Battlefield 3 - 2011 PC Time Capsule vs PS3 vs Xbox 360 - An Engine Ahead Of Its Time
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- Опубліковано 13 січ 2023
- In the latest PC Time Capsule episode, we return to 2011 and the arrival of Battlefield 3, powered by the incredible Frostbite engine. DICE pushed technology to the next level with a forward-looking engine that came into its own in the PS4/Xbox One generation - but it all began here with an outstanding PC version flanked by two surprisingly impressive console ports. Alex, John and Rich join forces for this one!
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One thing that struck me about this game was the audio design. At the time, this was the best of the best.
Still is. I haven't encountered any game that has made such an impression on me since then
Definitely still is.
Sadly is hard to showcase Sound Design on UA-cam or in general. And Sound is something many peope dont event talk about.
100% no doubt, the audio guys at DICE at this time were just out of this world. One of the games, as well as Mirror's Edge, which really made an impression on me as a kid and inspired me to pursue audio design
It's still better than any other fps game i've played lol
The visuals on display for the era were truly astonishing. I loved BF3 so much back when it released
@@zscrozg yeah that bit in particular was amazing
If you have a PC you should play alot of this generation of games at ultra settings. They really do look way better than what the consoles could show
I’ll take the art direction of piss filter era over chromatic aberration era.
@@theanimerapper6351 infact a few years back when I built a new pc with 9700k and RTX 2080 and did just that. I went back and played tons of older games absolutely maxed out at 144hz and it was glorious
Seventh generation of gaming was the last generational WOW factor leap
Ninth generation of gaming we have progressed backwards I see more 8bit and 16bit games that need powerful PC hardware type specs just to run, I'm taking to you, PS5 and XBOX series X
What happened
Can’t believe this game is 12 years old and still looks stunning, this is the DICE we need.
Damn it really has been that long. I still remember playing bad company 2.
Just over 11 years old the game came out October 25th 2011
@@alaskanhybrid1845 I remembered bad company battlefield 2 was good and then this thing came out and blew it away
I read somewhere recently that a majority of the folks who were responsible for this game’s design are no longer at DICE.
DICE is dead!
I was so obsessed with BF3 on PS3. I even used the the website and mobile app to track my multiplayer progress in school 🤣
Hope you're not 12 anymore and arrived on PC. Playing shooters with a controler. Jeezus.....
SAME 😂😂😂
You can stil play it online, free.
BF3 was sooooo ahead of it's time. To this day, still my favorite online shooter experience. Nothing has beat those 2011-2012 BF3 lobbies for me. I've played em all. Amazing game. EA has done nothing but wring it dry since. This game still holds up to this day. Low Tick Rate servers are it's only real issue. Cheers to all.
Agree with your comment.
Still playing this online on my series s. It absolutely holds up well.
I always knew bf3 was something special when I saw a presentation about their animation upgrades. the devs really put a lot of effort into the game. games have stagnated.
BF2 was better for it's time IMO.
@@paulerxx disagree. But also enjoyed bf2. BFBC2 maybe.
I was lucky enough to be part of the QA team working on BF3. I personally worked on the 360 version of the game. It was a very visually impressive game at the time, but you could definitely feel the 360 working really really hard.
😯
I remember playing the Beta on my PS3 and that shit was rough. You could tell they were pushing those consoles real hard. Even so, I had an absolute blast with BF3, and the jump to PS4 with BF4 blew my mind at the time.
I guess they didn't listen to you when you told them that the game needed leaning or modern controls.. bummer.. no one listens to QA right?
@@OsaculnenolajO
To be fair, if you accurately remember the beta for BF3, BF4 both were obviously Graphically held back until final release.
@@cMARVEL360 I'm not sure what you mean.
This game will always hold a special place in my heart for being such a big part of my formative years, playing with friends every night and such. My only bit of sadness is that the game's servers will never be as populated as they once were. It took me a while to accept that, but that's just the harsh reality of time. Nothing lasts forever, cherish the memories while you got them, they're all that's left to keep things alive.
BF4 is still holding up though. Almost the same game except some questionable gameplay decisions.
@@pleasantivan yea, that's true, it's similar, of course, but it just isn't the same 😭 still glad to see bf4 kicking after all this time.
👍Spoken like a true gentleman.
@@pleasantivan I tried to convince myself about this, but BF4 is not better than BF3 for me. Worse variety of DLCs, less defined textures, definitely worse sound, worse basemaps. I had a lot of fun, but BF3 was still the true premium experience.
are you ok
John, Alex AND Rich in a time capsule video on a third version of the game!? So soon after the excellent Quake video with all three of them? More of this!
