Samsung Exhibit II 4G Prepaid Android Phone (T-Mobile)
LIST PRICE : $249.99
PRICE: : $198.00
CNET Editors' Review
The good:The Samsung Exhibit II 4G
has HSPA+ speeds, good call quality, and a lot more bells and whistles
than you'd expect from an Android 2.3 Gingerbread phone at this price. The bad: A cheaper-looking design keeps the Exhibit II from being a lustworthy handset, and photos lack a little brightness. The bottom line:A
surprisingly full feature set makes the Samsung Exhibit II 4G ideal for
Android bargain-hunters; just don't expect the best of the best.
T-Mobile has taken an interesting turn with the Samsung Exhibit II 4G, and I'll tell you why. The original Samsung Exhibit 4G
(which was quite good) only received the breath of life in June, and
it's already being subsumed by a sequel. Moreover, the new Exhibit is
the same phone as the Samsung Galaxy W, which was introduced for the
U.K. last August.
I'm not sure why T-Mobile was in such a rush
to accelerate its Exhibit brand (apart, perhaps, from the ease of
already possessing rights to the Exhibit name), but I will admit that
the specs are nice for the price. First things first, the Exhibit II 4G
runs on T-Mobile's HSPA+ "4G" network. It has a 3.7-inch WVGA touch
screen, a 1GHz processor, a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a
front-facing VGA camera.
There's also support for T-Mobile TV, and apps like Qik video and the Swype virtual keyboard come preinstalled.
Pricing
is the really attractive selling point, with the Exhibit II 4G costing
just $29.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate when you buy it with a new,
two-year contract, and $199.99 off-contract through Wal-Mart. In fact,
T-Mobile is calling the Exhibit II 4G the "first no-annual-contract 4G
smartphone to be sold at most Wal-Mart stores." The model I reviewed is
sold off-contract and contains T-Mobile's prepaid SIM. Design
Despite its name, the Exhibit II 4G bears only a little resemblance to
the original. Where the first Exhibit 4G had a flat bottom and a rounded
top, the sequel literally flips the design on its head, giving us a
flat top and a rounded bottom. That's where the similarities end.
Instead of the rubberized grippy material enrobing the Exhibit II, it's
all hard plastic: a shiny front, matte gray sides, and a textured,
nubbly dark-blue backing. There's one metal accent, a ring surrounding
the camera lens.
Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2010: From Laura Hillenbrand, the bestselling author of Seabiscuit, comes Unbroken,
the inspiring true story of a man who lived through a series of
catastrophes almost too incredible to be believed. In evocative,
immediate descriptions, Hillenbrand unfurls the story of Louie
Zamperini--a juvenile delinquent-turned-Olympic runner-turned-Army hero.
During a routine search mission over the Pacific, Louie’s plane
crashed into the ocean, and what happened to him over the next three
years of his life is a story that will keep you glued to the pages,
eagerly awaiting the next turn in the story and fearing it at the same
time. You’ll cheer for the man who somehow maintained his selfhood and
humanity despite the monumental degradations he suffered, and you’ll
want to share this book with everyone you know. --Juliet DisparteThe Story of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Eight
years ago, an old man told me a story that took my breath away. His
name was Louie Zamperini, and from the day I first spoke to him, his
almost incomprehensibly dramatic life was my obsession.
It was a horse--the subject of my first book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend--who
led me to Louie. As I researched the Depression-era racehorse, I kept
coming across stories about Louie, a 1930s track star who endured an
amazing odyssey in World War II. I knew only a little about him then,
but I couldn’t shake him from my mind. After I finished Seabiscuit, I tracked Louie down, called him and asked about his life. For the next hour, he had me transfixed.
Growing
up in California in the 1920s, Louie was a hellraiser, stealing
everything edible that he could carry, staging elaborate pranks, getting
in fistfights, and bedeviling the local police. But as a teenager, he
emerged as one of the greatest runners America had ever seen, competing
at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he put on a sensational performance,
crossed paths with Hitler, and stole a German flag right off the Reich
Chancellery. He was preparing for the 1940 Olympics, and closing in on
the fabled four-minute mile, when World War II began. Louie joined the
Army Air Corps, becoming a bombardier. Stationed on Oahu, he survived
harrowing combat, including an epic air battle that ended when his plane
crash-landed, some six hundred holes in its fuselage and half the crew
seriously wounded.
