Far Cry 3 Classic Edition (Xbox One, 2018)

Far Cry 3 Classic Edition
Developed by Ubisoft Montreal
Published by Ubisoft
Released for Xbox One (6/2018)
Also on PC/PS3/PS4/X360

This will be a review strictly discussing the Xbox One port of Far Cry 3, so if you'd like to read the review on the game itself check out the Xbox 360 review here. The Xbox One port is mostly the same game, though there are a few key differences which we'll discuss in this review.

Far Cry 3 Classic Edition was originally included with the Season Pass for Far Cry 5 and was later sold individually as it's own standalone game, being made available four weeks earlier for Season Pass holders. Far Cry 3 Classic Edition contains only the single-player campaign, which means that the multiplayer co-op and PvP modes from the Xbox 360 version have been removed. This also means no map editor, which would be a bit pointless with no online community to share your maps with.

Far Cry 3 was a standout title back when it released in 2012 and while it has aged a bit in the graphics depatrment, the gameplay holds up well. Unfortunately Ubisoft Montreal hasn't done a whole lot here when it comes to graphical improvements, so those expecting a shiny remaster might find themselves a bit disappointed. The visual fidelity has been bumped up a tad,  featuring a higher-resolution and generally sharper textures, though you'll still come across the odd texture that looks like they forgot to upscale. The framerate on the Xbox 360 version of the game was a bit erratic, but with an Xbox One X the game now runs at a steady 30 FPS. While the framerate shoots for 30 FPS and will achieve this on the X model systems, the base and S Xbox One models it will dip below that quite regularly. While I would have loved to see the game run at 60 FPS or at least get more of a visual upgrade, there is still a noticeable improvement from the previous versions available.

While Far Cry 3 Classic Edition is still an enjoyable game, it's a shame that Ubisoft didn't take the time to add some extra polish to this classic. Instead, this port feels a bit rushed and is missing some of the content from the Xbox 360 version of the game. Despite these issues, the game is still a fun time and worth a play if you wish to revisit one of Ubisoft's biggest hits of the previous generation.

Final Verdict: Far Cry 3 Classic Edition performs better than the old Xbox 360 version, but the graphics aren't really that big of a step up and there is some content missing. Despite not being much of a remaster, the game still proves a fun way to kill some time.

Purchase Links:
Buy Far Cry 3 Classic Edition - Microsoft Store
Buy Far Cry Insanity Bundle - Microsoft Store
Buy Far Cry 3 Classic Edition Disc - eBay

Related Links:
Far Cry 3 - Xbox Overview
Ubisoft - Official Site
Ubisoft Montreal - Official Site
Far Cry 3 Classic Edition Console Test - Digital Foundry
Far Cry 3 Classic Edition - Metacritic
Far Cry 3 Classic - GameFAQs
Far Cry 3 Classic - True Achievements
Far Cry 3 Classic Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements

Far Cry 3 (Xbox 360, 2012)

Far Cry 3
Developed by Ubisoft Montreal
Published by Ubisoft
Released for Xbox 360 (12/2012)
Also on PC/PS3/PS4/X1
Backwards Compatible on Xbox One

Four years after Far Cry 2, Ubisoft released the third entry in the series in December 2012. Ubisoft Montreal took the open-ended nature of the second game and went all-out with it this time, dropping the player onto a giant set of islands and letting you explore at your own will. The island is massive and many dangers await, including hostile enemies and a large variety of wild animals. Far Cry 3 received positive reviews back in 2012 from both critics and gamers alike, so let's take a fresh look at the game and see how it holds up after all these years.

Far Cry 3 starts off with the main character, a dude named Jason Brody from Los Angeles, with his friends on vacation in Bangkok. When they decide to partake in some skydiving, the group makes the mistake of landing on a an island with a severe pirate problem. Soon after they are captured and taken prisoner by Vaas, a pirate-lord on the island.

There will be spoilers in the following paragraph, so if you haven't played the game yet you may want to skip to the next paragraph. Far Cry 3 is without a doubt a worthwhile gaming experience, though the game is far from perfect. The main storyline uses the "white man shows up to save the natives" trope that we've seen before in movies like Dances with Wolves or the Last Samurai, and while it works well enough to give you a reason to shoot people it all feels a bit contrived. The main character is a generic "dude bro" guy (though he is from Cali to be fair) and it's quite a stretch to think he's the one carrying out the player's actions. Jason's group of friends that are stuck on the island with him aren't particularly likable either. It's not a game-breaker, but you'll likely find yourself more interested in the villains and side-characters than the main ones, which leads me to feel that the game could have benefited from a silent protagonist. The most interesting of the bad guys, Vaas, who is also the guy featured on the game's cover-art, is taken out about halfway through the game, causing the campaign to lose some steam in the second act, due partly to the fact that repetition starts to settle in but also because Hoyt and Buck (the other 2 villains in the game) are nowhere near as interesting as Vaas. Despite a somewhat cliché story and a non-charismatic hero, Far Cry 3 still manages to throw the player into an interesting world that is a blast to explore.

Far Cry 3 was a great looking game on high-end PCs back when it came out. While the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ports were watered-down in the graphics and performance department, the game still looked good when stacked against others on the respective platforms and delivered a solid open-world experience. The Rook Islands, the setting of the game, makes a good use of bright, vibrant colors in an era where most games were obsessed with using darker palletes. To help the world feel even more alive, there is a day and night cycle and even the occasional rainfall. Far Cry 3 also boasts some impressive fire effects, with an awesome flamethrower that can spread out and cause some serious damage.

In addition to the already mentioned flamethrower, Far Cry 3 features a large variety of weapons to choose from and is quite a step up when compared to earlier entries in the series. There's a nice range of assault rifles, submachine guns, sniper rifles, handguns, machine guns, shotguns, launchers and special weapons to choose from, allowing you to mix up your encounters by switching up your arsenal (since you can only carry a few weapons at a time). This was the first Far Cry title to feature the awesome Vector .45 ACP, an awesome submachine gun with a high rate of fire that has been featured in every game in the series after this one (with the exception of Far Cry Primal of course, which doesn't feature firearms). Special weapons include the flamethrower, flare gun, repair tool (used to fix vehicles) and the recurve bow. Also new to the Far Cry franchise is the weapon customization, which allows you add stuff like extended magazines, suppressors, scopes and even paint jobs. There are also signature versions of select weapons available, which come decked out with accessories and are definitely a step-up from the vanilla version of that gun. Far Cry 3 does a great job providing a wide variety of weaponry to play around with and was a big improvement when compared to the previous games.

One of the coolest features of Far Cry 2 was the inclusion of wildlife and Far Cry 3 brings it back, offering a nice variety of animals you'll come across while exploring the Rook Islands. There's over 20 different types of animals, ranging from boars, cougars, bears, deer to snakes, crocodiles and fish. The more aggressive animals will attack you on sight, so you'll always have to be mindful of them as you move about. The plus side to this is that the animals will also attack any other bystanders, allowing you to easily take out enemies without any direct involvement. Enemy outposts (more on these later) will frequently feature caged animals and it's always fun to release these beasts upon their captors. The animals in Far Cry 3 really add an extra element to the game that help set it apart from your average open-world game of the time.