BF3 is still one of my favorite multiplayer fps games of all time. Playing rush and jumping off the cliff in Damavand Peak for the first time was one of the most memorable gaming experiences I've ever had. That map is so awesome.
One of my favorite pastimes back then was sniping people jumping from the cliff 😂 sometimes you’d get the talented counter-sniper or you get shivved in the back, then you go on a revenge dog tag hunt… god I could write a novel about all the fun times I had playing that game
I like how the video is about BF3, but they couldn't omit the awesome BF2 MEC loading music.
The audio design on this!!! Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3 still have my heart!
I remember being blown away by BF3 on the 360 when I was younger and was amazed by how well it held it when I revisited it a couple years back. Great breakdown as always!
Man. If you saw BF3 on my PC back then you would have lost the plot! Just like my friend did. I was playing it in 4k ultra back then, When my friend saw it for the first time after playing his 360 version, he ended up playing it all throughout the night till early morning. He said he was in heaven.
@@EAprima 4K in 2011 and even on ultra settings, presumably with more than 5 fps? sus
@@EAprima yeah you probably played the game at high at 1440p calling cap on the 4k unless you had sli gtx titans.
PC gamers always full of cap 🧢
@@gerboog ps3 and 360 looked like shit had both versions no clap 👏
I remember firing it up for the first time on a GTS 450, I was blown away.
There were a few videos doing this comparison in 480p back then, there's so little difference between platforms nowadays
Hey Santiago
I had a 570 SLI and i7 950 it was pretty awesome.
My gt220 was pushed hard on this one haha
Digital Foundry just sitting down, laughing it up while playing the same game together is something I didn't know I needed. This was really entertaining and fun to look back and realize how amazing Battlefield 3 holds up even today. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
the fact that they not only knew the random hardware that was on some tables but also talked about what it did was for me the craziest fan moment I ever had with DF. I love those guys so much for taking the time for even something so small yet so rich in history
DF crew, these Time Capsule videos are my FAVORITE thing you guys do!
Yes yes the graphics were the best for the era, let's not forget the sound quality! I felt each punch at the end of the game
Was just thinking about this and it's here. Would love to see you guys try GTA 4 on period appropriate hardware
I've been waiting a long time for this one! Always thought it would be a perfect topic for a retro episode!
This game is what got me into PC gaming. I remember asking a co-worker of mine to put together a gaming PC so I could play it. Game ran okay on my Radeon HD6870. Getting into the Caspian Border beta was mind blowing. I had been playing a ton of Bad Company 2 on my 360 up until that point and playing BF3 for the first time really felt like a huge upgrade in terms of graphics and scale.
I remember popping this in my PS3 day one and being blown away by the visuals
I love these three fellas. Could listen to them analyzing and discussing all day long :)
Same here. I appreciate parts of games I would never have noticed before thanks to them
Same! I love all three (and the rest of the team!) and respect their work so much. They're all extremely professional, funny and so nice individuals at the same time.
I've been following and enjoying Digital Foundry content over the last 10 years, at least, and I'll continue doing so!
One of the greatest games of the past few decades! WAY AHEAD of its time! They don’t make MP games like this no more.
they really don't :(
and not even single player campaigns lmao
Seventh generation of gaming was the last generational WOW factor leap
Ninth generation of gaming we have progressed backwards I see more 8bit and 16bit games that need powerful PC hardware type specs just to run, I'm taking to you, PS5 and XBOX series X
What happened
@@lldjslim The seventh generation was the best generation in my opinion, and I started playing games during the third gen.
The seventh gen was where almost all game and game development elements had the best synergy. Sure, many things have progressed since then, but we've taken many, MANY steps back in other areas.
The seventh gen had good graphics, good stories, developer freedom to try new things and also be controversial/edgy, awesome games in all genres on all platforms, online multiplayer had hit its stride, and things weren't laden with battle passes and microtransactions.
I would say they do. Battlefield 1 is equally or more impressive than battlefield 3 in every aspect.
This is literally my fav battlefield game so far, i have so good memories on it when i played it on the ps3 and had so much fun that I kind of miss it a lot
Cranking it up now lol😊
I actually just started playing Battlefield 3 again on PC a couple weeks ago. Game holds up extremely well and still has a decent playerbase
I still play the norshar canal tdm
After all this time, i start work and eran enought that i can buy a pc to play bf3 for the first time , before that was in my friends house with then, i live in Brazil and at the time a gaming pc that could run BF3 cost about 3 solid months of minimun pay, so a 12 year old kid couldnt afford the pc to play it
My favourite multiplayer experience to date. Incredible maps, well balanced rush and conquest, a phenomenal game
You like people running at 70mph like COD?
