More liek Medal of Bad Company 3 amirite *trollface* ... Sorry about that.

Xbox 360

So the story goes like this, I see that the beta is live and set my 360 and PC to download it, and since the PC was downloading painfully slow, this is where I went first. And boy was I not happy with what I was seeing. I understand that this is a beta and not representable of the final product. But holy shi-

Maybe it is just me, but does the game overall look worse than Bad Company 2 did on the 360? The textures are muddy and low-res, but it will improve... Right? Also I saw quite a few, no actually a lot, of graphical bugs in the around 2 hours I played on the 360, but it's a beta, that will most likely be gone by launch, so I won't fault DICE for anything here.

So visuals aside, the game plays a lot like a mix between (the arguably not-so-great) Medal of Honor and Bad Company 2, but I feel it sways too much in the direction of Medal of Honor, and you usually run into a situation of who saw who first or who shot first, which is realistic I suppose, but it can lead to some frustrating gameplay.

Sound are (as per-usual by DICE) great, albeit the games have a tendency to get a tad quiet, especially on the first area of Operation Metro, but that was an issue that persisted over to PC.

PC

First of all, graphics! And how I really like them when they are good, I am no graphics whore but I like when my games are pretty. My laptop are fairly powerful and running the game with a few settings on Ultra, the rest on High(er?) and a little lower AA, gives both a smooth and beautiful experience.

And then the sound... Man, the sound is so good, and even through my cheap-ass headphones it sounded even better on the PC than it did on my decent sound setup to the 360. So I don't know whether I am running a crappy sound setup or the sound just is better on PC.

Gameplay overall feels better on the PC, and I got a more responsive and smoother gameplay experience on the PC I felt, so I have no doubts which version of the game I am getting.

Jets! & Caspian Border

People are going crazy over jets! and over the Caspian Border map, claiming that this is the true Battlefield experience! And shoo! go away stupid little close-quarters, Rush-oriented Operation Metro! Shoo!

But then again people are crazy. Or maybe it is just me?

I got into a Caspian Border map after a few tries and played some matches in it's full 64 player... glory?

Parts of it was glorious and parts of it was old-school Battlefield, with you having to hoof it across the map because everyone left you behind in the dust of their tanks, jets and helicopter(s). So I did get in some Mobile AA, Jeep (or whatever it is) and Tank action, and all those feel pretty much like their Bad Company 2 counter-parts, actually they might be the same. Expect that the Machine Gun position in the tank had horrible low sensitivity and with only one overall sensitivity option I could either go with a horribly slow moving turret on a Tank or nausea-inducing (alright that is an exaggeration) too high mouse sensitivity.

Jets Jets Jets Jets! And then there were no more jets. There are only 4 Jets and 2 Helicopters (split evenly between the two teams starting base) to share for 64 players, that means 4 lucky players get to crash jets into the ground and 4 lucky players get to be slow moving helicopters with targets painted on them for AA.

Also unless you are in the air you don't feel at all that the jets are part of the same game as yours, most of the time at least.

So yeah, per-usual Battlefield gameplay on running for 5 minutes dying in 30 seconds and then rinse and repeat, unless you get a vehicle.

Origin

Really EA? I haven't really cared about EA and their Origin/Steam-or-whatever shenanigans. But having to start up Origin on my PC clicking on "Play Battlefield 3" having it opening the browser and choosing to play multiplayer, co-op or Campaign (the last two not in Beta atm!) and when I want to change server, I have to close the Battlefield 3 executable and start it up again when I choose a new game from the browser, it is clunky and slightly annoying.

Medal of Honor, Call of Duty and... dying instantly?

So the FINAL VERDICT is that I don't how to feel about the game, I really like some parts of it and I don't really like other parts at all.

The game feels eerily like Medal of Honor when playing as Infantry and much-alike Bad Company 2 when in vehicles. And the game kinda feels like you die faster than Call of Duty, which some people hate for it's seemingly instant deaths. And now I guess it is in Battlefield 3 too.

FINAL VERDICT *drumroll*: I will buy Battlefield 3 and then I will either love it or don't like it at all. But I just can't tell right now I'm too conflicted about the game...

