Frontline: The War of 3

Battlefield 3 - Mike Holmes

My war-torn musings come hot on the heels of the release of the first expansion pack for Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand. This hotly anticipated map pack consists of some of the highlights from Battlefield 2 and formed the corner stone of my most recent explorations into the multiplayer element of the game.

First things first, I should point out that I'm pretty new to the whole Battlefield experience. I came to the game with an open mind, but not really knowing what to expect. It didn't take long for it to dawn on me that I was not playing another Call of Duty clone. Battlefield is an altogether different kettle of fish.

I'd spent the first few evenings ploughing through the campaign; I needn't have bothered. What immediately struck me was how different the single player and the multiplayer experiences are from each other. The campaign is rigid, inflexible and tells you exactly what to do, whereas the multiplayer just sends you on your way with a pat on the back, letting you go wherever you want. They really are polar opposites.

For the record; I was playing on the PS3 version of the game, which supports up to 24 players at once (on some modes the PC version can host up to an impressive 64 players at a time). The graphics are good, very good in fact (especially considering the destructible scenery), and the the selection of maps offers a good balance between smaller, more frantic maps, and the large-scale battlefields.

There was a lot of game time to be had on the newly released maps and they impressed. Their considerable size affords players a plethora options. Team players can co-ordinate with ease, whereas lone-wolves have the option to explore, looking for vantage points from which to pick of stragglers. The Gulf of Oman was probably my favourite.

In the weeks previous I had spent my time trying out the original maps, hoping to get a feel for the game. I found the objective based games much harder to get into, but that's because I was still finding my feet. Deathmatch was the main attraction for me; it was a familiar place from which I could develop my game.

The Deathmatch maps tend to be a bit smaller (I particularly liked the maps Seine Crossing and Grand Bazaar), with action often taking place near the middle of the arenas. This suited me down to the ground and towards the end of my adventures I even started to get more kills than deaths (and sometimes I even crept into double figures). Progress indeed.

After spending some time lone-wolfing it on the smaller maps I joined forces with a friend who showed me how Battlefield was supposed to be played. We got onto the bigger battlefields and played objective based games for several hours. I won't lie, I was a bit of a liability whilst I worked out where I was and what I was supposed to be doing - the bigger maps are not ideal for noobs (like me). They are, however, the beating heart of the Battlefield 3 experience.

Two or three games on the bigger maps were enough to convince me of the depth of Battlefield 3. It really is the antithesis of MW3 (with its pokey little arenas and it's indestructible walls); Battlefield is vast, sprawling, tactical affair. On the smaller maps you can get away with doing your own thing, but on the bigger fields of conflict you HAVE to work as a team to succeed; going into them with a lone-wolf mentality and ignoring what your teammates are up to will just get you killed and, most likely, lose your team the game.

I've got a lot of work to do if I'm going to be any good at Battlefield 3 as I've only just scratched the surface (for example - I'm terrible with the vehicles and need to spend some serious time practicing if I'm to master them), but everything I've seen so far has convinced me that putting in the hours would be a worthwhile use of my time.

Read on for reports from the frontline of Modern Warfare 3 and Gears of War 3.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Bengt Lemne

I have never really gotten in to the Modern Warfare online scene so it was a bit of a brutal initiation jumping in to the hot waters of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 a month past release this last couple of days. Sure, I've played the previous campaigns, and spent a bit of time in the multiplayer on occasion, but it's not really my cup of tea to be honest even if I realise the appeal.

Oh well, as you can imagine the Modern Warfare 3 servers are busy. Incredibly busy. Playing this morning on Xbox Live there were 124312 players online and it was easy enough to find good matches.

My first foray was Team Deathmatch on Fallen. With all the maps and play modes available in Modern Warfare 3 it's easy to get a bit lost at first, but with so much on hand you're never feeling bored. I played a bit cautiously, which is not the way to play Modern Warfare I know, but I wanted to get into things and knowing full well my weapons and equipment were a bit lacking I wanted to play it a bit safe. Got a few good kills in, but ultimately died more times. I did manage to pull off a "long shot" with the rocket launcher though, which was nice and my team ended up winning the match. I had a rougher time on the next map, Resistance, but started to feel more comfortable.

