on your activity of choice. To make them worth a little more this time around, they can only be stolen from another player by stealth-knifing them in a back.

All told, from this brief moment with the game in my hands, Battlefield 3 feels every bit as impressive as it looks. While it’s very difficult to say whether the single-player campaign will be very worthwhile at this point -- DICE have yet to really prove their worth as serious storytellers and BF3 won't have the comedy elements that kept Bad Company rolling -- but as long as there’s enough map variety out of the box, multiplayer BF3 is looking like a slam dunk.

I can’t wait to see what other scenarios they have in-store for us and to spend some quality time with those vehicles -- now we have three months to make sure our PCs are up to the task.