Most open-world titles have a skill tree of some sort and Far Cry 3 is no exception. There's a large skill tree that will allow you to unlock a bevy of different perks. There are survival perks for improved sprinting, first-aid enhancement, underwater breath control and health boosts. There are weapon perks for stuff like steady aim, holding more ammo and quicker reloads. There's also a nice variety of perks to help with stealth encounters including several new takedowns. The chained takedown is definitely a favorite, allowing you to link your takedowns when there's another guy in close proximity, making quick work out of unaware groups.The perks do a good job adding a sense of progression to the game as you get stronger the more you progress.

Besides the standard campaign missions, there's quite a bit to do while killing time in the Rook Islands. Almost as important as the story missions are the radio towers and outposts. Radio towers are scattered all around the islands and will unlock more of the map for you to see when unlocked. Radio towers must be scaled, which will require some platforming, and once the power box at the top is destroyed another chunk of the map will be unveiled, revealing points of interest and nearby outposts. The outposts are enemy encampments that can be found across the map that will grant you a spot you can fast travel to on the map once you clear them out. Clearing enemy outposts is always some of the best fun in Far Cry titles, allowing you to choose from a variety of tactics to take care of business. If you want to go in guns blazing you can, but I always find it more fun to try and sneak about to clear the outpost undetected. Once a tower or outpost has been cleared, that location will be available to fast travel to from the map menu. There are alarms that can be disabled if your sneaky, but if the enemy sees you and activates the alarm then you'll have to fight against additional reinforcements. While the towers with their platforming aren't really anything special, the outposts are easily a highlight and among the most fun you'll have with the game.

In addition to the outposts and radio towers, there are several other types of side-quests you'll unlock as you clear the outposts. None of these missions are required to complete the game, but they will get you some nice XP and rewards. There are general side missions where you assist the locals, path of the hunter quests, supply drops, trials and wanted dead missions, so there's no shortage of extra stuff to do here. Most of these are just your standard "go here and get or kill this" type of missions, but there's a little variety. Supply drops have you racing on a quad, trying to reach a destination before a time limit runs out. Path of the hunter quests will have you seeking revenge on animals that have killed some of the locals. The side-missions add a decent amount of variety and will grant you some nice XP if you choose to take them on.

The control layout in Far Cry 3 utilizes all of the buttons on the pad, but once you become accommodated it works well enough. The Y button serves two functions, which at first I thought would be problematic. Pressing the button will switch weapons while holding it will heal your character. I warmed up to this rather fast and it really wasn't an issue. The weapon wheel, a common thing in modern shooter games, works good and it's easy to switch up your arsenal on the fly. Aiming and shooting with the weapons feels good, which is of course very important in a shooter. When driving, the game forces a first-person mode which helps a bit with immersion but takes some getting used to. Later on in the game, you'll obtain the wingsuit which allows you to glide around, making traversal much quicker. The controls in Far Cry 3 are solid and it shouldn't take long to get used to the layout, as it's not all that different from your standard first-person shooter.

There are some other negatives to the game besides the already mentioned story/character issues. The missions leading up to the boss fights are fun, but when you actually go head-to-head with them it tends to result in a quick-time event, which was a bit of a let-down to me, though I'm sure some people don't mind or enjoy these. Also, some of the boundaries imposed on you while your on missions feel a bit restrictive, taking away from the open-world aspect of the game. Looting dead enemies can be a pain due to the fact that they drop their weapons on the ground next to their body, making it difficult to select whether you want to loot the body or swap weapons since both actions are assigned to the same button. The fall damage is way too unforgiving, with Jason losing several bars for dropping what feels like a few feet and death coming from falls way too easily. There is a perk you can unlock to help reduce the fall damage, but even after unlocking that I still found the fall damage far too exaggerated. These gripes are all rather minor and aren't enough to stop Far Cry 3 from being an enjoyable experience.

It's also worth noting that Far Cry 3 features a few additional modes, which include a co-op campaign and map editor. The co-op campaign allows for 2-4 players to team up against the pirates. The co-op campaign's story takes place before the vanilla campaign and it involves the featured characters being scammed out of their money while on a cruise ship. The action picks up when the crew decide to attack the pirates that stole from them. The co-op campaign features 6 missions, with an additional 2 that were released exclusively for PlayStation 3 which were obtained through the Ubisoft Club (which would later turn into Uplay). The co-op campaign was a bit rough around the edges but was still fun to play. These days you'll likely have a hard time finding random players and would have to coordinate a session with friends if you wanted to play it. There was also a map editor, which was quite a bit more advanced than what we'd seen in previous entries, allowing you to place enemy AI and wildlife with options for editing the terrain. There was enough to let your imagination let loose a bit, so kudos to the developers for including both the co-op campaign and map editors as nice bonus features.

While the earlier Far Cry games were good, the series really found its stride with Far Cry 3, establishing the formula that every game after it would follow. While the gameplay tasks can be a bit repetitive, the gameplay loop in Far Cry 3 is enjoyable enough that it was always fun to dig back in and continue exploring. The Xbox 360 port really struggles to keep a steady 30 FPS, usually averaging around 25 FPS and dipping even lower when there's a lot of action on-screen. It doesn't make the game un-playable by any means, but if you have a decent PC you can probably get this game running smoother and looking quite a bit nicer than these old console ports. In addition to an inconsistent frame-rate, both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 ports both suffer from screen-tearing, which is quite easy to notice but at the same time many games of this era had the same problem. While not the most optimal way to play Far Cry 3, the Xbox 360 port is still a fun game if you have no alternative way to visit the Rook Islands.

Final Verdict: Far Cry 3 is a fun open-world experience with a colorful tropical environment to explore. There's a lot to do here and while the Xbox 360 port doesn't have the best frame-rate, the game is still a blast.

Purchase Links:
Buy Far Cry 3 (Digtial) on Xbox 360 - Microsoft Store
Buy Far Cry 3 (Disc) on Xbox 360 - eBay
Buy Far Cry 3 Classic (Digital) on Xbox One - Microsoft Store
Buy Far Cry Insanity Bundle (Digital) on Xbox One - Microsoft Store
Buy Far Cry 3 Classic Edition (Disc) on Xbox One - eBay 

Related Links:
Ubisoft Montreal - Official Site
Ubisoft - Official Site
Far Cry 3 - GameFAQs
Far Cry 3 Xbox 360/PS3 Frame-Rate Analysis - Digital Foundry
Far Cry 3 - True Achievements
Far Cry 3 Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements

Black (Xbox, 2006)

Black
Developed by Criterion Games
Published by EA Games
Released for Xbox (2/28/2006)
Also on PS2
Backwards Compatible on Xbox 360/Xbox One

Black was developed by Criterion Games, most known at the time for the Burnout series, and was released in February 2005, a few months after the new Microsoft system the Xbox 360 was released. It seemed like an odd choice for EA Games to put this out for the older system. Regardless, Black serves as a graphical showcase for what the aging Xbox and PlayStation 2 hardware were capable of. Black featured several aspects of the world that were destructible, awesome sound design and impressive particle effects.