And by the third game, a Kill Confimed on Interchange I managed to put a streak together and wound up getting the game winning confirm. Looking at the heat map after the game (Call of Duty: Elite is very nice indeed), I realise the final kill came in the most active area of the map. Another nice incident was when I was almost killed and then I teammate got killed next too me. I dropped down to prone and as the enemy came over to pick up the dogtag I got him, took his tag and denied his kill. Pretty sweet. I was still nowhere near as active as the top players in the match, but it's a start. As interesting as experiencing the game yourself, it is also captivating to see how others are doing, how they move around, where they take up position, and so on. The kill cams provide a bit of insight here, but looking at what team mates are doing is also a good place to start.

More matches would follow, and I think I'm going to keep playing this from time to time, even if it is almost a bit too frantic for my tastes. Playing some of the team modes with a good bunch of people, however, is something that really appeals to me. But before all of that I'll probably be well advised to study up on Call of Duty: Elite.

It's easy to see why other online games are struggling to fill the servers with Modern Warfare 3 to compete with (and Battlefield 3 for that matter). It's quick and easy fun, with an incredibly addictive framework to boot.

Read on for a review of Gears of War 3's online battlefield.

Gears of War 3 - Gillen McAllister

Its definitely quiet, too quiet on Gears of War 3. Online activity logs show the extend of damage both Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield have done to the multiplayer side of Epic's actioner. At one point last night online activity was in the low thousands worldwide.

For the UK, we noted only around 700 hundred souls were warring across Gears 3's various modes, and it took repeated communication with friends to arrange a series of games. All had the same story: Gears had been gathering dust since the initial flurry of activity past launch.

Various other titles might have called everyone away, but after cleaning off the rust - by way of a shambolic workout on Beast trying to clear Wave 1 - the allure of Gears once more set pulses racing.

A jump onto the new maps - by way of the free Versus Booster Map Pack - caused a elongated lull. Be its Xbox Live's latest update or something else in the works, players reported falsified updates claiming they hadn't downloaded the pack when they had, as well as repeated boots out of lobbies, game and even Xbox Live itself.

Play then was sporadic, but we got a feel for some of the new maps - five of which are included in the free download.

Interestingly the vote was taken to keep the game private and buff out the opposing side with bots: the thought process aired over the headset was something along the lines of "we go public we'll get creamed". A notion that dogs these long-running multiplayer titles - if you're not in from launch or don't practice, you're mincemeat online.

Bullet Marsh turned out to be hot favourite, if only for aesthetic and set-peice opportunities. The night-time map, set in and around the muddy marshes surrounding a raised outpost that sat in the map's middle like a cross, was dramatically lit with sheets of lightning shattering the gloom.

Shooting a chugging generator at the outpost would dim light structures set up around camp and allowing the massed Kryll around the camp's outside access - its more a beautifully random one-shot kill affair than having essential tactical use. Due because the affected areas are relatively small and dotted throughout the camp - unless you're big on communication your squad members could be as likely massacred as your opponent's.

Another disconnection saw everyone reconvene back in Horde for one last blast - and it still amazes at how much fun Epic's sloppy and ultra-aggressive mode is. We considered it a last-minute throw-in on release. Instead its become both warm-up and over-excessive finisher for every Gears night.

In conclusion, talk turned to the merits of the Season Pass, and the general consensus was that people would have to get serious about Gears again before the cost was worthwhile. The concerted cooperation to conquer Beast and survive Horde suggests at least people want to get back into regular play sessions.

After a flurry of memorable moments only possible in multiplayer across the span of the night it became obvious that Gears 3 needs to remain on the must-play online list. Whether Season Pass releases will jump-start community spikes like defibrillators remains to be seen: but even if you're not wanting to drop more money, there's still enough good free aspects of Gears to reacquaint you with chainsawing a friend through the chest.