what - no back to karkand with this? I have to pay $24 extra

The Setup of Game is crap.
Cant adjust anything unless ingame.
Gameplay is ok, Weapons ok.

Exapnsion Pack ????? What expansion pack - No one can or has played it yet. SO we paid ectra for that.
Graphics : Good - You need a good Video / graphics card to play and good memory.
It is Nothing Like Battlefield 2 for those who dont have it yet.

no-one mentioned that graphics cards that easily ran BF2, BFBC2, Black Ops, MW2 etc will not run BF3. this is a massive letdown because all my gaming is on a Dell 1735 and the only way to upgrade the graphics card is to replace the integrated motherboard at the same time - around $600 cost.

before you buy make sure your graphics card will run the game or do like I did and get the Xbox360 version also.

regarding the Karkand expansion pack - it has not been released yet and I understand it will be operational in December.

When it comes to the Fight between MW3 and BF3, it is a really technical battle.

For story I'm sure MW3 will take the cake as it has a long line of previous campaigns to keep it on its feet. But
BF3 came in this round with a wild haymaker that connected well with it's "Tarintino" style story, Amazing cinematics and brand new game engine compared to MW3's Game engine that has pretty much been the same since COD 4 give or take a few upgrades.... Old Software New patches... like Having Windows XP in 2011 it's stable sure... but it's still ridiculously out of date and won't get far when it comes to innovation.

I played BF3 first obviously because it was released earlier, and was amazed at the cheeky new game engine glistening in the light like a diamond in the rough, shooting enemies cover away so i could feed them lead easier, large scale combat zones, Immersive audio and beautiful scenery. While it had a few bugs sure, they are always bound to happen in new software but it was all quickly forgiven with it's sheer genius of it all.

I played MW3 a mere few minutes ago and was so sorely disappointed, the enemies moved around like wooden cut-outs and dropped so suddenly with little to no ragdoll effects at all and it sounded like I was playing a game from 2004 with the horrible sound effects... cover was in-penetrable and at the start I was in a room full of glass and found it entertaining to shoot the glass displays like ducks at a range... alas I had the horrible thought to think that shooting the glass on the roof would aid in killing my foe... Nay. it was glass made from the magical dwarfs of middle earth that was nigh unbreakable.

So i played another hour and was so sorely disappointed when **** didn't break, fall over or explode.

Other critics give it 10/10 or 9/10 simply because if they don't then they'll be stoned and whipped in public for being "too picky" but F*#$ that.

I give BF3 9.5/10 simply because of the bugs it loses 0.5 but that is all fixable. where-as MW3 gets a measly 4/10, lack of immersion, predictable story, ***** sound and unrealistic fire fights left me with a lump in my throat like a half swallowed penicillin when you just want it to go away.

OK so installing this game was a bit of a hassle. The last thing anybody needs is another game client. DICE tried this before with BF2142 expansion and it was an irritating and pointless exercise. Now they've decided to resurrect it - much the collective displeasure of PC gamers everywhere. We all already have STEAM, and it it far more polished/comprehensive than this new effort from DICE. Just imagine if every game developer brought out their own game client service that needs to run in the background. The new browser based server/stats interface is OK, but I don't really see the advantage here either.

The in-game menus, by contrast are a clearly a lazy console port. Trying to double click doesn't work, scroll doesn't work - this is incredibly lazy and sloppy user-interface design guys. Another hint - if you want your game not to look like a console port - don't put "press enter to continue" after the intro video

My initial impressions of the gameplay are almost completely obscured by the fact that once again, DICE have completely messed up the mouse control. This time there is no negative acceleration, but instead we have some "speed limiting bug" (do a google search for the thread on ea forums). This is incredibly irritating as it is even more aggressive than negative acceleration, and completely excludes quick aim adjustments.

DICE clearly don't understand just how important an intuitive mouse input is to PC gaming. This is especially irritating given the huge effort many PC gamers put into sorting out the mouse controls in BC2 via script editors etc (eg. BC2 mouse fix) only to find that with this new game they are back at square one. Personally I won't play this new game until this issue is sorted as it precludes my enjoyment of the title as well as my ability to play multiplayer intuitively.

I remember the trailers heralding this game as renewed focus from DICE to the PC market. Certainly the graphics department was focused on the PC, but that's about all in this game that appears geared toward PC gamers. Oh-and there appears to be a relative absence of (non-mouse related) bugs relative to DICE's other PC efforts

As far as what gameplay I have observed, maps appear varied with lots of open areas and choke points requiring varied tactics at different points of the game. The modelling and terrain on the maps is incredible. However, to me there are too many corridoors which then invites either explosives spam or excessive flanking. There is a lack of permeability or freedom of approach which was present in Bad Company 2. One cannot knock down the door of any given building to gain entry. This makes the game a bit predictable and static with the same choke points turning up again, and again, and again. This is not progress in this reviewer's opinion.

