Over the past few years there has been one dominating force in the world of online shooters and that has been Call of Duty, but it was not always this way. DICE used to rule the roost with its Battlefield series of games and has spent many years (I remember playing their first game Codename Eagle at LAN parties back in the day) perfecting the formula that made it such a popular developer and series in the early 2000's. However DICE has gone back to the drawing board and licked their wounds spending the last few years coming up with the next Battlefield blockbuster. The game in BETA form is available to all and sundry as you read this and this is our initial thoughts.

The first thing to be aware of is that to play Battlefield 3 you need to download Origin which his EA's new steam like client to purchase and manage EA games (it appears this is one major reason EA games are struggling to appear on Steam these days). Initially you might think that they are just forcing their new system through their biggest 2011 game, but there is many reasons why Origin is required, some more unexpected then others.