Battlefield 3

Whilst the Call of Duty fans frolic unknowing in their drunken stupor created by playing Modern Warfare 3 other members of the gaming community waste hours battling through much more detailed, much more tactical skirmishes. If you haven't guessed by now, I'm talking about Battlefield 3, the newest game in the battlefield franchise by DICE and EA. Battlefield 3 brings to the table what all Call of Duty games don't but still falls short on several planes. Does this make this interesting and uniquely fresh shooter another item on this years Christmas list, or is it yet another "unique" shooter?

Set in a fictional world of 2014, a war between the US and the People's Liberation and Resistance (PLR), Battlefield 3 contains a campaign which throws you into several locations all over the world. Only taking a few hours to complete (It took me two play sessions of about four hours each) the campaign does fall short of length, yet most FPS aren't known to have massive gameplay time. The story is shown in a series of flashbacks while you're being interrogated. Sound like Black Ops to you? That's what I thought too. Moving on, the interrogators are interested in your connection to nuclear weapons which the story is centered around. The ending if fairly climactic, though it seems almost a perfect place for a sequel. Most of the weapons in the multiplayer can be found in BF3's singleplayer. Obviously you can't customize any weapons during campaign, but are left to scavenge dead bodies for weapons and ammo. There is no co-op built in with the singleplayer. Co-op is provided in a separate cooperative mode which plants players in missions where they complete objectives and earn weapons to use in standard multiplayer. Battlefield 3's singleplayer is something they fail to ace. It feels a bit cliché and run-of-the-mill, still, it's a time waster, and a damned good one.

Multiplayer brings the epic battle to the massive scale. No game has felt this much like a real war since... Since... I really can't remember. The PC version allows for up to 64 (32 on Consoles) players to wreak havoc with a multitude of drivable vehicles, from jets to helicopters and from tanks to jeeps. There is a progressive level system with unlocks along the way. Four balanced classes help even out the battle, the assault class gains the medic's equipment and the support gets a light MG and ammo. Recons get sniper rifles and equipment to aid in intelligence gathering and spawning. Engineers blow up tanks and repair them, 'nuff said. Battlefield 3's maps are built with architecture in mind. No item is left untouched. The forests in the map, Caspian Border are rich and filled with great choke points as an example. Multiplayer never felt this natural, this good, since Team Fortress 2. Man, those were the good old days.

Battlefield 3 is the best looking game on the market in my educated opinion. Skyrim may have the environment and models down pat, but when a helicopter screams overhead, blocking out the sun while you're sprinting through the jungle, nothing can beat Battlefield 3, yet. The xbox actually doesn't run on the full graphical settings unless you download the HD textures. If you don't download them, this game looks like crap. It's not Battlefield's fault, it's yours. From what I've heard (Don't play on the PS3) the PS3 has the textures downloaded by default. Water textures look nice, the sun glares realistically. Character and vehicles models are sharp and beautiful. Explosions shake your screen and cloud it, making your experience all the more amazing. You can't compare this game to the COD series. The graphics are just too good in BF3, just too... Epic. Just remember, install those HD textures Xboxers.

Many games can have a sound engine. Mostly, that means it's bug free and runs the way it needs to. Battlefield 3 has more bugs than the other big brand shooter on the market today, but to me, it doesn't matter. All I can say is, "Frostbite 2 (drool), Destruction 3.0 (drool)". It's just that good. A new engine, Frostbite 2, the predecessor to Bad Company's engine allows BF3 to take the next flying leap into the gaming world. Destruction 3.0 allows that leap, making Battlefield 3 have a major difference compared to other shooters. Example:
Bob: "Damn! Those campers are sitting in that building the whole match! No one can touch them!"
Joe: "Hmmm... I have this RPG! I'll just make a hole."
(Massive explosion, then gunfire)
Bob: "We showed them noobs! Oh, crap! The building is coming down!"
If you gained the general message from the garbled text above, almost anything in Battlefield 3 may be torn and blown apart. This leads to door camping being useless. C4 gains meaning and jets can actually provide ground support. The Battlefield engine not only provides a support for the gameplay, the graphics but it changes the gameplay itself. Gamers be warned, bugs are plentiful, but it's a fine price to pay for such a great engine.

Overall, Battlefield 3 is far superior than any shooter on the market at this date. That is part of the reason I denies myself the act of reviewing Modern Warfare 3, it's just not different than MW2. Graphics, engine, multiplayer are amazing. Singleplayer, though fun and not missing the, "Oh! Shit!" moments everyone loves, is not that great. Then again, who ever bought a Battlefield game for the singleplayer. PC players be warned, if you're looking for a Steam friendly game, looking away. BF3 is only available as direct download from Origin, EA's new online store.