On a May afternoon in 1943, Louie took off on
a search mission for a lost plane. Somewhere over the Pacific, the
engines on his bomber failed. The plane plummeted into the sea, leaving
Louie and two other men stranded on a tiny raft. Drifting for weeks
and thousands of miles, they endured starvation and desperate thirst,
sharks that leapt aboard the raft, trying to drag them off, a
machine-gun attack from a Japanese bomber, and a typhoon with waves some
forty feet high. At last, they spotted an island. As they rowed
toward it, unbeknownst to them, a Japanese military boat was lurking
nearby. Louie’s journey had only just begun.
That first
conversation with Louie was a pivot point in my life. Fascinated by his
experiences, and the mystery of how a man could overcome so much, I
began a seven-year journey through his story. I found it in diaries,
letters and unpublished memoirs; in the memories of his family and
friends, fellow Olympians, former American airmen and Japanese veterans;
in forgotten papers in archives as far-flung as Oslo and Canberra.
Along the way, there were staggering surprises, and Louie’s unlikely,
inspiring story came alive for me. It is a tale of daring, defiance,
persistence, ingenuity, and the ferocious will of a man who refused to
be broken.
The culmination of my journey is my new book, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. I hope you are as spellbound by Louie’s life as I am.
True survival horror games are rare these days. Games like Dead Space
and the most recent Resident Evil titles can be scary but tend to be
just as focused on action as they are on atmosphere. In Frictional Games' Amnesia: The Dark Descent,
you get no gun. When a gruesome shambling creature rounds a corner on
wobbly knees and its yawning rictus comes into focus, you can only
succumb to its onslaught or flee in terror, hoping the shadows will
provide safe haven. It plays more like a first-person adventure game
than anything else, and borrows many of the environmental manipulation
mechanics of Frictional's previous Penumbra series. It's a fairly short
game, but one that's near impossible to forget.
If you've ever read an H.P. Lovecraft story before you'll find a lot
that's familiar here. Much of the horror and structure of the plot is
inspired by the 20th century author, as sanity is eroded the closer you
draw to the sinister heart of the tale. You play as Daniel, who awakens
clueless on the floor of the huge and hauntingly empty Castle
Brennenburg. Soon after coming to, you discover a note written by your
past self, instructing you to find and kill Alexander, the master of
house. Unraveling the history of the place is part of what lures you
forward, discovering how exactly you got to this point, what Alexander
did to deserve an early death, and who is responsible for the grisly
acts committed in the castle's depths.
What follows is a tale told mostly in flashback as you' re beset by
ghostly visions and uncover journal entries on dimly lit desks that tell
of scientific expeditions that lead to the discovery of ancient
terrors. By itself the story is strong enough, and told effectively
assuming you take the time to explore and pick up a majority of the
notes. Yet what really adds a quality of unsettling authenticity to the
tale is the unshakeable feeling of pursuit and inevitability of some
kind of horrific climax.
The sensation is created by a combination of implied and observable
events. On the soundtrack, scratches, clicking and footsteps from unseen
spaces imply an expanse of unknown rippling just beyond the limits of
your perception. Visual cues are also crucial to reinforcing the sense
of terror, as Daniel's vision is affected by ghastly sights and
revelations of gruesome acts to which his previous life was connected.
Sanity degrades while in the dark, causing the scene to shift like the
webs of light across sands under shallow water as sounds intensify,
controls are muddied, and eventually insects crawl across your field of
vision. It contributes to an feeling of isolation and helplessness that
adds to the sense of terror.
Staying in the light is the preferred course for those who prefer to
maintain mental focus. A lantern is always available to light up
corridors, provided you've enough fuel to keep it lit. Tinderboxes are
also scattered around amidst ancient books and in dusty cabinets and
used to spark torches to illuminate passageways and candles within
kitchens and torture chambers to make it less psychologically taxing as
you explore. You can still see in the darkness if you've run out of both
oil and tinderboxes since Daniel's eyes will eventually adjust to the
deep-blue murk of darkness, but there's a moment of adjustment,
mimicking the dilation of his pupils to altered intensity of light.
Sometimes the transition is harmless, but during the momentary blindness
that besets Daniel as he stumbles into blackness it's entirely possible
a shambling monster could round a corner and slash him down. It's not
something that happens often, but the lingering threat is enough to make
you tread carefully even if the way forward seems clear. It also sets
up a gameplay dynamic between dark and light -- do you stay in the
shadows to hide from enemies but risk your sanity, or light up
everything you can to keep your wits?
