Aimed at its rival Activision and its rise to fame with the Call of Duty series, EA's Battlefield 3 may prove to be a tough competitor.

Video game Battlefield 3 is the beginning of the war, declared John Riccietiello, chief executive of gaming company EA (Electronic Arts) at the E3 2011 meet in Los Angeles recently.

The EA head made it clear that a war is on and it’s time Activision took the company seriously.

Activision is currently No.1 in the industry in terms of war games and Call of Duty with its gripping gameplay and engrossing plot of events have made gamers sit on the edge of their seats wanting for more. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, last year, made revenue of $400 million in one day. This has to be a major reason for other developing companies to take notice and follow steps accordingly to bring down Activision’s success rate.

Engine War:

To counter the threat from Activision running a monopoly market, EA has introduced the Frostbite 2.0 engine, which Activision should consider as a serious threat to their existing hold on the market. EA has not left any stone unturned in bringing a game that can finally counter COD: MW series. The Frostbite 2 engine is supposed to deliver more firepower to the game, which will include sophisticated destruction, graphics and sound compared to the previous version. Moreover, EA has introduced a brand new character animation technological update known as ANT. This technology was previously used in sports games such as FIFA, and has been adopted for BF3 to create a more realistic soldier.

However, Activision and Infinity Ward (developer) have confirmed that the upcoming MW3 will not go for a new engine development, but will run on the modified Quake III engine to compete with EA as a new engine will mean more money and more time. Seriously, these are few of the things Activision cannot afford at the moment. The engine lacks real-time dynamics, linear independent lighting, soft-shadow technology, interactive environment and real-time physics, but makes up with its 60 frames per second gameplay. EA can, however, be assured that the three studios, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software, who have been working on the game, will do all it takes to compete with Battlefield 3.

Platform and gameplay battle:

Before E3, Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision, had in a report said that he had seen a preview of Battlefield 3 on PC and commented that the game was a small time initiative for PC gamers but still devoid of console gaming which happens to be the bulk of the gaming business. He added that MW3 would be the result of vast amount of audience research.
Kotik was proven horribly right as the PC version of the game looks totally mind-blowing with Frostbite Engine 2 initiated. Riccitiello, earlier, had responded to Kotick by saying that the Activision boss knows that BF3’s PC version is far superior to what MW3 will actually cater to its PC gamers and the PS3 version BF3 would be mind blowing.

MW3 has provided the gamers with breath-taking action sequences in a cinematic style. The pure arcade style play and an all-guns-blazing experience of the game makes up for its lack of originality and innovation. BF3, on the other hand, will focus on team work. You make your approach alone and you will be killed mercilessly. The in-game command set-up has been slightly modified to give the game a more realistic look, which may or may not be a problem for you. The game will have the old maximalist combined arms battle that leveraged the previous Battlefield games.

Miscellaneous moves:

MW3 will see the return of Task Force 141 Captain John “Soap” MacTavish, Russian informant Nikolai and SAS Captain John Price, who are on run after killing the US Army Lieutenant General Shepard. Vladimir Makarov, the Russian Ultranationalist, will return as the game’s primary antagonist. The game will begin where it left MW2, where Russia still continues invading the US. Other locations will include Germany, France and England. The gameplay will potentially put you in a World War three situation.

BF3 will let you play as Staff Sergeant Henry ‘Black’ Blackburn of the US Marine Corps placed at the Iran-Iraq border. You will lead a five-man squad to locate a group of US investigating a potential chemical weapons site controlled by a hostile militia and the game will progress from that location. The multiplayer will give you four classes—Recon, Engineer, Support and Assault. The game modes announced are Rush, Conquest, and a brand new Team Deathmatch.

And Finally:

Both the games are set for a release later this year. Battlefield 3 may be the game that ends COD’s reign, but Activision will give a full fight to cling on to that top spot. Battlefield 3 looks comparatively a few notches ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in terms of graphics and realistic gameplay experience. The real war will begin later this year.

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