Battlefield 3: Armoured Kill - My Take

My good friend and fellow bloggerist Herby wrote a very good initial take on the new Battlefield 3 DLC "Armoured Kill" which you should read. It's located here. I haven't played the new DLC as much as Herby has, so my views won't be as in-depth as his, nor would you want to read the same thing twice.

First impressions... it's decent. My main fear for this DLC would be the size of the maps ruining the console experience, and to some extent this is true. 24 players just doesn't work for Conquest on maps with this much scale to them. There's too much emptiness to the battles, as people focus on the flag that has access to the AC130 (which is what I expected), leaving the other four flags to be a battle between a couple of guys from each side. With a good team on your side you can easily dominate the game by capturing the remaining flags and ignoring the AC130 as it does little to affect the battle in Conquest. The way the flags are laid out leads me to think that there will be a smaller, 3-flag version of Conquest made available for 24 player servers in the near future, which will certainly make things different... hopefully in a good way.

As for the maps, I think they all have their pluses and minuses, but overall they're good. I've played a fair bit on all four of the maps and my favourite so far is definitely "Armoured Shield", which I seem to be in the minority in thinking. I had a very good Rush match on this map, although that mode is flawed which I will get more into later, and left the match feeling like I had just played "Oasis" on Bad Company 2. "Bandar Desert" is only okay in my opinion, the vastness between the flag areas leaves a lot to be desired on console, but with more game time on it I could perhaps come around to it more. I only played Rush briefly on this map, and it seemed like it had a nice flow to it and had potential for some good games... if it wasn't for that dastardly AC130. "Alborz Mountain" is a map I have hardly played, and I'm pretty sure I have touched in it Conquest. It looks great, but it has too many rocks for me to crash into. Rush seems like it could be the most balanced on this map, as the defenders get the high ground while the attackers get the air support. "Death Valley" is the map I have played the most in Conquest, and it's below average. The night time setting is good, although the moon is too bright, but the map layout just doesn't feel 'great' to me. Perhaps over time it will grow on me, but early signs aren't too promising.

As I've said above, Conquest feels too empty on 24 man console servers which would lead me to play Rush more, except there's one big problem. The AC130. The attacking team get access to the AC130 which leads to a huge balance issue. Not only do they have ground vehicles in the form of tanks, they also have air superiority in the form of a massive, take no prisoners, cannon. With the location and close proximity of the MCOMMs the AC130 cannot be ignored. It takes around 4-5 stingers to be shot down, more if flares are used well, and it does devastating damage to the ground troops who will be focused on shooting it down thus leaving them to be shot in the back and the MCOMM to be planted with ease. The AC130 needs a nerf of some sorts in Rush, perhaps limiting it to only 2 flights per base or significantly increasing the respawn time of it. A good team can hold it off, but a good gunner can outclass any defenders.

I haven't touched on Tank Superiority, but in my brief encounter with that mode it seems a fairly decent addition and will be good for a change of pace from the regular game modes. Perhaps the flag capture area needs to be larger, but other than that it's a good addition.

Overall I think the new DLC is decent enough and adds some more depth to an already deep game. I would find it difficult to recommend it to a friend or foe; but to a dedicated BF3 gamer who has already splashed out on the Premium upgrade for the game, I'm sure they will gain many more hours of pleasure from the new additions.

The best addition to BF3 though? The new patch that was released on the same day.

BF3 Armoured Kill: Initial Review

So, Armoured Kill launched on the PS3 for Premium players on the 4th and I've had a couple days of fairly extensive play to give a brief analysis. There won't be any sort of grading system at the end of this “review”, what really changes an 8 to a 9 or a B to a B+? I'm approaching this review as a player who got sick of the game a couple months back; the lack of teamplay and balance combined with overall fatigue of FPS. Will Armoured Kill get me back in the FPS groove or turn me of BF3 for good?

First up, I'll analysis the four maps from a Conquest point of view. My favourite, by far, is Alborz Mountain. It seems fairly balanced; I've been on rubbish teams with both sides and still managed to pull a victory out the hat. The Gunship is effective but not overally so – a problem I have found in other maps. It doesn't feel too lonely on your travels either. The worst map for loneliness seems to be Death Valley. Perhaps its the night time theme, meaning I can't see everyone engaging in pretty battles, but I found the fighting was centralised around the Battleship flag, with A and E hardly ever being captured. The night time effect is cool but man, that moon is shiny! I've never had a glare problem from the moon before in my everyday life. Armored Shield is good fun although, once again, the fighting is centralised over at B – the flag controlling the Battleship. The map can feel lonely at times, but overall the design is good. Bandar Desert is the worst map overall, in my view. Feels so much like Gulf of Oman, but with the Battleship flag stuck out in the middle of nowhere. Although the fighting does pick up a bit in the city, it just doesn't feel as good as the other maps.