Puzzle solving is the heart of the
gameplay, and like in Frictional's Penumbra games, manipulation of
objects is handled in a way that gives you a greater sense of connection
to the character. To open a door, you must click and hold the object
with the left mouse button, then draw the mouse back or push it forward
depending on which way the door swings. To open a drawer it's the same
mechanic, requiring you to pull back on the mouse once the handle is
grabbed to open it. Occasionally you'll need to toss items around rooms
to break down fragile walls and shatter chains, but for the most part
this kind of manipulation is used to keep you more firmly rooted within
the game world and add a touch of realism, strengthening the horror
aspect.
Actually solving the puzzles shouldn't be too difficult for anyone
who's played adventure games before. Despite the bizarre and often
disturbing states of the sewers, morgues, and downright revolting
torture chambers later on, the solutions often require you to collect a
few objects and combine and apply them in simple ways. The game makes
this easily manageable by confining solutions to set areas, meaning you
don't need to worry about backtracking all the way to the start of the
game if near the end you worry that a particular puzzle might require an
overlooked item. Frictional's done a good job of pacing the game as
well, gradually expanding the area and complexity of the puzzles and
mixing in jaw-clenching pursuit sequences as you plunge deeper into the
mystery. All the while you watch as bare stone walls are overtaken with
pulsating masses of organic material and as hints of malevolence are
made manifest and stumble after you through the dark and mists,
establishing an inescapable mood that sticks with you long after the
adventure is complete.
Closing Comments
This
is one of the scariest games in recent memory. The loading screen
recommends you turn the lights off and play with headphones, something
I'll strongly echo. Amnesia: The Dark Descent's puzzles aren't
especially impressive and the voice acting can range from convincing to
goofy, but the atmosphere Frictional has infused into the experience is
as powerful as they come. It's a tale of terror that's menacing and
disturbing from the very first moments, and only amplifies the further
you progress. Any fan of horror, every Lovecraft fan, and any with even a
hint of curiosity should give Amnesia a shot. Few games are able to
conjure up an atmosphere this genuinely frightening.
Few games come with the amount of hype Mass Effect 3
has swirling around it. As the culmination of BioWare's epic sci-fi RPG
trilogy, Mass Effect 3 hasn't garnered this groundswell in an
artificial way. Rather, anticipation steadily sits at a fever pitch
because the previous installments -- Mass Effect, and especially Mass
Effect 2 -- rate amongst the best games ever made. And in many ways,
Mass Effect 3 has set the bar even higher as the worthy conclusion to
one of the finest stories ever told in gaming history, even if it's
still admittedly imperfect
Mass Effect 3 throws you back into the role of Commander Shepard, the
first human Spectre that has, at this point in the story, gone above and
beyond proving his (or her) commitment to galactic order. After
reluctantly working for the xenophobic human-first organization Cerberus
and jumping through the Omega-4 Mass Relay to fight the Collectors at
the center of the Milky Way in Mass Effect 2, Shepard's greatest
challenge still lies ahead.
VIDEO REVIEW
Once considered the stuff of lore, the Reapers rear their heads in our
own backyard. Having returned to the galaxy after a 50,000 year hiatus,
the Reapers conduct an all-out assault on the galaxy's organic life.
Earth itself suffers heavy bombardment as Mass Effect 3 begins, with
millions suffering and dying daily. Your task: fight back, not only for
Earth and humanity, but for all galactic races that find themselves
simultaneously under siege.
Using some Biotics.
Shepard
and his allies aren't nearly strong enough to combat the Reapers'
planet-sacking death squads on their own. The earlier Mass Effect games
focused on exploring the galaxy as you complete quests, building up your
reputation and ultimately careening headlong into the endgame. Mass
Effect 3 has all of that too, and it's all conducted through the lens of
truly consequential, wide-ranging decision-making. This brings yet
again an exceptionally plot-heavy slant to a series already deeply
reliant on amazing story-telling.
The Reapers pose an existential threat to life in the galaxy, forcing
Shepard to navigate through tricky territory wrought with age-old
grudges, conflicts and old-fashioned hatred in order to get all affected
parties to work together. The Krogans hate the Salarians and Turians
because of the Genophage, while the Quarians have waged war with their
rogue machines, the Geth, for hundreds of years. Conflicts like this
exist everywhere. The challenge before Shepard lies in his ability to
get all of these races -- and many others -- allied in order to fight
the Reapers as one united front. This represents the galaxy's only hope
in defeating their overwhelmingly powerful adversaries.
