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Battlefield 3
Battlefield 3 once again steals the show with an amazing multiplayer video that should convince everyone planning to play on PC to upgrade their rigs.
After years of watching shooters migrate to consoles, PC players may still have the last laugh. During the Electronic Arts press conference at Gamescom in Germany, DICE showed off what console players will be missing with a jaw-dropping tease of 64-player Conquest mode.
A lot has changed since Battlefield 2's 64-player skirmishes – this isn't just a small collection of vehicles and large swathes of soldiers. The Caspian Border level showcased in the video features tanks, jeeps, choppers, remote-controlled drones, and even three jets a side. All told, each team looks to be bringing over a dozen billion dollar vehicles to the war. As expected, the jets aren't going Mach 2 so ground soldiers will have a fighting chance, but they still look formidable and the in-plane HUD looks like it's ripped straight out of Ace Combat. Check out the impressive footage yourself here:
In addition to this impressive teaser, DICE general manager Karl Magnus-Troedsson and EA Games executive vice president Patrick Soderlund jumped into a co-op mission on the PlayStation 3. The mission found the duo trying to locate and secure Hamid El Zakir, a former PLR operative who defected. The team starts on the darkened night streets of an Arab city. They infiltrate a warehouse building and start clearing rooms, using the spotting mechanic introduced in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 multiplayer to mark targets. To keep the blowback to a minimum, the duo counts down and pulls the trigger simultaneously when they spot two enemies grouped together. Before they exit a room and step into a hallway, one of them spots a camera and takes it out before they are noticed.
Moving through more rooms and up staircases carelessly, eventually the duo is spotted by a camera. An alarm sounds, and the team starts moving up a staircase double time, dropping oncomers with a shotgun perfect for close quarters battle. As they mow down any opposition, one excitable soldier keeps yelling annoying taunts like "you like that you f----ers?!" I hope you can turn that crap off.
The find the safe room, dispatch the last of the opposition, and free El Zakir. Now it's time to get him to a Humvee envoy and escort him to the green zone. They guard the VIP without incident and jump into Humvees – too easy. As the envoy rolls around a city corner, however, a massive firefight erupts and one of the soldiers is downed. His partner moves to revive him, and once he's back in action the team moves in tandem down each side of the street, locating enemies using heat vision and clearing the area of hostiles so the Humvees make it to their destination untouched.
DICE says players can compete for high scrores and best times via the new Battleblog community hub, which players can access on PC, consoles, or smartphones.
Look for hands-on impressions of both the 64-player Conquest map and the co-op mission later in the week.
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