Battlefield 4 On PS3 Release Video Review

Battlefield 4 video review: current-gen combat
by Shane Satterfield, Oct 28, 2013 9:01pm PDT
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The multiplayer suite is where you'll get your money's worth, but its updates are subtle and its additions mostly expected. Just about every object can be reduced to rubble, and it doesn't take a tank shell to do it. One second you're in cover, and the next second you're not. DICE calls it "Levolution" and it's a far more useful mechanic than it ever has been before. Water-based assaults are now viable, and in conjunction with the re-introduction of commander mode, boats can swoop in and take an objective along the shore to quickly turn the tide. Most of the 10 maps feature a lot of verticality--allowing enemies to strike from every conceivable angle. Never knowing when or where death will come instills a palpable sense of urgency. If you like to constantly feel threatened, Battlefield 4 is your game.

There are eight total modes with four supporting vehicles and four just for infantry. Classics like Conquest, Rush, and Deathmatch return along with some new twists like Obliteration where you must take a bomb to three detonation sites before the opposition. The rest are spin-offs of these concepts. No matter which option you choose, you'll spend a lot of time taking and defending things.



Squads are boosted to five and it improves the breadth of available team-based tactics. The return of field upgrade buffs from Battlefield 2142 provides further incentive to be strategic with squad composition. The systems under the hood in Battlefield 4 continue to plumb the depths of combat, leaving a lot for the player to uncover and exploit. Just about everything can be upgraded in some way and there are multiple systems designed to progress your soldier. It can seem overwhelming at first, but right down to the sluggish pace of gaining levels, Battlefield 4 is a game that's designed to reward the dedicated.

While you get 64 total players on PC and next-generation consoles, on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, it's culled to a measly 24. It doesn't have as large an impact as you might think. Properly scaled maps, a healthy sprint distance, and vehicles galore keep the downtime at a minimum. If anything, you'll enjoy the brief reprieve from the constant tension. Battlelog returns to keep track of your friends through the game, but Battlefield 4 still lacks a rigid competitive structure for eSports and other accoutrements like a theater mode to relive your greatest glories.

With so many versions for the team at DICE to create, it's not surprising that Battlefield 4 on the current consoles lacks some polish. Hit detection can be dodgy when firing through complex structures and bullets sometimes fly through materials that should be impenetrable. Yet there's some nice attention to detail, like environmental elements you can activate and multiple firing modes per weapon. Just being able to open and close doors adds more to the game than you might think.

As Xbox 360 and PS3 head off to pasture, Battlefield 4 will not be remembered as a graphical showcase. The improved destruction comes at the price of an overall murky display that can make spotting enemies difficult--particularly in multiplayer. Textures lack definition and LOD issues are prevalent as plant life constantly pops into view. It's a shadow of the glorious PC iteration, but the Frostbite 3 engine runs steady most of the time, and compared to other games on the platform it still checks a lot of graphical effects boxes without throwing a rod.

Battlefield 4 doesn't break any molds, but whether you're making your way through the glossed-up campaign or burning scores of hours battling online, there's always a strong underlying sense of anxiety and uncertainty. You simply never feel safe. All the great things you remember about the series like realistic ballistics, balanced vehicles, and solid gunplay are here. If you can't get enough of this stuff and new maps are all you need, you know what to do.

Battlefield 4 reviews love more of the same
October 29, 2013 - 9:24am
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It's not a massive surprise that Battlefield 4 has reviewed well. It's one of those franchises that toes the line between being as big and bombastic as Call of Duty, with as much pick up and play and therefore draws a lot of the fringe gamer crowd, but it also isn't CoD, which means it gets a few of the more gamer-like gamers too, who like too pick the underdog.

Still, it's well funded enough that an awful game - especially from a studio as experienced at making big, explosive multiplayer maps and modes as DICE - would be a shock to everyone involved, but that doesn't mean this one's perfect.

In-fact, according to most of the reviews, Battlefield 4 mostly gives us much of the same, even if it does evolve it a little and continue to build that tower of unlocks that we all know one day will dominate the game so much it'll topple down all around us.

The single player campaign is now a little longer than before, but according to most it's pretty vapid, featuring a lot of hallways sprints and in-game cut scenes and set pieces, which is the movie like experience most people expect it to be, but it seems like it could do with giving the players more of the freedom that is showcases in the multiplayer mode.

This is where Battlefield has always and continues to shine, with sprawling environments that are now assaultable by water, as well as all the traditional angles. Squads are bigger, but player counts remain the same - though add one extra for the commander mode which returns from BF2142.

Then there's the addition of destructible environments on a massive scale, which DICE has termed "Levolution." I'm not sure what's worse, that or Drivatar, but it seems that in this instance at least, everyone's in agreement: blowing the environment up is fun, especially since you don't need a tank to do it.

One universal complaint from people though, is that with so many versions of this game being put out, DICE has had to scale back the visuals in some instances. There's horrific pop-in effects on the 360 and PS3 versions, but even the Xbox One and PS4 versions struggle with aliasing and low resolutions.

The Xbox One is the worst culprit there though, outputting at 1280 x 720 while the PS4 at least does 1600 x 900. Ultimately the PC is the best version but who are we kidding, that's the case with 99 percent of shooters.

Battlefield 4 has come out well, even if it's single player is pretty mundane - you were all buying it for the multiplayer anyway right?

Ultimately BF4 is being scored on average as 8.5/10, but there's a lot of 9s out there too. This is a solid buy if you like this sort of thing, but don't expect to be surprised.

FROM ZITO