Most defense contractors will probably never get the satisfaction of squeezing the trigger of their company's best-selling enemy eliminator in real life. So what if they could, in a video game? Meet Battlefield 3, the much-anticipated video game in Electronic Arts' award-winning military-themed series, released this morning for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and well-equipped PCs.

While legions of virtual soldiers will be focused on blowing away up to 64 simultaneous online opponents, let's take a look at how military hardware is portrayed in the game.

Battlefield 3's official trailer blends in-game footage with live-action video.

Real World, Contractor-Built Weapons

Battlefield 3's visuals present a "a new real" to simulated battles that leave very little to the imagination, seen in subtle lighting effects like dust storms, to not-so-subtle explosions, building demolitions and a mix of bullet and concrete flying past your eye as an enemy bears down on your position.

Part of that new real includes a near-obsessive focus on the detail and performance of the weapons systems and vehicles used in the game.

In the Battlefield 3 single-player campaign, players begin as a Marine in the field, armed with a real-life loadout of weapons. (For multiplayer games, players will be able to choose from a wide variety of weapons used by the American, Russian and other militaries.) Unlike other military-themed video games, all of the Battlefield 3 weapons are based on and named after their real-world equivalents, which are of course built by government contractors.

Although the game features a disclaimer saying, "The depiction of any weapon or vehicle in this game does not indicate affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement by any weapon or vehicle manufacturer," a company source told us that the video game's development team did exhaustive research, including hands-on access provided by the military for certain items, to get the data used to model the look, sound and effects of the vehicles and weapons used in the game.

Battlefield 3's development team capturing the audio from a simulated firefight.

Take the FIM-92 Stinger. Originally designed by General Dynamics and currently manufactured by Raytheon Missile Systems, the Stinger is the U.S. military's primary man-portable surface-to-air missile system. Just like its real-life counterpart, the Battlefield 3 FIM-92 is used for taking out low-flying airplanes and helicopters.

Other familiar weapons include the familiar M4 Carbine (manufactured by Colt); MAV Micro UAVs modeled after the Honeywell T-Hawk and used for "God's eye" battlefield recon; the M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System (manufactured by C-More Systems), used in real life for door breaching (though often popular with players for antipersonnel purposes); and many other real-world weapons, equipment and vehicles.

Video that walks players through several of Battlefield 3's vehicles.

Departures From Reality

Although reality is an important starting point, video game weapons will often depart from reality for the sake of gameplay -- namely, the need to provide balance. During gameplay, users may find that certain weapons are overpowered or underpowered relative to similar weapons in their class, disrupting balance or otherwise hurting playability.

To compensate, game designers may adjust the capabilities of certain weapons systems to restore balance and improve gameplay. (Thus far, we're not aware of any defense contractors arguing about they way their products are portrayed in videogames -- though if they did, it would almost certainly not be because their products are "too effective.")

Also, while Battlefield 3's levels include modern locations like Iraq, other levels take place in locations that haven't had open warfare in a long time, like Paris, Manhattan and WWII-era Wake Island.

For now, Battlefield 3's balance of real-world weapons and semi-fictional locations will deliver raucous multiplayer action, that, while not always providing the most-realistic depiction of actual warfare, tactics or weapons, should still be enough to satisfy even the most-hardened video game veteran.

Disclosure: I worked with the internal marketing teams for several of the Battlefield series of games including Battlefield 1942, Battlefield Vietnam, Battlefield 1942: The Road to Rome and Battlefield 1942: The Secret Weapons of WWII.

Micheal Mullen serves as senior editor for GovWin.com. You can reach him at michealmullen@govwin.com, or follow him via Twitter @idiottech.