The engine of my F-35 jump jet fires up as my heads up display alerts me of my status.    Scanning the horizon for bogeys, I hover above the deck of my carrier armed with infrared flares, heavy guns, and laser guided air to ground missiles.  The proximity radar shows me clear skies so I hit the thrusters, shift the engine from hover to flight, and speed off towards Wake Island.  The afterburners glow bright red and orange as my air speed increases.  The cockpit begins to shake slightly from the turbulence.  Over my headset I hear that a tank has taken up position in our Area of Operations (AO) on a hill near the southern command post.  Switching to my guided missiles, my laser designator picks up the tank in the distance and I hear the solid tone notifying me that my target is “locked”.  Firing my missile, I pull up and start to circle around, preparing for another run on the tank.  A moment later I am notified of my missiles impact and its destruction from the message that appears on my TV screen which reads “ENEMY KILLED 150”, followed by “VEHICLE DESTROYED 100”.  I know the guy in the tank is angry now and will be looking for me, probably armed with surface to air missiles.  Suddenly alarms fill my headset as an enemy aircraft riddles my jet with gun fire.  Before I can react, my plane explodes in a ball of fire.  It is just another day in the life of a Battlefield 3 veteran.

                Released by video game developer Dice in the second half of 2011, Battlefield 3 sold for the normal retail price of $59.99.  With the genre of First Person Shooters (FPS) and Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) growing and dominating the game market, the war for the top spot has always been contended for by the Battlefield franchise.  It had been almost two years since the release of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and in that time, not only did had Call of Duty franchise (Battlefields main competitor) released a new game to compete with previous Battlefield releases, but a completely new game in the franchise as well.  The void left by the missing Battlefield release was quickly filled by one of the PlayStation’s first ever fps franchises, Medal of Honor.  After a ten year absence, Medal of Honor returned and released its first ever FPS-MMO.  Maybe it was good that Dice decided to take that year off.  But then the announcement was made that near the end of September, Dice would be releasing Battlefield 3.  The top of the chart was about to be shaken up just a bit.

As you start the game disk, you are greeted by the familiar handprint logo of the Frostbite 2 engine, a more powerful update to the amazing Frostbite engine used in their last full length release, Battlefield: Bad Company 2.  Pressing start at the title screen takes you to the main menu where your gameplay choices include the single player campaign, online multiplayer matches, and co-op missions.  You also have selections for “My Soldier” (where you can customize your online avatars image, weapons, and dog-tags), game options, extras, and access to the “Store” for downloadable content.  Access to game invites and your friends list makes it easy to find any friends who are playing the game with the push of a button.  I found myself spending over an hour just setting up my weapon kits.  There are so many options; I tend to find myself getting lost trying to decide just what I want to use.

                The single player campaign provides three difficulty levels: easy, normal, and hard.  Each provides a challenge for players with no FPS experience to the most hardened veterans.  Opening with a video sequence of New York City, a subway train speeds by rapidly.  You are looking through the eyes of a man running towards a bridge that this train is passing under.  You leap from the bridge to the train and crawl along the top to the next car ahead and crash through the door knocking down a masked gunman as you enter.  Reaching down to pick-up the dropped pistol, you notice handcuffs dangling from your wrist.  You have little time to think about this as you are immediately approached by two more armed assailants.  The sound of the walls of the tunnel rushing by fills the room.  It feels as if you are actually on the train.

                Soon after, you find yourself among your squad, Misfit 1-3, in a Middle East city surrounded by other squads of Marines.  As you run with your squad down an alleyway and into a school, the ground shakes a bit.  The city is feeling the effects of earth tremors during this war.  You emerge from the school to find yourself in the middle of a massive fire fight.  The sun glares in the corner of your eye as you take cover behind a stack of tires.  This is where you begin to see the stunning beauty and visual objects that are made possible by the new Frostbite 2 engine.  All of this is capped off with an amazing and intense sequence of battle combined with a city destroying earthquake.  As if the bullets flying by your head were not enough, now the city is falling down around you.  This all takes place in just the first few minutes of gameplay proving just how much fun and excitement was ahead of me.

                As fun as the single player campaign is, a majority of gamers purchase and play MMO-FPS for the online multiplayer matches.  They prefer to fight in the world wide area against other human players.  This is where Battlefield 3 truly separates itself from its rival Call of Duty.  There are multiple game types, such as conquest, team death match, rush, and others, as well as a number of very large and very detailed maps for combat.  And most of all, there are dozens of different vehicles to destroy your enemy with.  Planes and attack helicopters fill the sky and the ground shakes from the M1 Abrams tank passing by.  Jeeps speed by on dirt roads and boats land on beaches.  Snipers parachute out of transport helicopters onto rooftops and engineers lay land mines to destroy heavy vehicles.  And there are few places on any map where one cannot reach. 

                The ability to use all types of combat vehicles is what separates the Battlefield franchise from its closest competitors.  For some unknown reason, few games have adapted vehicles into their online combat experience, yet Battlefield has always focused on just that.  They were smart enough to make sure all vehicles have very realistic weaknesses as well.  While a tank may be heavily armored and can withstand all gunfire from hand held weapons, an engineer equipped with an rpg or landmines, or even a support soldier packing C-4, can eliminate this monstrous nuisance.  An attack helicopter, while very maneuverable, can be taken down by a surface to air missile or laser guided rockets fired from troopers or vehicles. 

The online gaming experience is how these games are judged and determined to be either good, or a waste of money.  In this reviewer’s opinion, there is a lot more that $60 worth of gameplay to be had.  There continues to be more multiplayer maps and modes added as time passes, increasing the gameplay value.  With the recent release of their Premium Package add-on, there is even more to be had by the serious fan of the series.  Available in early June 2012, the Premium package sold for $49.99 through the PlayStation Network Store and Xbox Live, and allowed subscribers to this service early access (by fourteen days over non-premium users) to all downloadable content and expansion packs, special tactical videos to help improve your gameplay, events such as double xp (experience points) days, and premium exclusive weapons, dog-tags, and assignments to further customize your soldier and separate you from the non-premium players.  All this expands on a wonderful base game, increasing the overall value and entertainment experience for all gamers.

                At the time of Battlefield 3’s release, their main competitor, Treyarch, released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.  This release was not a bad game.  There are a variety of maps, weapons, and game modes and they do have one thing that BF3 does not have.  Zombies!  But unfortunately, for Treyarch, it just is not enough to dethrone Dice.  As fun as shooting zombies can be when in a group of friends, it pales in comparison to the added excitement of flying an F-35 Jump Jet from a carrier or destroying a building with a M1 Abrams Tank.  It is the vehicles that make the difference.  Every FPS out there has guns, bullets, and grenades, but having the ability to parachute from a helicopter and launch Stinger missiles from roof-tops makes this game unique.  It is the chance to dog-fight high over the terrain or to provide support from the heavy gun of a transport chopper that sets BF3 above all other games.  Now if you will excuse me, my squad and I are about to assault Wake Island.