Well, here I am, currently at over 40 hours clocked up in Battlefield 3 multiplayer and it's time I got this review finished. I started writing this after about 10 hours but Battlefield 3 (from here on in BF3) is one of those games that grabs you and doesn't let go. It's also one of those games where 10 hours, or even 20 hours spent on it isn't always enough to see everything and experience it fully...

For some people it's been an agonising wait. Announced back in 2009 and with the previous ‘true' Battlefield game (BF2) released way back in 2005 (ancient terms in gaming history) BF3 has been a long time coming. Would prone be included? Would we get jets (something missing from the Bad Company series)? Would we get any of the classic BF2 maps? Would Commander Mode be back? As is the DICE way, hard details about the game were slow to come out which only contributed to the agony. At least it was confirmed for consoles though!

First up I better cover the single player campaign, which wasn't a part of BF2 but in this day and age it's expected to be included. Is it fun? Well yes it is. Is it necessary? Now I hate to diminish the work done by the team who put it together, but honestly, it probably isn't. As there's no sandbox map for practising multiplayer (something fans have been asking about for ages), you would hope that any single player component would aim to train the player up in the weapons and vehicles that they'll use in multiplayer, but it isn't the case. The single player contains almost none of the wide open Battlefield style maps and free roaming action of multiplayer and the single level that involves jets is completely ‘on rails' with you taking the gunners seat in an F18 Hornet.

Now when I discovered that this mission was on rails, I admit I let out a groan but surprisingly the attention to detail, the thumping audio and the great jet explosions made this one of the most memorable missions in the whole campaign. If that makes me sound conflicted it's because I am. The campaign was fun, features great graphics (the FrostBite 2 engine is without peer in the FPS genre) and incredible (if not some of the best) audio in a game this year but the whole ‘flashback' method of storytelling doesn't interest me at all. There's a feeling online in some corners that DICE's time and energy would have been better spent on more multiplayer maps and ignoring single player completely and while that's an extreme viewpoint, and the campaign is fun to play through once, if the game had been announced as having no single player, I doubt many people would have been too upset.

The campaign consists of 12 missions told in flashbacks by your main character, Staff Sergeant Blackburn. The missions take place through Middle Eastern cities, along the Iran & Iraq border and along the way you'll run through dusty city streets, (as mentioned) be the gunner in an F18, engage in a massive tank battle and blow tons of stuff up but it seems like DICE forgot what makes Battlefield popular as it's completely linear and features way too many quick time events for my liking. Nukes are mentioned, threats are directed at Sergeant Blackburn, table tops are thumped and one of his interrogators, voiced by Glenn Morshower (who always turns up in TV and movies as some kind of hard core military guy, I guess he just has that kind of voice) talks to you sternly. It's mostly by the numbers, it's over quickly and it looks and sounds amazing, it just mostly feels flat, over scripted and never lets you think for yourself. Damn it looks and sounds bloody amazing though – and yes, it is worth playing through at least once.

Being a multiplayer focused game though most people will jump directly into that side of the game and you won't be disappointed. Early on there were the initial teething issues (server dropouts etc) that every DICE multiplayer FPS seems to have at launch, but these have been ironed out and there now appears to be plenty of local servers to play on which are easy to find thanks to BF3 actually having a server browser! It took almost a year to get local Bad Company 2 (BC2) servers so kudos needs to be given to EA & DICE for having these available for us at launch.

The multiplayer modes will be instantly familiar to players of BF2 and BC2 with Conquest, Rush, Squad Rush, Squad Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch included. The best part, unlike Bad Company 2 every mode can be played on every map. Classes have been tweaked from BC2 also with no dedicated ‘Medic' class, instead we now have the Assault class able to hand out medic packs for healing and unlock a defibrillator for reviving downed team mates. Assault still gets anti-tank weaponry but now also some anti-air once you unlock Stinger missiles and there's immense satisfaction to be had in knocking a chopper or jet out of the sky being driven by someone who either has yet to unlock flares or doesn't know about them.

The job of handing out ammunition now falls to the Support class who can also utilise Light Machine Guns to throw down suppressive fire, which awards bonuses even if you don't get the kill yourself (every class can get the suppressive bonuses, but the higher ammo capacity in the LMG's make it more worthwhile) and even the Sniper\Recon class gets a few new toys such as a mobile respawn point and the SOFLAM laser designator. The changes from BC2 to BF3 are mostly for the better but I know there are plenty of Recon players out there that would kill to get their hands on some C4. One thing I loved in BC2 when playing as Recon was calling in artillery, it was great fun and that has been replaced by the Mortar unlock available to the support class. Opinions on it are mixed though but I've never seen it sway the direction of a match one way or the other.

While Call of Duty advertises itself as ultra-smooth, 60 frames per second crazy in your face multiplayer, fans of the Battlefield series know that almost the exact opposite is what this series excels at (and that's why the whole CoD vs BF hate online is absolutely pointless) and in this regard, BF3 delivers completely. The game has its moments of insane carnage but overall is more deliberate and things have a sense of purpose that CoD just cannot match. Recon players may be hanging back spotting enemies for their team and snapping off long range, gravity affected head shots. Assault players will be in the front lines blowing buildings apart with their M320 grenade launchers, reviving downed team mates and killing the enemy while Support refills their ammo and lays down suppressive fire. The engineers will be repairing vehicles or taking them out with RPG's, Stingers or Javelin missiles.

When it all comes together and you have 1 or 2 squads that know what they're doing, and pick classes that are needed, BF3 can be an incredible experience and the large maps, the incredible scenery plus the enhanced damage system from the new game engine are unmatched. The great thing is that even with the large maps and scale of the game, you still have this experience that is shared cooperatively with your squad mates and when playing with friends, your victory is their victory and it's because you worked together.

Having played both the PC and Xbox 360 versions there are however some concessions that DICE have had to make to get it running on consoles. Maps are slightly smaller, for example with the Caspian Border map in Conquest mode, there are fewer capture points and the console doesn't have the 64 player servers that the PC version has. Naturally also, the 360 can no longer match the visual fidelity of a high-end PC and the textures are not as crisp so you will need to install the game and textures onto your 360 hard drive to get the best experience. The lighting looks great with some particularly great flaring effects and explosions. I'm not a big fan of the effect that makes it look like you're viewing things through a dirty lens, or a dirty pair of goggles so some things could be toned down a bit but overall it's an impressive looking game featuring many improvements over BC2.

Audio wise the game cannot be faulted at all and if it doesn't win some ‘best audio' awards this year I'll eat a hat. From the gunfire, the sound of jets to even the environmental effects such as the rain in the Grand Bazaar map, everything sounds amazing and I'm not over stating that. You see video diaries from most game developers these days detailing their days at the gun range, recording all their sound effects so I don't know what DICE have done differently, but everything in BF3 is a cut above the audio I've experienced in any other FPS this year. Things are even improved with a surround sound setup and if you don't own a set of something like the Turtle Beach X41's then put them in your letter to Santa now.

The multiplayer is coupled with the new ‘Battlelog' service, EA's answer to the CoD ELITE system which is a free website that tracks your stats with each weapon and vehicle. It also lets you keep track of what unlocks you have coming up, your ribbons and other rewards and also lets you create ‘Platoons' with your friends to compare stats and acknowledge (via a Hooah!) their own results, rewards and unlocks. It could do with some additions, such as tracking Medal progress but it's easy to navigate, loads fast and is a great companion to the game. Overall DICE have created a complete package of an excellent multiplayer game with a very strong web\stats presence that will only improve. Apparently for those of us ‘on the go' there's app versions of the Battlelog coming also.