Battlefield 3 Review Part 3: Multiplayer

The final part we've all been waiting for: multiplayer.

Multiplayer in Battlefield has always been the highlight of the series, and Battlefield 3 is no exception. Large scale 24-man battles, vehicles, and oodles of guns and attachments make Battlefield 3 the best in the series (so far).

Having 24 people seems like it would be a major issue at first...but the immense size of the maps in BF3 solve that issue with ease. This however, brings the issue of too much space in the map into play, which can and does become an issue from time to time. The PC version fixes this by offering a 64 player option, but unfortunately on the consoles, 24 is the limit; Dice tries to fix this by restraining the maps to a certain size, but I can still say from experience that I do occasionally run out of people to shoot at.

Vehicles always add a different flavor to the battlefield of Battlefield; BF3 has the standard armament of tanks, boats, and helicopters are present, along with jets being brought back. Vehicles can be modified in a way similar to attachments can be added to weapons, with three slots pertaining to separate categories to modify. Vehicles in Battlefield provide a means for either transportation, or more commonly, protection. As a player, vehicles can get VERY annoying when no engineers are present to take them out, leading to a quick ragequit. On the other side, being IN a vehicle gave me a 43 killstreak, so I'll restrain from complaining.

In the previous Battlefield game, Bad Company 2, guns could only be modified with the use of specializations, similar to Call of Duty's perks; this only allowed for one attachment at a time with little customization. In Battlefield 3, each gun can be separately modified with three attachment slots: optics, barrel attachments, and gun modifications (such as extended magazines). The ability to have more that one attachment at a time without using something like Bling/Warlord (Call of Duty perk that allowed multiple attachments on one weapon) made my day when I found about it.