Black consists only of a single-player campaign mode which contains 8 missions. There's a decent variety between the stages, featuring a town, asylum, dockyard and bridge to name a few. The levels themselves are detailed for the time and feature an admirable amount of destructible objects in them. Levels are linear but leave a little room for exploration, though the path forward is never really difficult to find. Black's stages have a decent flow to them, but they typically just consist of go to a checkpoint, kill waves of enemies that spawn and then move to next checkpoint to do it again. To be fair, this is the case in most first-person shooters and Black is no exception. While the overall stage design is a tad generic, there are a few standout levels like the bridge and the finale at the gulag as quite memorable.

There's some kind of story to follow along with in Black, but it's a bit convoluted and tough to keep up with. You play as a black ops operative in Chechnya, Russia. The story is revealed in cutscenes before each level, featuring full-motion video showing clips of the interrogation. Our character is a veteran who is being threatened with imprisonment unless he cooperates with the interrogator. There's some stuff about an arms smuggling/terrorist group called the Seventh Wave, which are the guys you'll be killing by the hundreds. While the story is a bit confusing, the cutscenes are well-produced and they don't get in the way of the action.

The weapon selection in Black is quite standard, but Criterion Games did a good job making each weapon feel different and fun to use. For handguns you have the G17 and the DC3 Elite, the only fictional gun in Black that is comparable to a Desert Eagle. For assault rifles, there's the AK47, G36C and M16. The M249 SAW sits as the only light machine gun in the game. Then for sub-machine guns you have the MP5, Uzi and P90. Rounding out the weapons cast are the two specialty guns, the sniper rifle (Walther 2000) and the RPG. You can only carry up to 2 guns at a time so there's a bit of strategy in deciding which weapons work best in certain scenarios, but unfortunately the game chooses which guns you start each level with, so the available arsenal is limited to what the enemies on that particular stage are carrying.

For the most part, the weapons feel good to fire. There's some nice, beefy gunfire sounds and the particle effects and damage when bullets hit surfaces is quite impressive. The recoil is a bit crazy on some of the automatic weapons, but once you get used to burst-firing it's not so bad. I wound up using the MP5 for the majority of the game, because ammo was plentiful due to most soldiers dropping it and the recoil is minimal compared to the other guns in the game. There are definitely situations suited for the shotguns and sniper rifles, providing a bit of variety to the weapons effectiveness. There's an effect where the camera focuses on your gun when you reload and the background blurs out while you insert a new clip. While I'm sure this was impressive at the time, it quickly became a bit annoying and was definitely not necessary. At the very least, an option to toggle the blur off would have been welcome.

Enemy design is not one of Black's strong points, but it gets the job done. You'll face off against countless grunts, most wielding SMGs but some will be equipped with an M249, sniper rifle or rocket launcher. There's the heavily-armored shotgun soldier, who will rush in to get close and will get back up again before dying. There's also riot-shield soldiers who can be a real pain, but can be taken out quick with a frag grenade. Enemies are often content with just ducking in and out of cover, but the shotgun and riot shield guys will close in on your position, adding some intensity to the firefights.

There's a bit of replay value in Black, with multiple difficulties and some unlockable modes. Playing on normal or up will reveal additional objectives for each level that aren't present on easy, similar to how games like Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark did. There's added objectives for the toughest difficulty for a nice boost in challenge. If you clear the game on normal or hard with all objectives completed you will unlock silver weapons, granting you unlimited ammo. Completing the game on hard will also unlock black ops mode for players who want an extra challenge.

Back in its day, Black was a rock-solid FPS game and a technical marvel for the aging consoles it released for. There were many times while playing this I could have easily mistaken the game for an early Xbox 360 title; it really looks that good. The gameplay hasn't aged as well as the graphics, unfortunately, and Black feels a bit more sluggish than your standard FPS. The already slow aiming and movement isn't helped by the fact that there's no sprint button, so movement in general just feels a bit slower when compared against other FPS titles. The cutscenes that play before each level are un-skippable the first time through, a minor annoyance but I thought it was worth mentioning. While the guns feel good to use, there is a  bit of a lack of variety when it comes to the enemy and stage design. Black is far from a perfect shooter and hasn't aged the most gracefully, but there's still some fun to be had running around blasting bad guys with the various weaponry.

Black would receive backwards-compatible support on both the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One. On the Xbox 360, it's one of the titles known to run more or less error-free, which is a bit rare for Xbox backwards-compatible games on that system. The game looks great running on an Xbox One X and I didn't experience any issues while playing through the game on that console. I did notice tears in destructible objects likely due to the resolution enhancement, but it was by no means a game-breaker.

A sequel to Black was planned and would have come out for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but was cancelled due to differences between the developers and publisher EA Games. Bodycount, which was released for the Xbox 360 in 2011, is considered to be the spritiual successor to Black. Bodycount was developed by Guildford Studio, which  was made up of several of the developers that worked on Black. I don't have Bodycount yet, but I'd be interested in taking a look at that one on the site sometime.

Final Verdict: Black is a solid, action-packed single-player first-person shooter. While it hasn't necessarily aged the best and feels a bit slow at first, once you warm up to it Black is still a fun time.

Purchase Links:
Buy Black (Digital) - Microsoft Store
Buy Black (Disc) - eBay

Related Links:
Criterion Games - Xbox Overview
FPS Games - Xbox Overview
Criterion Games - Official Site
Electronic Arts - Official Site
Black - GameFAQs

Alternate EU/JP Cover

Star Wars: Republic Commando (Xbox, 2005)

Star Wars: Republic Commando
Developed/Published by LucasArts
Released for Xbox (2/2005)
Also on PC
Backwards Compatible on Xbox One/Xbox 360

There were a total of 14 Star Wars titles released on the original Xbox, making it hard not to overlook at least a few of them. I'm always a bit skeptical coming into any Star Wars game, as the license has a bit of a checkered past when it comes to quality, but I was pleasantly surprised by Republic Commando. The game was released for both the Xbox and PC in 2005, and is a squad based first-person shooter.

Developed and published by LucasArts, Republic Commando delivers some nice visuals for a 2005 release which are powered by the popular Unreal Engine 2. The menus are simple, easy to use and the game allows you to save at any point in addition to autosaving at designated checkpoints. The on-screen HUD does a good job keeping you aware of your squad's health status and ammunition is displayed on each weapon. All of the text used is easy to read and while the presentation is nothing special, you'd have a hard time finding much to complain about. The voice acting and sound effects are solid. The game does feature music, but a good majority of the time you'll only have the ambience. While the music is used sparsely, what is present here is similar to the stuff you would hear in the Star Wars prequel films of the time.

