Battlefield 3

At this point this game is probably my favorite multiplayer game, and I have been a fan of the series for a long time, but I will do my best to see it unbiased.
I'll start with the single-player portion of the game. First of all the visuals are of course amazing, definitely the best when it released, and for the most part they don't falter at any point. The sounds in the game sound right, all the weapons sound different, the rain hitting a metal roof sounds right, vehicles sound proper, you can hear the engine rumble to life as you start up a tank. So all around the game felt, sounded, and looked real. I enjoyed the sway of the weapon as you moved side to side, and the camera bob when running, very realistic. However, the story seemed to jump around in time quite often but it failed to really tell you when something was. For instance, in one mission you witness one of your companions die, but then a few missions later you are apparently in the past and there he is, but the game didn't tell you that, they just leave you to figure it out on your own. The story isn't the most original, single bad guy in charge of a large military force, intentions to set world powers against each other, usual stuff with some interesting points thrown in to make it not a complete copy/paste of a guide of how to make a modern shooter. A few points in the game you are forced to use specific weapons which automatically removes you current weapon(s) which can suck but whatever, not the end of the world. A couple times the game will make you ask "why?" but I'm sure DICE would answer with something about making it work.
Co-op is a nice addition, even though it's more similar to Call of Duty 2's Spec Ops mode than a real co-op. It suffers from the same issue with dictating what weapons you have at certain times as the campaign but again, not a huge issue. Unfortunately on one of the early missions they throw you in the pilot seat of an attack helicopter, and before you say "Oh well I was awesome at flying the choppers in Bad Company 2" they changed the controls again. I assume the helicopters fly more realistically, I can't say forsure because I've never flown one in real life, but they feel heavy and kind of like boats at first. It takes some time but when you master flying them you'll be glad they made them more realistic, it seems to be much easier to do useful maneuvers that can save your butt. Positive thing about the co-op is that you can unlock weapons for multiplayer, it will take a while but hey, it's better than nothing.
Multiplayer is probably the main reason anyone buys this game, not because the campaign is horrible, just because mutiplayer is where the game really shows off. I play this game on the 360 so there are less people per match and the maps are usually reduced by a flag or two on conquest but this isn't a bad thing. It is quite the sight to see tanks, scout and attack helicopters, jeeps, jets, and infantry running around trying to capture/defend objectives. Destructive environments make the game very custom to your experience, and a large selection of weapons to customize and use in your own way in the ever changing battlefield make it a very fun time. Close quarters? Grab an MTAR-21, throw on a silencer, foregrip, and holo sight, or grap a shotgun, semi auto or pump? Or why not grab a powerful sniper rifle, strip off the scope and throw on a red dot sight and a silencer. Long hallway to cover? Grab an M60, toss on a bipod and an extended mag, 200 precise recoil-less rounds heading to your enemies. Really the combinations are vast.
The only real downsides to the multiplayer is that they have servers available to be rented, so there is always the possibility that you are going to annoy the owner of the server you're in and get kicked senselessly, alternately you can rent your own server and dictate the many laws of the game and which maps and game modes you go through. The other downside to the game is that there seem to be issues with servers balancing teams, you can actually have one team with 12 level 3-17s and the other team with 12 level 45-90+ which can get annoying either way, either you win too easy without experiencing much combat or you get a boot up your ass.

My verdict for Battlefield 3 will be a 8.5 out of 10, great multiplayer with minor issues, relatively short campaign with some story telling problems, and an alright co-op mode. For those who are hardcore Call of Duty players, there is a team deathmatch mode in multiplayer which I swear is just like COD but a little different, like a nice merging of the two games. So I recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the series, if you don't already own it, to anyone who enjoys good multiplayer, anyone who likes to be able to fly a jet, drive a tank, and base-jump while screwing around, and anyone else who is all for this modern warfare kick games are on.