RE: Battlefield 3
I agree 100%. The graphics look great, the gameplay looks great, and you can FINALLY mount your darn LMG's for more accuracy, like you should be able to! I hope that will cross over to multiplayer, too. It seems like it's not just a run-and-gun shooter. There was the scene in the air vent, defusing a bomb, hand-to-hand combat with an enemy, and of course, tons of shooting.
The sniper video was crazy. It seems like its the most realistic it can be and still keep the game fun. Sniper bullets nearby give a small shockwave, the rocket launcher blew up the whole building. Imagine destructible environments on multiplayer with these kind of graphics. I think it will be amazing.
Call of Duty has to step up their games. The real appeal of Call of Duty isn't really the graphics, but rather they were the first to take a spin on "upgrading" guns for mutiplayer, or were at least the most popular (they may not be the first but I believe they were). People trust Call of Duty to give out an above average game, but what Battlefield 3 has here is not above average. It's spectacular.
The Battlefield 3 creators have said that they are releasing this game in November purposely to face-off with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Honestly, CoD has a bigger fanbase, and I love the two games equally, but I believe that Battlefield has a chance here to steal CoD's fans. That is, if Modern Warfare 3 does not do a huge enhancement to gameplay, graphics, and their campaign, they have no chance.
Unless either game gets horrible reviews (and even then, I don't really trust reviews), I'm going to get both games. But right now with the information revealed and the stunning difference between Battlefield 3 and the rest of the Battlefield games, I believe it will blow away the shooter industry, and like you said, will really increase the expectations and competition, which will hopefully give us customers better games. (really Homefront, really?)
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