Wolfenstein 3D (XBLA, 2009)

Wolfenstein 3D
Developed by iD Software
Ported by Nerve Software
Published by Activision/Bethesda
Released for XBLA (6/2009)
Also on 3DO/GBA/Jaguar/Mac/Mobile/PC/PS3/SNES
Backwards Compatible on Xbox One

The classic Wolfenstein 3D was originally released for PC back in May 1992. Developed by iD Software, the game is the original first-person shooter and laid much of the groundwork for what would become Doom. I remember being absolutely blown away by this game the first time I played it. I'd never witnessed a game where the violence was happening right in your face like this and as a ten-year old it felt like a horror game to me at the time, what with all the creepy Nazi camps and bones scattered about. The game might not look so impressive to the younger crowd, but Wolfenstein 3D with it's smooth-scaling sprites and first-person perspective was a big deal back when it came out.

The PC classic was ported over to the Xbox Live Arcade and originally released in 2009 released to coincide with Raven Software's Wolfenstein, published by Activision who held the rights to the franchise at the time. In 2013, the game was released once again after being de-listed, this time published by Bethesda and re-issued just before the release of Wolfenstein: The New Order. Both versions of the game are exactly the same except for the publisher credits. For achievement hunters, it was possible to unlock achievements separately for both releases of the game if you happen to enjoy Wolfenstein 3D enough to play through it twice.

This is, for better or worse, pretty much a straight-up port of the PC classic. It contains all six episodes that were included in the registered version. Each episode contains nine levels and one hidden level that's accessed by finding a secret exit, for a grand total of sixty levels. So if you enjoy the maze-like layouts of the levels, you'll get a lot of bang for your buck. Remember, this is the first FPS, so there's not a whole lot of variety when it comes to your arsenal. When you first begin you'll be armed with only a handgun and your knife. As you progress through the game, you'll eventually find an automatic rifle and a minigun. After acquiring the next best weapon there's really no point in going back to the handgun, so you won't have to worry about switching between your weapons during battle. This is a good thing in Wolfenstein though, because the key to staying alive is to always shoot first when you encounter an enemy. On the harder difficulties, an enemy getting off even a single shot before you can easily mean death. This game is old-school, meaning you have a limited number of lives, but can obtain more by picking up 1-ups in hidden areas or racking up enough score. Score can be gained by picking up treasures scattered about, mostly found in secret areas. The whole lives system is pretty much void thanks to the fact you can save & load at any point in the game, but can be used to add additional challenge if one wants to avoid using saves.

While there are a large amount of levels to play through, the variety between them isn't the greatest. There are some nice details scattered about, like tables, pots and skeleton bones, which helps compensate a bit for the lack of floor and ceiling textures. There are also different colored sections within levels, which helps make it a bit easier to tell where you've already been and need to go, though unless you're using a map it's pretty much guaranteed you'll lose your way at least a few times throughout the game (there is no in-game map of any sort). The episodes vary a bit in quality and the third episode is definitely my favorite, as this is the one where you face off against Hitler in the last level. In the third episode the level design is lot more simple and straight-forward, ramping up the difficulty with enemy placement instead of complicated mazes like most of the other levels in the game. The last three episodes are definitely not as memorable as the initial three, mainly due to even more maze-like layouts and a lack of new enemies, but they are still worth a play if you enjoyed the first three episodes and add quite a bit of replay value. There's a particularly nasty level to be found in the fourth episode (level 5), where one of the keys you'll need to complete the level is hidden behind a secret wall.

Performance-wise, Wolfenstein 3D runs smooth as you'd expect from a console like the 360 with one notable exception. For some reason whenever you press against a wall to reveal a secret there's a bit of a pause, as if the game is loading or something. The game also pauses when you're unlocking an achievement, but this is something I've run across in many titles before and is not terribly uncommon. The game did freeze on me a few times at the end of level results screen, but I was still able to access the Xbox menu for an easy exit to the dashboard. The controls are mapped out to the pad in a manner that makes the game easy to play. The run button is assigned to the left trigger so it's easy to toggle on and off. You can't turn around as fast as you can with the mouse, so make sure to use that save if you don't know what lies around a corner. When it comes to the save and load functions they work just as you'd expect though a quick-save button would have been a welcome addition. The game does contain leaderboards that rank you score on each level, but unfortunately there's no way to save or watch replays.

Wolfenstein 3D is now going on over 26 years since its release at the time of this writing, and time certainly has not been as kind to this game as it has with later FPS games. While I personally still found the game enjoyable, I chalk a large portion of that up to the severe nostalgia kick I get from playing it. Even as somebody who grew up absolutely loving this game, I can admit that the action can be quite repetitive and the maze-like level design borders on obnoxious at times. Whether you're coming back to it or playing it for the first time, Wolfenstein 3D can still deliver a good time, but it hasn't aged as well in the gameplay department as later FPS titles like Duke Nukem 3D or Doom. If you've already finished those and need more retro FPS action, Wolfenstein 3D should hold you over for a little while.

Final Verdict: Wolfenstein 3D is a certified classic and this is a good port, however the game has not aged all that well, featuring simple gameplay with little variety. The game is still fun and can be enjoyed by those looking for a retro blast from the past.

Related Links:
Buy Wolfenstein 3D - Xbox Marketplace
Bethesda - Official Site
Wolfenstein 3D - GameFAQs
Wolfenstein 3D - Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Wolfenstein 3D - True Achievements
Wolfenstein 3D Ports (Stop Skeletons From Fighting) - YouTube
History of Wolfenstein (Gaming Historian) - YouTube

General Battlefield Tips & Tactics | X-Box Overview

General Battlefield Tips & Tactics
X-Box Overview

I have a confession to make: I've spent an enormous amount of time playing the Battlefield games over the years and I'm pretty sure I have an addiction. I play a ton of other games, but these shooters always seem to bring me back for a fix of the chaos these titles offer up. I've heard many players rag on the Battlefield games saying that they don't feel like they're improving as they continue to play, then they promptly give up on the game and go right back to the simplicity of the Call of Duty games. While the games do have a higher learning curve than your average FPS, once you get the hang of it there are few shooters that can compare. Veterans of the series will already know this stuff, but for newer players I'll provide some general tips & tactics from somebody who typically plays with random people that should help minimize your frustrations with the games.

Squad
The first thing you should do upon entering a round is make sure you're in a squad. If necessary, go into the squad menu and select the squad with the most players. If your squadmates aren't sticking together, I'd suggest switching to another squad that runs in a pack. You'll always be more effective when you function as a group in these games so try to work with your teammates.

Class
Take note of what classes the players in your squad are using. If there's nobody using the medic kit go ahead and switch over to that class as it's arguably one of the most important in the game. There's never any need for a squad full of the same class and each one serves an important purpose in the game. Everybody will likely find their favorite class to play, but try to get a good feel for each one and change them up as needed by your squad.