Stabbing away.
Accomplishing
such feats of diplomacy resides at the heart of Mass Effect 3. Gone are
the loyalty quests of Mass Effect 2; things aren't quite as personal
this time around. Shepard must still make a staggering number of choices
in conversation, and how he treats those around him heavily affects the
game's outcome. He'll still make friends and enemies, have personal
conversations and learn a great deal more about those he encounters. And
the more time you spend speaking to others and exploring everyone's
stories, the more you'll extract from the game.
But now, the galaxy's problems are greater, and Shepard must think
bigger. By helping out individuals, militaries, governments and entire
races, Shepard will collect War Assets and form a higher and higher
level of Galactic Readiness. These will become integral to the success
or failure of Mass Effect 3's endgame, and bring an entirely new slant
to the series, one that's both welcome and fresh.
Signing up for an MMO encompasses more than your standard purchase.
You're buying into a social network to meet other players and maybe make
a few new friends. To some it's an escape, an alternative lifestyle, a
toy, an ego machine, and to all it's a game. Simply providing a vast
online fantasy world to run around in with others isn't enough these
days. While Final Fantasy XIV
features a flexible class system and interesting crafting mechanics,
issues with its presentation, performance, and core questing structure
turn what could be an entertaining online adventure into an arduous
experience that, in its current state, isn't worth playing.
If you're familiar with Final Fantasy XI, Square Enix's previous MMO in
its flagship RPG line, you'll know the game was never very easy to get
into. While Final Fantasy XIV is certainly more solo-friendly for
players who prefer to quest and level on their own, it's disappointingly
unfriendly toward those trying figure out all the various rules and
systems churning beneath the surface that govern life, advancement, and
success in its setting of Eorzea. If you've never played an MMO before,
this is most definitely not the place to start. Even genre veterans are
going to need to spend a good deal of time scanning fan sites and
databases to understand how everything works, even for basic information
on necessary functions like performing item repairs.
Things do start out in a directed fashion, though. At the beginning
you're given a chance to create and name your character. A number of
races, from the hulking Roegadyn to the cat-like Miqo'te, can be chosen
and customized in a few different ways. As tends to be standard in the
genre you'll also be asked to pick a class, though the choice isn't
especially meaningful. In Final Fantasy XIV you're never locked into one
particular class, so the one chosen at the start only defines your
character for as long as it takes to get to an item shop.
Before stepping onto the game's various progression treadmills you'll be
dumped into a sequence of cut-scenes filled with character dialogue,
combat, and exploration around whichever city you chose to start in.
These story-driven scenes are some of the best parts of the game as it
stands right now, helping to tell the tale of the world, showing you
around the land, and foreshadowing events to come. More story missions
become available at later progression milestones and eventually unlock
other extras, but are so spaced out that feel more like bandages to
remedy a general lack of narrative context throughout. It's rare to ever
feel as though you're questing for a reason outside of bumping up your
class rank.
For braving the dangers that lie outside of the walls of each major
starting city in Eorzea you'll have a number of combat options. Magic
users will want to take up arms as a Conjurer or Thaumaturge, while
those who prefer to hit enemies with heavy things will want to pick the
axe-wielding Marauder or the Gladiator who attacks and defends with a
sword and shield. The variety of combat classes means players should be
able to find a mold in which they feel comfortable, but the nice part is
you'll never feel too limited.
By simply purchasing and equipping a class' weapon type, you become that
class. If you're tired of slogging through fight after fight as a
Lancer, for instance, you can just equip a bow and all of a sudden
you're an Archer. The trick to effective play is unlocking skills in
various classes to customize your ideal build. For example, you could
level up a Pugilist and a Conjurer to unlock heal abilities, then switch
to a Marauder and equip the helpful skills to make you more durable in
solo combat. That Square Enix
grants this kind of freedom to players is great to see, and it's fun to
experiment with all the different styles of play to see what you like
best, or simply having the option to quickly swap classes should the
needs of a group require a new tank, healer, or ranged damage dealer.
The overall game world is enormous.
