There has been a lot of loud trumpeting about the superiority of FPS’ this year and it’s easy to see why with so many hitting shelves this holiday season. Battlefield 3 is Electronic Arts’ golden boy entry into the fray who has had much resting on its shoulders. With the addition of single-player and coop campaigns as well as a brand new engine, Frostbyte 2, DICE and EA look to champion the market this holiday season. Does the latest iteration of the Battlefield franchise have what it takes to beat out the best? Or are there crosshairs already focused on this latest FPS?

Battlefield 3 splits itself into three separate experiences, the single player campaign, the coop campaign and the much-touted multiplayer. The single player seats you behind marine Sgt. Blackburn as he’s interrogated for information regarding a possible terrorist threat in New York. Utilizing a series of flashbacks, you play mainly through the eyes of Blackburn but also out of several other varying perspectives. It’s nothing original these days but it does have a lot of parts that are truly engaging, especially when you play in the heat of battle or drive a tank. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, the campaign ends before you know it, especially when it feels like things are just picking up momentum.

More importantly, the short campaign ends up feeling more like a glorified tech demo which, while impressive, feels like it could have been so much more. I was disappointed that there were some moments that felt set up for awesomeness and then didn’t end up paying off, such as an early level where you enter the cockpit of a fighter jet but rather than pilot it you instead sit backseat and focus on firing off flares and shooting down other enemy fighters. In retrospect, it probably gives you more opportunity to view the world that DICE’s Frostbyte 2 engine created but that only adds to the tech demo feeling. Don’t get me wrong: Battlefield 3’s single player campaign is by no means bad but it feels if there was a bit more effort put into it along with a more unique story, it could have been something truly special.

The coop campaign takes select missions from or inspired by the single player mode and adapts them for two players. Missions can vary from defending a specific area to providing air support via helicopter to ground patrols. Overall, coop doesn’t feel forced and it’s nice if you have a friend you can play with but the experience is little more than just that: campaign with a friend. While the coop mode also boasts multiplayer weapon unlocks, it takes a substantial amount of points to do so – so dedication is a must.

Finally we get to the multiplayer which, as far as anyone else is concerned, is the real meat of the game — as it throws no punches. Even on consoles, while maps and player limits have been down-sized, maps feel spacious and combat feels delightfully strategic while retaining the fast-paced action. Maps support up to 12 on 12 with five game modes available at launch: Conquest, Rush, Squad Rush, Squad Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. Conquest acts as a variant of Capture the Flag, whereby teams each have a number of lives and you capture flags to set spawn points across the map. Squad and regular versions of Battlefield’s signature Rush mode sees one team playing the offensive while the other is on defense. Those on the offensive try to capture strategic locations that open up more of the map eventually leading in the capture of the enemy team’s HQ. Squad and Team Deathmatch remain self-explanatory.

Multiplayer loadouts are grouped into four classes: the Assault, the Support, the Engineer and the Recon. The Assault class is now a hybrid of the Assault and Medic classes from Battlefield: Bad Company 2, given a position of killing power but also the ability to deploy medkits and defibrillate dead players back to life. The Support class starts with machine guns, can give out ammo, and is the most effective at a new mechanic called ‘suppressive fire’, which blurs enemy vision and stops their health regeneration when firing in their general direction, even if you don’t hit them. The Engineer class remains largely unchanged from Bad Company 2, can repair vehicles and also take them out with a variety of explosive weaponry. Finally, the Recon class returns as the sniper of the group but now requires players to hold their breath with a click of the thumbstick in order to achieve optimum accuracy.

Each class gains experience as you use them, catering more to players that stick to their style, however your overall rank accumulates with XP you gain from all the classes cumulatively. Individually, as you can imagine, leveling up a specific class gives you access to their specific gadgets like the defibrillator for the Assault class and also gives you access to more of your factions weapons. This allows you to experiment a bit with your styles of play and the weapons you prefer. This meta-system of ranking has become commonplace in multiplayer games but DICE does it well here, rewarding XP for many of the actions you do, like offering suppressing fire or healing teammates. While the top players will still level up fast, this at least means that newer players to the series will still be able to level up at decent pace.