PONIES!

Sorry... I couldn't find a Battlefield related Pony picture, so this is the next best thing I guess. (I will also get MW3 so it is appropriate!)

THESE BE DANGEROUS WATERS. SPOILERS AHEAD. SERIOUSLY.

Story, characters...

I will applaud Epic for actually adding closure and really making it the final chapter in a trilogy. With the Lambent and Imulsion destroyed and most, if not all, the Locust wiped out. I don't doubt that they will make more Gears games in the future, but they put an end to this story and chapter of the universe.

I was also very happy with most of the character development especially Marcus came across as a much more like-able character than in the first two games. And when Dom sacrificed himself, I thought it was a great moment with the Mad World instrumental and all that, although it didn't really have the impact that I would have wished (and maybe expected).

Adam Fenix plays a major role and the interaction between him and Marcus are alright and he is handled the way I think he should, so I don't know what more to say about that...

As for other characters I was happy with them generally, didn't care much for Jace though, but I really liked Clayton Carmine and I wish that he was with you instead of Jace.

As for the Locust, with both RAAM and Skorge dead, Myrrah is the last leader of the Locust, but she still isn't seen or heard from in most of the game, until the last act or two at least. At first I was kinda disappointed with the way they handled her, but after thinking it over a couple of times, I liked the way Epic represents her in the game. She, and the rest of the Locust, are desperate and on the edge of extinction after all.

Campaign, gameplay...

The campaign is pretty much what you come to expect from a Gears game, except brighter and more colors :P

No, seriously though, the gameplay is nothing super new or exciting, but the additions of some new Locust and the whole Lambent do change up the firefights a bit and is a short breath of fresh air. Also Gunkers and Armored Kantus are tough sons of bitches and are almost mini-bosses.

Talking 'bout bosses, the two previous games had some good and some bad bosses, the third installment continues this Hit-and-Miss pattern, although there are nothing as bad as the disappointing Skorge boss-fight from two, or the straight-up crappy Corpser fight from one.

This time around we even got a GOOD Corpser boss battle!

Horde, Beast and Multiplayer, oh my...

The "new and improved" Horde mode is, well, new and improved and I like it. Building fortifications and turrets while also having to tackle boss waves that can rip through your defenses is a good balance, although I heard (not played it so much yet) that the difficulty is pretty easy for the first 30-40 or so waves and then the last 20-ish waves are alot harder.

Beast mode is fun and it is great to play the Locust, and not just Drones like in multiplayer, and blast away at the humans. Although you are under alot of time pressure and it kinda limits the fooling around that you can do, so that is a little disappointing...

I haven't really touched the multiplayer yet, it seems solid though and I really enjoyed the beta. Might write some words later though...

Disappointments and Shortcomings *angry face* Grrr!

First of all. Epic. Why the hell didn't you make an awesome vehicle sequence, I really really liked the Centaur and Brumak parts of Gears 2 (and the Junker in Gears 1 was alright, but whatever...) and I was excited for another epic sequence like that. But wait, we didn't get one. Instead we got a couple of parts with Silverbacks (which are good, but can't compete with the Centaur or Brumak one bit) a couple of on-rails shooting segments in the back of a truck.

And then there are the horrible Submarine sequence. Boring and disorientating, and I wasn't in danger of dying on Hardcore even though I didn't know where the enemies came from half the time. Bad, bad on-rails sequence makes me sad :(

And what about the Sires from Gears 2 that whole segment makes no sense and that story never got resolved or even mentioned in Gears 3.

Lastly the Locust Queen, Myrrah, why does she look like a human. And why didn't see die along the Lambent, Adam Fenix and the Locust when the weapon was fired (they didn't name that one did they?). Why Epic, why does she look like a human? Tell me?! I want to know!

Other than that I didn't feel like much story and such wasn't covered and I would recommend it to whoever is interested, because it is a great package and great game overall.

OVER AND OUT... or something...

'sup duders.

Been creeping around Giant Bomb for a good long time now... So I decided to sign up because... Well, because why not.

Ya' know, being more a part of this awesome community and all that... stuff...