Fire Alarm Companies

We try to make the Battlefield, the co-op, team death match and 64-player modes Conquest - here 's what we discovered

Last week on the Gamescom Festival in Cologne, I got my first real hands-on time with Battlefield 3 A 5 minute blast provided by the Metro operating level during E3 a quick look, but EA has a 64-player PC and a PS3-level co-op stage in Germany, to judge a great opportunity, the game 's area - before especially after playing Modern Warfare 3 's exciting survival mode.

In order to demonstrate the newly announced two-player co-op missions, a plane was running called EA Dice exfiltration. Set in a seedy corner of Tehran's, the rescue mission, a defector known as El Zakir PLR of a gated community. Our demonstration has one player on the assault role, while the other goes Recon, with a silenced pistol and rifle scope.

The action starts with the duo crawling through the lower floors of the block, while the completion of a small group of guards, but also the shooting down of surveillance cameras. When the alarm sounds, troops swarm in the manufacture of the rescue campaign much more difficult. Once we pack up our man, it 's back on the road in order to load it into a Humvee. Then we have to scout before, give the dark road of clearing hostile troops to a safe escape route.

It 's an okay co-op experience. The various weapons and item sets entice the players to work together effectively, rather than running and gunning just next to each other. In the last section of the Recon character be able to pick off the enemies on elevated terraces and in the upper windows, while the attack guy clearing the road heads down the lower level. The earlier stealth sections are rather disappointing, though, the little interaction in the way of planning or tactical. I wish we 'd seen more diverse, more open collaborative mission, but as a taster, it was interesting.

Spawning in the Caspian Border 64-player map, the first things that you have made sheer size and detail. Around our airport, there are acres of rolling meadows, sloping down towards a meandering river. On the other hand, in the distance, there is flimsy wood and concrete buildings dotted about. A single song in a zigzag in the direction of a bridge at the base of the valley. There is no sign of enemy activity, but only one shows the HUD map "the four capture points. For a few seconds, the eerie silence is broken as a helicopter zooms over, including to accelerate the blackened rocket contrails.

A short drive later, tank and we 'in the middle of a skirmish re around the wreckage of a military outpost. Heading up on the roof surrounding the crackle of shots I can see through the trees I smoke plume from a different point of capture. Picking out enemy troops amidst the shrubs and concrete blocks is tough, the Frost Bite 2 engine was used to create an environment with lush, but naturalistic detail - lonely soldier slightly harmoniously in the plant world. Meanwhile, the identification of the troops is to be subtle and easily overlooked, so early on, every encounter is a millisecond of confusion - usually for me, it ends badly.

It is tense, exciting things, and there is no room for lone run-and gun-nut jobs. There are four classes for opt - Assault, Engineer, Recon and Support - are each provided with a vast array of weapons and objects chosen by a simply beautiful smart phone user interface in the style of the beginning of the session. You will all be important components of a successful team. I can see, Recon on key team player, spotting enemies and marking, so that they re 'clearly below the leaves. The support people are also valuable in bigger battles, with light machine guns set fire suppression, that the screens to go near the opposing players causes blurred. Tactical play is in the DNA of the Battlefield series, but it is an absolute priority here.

There are breathtaking moments. Tank Battles under collapsed buildings and looked up to see while on a sniper mission dog fighter jets zoom way over his head. The soldiers, snipers on the rooftops, the helicopters, the Jets, and a number of interacting cross subject What does Battlefield 3, the three-dimensionality of the war zone should be emphasized. On a high-end PC, the detail and fluidity is breathtaking.

But still it is not over powering. The feeling of space means there are long periods between hectic face-offs. "We have the subtlety of the Swedish mentality, focusing on the right things - it 's not a complete sensory overload," says producer Patrick Liu. "With Call of Duty 3, we 've on creating the most authentic concentrated, most physical, experience' ve ever been in a first-person shooter. You are in the body of the soldier. But at the same time, it must be played - it 's not realistic in some ways, not just ... "

And this is an important point. It 's funny to know in writing about war games at the moment, what' s going on in the world, especially now, in Libya. It's disturbing to notions such as \ use 'authenticity' in relation to a game where the parallels are limited with brutal reality for equipment, facilities and noise. But it feels a lot more, as if the inspiration behind Battlefield documentary realism has been held Hollywood melodrama. In tone and ambition, Battlefield 3 is the generation of Duty Kill 's Inglourious Basterds call.

The key lies in the audio. The echoes of distant shots, the metallic ringing noise of our own assault rifle. Everything sounds as if it is generated in a true 3D environment. The award-winning sound team Dice was using a technique such as high dynamic range audio, the sound effects mix in real time for each player, making them the important things rather than a flood of sounds all on the same known amplitude hear. (It 'sa good slide show of the GDC lecture on the topic are here.)

"In reality, you don 't hear all the sounds in your environment - your brain is looking for a certain amount of sound for what it thinks are important," says Liu. "That '. S, what is HDR-Audio There are signs that people are talking, shots ... but generally, what really matters is the fact that you' re being hit by bullets, and If that happens, has a higher priority than all other noise! ??"

The sound team also has restructured the audio effects for different environments. Each weapon has a range of samples, depending on where it 's is used, so that they fire in a forest is to fire strongly opposed it in a subway station, while a Claymore sounds on a dirt surface other than concrete . It 's not a big gameplay feature, but it adds to the sense of detail and - again that word - authenticity.

EA Dice in a familiar form called upon to help with this aspect of the game. Andy McNabb, the ex-SAS author of Bravo Two Zero, has advised on both the campaign and multiplayer elements. "He's a few things brought to the table," says Devin Bennett, EA Games. "The way to talk to soldiers was one of them. You 're always very positive" We will do this', 'we will meet here' as opposed to "We 're going \ try '... the banter at the beginning of the tank level, we have shown at E3 was all Andy And it' s how they personalize their tanks -.. these things are her home "McNabb also contributed greatly to the appearance of Thunder Road tank level, EA and Dice with photos of military outposts, he spotted 'd, while on a mission to Iraq MOD-Iranian border. These buildings are now in play.

"Oh, and the others what he is told that weapons are never clean," says Bennett. "You see all these military games with shiny weapons ... he said you have to be dirty and beaten up because they are in real life. You 've been through."

On the last day on the Gamescom, I managed to sneak in EA 's Community Lounge with writers from FHM and The Sunday Mirror. Ill-advisedly, we gatecrashed a team deathmatch session is for winners of the ESL Battlefield tournament. This was a very hectic experience, a tight urban face-off in the Metro service map. There are space battles in the courtyard cafes, there are snipers in the windows of the glorious Parisian terraces, large chunks of plaster blown from historic buildings. But it still feels more than Modern Warfare measured.

Here, I think it's down to the intricacies of the map design. In CoD, the arenas are designed for movement and insecurity - every cubbyhole has two entrances, every building is a route. From what I've seen, it's possible to bed down in Battlefield 3 - although campers are easily spotted, and the armoury range is there to flush them out. Yet still, it's the Sense of space and time is different.

So far, I had 've only the slightest taste of these online experiences. I 've yet to see how car-customization works or how the classes in a position to take advantage of the myriad of equipment options. It will be interesting to see how to create Battlelog functions to an online social gaming experience (and how to compare it with CoD: Elite). I also flew haven 't one jet. Want but what I have found is a cutting edge new interpretation of what made Battlefield 1942 compulsive so enormously enjoyable and all the years playing great, detailed maps of tactical depth and ability as you, in an environment that offers many possibilities. It's Battlefield.

Battlefield 3 is on 28 October for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 releases.