You Blew It All Up: BF3's Donya Fortress Trailer
Having watched Battlefield 3's Donya Fortress map trailer, I have to imagine that bulls in, on, around, or stealthily tunneling under China shops are feeling a bit miffed. All of their meticulous plotting and planning - their years of drawing maps and diagrams, of learning how to draw with hooves - were rendered moot the second Battlefield 3's Close Quarters map pack burst onto the scene. It is no simple manshoot - for that would imply that it only shoots men. Walls, floors, stairs, bridges, pillars, and ceilings crumble into tiny bits of ballistic debris, and then that debris crumbles into smaller debris. And yet, a single US flag continues to billow in the center of it all, probably shedding the fabric equivalent of a single tear. Stirring stuff, that. Be stirred - perhaps into some form of reverent casserole - after the break.
So yeah, it all blows up quite nicely, but I'm still a bit skeptical. I got to play the Ziba Tower map during GDC, and the whole thing felt a bit... off. BF3's movement speed felt like it wasn't quite tweaked properly for tight, dimly lit corridors, which led to a few unnecessary deaths. The map itself was, however, a nice mix of up-close-and-personal and impressive verticality, making it a bit more versatile than, say, a typical Call of Duty location. At any rate, Close Quarters will be getting intimate with your wallet in June. Better still, it's coming a week early on PS3! I can't even begin to imagine how thrilling that is for all of you.