Vehicles
If you're having a bad round shooting enemies while on foot, consider using a vehicle. Tanks, AA vehicles, LAVs, choppers and jets can all help the team immensely when used properly. Try not to get too greedy and spend the majority of the round waiting for vehicles to spawn in though as you'd be much more helpful out on the battlefield helping the team out. If you're having trouble spotting the enemies while in the ground vehicles, equip the thermal optics and/or proximity scan to make it tougher for enemies to get the drop on you.

Check Your Fire-Rate Frequently
Thanks to the 360 controller's crappy d-pad, it's very easy to accidentally hit down on the d-pad while switching to gadgets, which in many of the games will change your rate of fire between single, auto and burst. I can't even tell you how many times I've engaged an enemy only to die thanks to the fact I didn't realize my fire-rate was on single shot. This is extremely frustrating when it happens so try to make it a habit to check it every now and then to avoid unnecessary deaths.

Use the Spot Button!
Make a habit of spotting any enemy in your line of sight. Chances are, even if you can't manage to shoot them, a teammate will notice the enemy resulting in an easy kill. This is very valuable to the team and I've witnessed a large number of players that just don't make use of it. Spot the enemy always!

Know When to Quit
If the game becomes more frustrating than fun, and trust me it will if you play it enough, recognize that maybe your anger is preventing you from playing at your best. Sometimes it's best to just turn the game off or back out and find another server. The game is not worth boiling your blood pressure over or smashing your controller/screen as this will only piss you off even further.

Flank Your Enemy
If you see a bunch of fellow teammates running straight into a bottleneck and dying in large numbers, it's time to consider flanking your enemy. Pretty much every map in the game has more than one way to get to each capture point and getting the drop on your enemy from behind is an excellent way to open that choke point up for your team. You'll want to make sure you have a suppressor on your gun when doing this, otherwise the enemy will be immediately alerted to your presence as soon as you open fire which almost always results in a quick death.

Utilize Those Gadgets!
The Battlefield games provide a wealthy amount of options for each kit when it comes to gadgets, and all of them can be very useful when in the right situation. If the vehicles are tearing your team up, throw down some tank mines in commonly traversed spots. If the helicopter is devastating everybody, use your AA mine or laser paint the target. If enemies keep getting the drop on you use one of the numerous spotting devices that the recon soldiers possess. Mess around with the gadgets and know when to switch them up to get the best use out of them.

Don't Be That Guy...
Don't be that guy who plugs his mic in just to complain about everything the entire time. The type of dude who blames every death on "lag" or blames the team for their shortcomings. You're going to die in Battlefield, nobody really thinks any less of you because of it. I seriously doubt anybody is ever going to look at your stats so don't make a big deal about nothing. Luckily the game offers an option via the scoreboard that allows you to mute players, though for whatever reason sometimes it fails to function properly. You also have the option to just create a party or just turn down the chat volume using the dashboard menu. The other type of annoyance with mic users are the ones who blast the game volume on a loud system which gets picked up by their mic and results in the players on the other end hearing garbled echoes of the in-game sound. If you're going to blast the game on your system, please do us all a favor and don't use your headset. I'll be honest with everybody and admit that I usually curse up a storm something fierce when playing these games, but I don't use my headset mic and I'm generous enough to spare everybody else from having to hear it.

Tea-Bagging Is For Tools
There are several types of gamers, one which takes genuine pleasure in maximizing the saltiness of their opponents. In FPS games, one way that many players like to celebrate a kill is to crouch and stand repeatedly and quickly, signifying that they are "tea-bagging" you. Speaking for myself, when a player does this to me they overtake all other priorities within the game and shoot right to the top of my hit-list. More often than not I'm successful in taking down these guys, which should prove that maybe it's not in your best interest to tea-bag everybody you kill. I once used to play with a gentleman that went by the name of Capt Crunch who said it best, "Act like you been there, bruh!" I can't tell you how many players I've shot down while they're attempting to tea-bag their victims, where if they would have been paying attention they likely could have gotten me. To top it all off it's just bad sportsmanship and unless you're really dominating the player on the receiving end (which is rarely the case) then you just look like a bad sport. This is all my opinion of course, and as long as there are competitive video games there will be taunts like the tea-bag, but if you must use it then save it for special occasions and don't do it every kill to avoid looking like a complete ass.

Battlefield 4 (Xbox 360/One, 2013)

Battlefield 4
Developed by DICE
Published by Electronic Arts
Released for Xbox 360 (10/2013) & Xbox One (11/2013)
Also on PC/PS3/PS4

It's no understatement to say that Battlefield 4 had one of the worst video game launches in recent years. Early on, there were issues even getting into a match and there were numerous bugs. Many people passed up this title completely due to this, which is a shame because as years went by DICE did a great job repairing the game and crafting another excellent shooter. We'll start off talking about the Xbox One version of the game, but the 360 version will also be addressed at the end of this review.

The look and feel of Battlefield 4 is very similar to the third installment, though if you've been playing these games on consoles up to this point then this game is going to be a major upgrade. The player count on conquest has been expanded to 32v32 rather than the 12v12 you'd find on the old consoles. The frame-rate is much smoother when compared to the 360 Battlefield games but the One still struggles to hold a steady 60 fps. Overall the game is much closer to its PC counterpart this time around, at least on the PS4 and the One.

While Battlefield 4 does feature a single-player campaign, it's basically the same old stuff you usually find in military shooter campaigns, following the same routine of shooting waves of enemies before moving to the next checkpoint and doing more of the same. It's not bad, but it doesn't really do much to stand out. I encountered some issues with the game losing my progress in this mode, but I played it back when the game came out and these issues have likely been patched by now. DICE did not include the co-op missions that were featured in Battlefield 3, which is a bummer as I would have liked to see those expanded on. Don't let the so-so single player deter you from trying the game, as the multiplayer is always the main attraction in any Battlefield title.

For some reason DICE feels the need to slightly change up the control scheme with every Battlefield game with quite minimal configuration options, which can make going back and forth between games a bit more of a pain than it should be. The sprint, knife, spot and crouch have all been re-mapped and to players of Battlefield 3 it will take some getting used to. They also felt the need to change up the progression system a bit with the introduction of "battlepacks" to the series. As you level up you'll earn battlepacks which will contain random accessories for your guns and XP boosts. Using a particular weapon will also unlock battlepacks for that specific gun. When an XP boost is used, they only grant the bonus experience to the individual player that activated rather than your entire squad. There is also the option to pay real world money to unlock battlepacks, but don't fall for it as you'll unlock plenty of these through regular play and they mostly just give you the worthless XP boosts anyways..