Need more of these! Love seeing you guys go back and give tech analysis of older games and hardware!
The i5 2500k really was epic! This game is what pushed me to getting a PC with that exact chip. BF3 was and is still a super impressive game.
Oh man I remember that era like yesterday. Everyone was sporting i5 2500K I swear
I've sold mine just a year ago, upgraded to 10400f and honestly haven't seen any difference lol
@@Vsevolod3788 that's cap
@@chriswright8074 it's not. this dude had the same single-threaded score in CPU-Z as 10400f because it could be overclocked to 4.5GHz or beyond easily.
@@chriswright8074 that's not cap, I still rock i5 2500k at 4.8ghz and have literally zero problems at the newest AAA games, it's actually crazy how good this cpu is
An unexpected, but very welcome throwback.
That said, you really should have highlighted the multiplayer, even if it would have complicated a comparison between platforms. Dynamic destruction, vast maps, physics, great effects, ballistics, animations ... there was a lot going on there. Nobody played this because of the campaign, let's be honest.
8:42 Fun fact - The anti-aliasing option was added to the PS3 version in a patch after complaints about poor FPS in multiplayer.
EDIT: It wasn't FPS actually, they added it to reduce input lag on PS3.
Directly from the patch notes:
"PlayStation 3 players may now turn off anti-alias in the options menu to reduce input lag."
anti-aliasing doesn’t reduce input lag, it increases it as said in the patch notes.
@@user-yk1cw8im4hIt was added so players could turn it off to reduce input lag... I never said anti-aliasing doesn't cause input lag.
BF3 was a BF deal! As a life long call of duty player I was blown away by the massive maps and more grounded gameplay. This game was the one that put Battlefield in the minds of the mainstream.
The “deck-els” pronunciation is what’s common in British Columbia, so that pronunciation shows up in a lot of trailers and other videos made by EA Vancouver. I remember hearing it in a trailer for a Need For Speed game, which led to a lot of comments from people whose minds were blown by decals being pronounced that way. :-)
I grew up with it here in B.C., so it’s just normal for me.
I remember vividly being so blown away by the demo of this game being shown for the first time.
How the F can this still look better than so many games today? Awesome Technology and impeccable artistry working together in harmony.
Because micro-transactions took the value of effort away.
@@WigneyR And the industry that now preys on children thanks to companies like Bungie and Rockstar getting a pass by us all. How about that?
Because if kids mattered we'd do something.
But we don't. Speaks volumes doesn't it.
What a great edit on this video Alex!
I love these kind if videos and the last one about the new games on old hardware!!! So interesting and fun to see those curious questions answered.
Love this kind of analysis from DF!!!!!
I've been playing through BF3's campaign in Windows 11 AutoHDR on my AW3423DW, and this game still looks absolutely incredible. Visually still looks better than a lot of modern games
…and runs much better too!
My favorite shooter, battlefield, and overall game off ALL TIME. The music, the graphics, the story/campaign, the visuals, the engine, the multiplayer all were perfection. Thank you DICE/EA !
I upgraded from a 5450 to a 6770 back in the day for this, had a grand 'aul time.
Very fun video lads.
We deserve a remaster of this classic.
This is why art style trumps raw graphical fidelity every time. Fidelity will age over time but a great-looking art style will always be timeless.
Thats why KillZone 2 still looks so good.
Exactly, elden ring is a good example, the graphics lack in comparison to other games out there but the art style is just amazing
nah, tech vise BF3 engine was ahead of its time. newer BF games always felt downgrade in something
@@MrVoland44 Battlefield I looks better
@@johnyrico5705battlefield 1 definitely looked amazing.
I like this time capsule series with Alex, John and Rich. So good 😁
Graphics of this game were a very good step up at the time, I never got the feeling since then that graphics made such huge progress.
Back at it with the BEST battlefield! My cousin Tyler and I played this game to death together
Can we all acknowledge how awesome the BF2 soundtrack is? I appreciate its inclusion in the video! I’ll also add, my i5 2500k and GTX 580 Lighting Extreme (a 3GB monster) destroyed this game at the time. What a time to be alive!
The video I have been waiting for all my life!
So many memories from 2015 playing this on my laptop back then and it was a fun time
That was really good. I bought my first desktop PC specifically for this game and didn't regret it I'm the slightest. SLI 580's made it buttery smooth. Was really proud of that guy. Really impressed with the console versions
Wow great timing! I literally dig out my 360 copy to play on Series X this week. Thanks for the amazing video!
