The last time I played Battlefield 3 on the PS3, it had some problems. But that was the game’s co-op mode! The game’s singleplayer code is looking a lot healthier.
The demo available at the Tokyo Game Show is a level we haven’t played before, a singleplayer mission that involves storming an apartment building at night. The structure of the mission is pretty simple: run down a hill, set up a mortar (sadly, you can’t control it), shoot everyone outside the building then shoot everyone inside the building.
Nearly all the issues the PS3’s co-op mode was suffering from at Gamescom, like poor frame rate and major glitches, were absent here, the mission chugging along nicely despite a ton of effects going off and enemies appearing – and dying – where they should instead of flickering in and out of existence.
If you’re expecting this to look like the PC version, or even close to it, you’ll be disappointed. It’s clear the console versions won’t come near the kind of fidelity the PC in 2011 is capable of. But that’s OK, and totally understandable: the PS3 is, after all, 2006 hardware.
What I liked about this mission’s visuals, then, is the decision deveopers DICE took with what they were going to compromise. The PS3 version is jaggy, noticably and unavoidably so, but what it loses in clarity it makes up for with the full range of effects. All the smoke, fire and clouds of dirt that bring the game world to life were there and looking great, and at the end of the day if things have to compromised then that’s the way I’d like it to shake down.
Better a jaggy and exploding world than a clear and sterile one!
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