The squad perk system has changed up quite a bit in this entry as well. In Battlefield 3, you could equip your chosen spec and receive the perks the whole time you play. In Battlefield 4 you now have a meter that is filled by completing "squad actions" such as healing, spotting, reviving, etc. The spec meter has four tiers and each time you fill the bar to a tier you'll receive one of the perks. When all squad members are dead simultaneously the bar will deplete. I never cared for this system since I often play with random people who love running straight into death.

Despite all the numerous issues with Battlefield 4 (especially in the game's first year), there are several aspects of the game that were improved from the previous versions. You are now allowed up to five members per squad where the previous titles would allow only four. Commander mode has made it's return to the series, which has been missing in action since Battlefield 2142 from 2006. The commander is able to issue squad orders and when certain objectives are held they are able to assist the team with supply drops, vehicle drops, UAV scans, radar jams and even drop a missile down.

Soldier classes feature some interesting new gadgets to mess around with. This time around there are some excellent vehicle additions, including the powerful heavy boats and mobile artillery launchers. The LAV and tanks don't seem quite as effective as in the previous game but are still a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately the tanks can no longer seat three players like in Battlefield 3, now allowing only a driver and gunner (the third seat allowed a player to spot and laser paint targets). The helicopters and jets are still extremely deadly in capable hands. There's a great variety of vehicles to use and it really helps keep the game fresh so you're not always doing the same thing. There's a new feature that allows you to counter-attack while being knifed and is one of my biggest gripes about this game. It's not very reliable and it really sucks to sneak up behind a guy and have him dead to rights yet you end up getting knifed thanks to this stupid counter-attack.

Battlefield 4 included ten maps in the base game and in many respects these maps were more of a return to form for the series, featuring sprawling maps as opposed to the somewhat cluttered maps of Battlefield 3. Zavod 311 is a tank graveyard of sorts, with a warehouse in the center of the maps for some intense firefights. Lancang Dam is one of the less enjoyable maps with a rather boring layout featuring a dam, an island and a few buildings. The scout choppers and boats do help salvage the map a little bit though. Flood Zone is an interesting map that takes place in a shantytown where a dam can be blown open to flood the map. Golmud Railway is a large map with one of the capture points on a moving train. Paracel Storm is an excellent naval focused map featuring boats and scout helicopters (in my opinion one of the best maps in the game). Operation Locker is the "meat-grinder" map of the bunch with infantry only and tons of choke points for lots of kills. Hainan Resort takes place on the shores of Hainan and features a large hotel in the center for teams to battle over control of. Seige of Shanghai takes place in downtown Shanghai and contains a large skyscraper in the center. Rogue Transmission has a very large radio telescope in the center and has some excellent tank/helicopter/jet warfare. Dawnbreaker is set in downtown Hong Kong right in the middle of a sprawling city. Dawnbreaker is definitely one of my least favorite maps, due a large part to a lack of destructible environments. None of the buildings can be taken down and you can barely even damage the walls on a majority of them. Overall this is a solid map lineup in the core game.

In addition to the the standard conquest mode, Battlefield 4 features several other modes of play, but these days the only ones besides conquest that you're likely to find a game on are rush and team deathmatch. Rush is still a fun objective-based mode, with one team attacking while the other defends. The firefights are bit more confined than conquest and it can get pretty intense at times (player count is reduced to 32). Team deathmatch can a good time if you don't feel like having to mind any objectives and want to just shoot at people. Personally, I don't play much other than conquest but I know there are players out there that enjoy these three particular modes.

Battlefield 4 uses DICE's Frostbite 3 engine, and one of the big new features here is the "levolution" events that can be triggered within the maps. When key events are triggered (usually blowing up a certain support spot) there will be some sort of event that drastically change up areas of the map. For instance, on the Siege of Shanghai map typically the skyscraper has a capture point on the rooftops. If you blow out the support columns at the base of the building it will topple over and the capture point will now be in the rubble. These are all admittedly pretty cool the first couple of times you experience them. The main problem with "levolution" is that these are all predetermined, so if you've seen that skyscraper topple over once it'll be exactly the same every time after. Hopefully in future Frostbite engine updates the games will have more dynamic destruction physics. DICE did a good job adding in some interactivity in the maps, featuring elevators that can be used, doors that can be open/closed and bollards that can be activated to block vehicle entry.

I must say, the Battlefield games in general (and many online competitive games for that matter) can be either incredibly rewarding or frustrating, and much of that depends on your squadmates. If you can function as a unit it can be a grand ol' time, but if everybody wanders off just trying to do their own thing the game can become a miserable experience at times. I give DICE credit for stabilizing everything after the game's rocky launch, providing multiple updates to the title pretty much up until Battlefield 1 launched. They were even kind enough to offer a few new maps outside of the DLC so all players would have access regardless of whether they've purchased the season pass.

The Xbox 360 Port
Battlefield 4 came out for the Xbox 360 a month before it would come out for the One, but it never felt very optimized to run on the aging hardware. The game was plagued with some pretty bad issues for the initial months after release and while some were fixed in patches there were many that stayed with the game. The Operation Dawnbreaker and Hainan Resort maps were a guaranteed system-freeze every time making the maps virtually unplayable, fortunately these were fixed in later patches and are now playable. Sometimes the game struggles to load the assets in at the start of rounds, not only with the graphics but also with the audio. Spawning in a tank at the beginning of the round will often be presented in low-res blocky polygons, taking around a minute before the proper graphics load in. While in low-res mode the tank also bobbles around for no apparent reason other than poor optimization. Another glitch happens upon spawning in there is a strange delay before your character pulls up their weapon. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've died spawning in and unable to defend myself because my gun hadn't loaded in yet!

The game's overall performance definitely feels like a step down from Battlefield 3 and even the Bad Company games. The frame-rate definitely doesn't keep up as well and your soldier at times has major issues jumping over objects in your path. It's another one of those cases where the company was more concerned with the newer consoles as far as development goes and the old console ports were more of an afterthought. The game is by all means still playable it's just not optimized as well as the Xbox One version of the game. I also want to mention that the game will take up a massive amount of hardware space compared to your typical 360 game. Once you've downloaded all of the patches and updates, the game will take around 22 GB without installing the disc, so make sure you have the required drive space if you intend on getting this game!

Final Verdict: Battlefield 4 is a solid squad-based online FPS on the One, but if you're still gaming on the 360 I'd suggest going with one of the older Battlefield titles for a better experience.

Battlefield 4 Premium Pass/DLC

Just like Battlefield 3 (and likely every entry after), Battlefield 4 featured a Premium Pass you could purchase to gain access to all DLC released for the game. These can be purchased individually but are priced so you get the best value just getting the pass. If you're looking to purchase a physical copy of the game there are Premium versions with the pass included. There were five different map packs released for Battlefield 4 and I'll go into each of them briefly.

