If EA weren't already inviting so many comparisons between the two, maybe I'd feel guilty about juxtaposing the co-op section of Battlefield 3 that I played with the co-op ("Spec Ops") section of Modern Warfare 3 I played this week at Gamescom. Like MW3, my colleague Alexander and I were given hands-on time with a specific co-op mission in BF3 -- the same one played on-stage during EA's press conference.

Unlike Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games' demo, however, Battlefield 3's co-op section didn't feature any interesting kink in the experience. Moreover, Battlefield 3's co-op section wasn't co-op at all, other than the fact that I was playing it with a buddy. It could've been ripped from any section of the campaign and I'd have been none the wiser. While the Spec Ops mission we played in MW3 was built around the concept of cooperative play, with one player acting as eye in the sky and the other as bomb diffuser, the mission in Battlefield 3, well, it wasn't. It was just a campaign mission with two people.