Battlefield 3 Beta

Console Versions of Battlefield 3 Finally Shown Off

Jun 21, 2011 News

EA/Dice have been reluctant to show the console versions of Battlefield 3 so far.  We’ve seen quite a few videos and a lot of screenshots of Battlefield 3, but it’s always been of the game running on the PC.  This has left a lot of people worrying if the console versions of the games will be significantly worse than their PC counterparts.  Of course we know that they won’t live up to the PC version of the game as the Xbox 360 and PS3 are far underpowered compared to modern gaming PCs, but the lack of info thus far has left everyone wondering just how far behind they’d be.

I’m here to tell you that you can set your fears aside, as the console versions of the game were finally shown on the Jimmy Fallon show and they look good.  Of course, there is a noticeable difference between them and the PC versions of the game, but they still look good and run smoothly.  One thing that doesn’t run smoothly, however, is Jimmy Fallon with a controller in his hand.  For a guy that claims to be such a big fan of gaming he sure does look lost when he actually gets his hands on a controller.  Oh well, I suppose we all still owe him thanks for putting gaming in the spotlight for a while, which is very cool to see.

Back to BF3, some additional details have come out about the console versions of the games and I intentionally waited to bring these up until after I’d commented on the gameplay videos.  The console versions of Battlefield 3 will run at 720p resolution and 30 frames per second.  The 720p resolution isn’t that much of a shocker given that, even though the Xbox 360 and PS3 support 1080p, most games don’t use it and one wouldn’t expect a game as graphically complex as Battlefield to be the one pushing that boundary.  The frames per second, on the other hand, are a little more concerning.  30 frames per second is pretty much the bare minimum you can run an FPS game at, and even at that rate the difference is still noticeable.  Of course, the immediate comparison will be made to BF3′s biggest competitor, Modern Warfare 3.  All of the Call of Duty games since the first Modern Warfare have run at a steady 60 FPS which gives them their nice smooth gameplay.

One has to note, however, that BF3′s graphical engine is much more complex than Modern Warfare 3′s.  Not only does it actually look better, but the Frostbite 2 engine being used by DICE for BF3 also brings a lot of features that the Call of Duty games do not such as full destruction to the environments and significantly larger maps.  Really, it’s astounding what DICE has been able to squeeze out of the consoles on these fronts and they’re banking on the 30 FPS gameplay being a worth tradeoff.

I guess we won’t know for sure until we all get our hands on the Battlefield 3 Beta and get to test it out for ourselves.  One other quick note is that the console version of the game will also be limited to 24 player matches in multiplayer, again another reasonable tradeoff.

We’ve embedded the video that this whole article spawned from up above, so you can see the game running on the consoles with your own eyes and don’t have to take my word for it.  It is running on the PS3 in that video.

Tags: 30 fps, 720p, battlefield 3 beta, console versions, frames per second, ps3, resolution, xbox 360