I have always been a sports game sort of guy. Sensible Soccer, through every version of Fifa via a brief excursion to Pro Evo, a momentary glance at Brian Lara with a hint of Top Spin and an ill fated visit to the Winter Olympics on the original Playstation. I’d never even played a first-person shooter up until the moment I was handed the controller for the N64 and my journey into the world of Goldeneye began in earnest.
Having played Battlefield 3 for several months both online and off I can firmly confirm that the loading screen following a death is the most remarkably well designed screens I’ve ever encountered. Don’t get me wrong, Apple products are nice, they’re shiny, but do they hold the same appeal as selecting a marginally more effective weapon to cling to as you are mercilessly gunned down ten seconds after returning to the game.
As you may have gathered I spend most of my time on this infuriating game dead, or lost. These are my two options. My games tend to go one of two ways:
a) Everytime I spawn into a level I am knifed in the back, or perhaps punched to death by an American teenager who barely can muster a single facial hair and who accompanies his victory with a snide, badly spelt message – loozer!
b) I spawn in an obscure location miles away from the action. I walk towards the sound of excitement that always seems to be just over the next horizon, days pass, I look into my water bottle but it emptied an eternity ago, I finally sneak up behind my prey, I’m a killer and in an instant the game ends and I am informed that my team lost, again, because of me.
However all is not lost, just because I am truly terrible at a game does not mean that I cannot appreciate what a wonderful creation this is. The sound is brilliant, a decent pair of headphones will have you ducking for cover and listening for the snap of a twig to alert you to the advances of your foe. The graphics are alluring, rich and war-like, it’s like jumping into a game with the colour pallette of Band Of Brothers. The destructable cover system, where walls, given enough fire will dissolve around you, trees falling, and an increasingly rough looking city as battle proceeds make this one of the best games i’ve played, albeit in exceptionally short spells.
Will I be playing it in 6 months. Yes I think I will, unless I improve, there’s something about heroic failure that alluring. Long may it continue.