In terms of Rush, Armored Shield stands tall as the most fun map. The inclusion of the river for a boat attack is brilliant – allows for a bit of sneaking in the midst of all this armour focus. The first set of MCOMs is a standout feature, with some real intense close quarters combat. Bandar Desert is the hardest for Attackers to get a foothold, from experience. Seems like its taking it's style from Kharg Island but the MCOMs are a bit closer together. Para-dropping from the Gunship helps, but it is just a massive target and it seems that people just wait for it to re-spawn before attacking again. Not much fun. Death Valley is so-so. It feels like the Gunship has a bit too much power on this map. Death rains from the sky, being a real pest to the defenders – I'll touch more on this later. Finally, Albortz Mountain is fun, although I don't seem to remember much of the Rush mode on this map. Must just not stood out as much as the rest.

Tank Superiority is the new mode added by DICE to Armoured Kill. I didn't know much about this mode pre-release, as I wasn't really paying much attention to Armoured Kill at all. It is a pleasant surprise. For some reason, it reminded me a lot of the Tank missions in Company of Heroes, but a more suited comparison is obviously the Single Player mission involving the Tank Divison. The mode seems to shine on Bandar Desert and Armored Shield. There's plenty of flanking areas, allowing you to get the drop by going behind enemy lines and setting up mines or just blending in with the other tanks for a surprise attack. There are choices in terms of going sniper for SOFLAMs so as to enable troops to use Javs and tanks to use guided shells, or keeping to engineer to repair your tank. I'm not too much of a fan of this map on Death Valley. It seems to me like the Russian team of tanks spawn too far away from the flag, giving the opposing American team too big an advantage. I have yet to see a Russian team win from about 5 attempts, take from that what you will. On Albortz Mountain the mode is passable; not too much fun though like on Bandar Desert or Shield. Bit disappointing that tank shells don't damage the ice.

The addition of the AC-130 gunship is the biggest change in gameplay brought about by the expansion pack. The slow flying, constantly circling aircraft has a major influence in Conquest and Rush – Rush moreso. In Conquest, it's a race to the gunship controlling flag, with most teams opting to attack said flag more then others so as to gain the gunships ability. In the Conquest maps, the AC-130 isn't really overpowered. It does effect the ground battles, but planes, helicopters and the patched Stingers (THANK YOU DICE) really does limit it's powers. On Rush, however, I don't think it's balanced. Having the attackers with the AC-130, aiming at the relatively shortly spaced MCOMs and its defenders is just not a good idea. It works well in Conquest because of the huge arch the plane takes – meaning some flags are protected from constant barrage for a few minutes before the plane gets in range. In Rush for the attackers, the AC-130 is nearly always in range, meaning the defenders are sitting ducks.

The new Tank Destroyers really remind me of 1940s tanks. Boxy and rectangular. Aesthetics aside, they arn't all that interesting. The ATVs shine; they are great fun to zoom about in and are the right mix between vulnerable and speedy. The MRLS is slightly disappointing. Once people work out the projectile distances, they will become valuable I'm sure, but in these early days they are too lightly armoured and difficult to use to make them practical.

The biggest concerns I had coming into this DLC was if the maps would be too big for us console players. The answer in my opinion is they are, but only just. You don't have the feeling of battle that you get on, say, Canals or Metro, but what you do get is spectacular tank battles mixed in with aircraft dogfights and people zooming around on ATVs. The big picture seems more deserted but more spectacular; more like a Battlefield. Which is the point, really, isn't it?

There is still the fustrating hit detection, annoying moments that make you consider chucking your controller and the overall IQ of the people playing the game hasn't really increased to make the game play like it should (I kid you not, some guy got to a MCOM and tried destroying it with his pistol). However, these things existed pre-Armoured Kill and the DLC can't be judged on this. What it does offer are 4 new maps which are graphically beautiful, more hardware to blow things up with and another reason to return to BF3 after the pre-Armoured Kill problems got too much.

There real acid test will be if I'm still playing this a month from now, which is why on the 5th of October I'll attempt to get my thoughts up as to if this DLC has any real staying power or if the shiny DLC clouded my judgement. Overall, I'd say it isn't worth £15 but if you want to get Premium and can see yourself getting another DLC, I'd certainly say this is a fun expansion of what Battlefield should be about. It doesn't fix anything, Rush is annoying with the Gunship and it can feel lonely, but it is still getting me to play the game again and it highlights just how fun it is to destroy tanks.

Initial thoughts: I wouldn't buy this DLC if I didn't have Premium for the price. If you have Premium, download it and give it a go. It is fun, just not £15 fun.