With EA’s marketing campaign hyping up Battlefield 3 as a Call of Duty killer that rises “above and beyond the call”, as well as a highly successful and critically acclaimed series of games behind them, you’d think DICE might be worried about all the pressure. While the modern Military First Person Shooter trend has been going strong for a while now, DICE has shown that there is still potential for amazing fun, even if Battlefield 3 doesn’t reinvent the genre, it takes the best of what DICE is known for, and cranks it up in a beautiful and improved Frostbite engine. On a good gaming PC, the results are stunning.

 

The first thing you might notice about the game, is just how absolutely gorgeous it is. This is in no small part to DICE’s own Frostbite 2.0 engine that allows for spectacular visuals. From the way soldiers look appropriately dirty and battle worn, to the fantastic lighting and shadows and textures, the game really is amazing to look at and a contender for best graphics of 2011. But as amazing as the visuals are, DICE definitely didn’t sacrifice anything to make them look so good, with explosions and effects looking great and the game running smoothly even on modest rigs. If you happen to have an amazing $2000 rig though, you can definitely appreciate the amazing visuals here.