Second Assualt gives you four maps that were all featured in Battlefield 3. These were all excellent additions and it was great seeing some of the Frostbite engine's new features implemented into them. The China Rising map pack features four more maps, several of which were quite large and allowed for some nice vehicular warfare. Naval Strike was the third map pack, featuring four naval-themed maps to set itself apart from the other packs. Next came Dragon's Teeth, featuring four China maps each with urban settings. The last map pack would be Final Stand, which had four large maps set in Russia with lots of snowy landscapes. These maps showcase some of the futuristic tech that was seen in Battlefield 2142. Overall DICE did an excellent job with the map packs, providing a nice variety to the map design and with only a few stinkers among the bunch (personally I didn't care for Final Stand but enjoyed all the others). Unfortunately it can be quite rare to find anybody playing the DLC maps so it's hard to really recommend the Premium Pass.

Late in the game's life span, DICE was nice enough to give players a few free maps. First was Zavod: Graveyard Shift. It's the same map as Zavod 311, but at night-time, giving you a good chance to finally use those thermal optics on your tank. The final map released for Battlefield 4 was Operation Outbreak. This map was developed by letting the community vote on the map layout, and the end result was a fun jungle map. The problem with these last two maps is that they were always placed in server rotations by themselves, and players quickly grew tired of playing the same map over and over.

Final Verdict: While the maps included in the Premium Pass are good fun for the most part, finding active servers for these is pretty rare these days. Worth it only if you can find it cheap.

Purchase Links:
Buy Battlefield 4 (Xbox One - Digital) - Microsoft Store
Buy Battlefield 4 (Xbox 360 - Digital) - Xbox Marketplace
Search Battlefield 4 (Xbox One - Disc) - eBay
Search Battlefield 4 (Xbox 360 - Disc) - eBay

Related Links:
General Battlefield Tips & Tactics - X-Box Overview 
Battlefield 4 - Official Site 
Buy Battlefield 4 on Xbox One - Microsoft Store 
Buy Battlefield 4 on Xbox 360 - Xbox Marketplace 

Battlefield 3 (Xbox 360, 2011)

Battlefield 3
Developed by DICE
Published by Electronic Arts
Released for Xbox 360 (10/25/2011)
Also on PC/PS3
Backwards Compatible on Xbox One

Battlefield 3 is the follow-up to the highly successful PC multiplayer first-person shooter Battlefield 2. After developing two Bad Company games that were specifically designed with consoles in mind, Battlefield 3 was a return to the series PC roots and the version released for consoles is a vastly inferior port when compared to its PC counterpart. That's not to say it's a bad game at all though as the console game can still be very enjoyable, so without further ado let's get into the 360 console port of Battlefield 3.

While the game does have a single-player campaign, it's more of an afterthought and you wouldn't want to buy the game just for the campaign alone. It's pretty much your standard fare for military FPS games, very similar to the Call of Duty campaigns with lots of action-packed scenarios and a couple standout segments, but ultimately quite forgettable. I played through the campaign back when the game was released and have only a few vague memories of it, but it was enjoyable enough for me to go through and earn all the achievements. The game also features six co-op missions, where you can team up with a friend and take on a number of different scenarios. These are good fun for a few plays and are something I wish the Battlefield games that followed would have expanded on.

The real meat and bones of any Battlefield title lies in the competitive online portion of the game. As stated before, this port had to make a lot of sacrifices in order to run on the consoles of the era. While the PC version of the game offers 64-players in a game, the console was only able to handle a maximum of 24-players. On a high-end PC the game runs at 60 fps, while on console the game aims to run at 30, though it will dip occasionally when the action or destruction is intense. The graphical fidelity took a pretty big hit as well when compared to the PC version, with textures looking ugly and low-res from a distance. The player count is the biggest downside of the console ports, considering that most of these maps were designed for a much higher player count. While DICE did modify the maps by having fewer capture points and keeping the action confined to a smaller area by changing the boundaries, some of the more open maps still feel a bit dull compared to others.

Battlefield 3 features four different classes to select from in online play: assault, engineer, support and recon. Each have their own specialty gadgets and a squad properly utilizing all four classes can dominate the playfield. There's a nice variety of weapons you'll unlock as you level up, and each gun can be customized using items unlocked by getting kills with that weapon. You'll get an assortment of scopes and attachments like suppressors to change up your weapons performance a bit. It's a decent system and makes the player progression feel somewhat meaningful. Overall the class system is mostly well balanced and it's fun using their various gadgets in different scenarios. Another feature introduced in Battlefield 3 are the squad specs. As you level up, you'll unlock perks that can be assigned to your soldier. These range from a slightly faster sprint, heavier suppression from gunfire and flak for increased resistance to explosions. Each squad member, of which you can have a squad of four, can equip a different perk and each player will receive the bonus. These don't stack so make sure you and your squadmates don't have duplicate specs equipped!

In addition to infantry combat, one of Battlefield's most distinguishing features are the vehicles. You'll be able to drive tanks, jeeps, hummers and LAV's on land. There are also scout and attack choppers as well as bomber and fighter jets for air combat. Select stages also feature boats you can use. With the size of many of the maps, utilizing vehicles is key to getting around quick. Certain vehicles like tanks and choppers can drastically change the tide of the battle in skilled hands. A knowledgeable squad on foot can make quick work of vehicles if they work together, so the vehicles are not terribly over-powered in the grand scheme of things.

The vanilla maps contain a decent variety of environments and for the most part are a solid bunch. Operation Metro has always been a fan-favorite, a map with no vehicles and lots of close quarter combat set in a subway station. Seine Crossing has always been one of my personal favorites, despite some very cramped areas and terrible spawn points. The map features tanks in close-quarter urban combat in downtown Paris. Grand Bazaar features the center capture point in the middle of an alley, providing for some pretty intense firefights. Caspian Border is easily one of the best maps in the game with a more wide-open classic Battlefield style, while the larger maps like Operation Firestorm and Kharg Island tend to be the maps where the low-player count hurts the most as they are quite huge and as a result feel a bit vacant. Noshar Canals is an awesome map set on some industrial docks, featuring one team spawning on an aircraft carrier and the other on land. This map gives both teams scout choppers leading to some fun action in the sky. Damavand Peak features a giant mountain with tunnels passing through it and scout choppers in the sky. Tehran Highway is easily the least favorite map, featuring a rather boring layout with very little destruction in the environment.

The main game modes are rush and conquest. Conquest mode will have several capture points spread about and whichever team holds more control points the longest wins. It's a simple game mode but helps keep the action focused and objective oriented, so you're never really stuck wondering what you need to do next. Rush mode will have players on either the attacker or defender team. The attackers attempt to arm and detonate two stations while the defenders try to stop them. Once both stations are destroyed a new set will spawn further down the map. If the attackers advance through several rounds of this they win, but if they run out of deployment tickets the defenders win. Some maps work better in conquest and others in rush. Damavand Peak has the central capture point located within the mountain in conquest while in rush mode the map plays drastically different with a section where you base-jump off the top of the mountain. In rush mode Tehran Highway is actually a pretty fun map while the conquest variant is a bit weak.

