Battlefield 3

Not one to usually give reviews but, unfortunately, the issues with this game are so outrageous that I decided to make an exception. Firstly, as others have already mentioned, the terms and conditions seem to state that EA can basically see what you get up to on your own PC by installing what may as well be spy-ware. I find this to be very intrusive and a breach of personal privacy. What is even more worrying is that EA have been allowed to do such a thing! Furthermore, the fact that Origin has to be installed to play I also feel is unfair and very anti-competitive, how long before Origin is the only source of games and you have to pay the price EA sets through the Origin store to get this game?!

Despite the issues mentioned above, I wasn't aware of these until I had already installed the game and that leads on to the next problem - in my case it is completely unplayable! After successfully installing the game twice (as it wasn't working I uninstalled and reinstalled yet achieved nothing)and a PC capable of running the game, I have yet to experience any of this game. I have been unable to connect to any server for multiplayer or even play single player as both of these options are launched through a web based system which seems to be suffering from many problems, in my case the game launcher gets stuck on initialising and in effect freezing the launcher). Having looked through the forums on said system, I am not alone with my issues. The forums are flooded with angry gamers like myself, who have been unable to play this game in any capacity. To add insult to injury, EA and DICE haven't even seemed to acknowledge the problem and have offered no solutions themselves, at least that I could find and I have been trying to sort this for 3 hours as I type this, as well as joing a petition on the forums demanding EA/DICE to acknowledge these problems - bear in mind the game has been out since Monday in the US and many people there are still on the forums with problems as well.

Uterly disgusting behaviour on their part. Instead of spending the fortune they did on advertising and songs by Jay-z, perhaps they shoudld of spent that money on trying to develop and release a quality product! Cannot express how angry I am and have uninstalled Battlefield and Origin and will avoid at it at all costs in the future, it is time EA realised that we, the consumer, deserve to be treated with some respect!

THE GOOD !

Awesome multiplayer.
Lots and lots of different weapons and attachments.
Some beautiful lighting and effects.

THE BAD :(

Boring single player campaign.
Massive loading times.
You need to use origin to run the game.
Many repawning enemies in single player makes it feel a bit cheap.
Enemies have instant aimbot on hard difficult setting, even the turret on the tanks spin 180 degrees in 0000.1 seconds if your out of cover.

THE (Origin) UGLY !!

Origin.
Origin is something you don't want to install, it's a program that makes the battlefield 3 experience on the pc feel outdated, slow and very awkward.

Origin makes you use a web page for a server browser, rather then a normal ingame server browser like pc gamers are used to.

Origin makes you reload the game each time you want to swap between campaign, co-op and multiplayer.

Origin makes linking up with your friends 1000s time more complecated then using steam.

Origin doesn't like avast anti virus and can block the web page from working.

Origin sells your information to 3rd parties.

Origin is EA being totally greedy idiots.

If you have respect for gaming on the pc, you will boycott this game.

I don't normally write game reviews but my experience of this game over the past couple of days has compelled me to write this one, so here goes...

Having bought and played computer games (both console and PC) for over 30 years now I have to say this one has given me the most problems when it came to installation and the system it uses (i.e. Origin).

I own and play most of the released FPS games, especially CoD, Battlefield, MoH etc and am happy to use such systems as Steam. No issues with that.

But Origin is a total nightmare. It took me over three hours to get the game installed, activated and configured. I own a DVD copy of the game and never managed to actually install direct from the discs. Instead, after some forum searching on the net, I ended up copying the contents from both discs to a folder on my hard drive and installed from there!

To say I was extremely angry is a massive understatement. In fact I was so wound up that I literally got the game installed and configured then shut down my PC and went to cool off for a while. I was seething and I've never felt like that before just because of a computer game.

Origin is so intrusive. Why does it need to collect so much information on me and my PC? And how come we have no opt out option with regards allowing EA to pass on our info to third parties?? The fact that you HAVE to agree to all of this before you can play the game seems ludicrous.

And bear in mind you're not aware of any of this until you've removed the shrink wrap and started to install the software, by which point you've probably lost any chance of being able to return your game for refund.

I've only just started playing the game itself and at the moment all I can think of is, what is Origin doing in the background while I'm in the game? This somewhat spoils the experience.

Hopefully I can get into the game and enjoy it (from first impressions it does look good) but I will think twice now before I buy another Electronic Arts game that requires you install something like Origin.

EA... please get your act together and sort this out.