We've talked about the single-player game. We've complained about the game's stability issues at launch. We've gone over the reasons why Battlefield 3 isn't being sold on Steam, and discussed why that might be a mistake. But these are all peripheral issues to the real question: how good is the game's multiplayer?

Bad Company 2 may have set the standard for single-player action in the Battlefield series, but most of us only played that portion of the game once. Multiplayer, if past games are any indication, will be enjoyed for years.

This is DICE's first game with the Frostbite 2 engine, and EA has used the opportunity to aggressively go after the reigning king of war games, Call of Duty. Picking a favorite is a little silly—the games are very different takes on competitive first-person wargaming—but it's clear after playing the multiplayer portion of the game extensively that EA and DICE have released a game that's very special. This could be the high water mark for multiplayer gaming for quite some time.

So... about Battlelog

The Battlelog system for managing your character and launching multiplayer games has become somewhat controversial since the open beta, but now that stability seems to have improved, there's little to complain about. Battlelog opens in your Web browser and allows you to check your stats, invite friends to games, check the status of your unlocks, and even see reports from each round you play. The amount of information available is impressive, and it's fun to go online and explore your stats and progression even when you can't play the game.

You can pull up a report from recent battles to see who was the most accurate player or who was the best with certain vehicles, check to see who scored the most points, look at what weapons you prefer... Battlelog gives you access to plenty of data about your playing style and about those you play with or against. You can even leave a comment on each battle to praise good players or to talk a little smack.

Battlelog is also your server browser, and it's simple to filter for certain game modes or maps. You can create a list of favorite servers, invite others to your game, or anything else you'd like to do. It works well, is more or less intuitive, and gives you a high degree of control over how you play the game. Some players will be annoyed that Battlelog isn't located inside the game itself, but is there that much of a difference between entering a game from your browser or from a game menu?

And the approach has upsides. Before writing this review, I checked out which weapons and vehicles I favor when playing, then redesigned my dog tags... all from a computer that doesn't even have the game installed. I could manage my friends list or check the progress of my platoon (platoons work like clans, with their own pages and collective information). I could become a fan of a platoon, ask to join, or simply look up the stats of the players involved (this information can also be kept private).

The game is huge

Nine maps ship with the game, and they offer a variety of locations and conditions to fight in and through. We're reviewing the PC version of the game, which offers servers that can handle up to 64 players at a time. That's a lot of soldiers in one game, and if you have a server that's completely filled, some maps will turn into nothing but run-and-gun gameplay. Other, larger maps handle the higher populations much better. Seine Crossing, for instance, is a mess with 64 players, while Caspian Border and Operation Firestorm come alive with the higher player count.

The Frostbite 2 engine that powers that game is an amazing feat of technology, and it handles everything from the soldiers' animations to vehicle physics to different lighting conditions with ease. You can check out the game's thread in our forum if you'd like to see how it performs on different systems, but this is a wonderful excuse to upgrade your computer. I'm able to run the game using the Ultra settings and I get around 50 frames-per-second; the graphics are stunning.

Our Velocity Micro gaming rig OS Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit CPU Intel® Core i7 2600k processor, Hyperclocked RAM Patriot 8GB 1600Mhz PXD38G1600LLK Memory Video EVGA GTX 580 1536 MB 015-P3-1580-AR Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V Pro Motherboard Storage Patriot 2 x 120GB Wildfire SATAIII SSD PW120GS25SSDR in RAID 0 Optical drive LG UH12LS28 BDROM/DVDRW

In-game visibility is rarely discussed, but it's an important aspect of the Battlefield 3 experience. Lens flare, dust, explosions, smoke, and debris all fill the game world, so areas with heavy fighting offer little to no visibility. The more you fight and blow up, the harder it is to see what you're firing at. This gives both sides of the battle opportunities for sneakiness and tactical movement.

The multiplayer is a much better argument for the power of Frostbite 2 than the consistently jaw-dropping visuals in the single-player campaign, because you can drive and control everything you see. You can blow holes in the sides of buildings, fly over the action in helicopters or jets, race across the larger maps in jeeps, and everything looks and acts like you'd expect. The game isn't realistic, exactly, but the way the vehicles and weapons interact with the environment is satisfying. Nothing feels better than shooting from the ground at someone leaning out the side of a helicopter to take a shot, or jumping over a hill in a troop transport to get into position as quickly as possible.

It can take quite some time to move across some of the larger maps, and the game's size makes it more important to stick with your squad and spawn on your teammates. It's important to cultivate a selection of players to join you in combat instead of jumping into random servers; the people in your team and squad will determine how often you win or lose a match. Communication and cooperation really do affect the outcome when fighting an organized foe. If you find yourself sprinting across a large map on foot to get to the firefight, something went wrong with your strategy or planning.

The game also offers the ability to spawn directly into certain vehicles if they're unoccupied, which is a nice touch. This doesn't keep people from grabbing jets and helicopters only to fly them directly into buildings, but one can only hope the average skill of pilots goes up as the game ages.

Vehicles

Vehicles have been heavily revamped since Bad Company 2. They will slowly regenerate their health now, unless attackers can deal enough damage to disable them. Even then, you have to be careful when the game gives you points for disabling a vehicle; it's still possible for the vehicle's crew to be alive, and an engineer can still repair the vehicle and put it back in the fight. This small detail changes how firefights play out, so you have to be relentless. Don't stop attacking just because you've disabled a vehicle! It's important to continue pouring rounds into your target until you see the explosions and get the points for killing the people inside.

Players can make vehicles more effective by using them and unlocking abilities. For instance, you'll notice that the jets are underpowered when you begin to play; you can use the guns, and that's it. As you gain experience using the jets, however, you'll unlock flares to defend against missile lock, then add heat seeking missiles, then a fire extinguisher to make it harder for enemies to disable the vehicle, and eventually other goodies. Powerful anti-air weapons and vehicles will oppose you, so spending time to expand the abilities of your pilot is worthwhile.

Last night I had the (dis)pleasure of playing on a server with someone who specialized in vehicles. With all the tank powers and upgrades unlocked, he was devastating on the battlefield. This may annoy some who think everyone should be using the same vehicles, but once you dig in and begin to level up different classes and unlock new abilities, you see why it's such a fun mechanic. The player in the tank wasn't just good because of the equipment, he had also put in the hours to learn how to properly utilize everything.

This approach differentiates Battlefield from Call of Duty. If the other team focuses on tanks, you're going to need to change your strategy to take care of them. You need to learn to use the vehicles on land and in the air to attack, defend, and to move your troops around the battle effectively. On many servers, the vehicles are instruments of anarchy, but if you stumble upon a server with higher-level play and communication, they become necessary parts of the puzzle.