The campaign mode is still my favorite of the entire franchise.
Old Frostbite games looks better than newer ones
I freaking love these videos, guys.
Just sharing the same sentiment as others, but I really like these comparison time capsule videos. I ironically started to play my 360 again a few weeks ago too.
The multiplayer was so impressive for the game on ps3. It had every kind of land and air vehicle you can think of and all kinds of destruction simulation with 32 players playing at once. Draw distance was also insane with some of these maps.
24 players on console.
@@Moonshine1147 wow felt like a lot more
I'm glad John is around to remind us the game is retro, lol.
To me, it looked so unreal on PS3 years back.
My mind was blow once I played it on PC on Ultra Settings.
What a great game.
Love it when you make this kind of content! You three should play Battlefield 4 next on the same 3 platforms to see how the engine was pushed on the same hardware.
7:40 "Jimmy Fallon, still ticking, still alive"
Alex, he's 48, damn that's ice cold.
Absolutely loved this game! Lost so many hours playing it. The hardest part was getting used to playing a multiplayer shooter at 30fps on the 360.
I am pretty sure Cod was the only 60fps shooter back then , because BF, Halo and GOW were 30fps
@@87donofrio i actually skipped halo 3 on the 360, fell off halo after 2.
Still one of the best looking games of its generation.
On PC. It looked like crap on PS3.
@@zonzore On PS3 it looked good, not compared to PC obviously. Compared to other PS3 games though, especially multiplats at the time? It had to be one of the best of 2011 surely.
Love these Time Capsule videos! It's good to go back and see the great games of the past.
Amazing video! Do you plan to do more videos about old games?
My favorite game from my favorite era of gaming. As a long time Battlefield fan, it's embarrassing to see what modern day Battlefield has become. I'm thankful to be able to go back and play the older, better, games.
When i first played BF3 on PC, it blew my mind how well the game looked on Ultra and it held a stable 60 FPS without a drop...?! So being curious about the console ports, i played both on PS3 & XB360 and was so shocked it looked very similar to the PC, but certain cutbacks was visible but not to a great extent ! All the while maintaining 30 FPS !! DICE really did some black magic during that era !! 😅👍
lol what ? the ps3 and x360 version look nowhere near the pc version
@@Psycho-zb4ee When you play the game on Consoles or PC, unless you zoom in or take notice of small details such as LOD, shadows or Anti aliasing techniques - you won't notice differences. When playing the campaign as in FPS games, you will be busy playing to survive, instead of standing around and noticing these differences. One thing for sure, resolution was much higher on PC than consoles.
@UnrealStutterEngine You can see in the DF video above Anti-Aliasing was present but yes not as good as PC. Still to achieve and push the consoles of the ps3/xb360 Gen was definitely an accomplishment by Dice 🎲. Yes the multiplayer issue was one topic of discussion among friends on it's limitation on Consoles. FOV also sucked so bad on Consoles, felt uncomfortable playing after an hour as I was used to a better FOV on PC.
@@Psycho-zb4ee lighting looks good and that is what matters. 30 fps sucks, worse textures are barely noticeable.
LOL I tried it on both, the 360 version looks awful in comparison and ran like shit. Not to mention the shit version of MP@@nav2Max_Light
One thing I noticed! We actually did see BF3 before launch, they released a seperate Xbox 360 trailer for one of the night time campaign missions in September, a month before launch! Don't know if you mention this later in the video since I'm only like 10 min in. But thanks for the trip down memory lane. I really loved this game and was actually amazed my 360 could play it.
OMG this is amazing! BF3 was my first BF and been hooked since.
Remember reading DICE presentation on how they delivered this on PS3 on SIGGRAPH and I thought to myself, well…considering how much they concetrated on SPUs and the fact that PS3 was a lead platform, surely X360 will simply fall back a touch but…nope, they got all options there as well with similar, if not better frame rate (but with tearing)
I was always impressed by how well thought out 360 was, it kept up with PS3 (well, lead it really for most part) until very end. Too bad MS never had anyone as good as ND or Guerilla to push that thing with custom made engine, hence why I think most impressive games for it were multiplats like this one, GTAV and actually Tomb Raider from 2014
Gears 3 and Halo 4 were exceptionally pretty games on 360.
I say that as a PS3 guy back in the day. PS3 had overall better looking exclusives but Halo 4 was a very pretty game. I played it in 2022, both the campaign and lots of multiplayer on PC. Still looks great maxed out at 1440p.
