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Listen up soldiers!

The Battlefield 3 open beta has been running for close to 36 hours and the floodgates are about to open as DICE and EA make their revolutionary first-person shooter available to the masses.

Noobs from the world over will soon be descending upon the luscious and open green grasses of Operation Metro in their quest to destroy the eight M-COM stations scattered throughout the level, and I am here to get you through it alive.

The combat is fast paced, unrelenting and most of all unforgiving in this redefined Battlefield experience, and I damn love it! Compassion and rage at fighting alongside idiots has driven me to compile a handy ten step guide that will ultimately allow you to unleash havoc upon your unsuspecting enemies. So listen up soldier, and pay some damn attention.

1. This Isn’t Call of Duty

Hey, I’m no hater, but people really need to understand the arcade nature of Call of Duty doesn’t give an accurate representation of the heavy team based gameplay of Battlefield 3 or even the Bad Company titles. Running into combat blind is just going to get you blown away and your squad decimated. Drop shotting? Nope. Got your buddy “MLG QuiCkkSk0p3z LeGiiT Pro Tru3 420WeedSniper” wanting to run around with the bolt action rifle? It wont work.

Come into Battlefield 3 with a fresh new approach and try to tackle each situation tactically and accordingly. Slow pushes and flanking maneuvers are vital in a game where terrain and cover can make an objective unapproachable. A single player can change the course of a whole match, and remember that. Cutting off spawn routes and supporting your team is a crucial ingredient of the winning recipe!

2. Know Your Role

And know it well. Battlefield 3 has shook up the idea of classes in Bad Company 2 and switched some things around, most importantly the Assault class. Assault is now the medic, Support is now Assault (essentially) and the Recon and Engineer classes perform as always. Assault should be up there in the thick of it constantly reviving fallen teammates and securing objectives. Assault should not be hanging back and walking past dead bodies that could be revived… Well, unless you want to play a bad Assault.

Support is your ammunition horse, the one that lays down suppressive fire and keeps heads down. Using the heavy barrel, foregrip and holographic sight the Support can become an effective spearhead at pushing objectives and slaying targets and claymores allow you to defend bombsites. Recon, your job is titular, sit back and spot targets, shooting troublesome enemy soldiers. Cover bombsites with your long range rifles and keep your teammates safe. The Engineer is somewhat useless in this beta after the removal of the APC so I don’t have any “dos and dont’s”.

 3. Understand The Limitations of Your Class

You’ve just made the first push and blown up the initial two M-COM stations. The fighter jets have blown the subway open and you’re about to make your way in. You and your comrades make your way towards the next bomb and you see four guys in a corridor. Do you fight them or fall back and wait for your squad to catch up? That’s a decision only you can make.

Stupid moves cost you momentum, tickets, and more often than not the whole match. Waiting for your squad to move up means support, but wasting them on your own means momentum and a whole in their lines you can exploit. Don’t try and be a hero if you don’t have the skill or equipment to back it up. Support has a 46 round magazine in the default rifle and it has stopping power so you could mow them down. Recon on the other hand would be a stupid engagement. Make decisions on the fly, and that leads me to my next tip…

4. Situational Awareness

This is something you develop over time and you can’t just switch it on and off. I’ve played every Battlefield series entry right from the humble beginnings in Battlefield 1942. Flying helicopters in Desert Combat was how I spent my weekend. Battlefield 3 is all about making dynamic decisions and adapting to the enemies routes and attack. You’ll find often you have enemies occupying the pavillion just by the “A” M-COM station with sniper rifles and LMG’s. What do you do? Flank them.

Jump in the lake and run right down their right flank, come up from their spawn and waste them all. Smart decisions like this buy your team valuable time and give you precious breathing room to get both bombs planted and set up a study defense. Once you get the first bomb down at “B” M-COM station in the first phase realise that the enemy will now be focused on B and use the opportunity to rig A!

Check out the video here of me planting both bombs and carving a route through the enemy line. It’s a perfect example of how monitoring your map (Hint: you can make it bigger by tapping the M key) and keeping aware can win you the game and save tickets.

Check out Page 2 for the next five tips that will ensure you victory.

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