When it comes to presentation, Battlefield 3 is no pushover as the graphics are spot on, bringing a lush variety of colour and light to the warzone that really helps set the atmosphere. I can tell you that even on the console editions, the game looks gorgeous. While it’s easy to see that our modern consoles are showing their age (can I get a bit of anti-aliasing please?), there is something to be said about the way light shines through windows or the resulting smoke and dust from leveling a building. It’s impressive to see a breath of fresh air coming from these machines. Character animations are realistic and detailed during multiplayer and rarely glitch as much as they did in DICE’s beta. Guns each sound and feel unique and the voice work does a good job of selling you the campaign. It begs mentioning how cool the user interface looks, with its glowing blue HUD wrapped around your screen – nothing new, but definitely sleek. All and all, presentation is great here aside from a few texture pop-in hiccups every so often.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

It feels like it’s been a long time coming but Battlefield 3 is finally here. Months of previews detailing the game’s new shiny visuals and multiplayer have not disappointed those who awaited it. DICE’s offering to the FPS market this season is a solid game with fast-paced yet strategic combat and wide-open 12 on 12 player combat. Multiplayer is fun and rewarding with a deep upgrade system that tries to remain accessible to everyone. It is unfortunate that the game stumbles a bit on it’s single-player but there are truly some good moments to be had, and it’s a great way to get a taste of the online action. Be it on console or PC, this is one fight you won’t wanna miss.

MonsterVine Ranking: 4 out of 5

The game hits August 23 in North America, August 26 in Europe.

The game is slated to come out later this year, however no release date has been officially announced yet.

Hopefully the next installment can fix some of these issue, but at the look of this new trailer, this game has beautiful lighting and looks to be as fun as ever. Operation Flashpoint: Red River releases May 24, 2011 on the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Be sure to check out Mortal Kombat when it hits retailers on April 19, 2011.

Brink’s story is set in the future on a floating city known as the Ark. As the world is thrown into chaos, the Ark is the only safe haven for humanity. But tensions between the founders and their descendants and the thousands of refugees that flocked to the city,leads to a civil war on the Ark. Players will be able to choose between either the Security or the Resistance at any point during the game, allowing them to see the war from both sides.

The game features single player, co-op, and multiplayer, blending all three into one seamless experience. No mater what game mode you play on, your character progresses, which allows you to have full control of your playing style no matter if you play against A.I. or other players online. Customization is a big deal in this game, with thousands of combinations in dressing your character, as well as different gun combinations. Players will have the ability to dress both a Security and Resistance player but the character model stays the same, it is only the outfits that players will be able to change. Players can change the size of their character between large, medium, and small. The different sizes allow which guns the character can carry, for example the small characters can only carry a few guns that are light in size, while the large characters can carry all types, but will move slower because of the extra weight they are carrying. I had fun dressing my character even with the small amount of time I had; there is plenty of clothing I had to choose from, like masks that give your character a mysterious look, to a regular tank top , giving my character an agile look. There are also tattoos to place on your character, but just as a warning, once you put a tattoo on, it’s permanent.

The matches are entirely objective based, with one team attacking, and another team tasked with holding off the attackers for as long as they can (matches usually last between five and ten minutes). Each match is presented with a cut scene that tells the story of the Civil War on the Ark. Objectives range anywhere from hacking into a terminal, to guiding a V.I.P to safety.The missions encompass other multiplayer types of matches, like capture the flag or sabotage, but the developers do an interesting job of masking each type of mission in story related scenarios. All the missions are intertwined together, to make one lasting battle, with multiple objectives happening during the match. Each objective requires a different class to complete it. Hacking a terminal requires an Operative, while escorting the V.I.P in one mission I did, incorporates all classes to protect the V.I.P, but requires a Medic to give him health when his health is running low. Players can switch classes to fill out the different roles required for each class. And don’t worry, you just change the role of your characters, not your gun load out, or appearance. The only thing I am worried about with this, is if everyone on the team clamors to be the same class so they can fight to see who gets to do the objective first. It only really requires a few players to fill out the certain roles, while other players must stick to different roles to help out the team.

