PSN | Through the Shattered Lens

I’ve been hyped and itching to get my hands on Battlefield 3 for months now, but still have a little over 2 months to go before I get that chance. Until then EA and DICE (Digital Illusions CE) have come up with another way to tease it’s fans by using Gamescom 2011 over at Germany a new video footage of actual gameplay (using an earlier alpha build of the game). This time around it’s not in-game footage of the single-player campaign. What we get instead is two whole minutes of wargasmic in-game footage showing the game’s multiplayer mode (64-players playing at once over on the PC while the Xbox 360 and the PS3 get 24-player limit for ground fighting).

The footage is of the mulitplayer map simply called “Caspian Border” and it’s a multiplayer game being fought not just between players as foot-soldiers, but also driving armored vehicles, jeeps, tanks and helicopter gunships. But what got me really going is the fact that air-to-air combat with jets. I don’t mean those white-and-green wearing, following the fat, blowhard who has no rings to kiss Jets, but jet fighters performing deadly aerial ballet with their opposing number.

I think if there is ever one reason to pick up Battlefield 3 over Activision’s upcoming title to their juggernaut of a FPS franchise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, then this gameplay footage with the jets will be one major reason. I may just practice flying those jets for multiplayer and shout “Tally Ho!” over the mike when ambushing another player in their jet.

Battlefield 3 is still set for an October 25, 2011 release date in North America with Europe and the rest of the world getting it the following days.

While most first-person shooter games tend to bore me there are a few which have caught my gaming fancy and continue to play to this day. Usually it’s either the latest game from Microsoft’s Halo franchise or Activision’s Call of Duty series. I tend to have less excitement over upcoming new FPS games and will wait until people who do love them actually give me a thumbs up or thumbs down on a particular title before I try it.

There’s one game which has caught my eye and part of it is due to the interesting story the game will be built around. A speculative fiction the game will revolve around and it’s the occupation of the US by a Greater Korean Republic in the year 2027.

Yes, you read that correctly. The US in this game will be invaded by a unified Korea (with the North in control) after many years of economic downturn has finally collapsed the US economy in addition to the world itself experiencing the first stages of post peak-oil. This setting has a major Red Dawn feel to it and it’s not surprising since the person who came up with the story for Homefront is none other than John Milius himself who wrote and directed the film.

While details on the gameplay looks to keep to the usual FPS gameplay standard the plot and some of the single-player campaign tweaks has made me decide that this game will be something I need to play. This time the player will play an American playing as a guerilla fighter in the Korean-occupied US. Civilians as collateral damage is suppose to play an integral part in how the game unfolds in the single-player campaign.

The multiplayer will include the usual point system earned to buy newer and better gear and weapons. Unlike the two franchises previously mentioned the points earned can also go towards bigger ticket items such as helicopters, tanks and other vehicles.

Here’s to hoping that there’s a fancy swag-edition of this game and that publisher THQ and the game’s developer KAOS Studios get creative with said limited swag-edition.