My second issue is the new obstacle physics. While I can appreciate that in real life one cannot walk on top of a thin fence (at least not in complete combat gear) this is not what I am used to, and one is constantly foiled in ones's movements either by a seemingly jumpable riser/low fence, or otherwise by the general profusion of 10 centimeter high rubble. This is irritating.

To me the singleplayer campaign seems liek quite a good effort. Sure the AI is kind of dumb and the story is linear but the scripting is fantastic, as are some of the action sequences. Overall though this is well short of a COD level of cinematic experience.

So overall is this game a COD-killer? Absolutely not, these games are in completely different categories with completely different gameplay characteristics. Will this game win back some of the disgruntled BF2 players who lost faith in the franchise - probably not given the flawed mouse controls. Will this game win over hardcore BC2 fans who love the permeability and freedom offered in BC2 maps - again no.

To me that only leaves A) casual PC gamers and B) console gamers unaffected by the mouse issues who I could recommend this game to. Swing and a miss DICE - I'm giving this 5 stars until they fix the mouse issue.

Expansion or not, Ultra end PC or not (eminenc3) this game is the most detailed and realistic first person shooter ever released. I am running the game on a Toshiba Satellite L750 with i5 CPU @ 2.3 GHz, 4GB of RAM and Geforce GT525 Graphics with the latest drivers (headphone sound so as not to annoy the Mrs.) The campaign ran perfectly on default settings @ 1366 x 768... Not the highest end graphic options, not low either. But still the most stunning FPS you will ever play... Multiplayer does not take anything away from the graphics quality experienced in the story mode. If your serious about realistic combat gaming then you need BF3...

Battlefield 3 draw you in more and more as time goes by, with an impressive line up of unlocks as you progress your character through all of them.

However, the game will be remember by the people who play it most by the Bugs and dramas the game has given them in trying to,
1) Install it
2) run it
3) Run it longer than 15-20 minutes.

The game is simply stunning to look at, you will need a high end PC to get the game to run at its peak, so be warned you will need to fork out well over 2-3,000 for a pc to run it in Ultra.

The single player campaign was and always has been somewhat of a sid dish in the otherwise mulitplayer dependent franchise.

Time and time again battlefield has come out with a Single Player Campaign, that many if not most of the people who play the multiplayer will never even touch in the over all long run.

Once the game has the bugs worked out and the servers start running better, we will be able to fully appreciate the awesome creation that is BF3..

For those looking to buy this game.
Be warned about the level of your PCs ability to play the game.
The imediate problems that surround this game at present
and of course the dramas you will have playing with Endless hordes of COD players who have no concept of tactics or skill.
Spray and Pray when u rush = death on this game very fast..

This is the full version of the game - however the EA version included the expansion pack.

All over the EA website it states that a pre-ordered copy of BF3 comes with the "Back to Karkland" expansion pack. I pre-ordered and downloaded my copy from Bigpond games on the 26th of Oct. Didn't have any issues with the install or activation but I can't find where this damn expansion pack is... does it just install with the full version or has it been left out of the Bigpond downloads???

@TwinkyBro if you're with Bigpond anything you download from the games shop or their movies etc is un-metered

File Size 14,086MB

Is this download suitable for MAC?

How big is the actual download size?

If you have already downloaded the game – please go here https://secure.gamearena.com.au/account/shop/gamesandguides.php for an updated key.

If you are about to buy the game then you can download and install the game, you just won’t be able to play until the 27th.

If you buy BF3 from here (Games Shop) you can pre-download it (unmtered for BP customers) and install it. The key which is provided by EA will activate on the 27th.

If you have any questions - please raise a support ticket - by clicking the help link on the top right of the site.

Is anyone having trouble installing this version? Can it even be installed?

Wait, so can we download the game after purchasing it through here unmetered or not?

Recommend you don't buy the game until the 27th of October. I did and the game key supplied will not let you re-install the game, which it should. Which makes me wonder if it will allow install on the 27th of October at all. I've raised a ticket with gameshop on this.

Recommend you don't buy the game until the 27th of October. I did and the game key supplied will not let you re-install the game, which it should. Which makes me wonder if it will allow install on the 27th of October at all. I've raised a ticket with gameshop on this.

So if I pre downlaod this it won't be unmetered? :(