Video Game Vintage Title: Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3

"Battlefield 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts. It is a direct sequel to 2005's Battlefield 2, and the eleventh installment in the Battlefield franchise.

The game was released in North America on 25 October 2011 and in Europe on 28 October 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. EA Mobile also confirmed a port for the iOS platform. The game sold 5 million copies in its first week of release, and received critical acclaim from most game reviewers. It is the first game in the series that does not support versions of Windows prior to Windows Vista as the game only supports DirectX 10 and 11. The PC version is exclusive to EA's Origin platform, through which PC users also authenticate when connecting to the game. The game's sequel, Battlefield 4, is expected to be released in fall of 2013.

In Battlefield 3's campaign, players take on the personas of several military roles: a U.S. Marine, an F18 weapons system officer, an M1A2 Abrams tank operator, and a Spetsnaz GRU operative. The campaign takes place in various locations, including Iran to New York City; and follows the stories of Sergeant Henry Blackburn and Dimitri Mayakovsky."

Battlefield 3 Plot

"The game's campaign takes place in the year 2014. Most missions occur as flashbacks on part of the interrogation of Staff Sergeant Henry Blackburn, and do not occur in order of events. Chronologically, the Campaign begins in medias res, following an unidentified man with handcuffs on the run in New York City. Evading police, the man manages to break into a hijacked subway train, full of terrorists and explosive charges. He works his way to the front car, where he is ambushed by Solomon, the man behind the attack.

About eight months prior to these events, Sgt. Blackburn's five-man squad attempted to find and safely return a US squad investigating a possible improvised explosive device in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, whose last known position was a market controlled by the PLR (People's Liberation & Resistance), an Iranian paramilitary insurgent group. They find the missing squad, which had been ambushed by the PLR; but before they can escape the city, a massive earthquake wrecks the city. Blackburn, fellow squadmate Montes, and other survivors fight their way out of the ruins of the city. On the same day, the PLR stage a coup in Iran, and the US subsequently invades. Lt. Hawkins takes part in a raid on enemy fighters over Iran and an air strike over Mehrabad Airport. In the aftermath of the air strikes, Blackburn and his squad are sent into Tehran to perform battle damage assessment and apprehend the leader of the PLR, Faruk Al-Bashir. While investigating an underground bank vault in the target's suspected location, Blackburn and his team learn that the PLR have acquired Russian portable nuclear devices, and that two of the three devices are missing. Being overrun, the unit requests backup from an M1 Abrams column led by Sergeant Miller. Miller facilitates Blackburn's helicopter extraction, but is captured when waiting for the arrival of the Quick Reaction Force. Miller is promptly executed by Solomon and Al-Bashir, with the event being filmed.

Later, Blackburn and his squad manage to capture a fatally-wounded Al-Bashir, who realizes Solomon betrayed him and reveals his plot to detonate the nukes in Paris and New York, before succumbing to his wounds.

Blackburn's team gets a lead on arms dealer Amir Kaffarov, who was working with Solomon and Al-Bashir. They attempt to capture Kaffarov from his villa on coast of the Caspian Sea, near the Azerbaijani border. However, they run into a Russian paratrooper battalion, also after Kaffarov, who engage them with airdropped BMP-2s, with Su-25s providing close air support. In the ensuing chaos, two of Blackburn's squadmates are killed. Meanwhile, a Spetsnaz team led by Dima assaults Kaffarov's villa. Kaffarov tries to bribe his way out, but Dima interrogates him nonetheless. Blackburn arrives at the villa and finds Dima and an unconscious Kaffarov. Dima reveals Solomon's plot to Blackburn and requests his cooperation to prevent a war between their nations. Meanwhile Blackburn's commanding officer Cole arrives, and Blackburn is forced to shoot his superior before he can kill Dima. Due to his actions, Blackburn is brought to New York City and interrogated by CIA agents, to whom he explains all of his previous operations in flashbacks. During Blackburn's captivity, Dima's Spetsnaz squad attempts to stop the attack in Paris. Dima is unsuccessful; one teammate dies, and he and another teammate suffer the effects of the nuclear detonation. The CIA agents do not believe Blackburn's story, since Solomon is a CIA informant and there is no concrete proof of his involvement in the terrorist attacks. They instead believe that Russia is responsible for the attacks, and that Dima has tricked Blackburn.

With no other options, Blackburn and surviving squad member Montes break out of captivity to stop the attack in New York. The events of the introductory mission play over again, revealing Blackburn as the man with handcuffs and the terrorists as members of the PLR. When ambushed by Solomon, Blackburn gains the upper hand by obtaining and activating the detonater, causing the train to crash. Blackburn pursues Solomon through the sewers, before climbing up to street level. Montes, having obtained a police car, picks up Blackburn and engages Solomon and the PLR in a brief vehicular chase, which ends with both cars crashing in Times Square. As a bewildered crowd watches on, Montes is shot by Solomon, but Blackburn manages to knock Solomon out in the ensuing brawl and recovers the nuclear bomb.

In the epilogue, the player learns that Dima had survived the Paris detonation, albeit suffering radiation poisoning from the blast. He writes about the efforts of both him and Blackburn to stop Solomon's plan "to set fire to the world". As he finishes, he examines a pistol, and seems to point it towards his head. A knock comes from his door, the screen cuts to black, and the last sound is that of the pistol being loaded."

Battlefield 3 Gameplay

"Battlefield 3 features the combined arms battles across single-player, co-operative and multiplayer modes. It reintroduces several elements absent from the Bad Company games, including fighter jets, the prone position and 64-player battles on PC. To accommodate the lower player count on consoles, the ground area is limited for Xbox 360 and PS3, though fly space remains the same.

During an interview with Game Informer, EA stated that Commander Mode is unlikely to be included, which was met with some criticism on the EA forum. The game features maps set in Paris, Tehran (as well as other locations in Iran), Sulaymaniyah, New York, Wake Island, Oman, Kuwait and other parts of the Persian Gulf. The maps cover urban streets, metropolitan downtown areas, and open landscapes suited to vehicle combat. Battlefield 3 introduces the "Battlelog"; a free cross-platform social service with built-in text messaging, voice communications, game statistics, and the ability to join games that friends are already playing (though both players need to be on the same platform)."