I upgraded from an HD 5870 to a 7870 XT just so I could play this game at max settings. This was such an amazing game!
This game released in the middle of my Army conscription. Used to play it with a couple of army buddies during weekends when on home leave, good times. Have gone back to this game several times after that, there are still servers up.
i love that you could heard the gunshots before you came into the spawn menu
Still looks better than 90% of modern releases.
To this day one of my favourite shooters. I had such high hopes for the BF2042 Portal mode, but it's just not the same :(
so much fun and laughter. Thanks guys :D ! (Let's do a hardcore DF coverage on shoes please !! )
I remember when I was younger looking at youtube videos of this game and thinking it was the epitome of graphics, great to see it revisited by df
YES, so glad you made this! BF3 is still AMAZING.
Loved the bf3 sp. Great soundtrack also
Man just watching is bring back so much memories.
Amazing video, more like this please!!!!!
One of the best fps shooters until now. If there's a top 50 list for fps games from inception to current day this is on it.
The explosive fire of the guns and the believable political climate the game takes with the destruction and visuals +64 player multiplayer with cool ass maps makes this game so damn good.
Pc port is epic! Love this campaign. Just played it first time in the past year!
BF2 music in the background!
We need more of these please guys xx
It's depressing how Battlefield games used to be at the forefront of tech and now DICE really let themselves go
I don't thing they really let themselves go as much as they've had their legs cut out from them all last generation by EA.
With the way tech has advanced it's hard for anything to be at the forefront. Maybe you can point at red dead 2 but look how long that took to make
This and Crysis were ground breaking advancements in Gaming.
recenlty got a ps3 so been on a nostalgia phase and this video hits! thanks!
These are my favourite videos i enjoy watching. Old classic games that were amazing back in the day campaign was average but the multiplayer was where it was at definitely my top favourite online game. The memories i had for this game will never be forgotten and i enjoy talking about Battlefield to this day wish i could go back in time and play this top tier game again.
The Best Battlefield out there. One of the Best Ingame Sound Designs
Would love to see a similar video with BF4
BF4 is not retro.
@@jesusmgw It'll be older than 10 come October
7:30 Was the feed from the game interlaced or was the clip you all used. Could it not be deinterlaced during editing?
A video I didn't know I needed
It’s actually amazing how well the game holds up visually, & I say this as someone who discovered Battlefield 3 through Battlefield Friends.
Quite possibly my favorite game of all time. Certainly top 3ish. It's still played on PC. And it still holds up on ultra at 4k.
Holds up very well. Especially as a multiplayer game. The multiplayer is still the gold standard imo.
It's still active on consoles, too
Really enjoyed this look back at when DICE was good. Battlefield 3 was such a great time, though I had never played the single player or seen much of it until now. Just loved piloting those helicopters with a flight stick on PC and learning to play evasive and properly lead shots to aim well while allowing teammates to spawn on key locations. What an epic game this was! Thanks for the trip down memory lane here ^-^
Paris mission and the one where they Halo jump on the compound were my two favorite missions.
Boy did I love this game. I literally played nothing but this game for a year and a half. I loved that it totally took advantage of the power of a top end PC at the time. So much fun…
This game still looks incredible. On any console or pc.
I was so hyped by the game I upgraded the PC only for it. I loved it, it is truly a great game in all aspects.
Built one, just for this !
@@Elatenl the campaign was meant to be a training. For that purpose the campaign served just fine, didn't expect anything better
It's weird to see one of these DF Retro videos where I actually remember watching the trailer for the game and buying it. I played a lot of this game on the PS Triple. Sure it looks (and plays) better on PC but it's still very playable on PS3. Then they showed Battlefield 4 and I remember thinking "it's just BF3 again?" even though it was a new console generation by that point.
This was the first game I bought alongside Skyrim when I swapped over to PC from console gaming. Ran like a dream on my 2600k & 580, especially when i didn't even know monitors above 60hz existed lol. I put about 500 hours into the multiplayer with friends in high school. Honestly the best time of my life.
This, Gears of War 3, Crysis 2, Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2/3 were all outstanding graphical examples (for their respective release times) of the PS3/360 generation for me :) stunners all.
Also, the i52500k was an absolute beast for that time period 💪 performed well into the next generation and it's still my current processor. Albeit I'm not really a PC gamer anymore...
Swapping the first letters of words is called a 'Spoonerism'. I'm particularly prone to this mistake 😂
I've ugraded to 10400f just a year ago and haven't seen any difference in performance whatsoever even in "modern games' which are actually better optimized and run better on 2500k than games from 2016, DXMD for example.