Unlike so many shooter fans, I have little allegiance and even less experience with Battlefield and Modern Warfare. I love JRPGs and real-time strategy. I love Girls' Generation. But I never devoted myself to one specific shooter series.
But with all the fuss surrounding Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3, I wanted to play them and investigate a few things: would I enjoy the notoriously fearsome online? Would I even survive? And, of course, which one of these competing games would I like the best?
My overall level of comfort with shooters made both Battlefield and Modern Warfare easy enough to approach -- ignoring more advanced bits. Picking a class, aiming down the sights, and squeezing the trigger all felt familiar from the start.
My first, most obvious discovery: death comes quickly in both games. Within seconds of bounding down a hill in Battlefield 3 my character would slump to the ground, pierced by the round from a distant sniper rifle. As my assailant popped up on screen during the respawn period, I shook at the sight of his elaborate gear that made my standard issue fluff look like toddler toys.
These sudden trips to the afterlife occurred with equal frequency in Modern Warfare 3 -- I just saw them coming more often. Snipers find solace in Modern Warfare but have less room to hide in far-off corners thanks to the small nature of each map. And though death from behind is a constant threat in close quarters, I could usually see my killer and acknowledge his ability to trump me in gunplay.
The compact play spaces in Modern Warfare 3 have another special effect: they facilitate unintentional team play when fighting alongside strangers. I could travel an entire Battlefield 3 map without seeing a fellow soldier, but seconds after starting a match in Modern Warfare I'm sprinting after a teammate to provide cover fire. This intimacy might put an enemy in front of my face more quickly than Battlefield but at least I can fight him with support from an ally.
Battlefield's massive stage size does have its advantages. Vehicles, including the devastating tanks, give newcomers a glorious casing to protect them from harm as they roll across the map. They also made me a rolling target and the immediate priority of my opponents. Even still, the added protection evaporated much of the urgency of infantry combat and gave me reprieve to learn the lay of the land and -- ideally -- run over some unlucky folk in the process. Jets and helicopters, alternatively, require a great deal of practice. I can direct you to a number of flaming wrecks as a testament to this fact.
The communities of both Battlefield and Modern Warfare didn't leap at the chance to guide me through my birth throes. But even with my embarrassing kill/death ratio hanging above my handle I remained verbally unassaulted by my teammates. My skill level and sexuality were never called into question, and I escaped the blame of our team losses. I would have enjoyed seeing more coordination practiced amongst the teams during combat, though such miscommunication should remind you to play multiplayer games with friends you know and play well with in the first place.
Gamers find the need to select one franchise over another. After dabbling with Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3, even I see the benefits to picking a favorite. A copious amount of practice is the only way to survive in such competitive environments, after all.
Yet each franchise crafts a different experience worth playing -- each one extremely dangerous for new soldiers. Modern Warfare 3's confined combat worked for and against me, and Battlefield's sprawling war zones made uninformed travel a lethal endeavor. But each successful kill teaches a valuable lesson. With enough patience and a fair helping of free time any eager gamer can infiltrate the shooter elite and sit atop the leaderboards.
All that debate about "which is better" really comes down to personal preference. My submission to the official discussion: try both.
EA and Activision provided the author with copies of Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3, respectively, for editorial purposes. Both games were played on the same PC for approximately one to two hours each, including Conquest matches in Battlefield and standard Team Deathmatches in Modern Warfare.
Ryan Clements writes for IGN's PlayStation Team. You can follow him on myIGN and Twitter.
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