The crafting and gathering systems built into the game also contribute
to the class system. If you equip a mining pick, you can then hack at
deposits for ore and other valuables. Then if you equip other specialty
equipment you'll don the hat of a wide range of production classes, from
those that build heavy armor to those that tinker with rings and
jewelry. These crafting and gathering systems aren't merely side
activities, but heavily integrated into the rhythms of life in Eorzea.
Success in crafting and harvesting quests yields points that not only
rank up the class, but also contribute to a universal pool of experience
called physical level. So while each class is leveled on an individual
basis only while the corresponding tool or weapon is equipped, you'll
always be earning experience for the physical level. When increased, it
frees up points to be assigned to things like attack, defense and
accuracy, as well as a variety of magical properties, which gives a
solid sense of a growing overall power even while you're not swinging
weapons out on the battlefield.
Aside from that, crafting is especially important in the game since it's
the primary method of getting better gear. The occasional item can be
earned by completing quests, but in general if you want better gear
you're going to have to build it, buy it directly from a crafter, or
find it on the open market. Like many of the game's functions, little is
explained about the actual crafting process. Once learned you'll find
it's a high risk system that infuses a significant degree of chance into
the creation process as you juggle a variety of percentage sliders and
an abstract color-coding system. Failure is a frequent part of this
process, but that makes successful production all the more satisfying.
Because of the way the class system is set up you could, theoretically,
be a master of all crafts, though realistically I would assume people
only have time to focus on one or two things. There's plenty of social
interaction built into the creation system, as some classes can only
build components that others fashion into a whole, and getting different
items repaired requires assistance by specific crafters. The problem
since launch has been one of dissemination. It's always possible to spam
chat channels with requests for armor or advertisements for personal
stock to trade with others, but the heart of Final Fantasy XIV's economy
is the market system, which right now is a mess.
Prequels are by definition concerned with looking at what has come
beforehand, but Bound in Blood is anything but a backwards step. This
game--a prequel to 2007's Call of Juarez--is a tense, riveting, and
superb-looking first-person shooter that ditches the stealth elements
that clogged up the original like molasses. Instead, it focuses on
action-packed shoot-outs and set-piece moments that will make you feel
like you've strapped on the six-shooters and stepped straight into the
dusty, violent Wild West. And while it's over all too quickly (and
filled with none-too-smart enemies), Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is
sure to scratch the itchiest of trigger fingers.
The game's Western theme is presented with aplomb: it showcases an
impressive world that bleeds with Wild West iconography. Bound in Blood
is more spaghetti than Unforgiven--gun duels are preceded by
intense bouts of staring, enemies will topple dramatically off high
balconies when shot, and there is more than one large gunfight inside an
abandoned church or saloon. The game's story touches on many well-known
Western motifs, such as honor, betrayal, greed, faith, and even love,
and while it doesn't tread any new ground, it does present a compelling
narrative.
Set years before the first game, Bound in Blood follows the McCall
brothers--Ray and Thomas--as they change from honorable Confederate
deserters to amoral treasure hunters seeking a fabled fortune. If you
played the first game, you know Ray as a religious fire-and-brimstone
preacher, which is a stark contrast to the lustful, greedy, coldhearted
Ray portrayed in Bound in Blood. It's one of the great pleasures of the
game to see just how this transformation takes place, and while you'll
probably see the ending from a mile away, it still packs a hefty
emotional punch.
While Ray is a brutish type, his brother, Thomas, is more thoughtful
(although just as violent), and you'll get to play as both in Bound in
Blood. You could also play as two different characters in the first
game, but while the two there were clearly delineated as action or
stealth, this time around both characters are action-focused. Ray is
more direct: he can duel-wield pistols, throw explosives, break down
doors, and walk around with the occasional Gatling gun. Thomas is an
expert with the rifle, is deadly with a bow, can use a lasso to reach
high places, and can use knives for silent stealth kills. Ray is all
about in-your-face confrontation, rushing in with both guns blazing and
blowing up any obstacle. Thomas lets you play a more measured game,
using the rifle's long sights to take enemies out from a distance. Each
brother also gets his own special attack--called concentration
mode--which slows down time to allow quick attacks on multiple targets.
Though their attacks are performed differently--Ray's requires you to
quickly move your targeting reticle over foes, while Thomas' has you
flicking the right stick on the controller (or moving your mouse back
and forth in the PC version) in order to replicate a gun's hammer--the
effect is the same: mass carnage.
