Today Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches. It’s one of the biggest game launches of the year, but in the excitement around COD3, we can’t forget Battlefield 3, a huge release from three weeks ago. It’s already sold 5 million copies.

Battlefield 3 is nothing like the Call of Duty Franchise: although both are First Person Shooter (FPS) games, they have different game engines and different roles.

Battlefield 3 is the sequel to Battlefield 2 (launched in 2005) and uses the new Frostbite 2 graphics engine (developed by EA Digital Illusions CE).

Battlefield 3 is all about the online combat and less about the single-player campaign, which allows gamers to experience intense gameplay. Call of Duty’s focus is towards kill streaks in multiplayer mode and the campaign in story mode.

Electronic Arts shipped over 10 million copies of the game to retailers on its October 25 release date. EA said “It was the biggest shipment day that the company has ever done in one day.”

At this year 2011′s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Battlefield 3 was awarded “Best of Show.” It’s a game that takes teamwork to succeed on mission objectives, which makes Battlefield 3′s increased online game capacity (24 players, and up to 64 on a PC) for head to head play essential - all players need to be participating to enjoy the intense experience of Battlefield.

Battlefield has improved mass destruction animations with a great visual experience. The landscapes are dense and complex, and the characters have a very realistic animation. You can hear every sound in Battlefield 3: when explosions tear walls down to the ground, Battlefield sounds and looks more real than ever.

There are four classes in Battlefield 3 to choose from: Assault, Engineer, Support and Recon. These classes are very similar to Battlefield Bad Company 2.

Let’s take a look at each of these classes:

• Assault class: uses medium effect weapons. Can also serve as a medic, since Battlefield 3 took out the medic class. A medic’s job is to drop medical kits in order to help teammates heal.
• Engineer class: carries assault weapons like the assault class, but their main duties are to repair teammates’ vehicles.
• Support class: carries a bunch of ammunition and big weapons. Like the assault class, the support class can give its teammates ammo instead of healing them.
• Recon class: the one who is supporting you from a long distance. Sniper rifles are their specialty and they can decide where their teammates will respawn after dying by placing “spawn points.”

A really cool thing about Battlefield 3 is players can now get on jets and fly them, though dodging upcoming missiles can sometimes get annoying.

The game’s biggest downfall? As most fans have experience firsthand, its online server failed majorly when it was first released. In the first week of the game’s release it had some major bugs due to huge traffic, but it’s improved since then.

Two other major game releases, Skyrim (Nov. 11) and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (Nov. 15), only add to the excitement this month – it really is gaming season!