After what seemed like an excessive period of silence between announcement and release, Battlefield 3 Aftershock hit the App Store this February. The silence and the fact that it hit many, many moons after Battlefield 3 proper were big hints that Aftershock wasn’t going to be the greatest game ever, and boy, was it not. Glitchy and laggy play defined the user experience, and its strange Act of Valor tie-in baffled us. Players bombarded it poor reviews immediately, while we questioned why it was even released in the first place.
Now, it’s gone. EA has removed Aftershock to “re-evaluate" the experience, and presumably, to ensure that Battlefield‘s name isn’t completely sullied by this whole thing. Battlefield is an especially big brand for EA. It’s its flagship first-person shooter, and a franchise that it actively sets up to compete against Call of Duty.
IGN obtained the following statement:
“EA Mobile is committed to delivering mobile entertainment experiences that are on par with the content and quality users have come to expect from their favorite EA gaming brands.
To this end, we have decided to remove Battlefield 3: Aftershock from the App Store and are currently re-evaluating the app in response to the consumer feedback we’ve received. We thank all the fans who have downloaded the game to date."
As IGN notes, another Battlefield 3 game is set to hit the App Store in 2012. We expect this one to offer more than multiplayer. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if it used a similar formula to Bad Company, which has been a hit with fans despite having more than a few of its own problems.
In the past, we’ve seen EA pull old apps to make room for sequels. Recently, it pulled Mass Effect: Galaxy in advance of Infiltrator‘s release. We’ve never seen this kind of pull from EA before, but it seems like a good move. The app was broke and it needed some significant bug testing and tweaking. Here’s to hoping that it actually reappears.
I'd say for once you're giving a too high score. The app crashes constantly on an iPod Touch 4th gen. The puzzle's difficulty shouldn't lower the score, but for sure it does narrow down the crowd who'd enjoy the game. Nevertheless it's a wonderful experience and it's one of my favorite point and click games simply because it's so stunning. Does lose to Puzzle Agent-series and The Secret Of Chateau De Moreau though.
It's hard to account for crashes, unfortunately. I didn't encounter any, and the TA thread only had one mention of crashes when this review was written.
Yeah well I suppose the review is written based on your personal experience with the game and if it didn't crash for you and you could experience the game in it's full glory then I suppose 4.5 is a good rating. From my personal experience I'd say it'd be 3.5 or 4. That's for iPod Touch users by the way, others can freely trust on this review.
I'd give it 4-4.5. Ran flawlessly on my 4S. Great experience!
Excellent news! I'll even buy it, despite that highly annoying quirk that the larger device's version gets a larger price tag.
Developers: please don't do that.
Really? I've actually thought about the pricing too since it's such a standard thing. In my experience, the iPad version really is the better one simply based on screen space and resolution. Interesting comment though.
i agree, with one caveat. i think that if the HD version has a higher price tag, it should also be universal. if i'm already going to pay a premium for the "upgrade", i DEFINITELY don't want to buy the game twice
superbrothers comes to mind as an example of doing it right, although there are lots more out there
This I agree with as well. I bought it last night thinking I could install it on my iPod touch and had no such luck. Really charming game though.
I tried it on my iphone, the text are so small that I think I will continue when I have an iPad