Gameplay is the same no matter what game mode you play in, which is the focus the developers were going for. “Single player shooters teach a lot of bad habits that gets you killed in multiplayer,” said Richard Ham, Creative Director at Splash Damage. The A.I. is aggressive, pushing you to think tactically, while being quick at the trigger and scrambling to complete objectives.This will setup players for multiplayer matches, which Splash Damage focuses on, but don’t worry, they did not skimp out on the other game modes in favor of multiplayer. It is all one seamless experience. Parkour is a big part of the game play. Players will be able to jump over walls, climb up walls, jump around the environment, and slide across the ground. Sliding turned out to be my favorite thing. I found myself in one situation sliding into cover, or behind an objective, limiting my enemy’s line of sight, and shooting while sliding is very fun, especially when sliding right into an enemy, blowing them away in epic fashion. I did not get a chance to try Brink’s SMART button, which helps in directing you to your objective, and providing routes that offer a lot of parkour movements, but it is not necessary to play through the game. “If you get your timing right, you will be faster than everyone else relying on the SMART button,” said Ham.

Brink has two other game modes that I did not get a chance to play at the hands on demo. They are Free Play and Challenges. Free play allows you to set up your own match. “This is for players who “You know what, I don’t care about cut scenes; I don’t care about story; I just want to play a multiplayer match; I want to have control of the way I want it”,” said Ham. Challenges act as the tutorials in Brink, but is not forced on to the players. “Tutorials for players are like dirty words. So we don’t make you do our tutorials,” said Ham. Weapons and gun attachments are unlocked by doing the challenges, however. There are different difficulties for the challenges, which will serve to improve the player’s abilities. The challenges can also be done in co-op as well.

Overall, Brink will serve well in the first person shooter genre with its focus on objective heavy matches while adding parkour elements that will be sure to bring on some epic moments, but we will have to wait to see how Brink does against other first person shooter juggernauts like Call of Duty. The game is certainly shaping up to be a great experience.

The Gamerator has a built-in tap and refrigerated interior for housing a standard keg of the gamers choice. Two cup holders are included to house the players brew while they play on the 26 inch flat-panel HDTV. All units come standard with dual joystick setups and a trackball system, and an even sweeter edition is that consoles from both past and present, can be hooked up to The Gamerator via optional special adaptors.

85 licensed classic arcade titles come pre-programmed on the Gamerator. Some of the games included are Castlevenia, Street Fighter 2 Champions Edition, Gauntlet, Mortal Kombat, and many more. The cabinet also includes a Windows-Based PC, which allows owners to freely add other games, programs and online access. It’s two base colors include black and brushed metal, however, the Gamerator can be customized with any two-color scheme for an additional charge.

The Gamerator is available at a base price of $3,499. If you would like to learn more about this hybrid of awesome, or would like to order your very own cabinet, visit www.thegamerator.com.

Development teams that were focusing on music intellectual properties for Activision were reportedly hit with layoffs, apparently up to 500. Sources at Eurogamer state that among the studios hit include FreeStyleGames [DJ Hero franchise] and Vicarious Visions [Guitar Hero].

Other properties such as Tony Hawk and further music titles will not be releasing this year. According to Game Informer, the publisher is switching efforts to its three key brands: Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Starcraft. Diablo III was not among those listed.

Dark Souls will be on-par with the difficulty of Demon’s Souls as well as similar thematic elements, however the two are unrelated plot-wise. The game adds a varied selection of weapons and spells and is continuing its online support by adding the ability to leave messages and cooperative, versus online game play modes. Trailer and new screenshots available below.