Gamescom 2011 Hands Off: Battlefield 3 Co-Op

What it is: Electronic Arts is keen on making a dent in the supremacy of Activision’s Call of Duty series and, as such, has tasked its DICE studio with creating Battlefield 3, the most technologically impressive first person shooter we’ve seen in years.

Powered by an innovative Frostbite 2 engine, capable of rendering impressive graphics, detailed animations and realistic destruction, not to mention the promise of top notch singleplayer, multiplayer or cooperative campaigns, Battlefield 3 seems to be giving Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 a run for its money.

How it is: After hearing a lot about the single and multiplayer modes in Battlefield 3, EA decided to showcase the cooperative one at Gamescom 2011.

Instead of allowing players to engage with a friend in the campaign, the developers at DICE will bring a completely separate cooperative mode, with custom maps and special challenges that will test the team mentality of the players that are going through it.

More specifically, they’ll be forced to coordinate in firefights, take out unsuspecting enemies at the same time, as well as cover for one another when going to resupply from the many crates scattered around the levels.

The actual gameplay followed the recovery of an informant, and then his escort, alongside a convoy of Humvees, through the dark streets of Teheran. Needless to say, the insurgents aren’t too pleased with that operation, and start attacking the players and vehicles with rockets or machine guns.

The level follows the classic Battlefield recipe, as buildings start to crumble, cover is being destroyed left and right, while players need to keep moving and stay alert. The enemies were much tougher than the regular ones from the single-player campaign, in order to account for two human players, but, in the end, they were defeated, and the demonstration ended, making the Gamescom crowd go wild.

When and on what: Battlefield 3 is out on October 26, for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms.

We have a special page with all our Gamescom 2011 coverage.