Battlefield 3: Where Next Gen doesn't mean consoles

[TronFAQ]

I'm not a fan of military shooters, especially since there are so many of them. They're all copying and ripping each other off in a bid to see who can sell the most copies to the frat boy demographic.

But damn, does Battlefield 3 ever look good. DICE just released a trailer for it a day or two ago. PC is the lead platform (*shock*) and the game uses DirectX 11 only on the PC. No DirectX 9 support. This also means no Windows XP support.

You can download a 1080p trailer for it from here:
http://www.gamersyde.com/download_battl ... 47_en.html

B3 is also being released on the 360 and PS3, but for them it is NOT going to look as good as it does in the trailer. Not by a longshot. I've heard the trailer was recorded on a quad core PC using a 5000 series ATI DX11 card.

The lighting and the animations in this trailer are just gobsmacking. Those have to be the most realistic movement animations I've ever seen in a video game.

I've already seen a number of discussions where people who game on consoles now want to buy a PC to play this. . Welcome to the real "next gen", folks. The current consoles have been holding back PC game development for years. Finally, a developer decided to go for it and make a big budget game with the PC as the lead platform. With the game being downscaled for consoles. Instead of the other way around.

This announcement and trailer for Battlefield 3 has made the situation with Crytek and Crysis 2 look absolutely embarrassing. In case you haven't heard, the graphics in Crysis 2 will be inferior to the original Crysis on the PC - at least for now. It's gone the route of being just another crappy console port. Crytek will patch the PC version of Crysis 2 "later" to turn it into the game it was originally promised to be.

[Avi]

I've been playing Bad Company 2 lately, and I must say that it destroys every other military shooter I have ever played. I decided that I would just stick with BC2 for as long as the servers are populated since I'm familiar with the maps, weapons, etc., and my rank is steadily climbing by the day.

HOWEVER...

That damn Battlefield 3 looks so good that I'm about to abandon my post in BC2. Now that I have a system that can handle any game with the graphics at their highest setting, those BF3 trailers are making me drool. The environments in BC2 are destructible (buildings, trees, ground, etc), but they look way more incredible in BF3. I'm pretty sure people will be suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome in a few years after playing it. That's how good it looks.

If anyone plans on getting it anytime soon, check out Best Buy and Target for the Limited Edition version. It's the same price as the regular game, but includes an activation code for the Back To Karkand expansion pack (saving you $15.00 later on).

[Daddyo]

I've a gift card for Best Buy that I've been holding onto for a while for this game. But no new PC for a long time since the wife's laptop took priority...

BTW the Battlefield series was the originator of this level of online simulation gameplay & depth as far as I know, originating from Kesmai viewtopic.php?f=18&t=872&p=10378&hilit=kelton#p8284

[Avi]

Give me the gift card and I'll hold it until you get a new PC. When you're ready for it back, you can find me in any of the thousands of BF3 servers.

That's an interesting article. It sucks to know that I was missing out on some multiplayer action in the early 90's.