Overall Score:  9.5

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

 Vast mountains, beautiful rivers and swishing trees? Yep. Skyrim. If you ever read my review of Oblivion which was posted a year or so ago, you'll realize that these sort of games, open world RPGs are my overall favorite. Many people may feel that games of this scape are too large, and don't allow for a good story (What? Really? No.), but I strongly disagree. Now, this game is nothing like the Fable games, or anything like a game of that class. Skyrim has more finesse and is filled with a LOT more epic moments and places. Skyrim also allows you to build your own story, look, everything. Your destiny is yours to control. Want to be a nameless, evil assassin, kill of kings? A gallant warrior rooting out all things evil? Or possibly a sneaky thief with tricks up his sleeves? You can be all that and more.

(My first dragon battle and eventual kill)

 The first thing to realize about Skyrim is that the game is not centered around the main quest. There are what seem like hundreds of side quests and that's not including the random miscellaneous quests that are given by NPCs. If you're not a quest guy, this game still holds miles of terrain for you to explore. The geography switches smoothly, from harsh, snow whipped plains and mountains to open grasslands and forests. Then from the snow and grass to rough hotspring landscape that is bleak and barren. No matter where you travel, the amazing graphics draw you to some new place. I found myself on an important quest when I saw a random windmill. The next thing I knew, I was miles away and battling for my life against some evil bandits. How I got there and where six hours went, I don't know.

Things have been fairly evened out from previous games. I no longer am struggling against seemingly weak enemies at the highest level, as in Oblivion. Skyrim does scale some foes to your level, but others are capped at different points (Ex. You're level 49, enemy is 30.). The scaling did lead to me falling dead many times with giants at a low level. They instantly scale to a super high level and I do believe they stay there (Pro Tip: Don't mess with a sleeping giant. Unless you are above level 20.) 

  The combat has been upgraded to a more realistic and useful setup. You may now dual wield swords (Oh. Yeah. Awesome.), or mix it up, with a spell in one hand and a sword in the other. Any combo works well and in battle, seems right. Sure, it still feels like you're swinging a Nerf sword, but the magic system is much better. Dual weilding spells makes you feel like a Badass. Archery feels the same, but a bit smoother overall. Back to the swords, they do feel like Nerf swords. Hitting enemies doesn't really stagger then and in real life, blood would be EVERYWHERE. Still, the kill animation added to Skyrim do hold up for this flaw, making you forget the sad battle beforehand as you skewer your enemy. 

 Skyrim's engine seems to be holding up well for such a big game. I haven't found any game breaking flaws, except for the one quest... Where the quest item literally fell through the floor. With to way to get it back, the quest is forever in my quest log. The NPC's haven't crashed on me, the game hasn't made enemies disappear. My items haven't gone missing, but my face has... The Arch-mages robes and masks don't mix. Bugs wise, I haven't seen much. The new 1.2 patch did add reverse flying dragons, which was an obvious bug, but I have full satisfaction that this will be fixed within the near future.

 The game's story (Main, side, lore, everything) is fully fleshed out. There are no inconsistencies that I have seen. The plots are scripted with beauty and the lore written with love. If you are even wanting to know more about the Elder Scrolls universe, you can dive into the mounds of in-game books! The only problem with the storyline, was that all of the faction quests seemed to be very short. The dark brotherhood left me with loneliness. *SPOILER* The entire guild died. Except for two people, leaving me to be leader of a small shadow of the real brotherhood. Happy? Nope. Oblivion's ending was much better. At least I had a much cooler base of operations there. The mages guild also looked to be really short. I found it strange that a newcomer to the guild stepped up to be the Arch-mage just after being with the guild for a short while. There were other, more high ranking people there. I didn't really do anything that epic either, just kill some Thalmor dude and avert some unknown danger... The most promising storyline was actually not the main, which is extremely short (At least in the time I played.). The best, seems to be the thieves storyline. It has a totally unexpected traitor, where as in the brotherhood's case I had a feeling that someone would rebel.

Overall, Skyrim is a exceptional game. It blends the deep experience of a... For the lack of a better word, a simulator and the levels and content of an RPG into one sweet, soft, cute, fierce and powerful package. This is probably MY game of the year. Yeah. I just went there and it's not even the end of December. Skyrim is worth it's price, for all the time I've put in it, I've at least doubled what I usually play with a game.
 Overall Score: 10.0
For more awesome Skyrim screenshots directly from me, go here!