Apart from a few missions at the start and near the end of the game, you
can choose to play as either Ray or Thomas throughout most of Bound in
Blood. The two brothers stick close together for most of it, meaning
that apart from a few instances where one brother has to take a
different path, you'll see and do the same thing no matter which one you
play as. How you play--aggressive as Ray or circumspect as Thomas--is
different enough, however, to make it worthwhile to go through the game
twice. This is a plus because of the brevity of Bound in Blood's
single-player campaign. You'll likely finish it (including all side
missions) in about seven hours on the first run.
However, those seven hours will be eventful, with gameplay flowing
nicely between intense shoot-outs, large-scale set pieces, and intimate
one-on-one gun duels. The available weapons for the many Bound in Blood
shoot-outs are fairly limited compared to other shooters, although given
the time period, that's hardly surprising. Both Ray and Thomas can use
pistols, shotguns, and rifles, and there are several varieties of each
that you can upgrade to as the game progresses. The large set pieces
happen with good regularity and include using a cannon, blowing up a
Union paddle steamer (don't worry, the Confederates get their due
eventually), riding a raft through rapids while being pursued by angry
Native Americans, using a cart-mounted Gatling gun to mow down enemies
on horseback, and even fighting your way out of an ancient underground
temple as it gets buried in sand. You'll also get plenty of time on
horseback, although the horses can change direction on a dime and even
quickly strafe, so they don't feel much like real animals when you're
astride them
The gun duels are less hectic but just as tense. These one-on-one
affairs act as boss fights, pitting you against an especially powerful
enemy in an old-fashioned quick-draw fight to the death. The camera
shifts down to a cinematic view low behind the player for these duels.
You'll have to match your opponent's left and right steps to keep him in
the centre of the screen, while keeping your hand close to your pistol.
Duel controls are quite precise, and you'll never feel like they're
preventing you from winning a quick draw. It's heart-in-the-mouth stuff
most of the time, and you'll probably die plenty of times before you get
the timing of a draw right.
Walking through Battlefield 3's version of Strike at Karkand is like
pulling burnt pictures from the ashes of a house fire. The photos are
familiar and full of memories, but the edges are charred by flames and
smoke -- in the case of online warfare this is perfect.
Bring these cities down.
Battlefield 3's Back to Karkand expansion features four classic
Battlefield maps rebuilt to use Battlefield 3's engine. The nooks and
alleyways of Strike at Karkand and Gulf of Oman remain intact from their
original iterations in Battlefield 2 (and before). But the trash,
debris, and rubble dotting the ground change everything. Rather than
clean streets, clutter fills every corner and craters spot the map where
past explosions are just memories. Where Battlefield 2's Strike at
Karkand looked like a street sweeper had recently passed, Battlefield
3's imagining adds junk -- and it changes everything. The two maps are
no longer clean battlefields awaiting destruction; these are cities
under siege that have already been hit hard. Brick cluttered sidewalks
and overturned crates add a spark to formerly lifeless streets.
Destruction revitalizes these classic maps. Battlefield 2 couldn't
handle entire buildings collapsing, but Back to Karkand is ripe for the
wrecking ball. Back to Karkand's classic maps require new tactics and
clever strategies to succeed. Almost every building can crumble in
Strike at Karkand and Gulf of Oman. When a single building is the only
cover surrounding a capture point, its disappearance makes for an
interesting shift in the match.
Coming home again to find a mess.
Back to Karkand doesn't copy the legacy maps' layouts pixel by pixel,
but certain areas are unmistakable. I spent a lot of time crouched on
Strike at Karkand's Hotel capture point back in the day, and returning
to the slightly elevated flagpole evokes deja vu. Both maps move from
tight quarters to huge open spaces, and destruction gets top billing in
comparison to Battlefield 3's other maps.
Battlefield 3's first expansion isn't just about the maps; in fact, one
of its best aspects is the addition of Conquest Assault. Conquest
Assault popped up in Battlefield 2142, but for those unfamiliar with the
game-type, it's a fast-paced variation of assault where one team rushes
to take back a map's worth of capture points. Matches move rapidly
because assaulting teams hold no capture points.
The icing on the war-torn cake is three new vehicles and ten new
weapons. They don't change the experience for better or worse, but
getting additional equipment to toy with adds to the fun. Each new
weapon unlocks via "assignments." These tasks range from certain kinds
of kills to various team actions and eventually provide you with one of
the new firearms.
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