We are really enjoying the new material coming out of the DICE offices lately and are hotly anticipating the Battlefield 3 title. We broke down the brief trailer the other day and now DICE handed us the first in a series called Battlefield 3 Fault Line Series Episode I and we grabbed our MRE spork and dug in!
Here’s the video in case you’ve been under a rock or on patrol someplace classified
The Breakdown
The following is a breakdown of the video and we’ll point out the time index of the video in case you want to go back and review.
Time Line 00:00:22 – Here’s a nitpick but one anyone with military experience will likely cringe recalling a at least one time when you or someone near you got ‘counseled’ for it. While in a vehicle weapon barrels should be pointed towards floor. In the event of an accidental discharge you’re less likely to kill yourself or your buddies.
Time Line 00:00:23 – S15 under the flag on his uniform (origin unknown) . Usually the USMC is notoriously shy about uniform garland so the US flag and any type of unit or other designations got our attention. We see our Marines still haven’t been issued those rear sights yet. Doh, just kidding DICE, we know you said you’re getting it back in there but we kid because we care.
Time Index 00:00:26 – Single door on LAV is not usual for LAV-25. It’s either a variant that removes that center post or a little artistic license by the DICE dev team. Maybe they got claustrophobic.
Time Index 00:00:30 – Mark 19′s confirmed and your character and unit is in the 1st Recon (USMC)
Ahem.. can we get an armorer in here stat.. lol
Time Index 00:00:45 – Kardaland Provence appears to be the Chemical Weapons Site. And Al Mazlaq is the ‘bad part of town’.
Time Index 00:00:49 – What appears to be a hardened laptop is seen and we see MAGPUL on magazines for a nice detail touch
Time Index 00:00:54 – Great game demonstration of minimizing body exposure to the door. Its an NPC of course so unclear if peek/lean will be part of the playable character performance.
Time Index 00:01:00 – Alley movement. Point man moved ahead and took a knee, then the other members filed past showing tactical movement techniques being employed.
Time Index 00:01:20 – Earthquake! Please note that Iraq/Iran border sits on top of two meeting tectonic plates. We were also taken with the dynamic lighting and how particle effects appear to impact it.
Time Index 00:01:33 – We see a good example of the new physics models being used with characters running and leaning giving us a feeling that they are genuinely carrying weight and feeling the inertia of all that gear. Yes people, that stuff is heavy!
Time Line 00:01:51 – We’re concerned about our downed buddy but at least he appears to be hydrating properly since it appears to be a camelback hydration tube and bite valve. Very nice attention to detail
Time Line 00:01:52 - Repeatedly press ‘S’ to drag fallen Marine (PC control shown). Not really a military feature but dragging someone out of the situation to get medical assistance is an interesting change than just ‘kill where that bullet came from!’ mentality.
Time Line 00:02:01 – Change magazine animation – Pull Charging handle. Ammo count consistent with 30 round standard magazine. This is a big one, so few games take the time or energy to do this right.
Time Line 00:02:05 – it appears the OPFOR is UNIFORMED and not local insurgent based (previously mentioned PLR organized militia or Iranian troops may be where this is going.)
Time Line 00:02:18 – Tactical Communication. “I’m Up” is the proper term, and universal. A little color in the ‘Im f’d up but up’ is consistant and light, not the overdone heavy language we’ve heard from other franchises)
Time Line 00:02:19 – Change of magazine with ammunition still in it means no charging handle pulled is consistent (round still in the chamber) and ammo count correctly set at 31 (30 round magazine and 1 in the chamber)
Time Line 00:02:26 – No exhaust from the RPG shot, and noise from RPG-7 (assumed) seems odd (based on experienced ODG staff). Down OPFOR seems folded in half (possible ragdoll issue).
General Notes:
- Lack of grenadier (203 etc) in players squad for those ‘hard to reach areas’
- Ambient sounds are consistent and detailed including car horns, choppers, local speech etc
- Sounds ‘feel’ more realistic and the impact of location clearly distinguished (inside vs outside with echo etc)
- Weapon movement off target during firing requiring user adjustment is a great sign, not enough distance to determine if bullet physics (bullet drop) is in/out yet