In addition to conquest and rush, Battlefield 3 also features team deathmatch, squad deathmatch and squad rush. In the deathmatch game modes, the maps are sectioned off into small areas so you never have to walk to far before you die (or if you're better than me, maybe you'll shoot some people first). While I feel like an above-average player at the conquest mode, many of the skills that work well in that mode don't transfer over into deathmatch style gameplay. I personally never liked this mode in any of the Battlefield titles as it takes out all of the vehicles and sprawling maps the series is known for, but I understand why DICE felt the need to include it due to the massive success of the Call of Duty games at the time. The gunplay and controls aren't quite as tight as the Call of Duty titles so if you're really into deathmatch modes I'd suggest just sticking with Activision's titles.

Getting into an online match is simple as is getting into a squad with your friends. There's an option to just join in the first available match or there is a server browser where you can pick the game you'd like to join. It's great to have this option and it'd be nice if more console games would give you options like this. One thing to note about the Battlefield 3 servers, later on in the game's life span EA decided to start renting out servers to players, allowing them to create their own map playlist and also moderate the match to an extent. Unfortunately you'll be team-switched or killed by a server moderator if you do something they don't approve of and being at the will of these control-freaks can sometimes prove a frustrating experience. I've been killed and switched teams for shooting a server owner too many times among many other silly shenanigans. For this reason I tend to always look for official Dice or EA servers as you won't have anybody kicking or switching your team on you.

The sound design in the Battlefield series has a track record for being fantastic and Battlefield 3 is no exception. The explosions and gunfire all sound great, and the attention to detail in the sound department really shines through all the way down to the bullets that miss whizzing by your ear. This is one of those games where you will suffer if you play without the sound on loud and clear. For the best results play it on a surround sound speaker setup or some high-quality headphones. You can't always rely on teammates to spot out the enemies for you, so it's best to actively listen as you'll hear the footsteps of an approaching enemy often before you see them.

Another feature new to the Battlefield franchise are the blocked off sectors in the enemy deployment areas. You can no longer wait right behind spawn points and shoot players as soon as they spawn in, at least not in their main base. It's still something that can and will happen on regular flag spawns or spawning on your squad-mate, but this does at least somewhat help a little with spawn camping which was a huge problem in the Bad Company games. There's nothing like dying as soon as you spawn in to motivate one to do something other than play video games!

Battlefield 3 is far from perfect and over its existence has a been a host to numerous bugs and glitches. The map Operation Metro has a glitch where you can hop into the ceiling and fire down on players all while they can't even see what shot them. This is an incredibly annoying glitch that some of the nastier online folks love to pull and shame on DICE for never fixing this in one of numerous updates to the game. Tehran Highway also had a well-known exploit where players could get on top of the highway and fire down on players. The only way to access the highway was to stand on top of an MAV and fly yourself up there as there were no air vehicles on this map. This issue was later resolved by DICE in a later patch. Another big change to the game was the nerfing of the attack helicopters. Initially, both the pilot and the gunner had their own set of flares, and a coordinated chopper team working together was damn near impossible to take down. Pretty early on the game's life-span the developers removed this from the gunner seat, making it much easier to take down helicopters with lock-on rockets if you just simply spam them.

Despite the game's issues and obvious downgrade from the PC original, Battlefield 3 is still an excellent shooter and still stands as a fun game to play today. Major credit to EA for keeping the servers up after all these years, and it goes to show that if the fans support and actually play a game enough then there is a chance that the servers can be kept up and running well beyond the game's shelf life. I've never had trouble finding a game on Battlefield 3, and that's really kind of amazing considering the game was released seven years ago! A Wii U port of this game was also planned, but was cancelled before it ever hit retail shelves.

Final Verdict: Battlefield 3 is an excellent online competitive first-person shooter. Though the game has a fair share of bugs/glitches and is a big downgrade from the PC version, even on consoles the ambitious Frostbite engine separates this game from the majority of its competition.

Battlefield 3 Premium Pass

The Battlefield 3 Premium Pass will grant you access to all of the DLC maps. It can be purchased digitally or in a physical copy if you pick up the Premium edition, though if you buy it second-hand the codes will likely have been used. The game received a decent amount of additional content, including five different map packs each with four maps. There was Back to Karkand, Close Quarters, Armored Kill, Aftermath and Endgame.

Before going into the content I would like to state that there are two glaring issues with Season Passes, particularly in regards to online-only content such as this. First of all is the obvious fact that you have to pay almost full retail ($50!) price in order to get all of the maps released for the game. The second issue is that it fractures the game base, as obviously not everybody is going to get the extra maps therefore it goes without saying that there will be fewer players in the servers for the DLC maps at any given time. I'd almost rather they just charge $100 upfront for the game and give everybody access to all the maps, ensuring a decent player-base for the added content.

As of today I haven't been able to find any active servers running any of the DLC maps with the exception of the occasional Gulf of Oman, which is a shame as there were some really fun maps tucked away in some of these map packs. Back to Karkand, the frist batch of maps released for Battlefield 3, was a tribute to fan favorite maps from the PC classic Battlefield 2. The four featured maps were Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, Sharqi Peninsula and Wake Island. This was an excellent group of maps and a great fan-service on behalf of DICE. The maps were all faithfully recreated but added in some perks of the Frostbite 2 engine.

The second map pack was Close Quarters, and this one ditched the normal vehicular combat for all infantry battles taking place in tight areas. DICE likely did this one both due to the overwhelming success of the Call of Duty games and the popularity of the vanilla Battlefield 3 map Operation Metro, which played out similarly being a map with no vehicles. These maps were all good fun and introduced a lot of destructibility on a smaller scale. Close quarters would also introduce the gun master mode, which played a lot like gun game from Counterstrike.

The third and fourth DLC for Battlefield 3 were Armored Kill and Aftermath. Armored Kill featured four gigantic maps, with Bandar Desert being billed as the biggest map ever seen in the Battlefield franchise. These were great fun on PC on a full 64-player server, but with the small player count seen on the console version these maps felt too vacant. Aftermath had four maps set right after an earthquake hit and had some pretty cool maps that I haven't seen in rotation in years. The final map pack was Endgame, which featured four more maps and introduced the capture the flag mode. Endgame wasn't bad but I think most fans were ready for a new Battlefield game by this point.

Final Verdict: The Battlefield 3 Premium Edition grants you access to some solid maps, but unfortunately due to the age of the game you'll rarely ever see any of them in the server rotation. Don't stress yourself getting the premium upgrade and just get the base game instead.

Purchase Links:
Buy Battlefield 3 Premium Edition (Digital) - Xbox Marketplace
Buy Battlefield 3 (Digital) - Xbox Marketplace
Buy Battlefield 3 (Disc) - eBay

Related Links:
DICE - Official Site
Electronic Arts - Official Site
Battlefield 3 - Metacritic
Battlefield 3 - GameFAQs
Battlefield 3 Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Battlefield 3 - True Achievements