BF3 Stress worth it?

[HoldenBurn1000]

Afternoon all,

I would like to get some users experiences here if I may. My new rig is ready and build with a 680 on its way Monday, one of the reasons for this was to get a great BF3 experience (along with other things)

I have made my way over to Amazon and have been greeted by many many MANY negative reviews of, not so much the game, but the experience of installing/updating etc. See copied review below.

Now I don't often pay much attention to one or two gripes as thats the internet for you but this seems overwhelming. I have never seen so many negative reviews of the same type for the same reason.

I love having a slick and fast PC and HATE putting anything on it I don't have to. Minimal software only.
The reports of all this Spyware/bloated software are really putting me off.

Any views you have would be great? Looking for people have bought and installed on PC to see if all these very damming reports are founded?

"I'll list the procedure of trying to play the game as it happened as it's easier to follow:
6:30 - insert disc, run autoplay, install.
6:32 - accept dozens of terms and agreements, accept to install Origin
6:33 - Origin requires an update before install REQUIRED to play Battlefield 3 it says. - Update begins
6:35 - Update complete, re-accept dozens of terms and agreements
6:37 - Create login account for origin
6:39 - Says you've created the account, then won't let you log in, saying password or username is incorrect
6:41 - Try and register again. It says username is not available now. Try logging in again
6:44 - Still not logging in. Go and watch a recorded program on sky for half hour
7:15 - Now logs on. Now have to set privacy details, tell it not to connect to the entire world and tell them I'm playing a game, accept another 10 T&Cs
7:18 - Now says I need an update for the game (4Gb!!!!!! - My brother in law down the road gets 0.3Mb/s imagine him trying to play this)
7:20 - Begin download, go and play chess with the wife (seriously, I haven't played chess in years and there was nothing on TV, the internet is now maxed out so I thought 'why not'?)
10:35 - Download complete. Installing
10:47 - Insert Disc 2
10:52 - Install Complete. Origin crashes
10:55 - Origin not responding to forced closing. Locks machine (my machine hasn't crashed in approx 6 months - and that was during heavy photoshop use - even then it recovered)
11:00 - Reset machine after giving up waiting
11:05 - Machine reset, launched Origin. Hit 'Play Game!'
11:05 - Origin now launches 'Battlefield Website'
11:07 - Still trying to work out why it's launching a website rather than the game
11:10 - Website tells me I need to download a plugin 'Gamemanager' to my browser to play my game
11:15 - Plugin eventually installs after sitting there like a lemon for 5 minutes. I now feel violated.
11:20 - Game launches but I'm tired and extremely hacked off. I get to the menu screen where it says 'do not power off during autosave icon' - realise that's because it's blatantly a console port and go to shut down my PC in annoyance but instead....
11:30 - Begin writing my frustration on this site at the fact I can't play a game for 5 hours because of pointless updates and logins of software I don't need or want

I can hand on heart say that's what I've been through this evening and I'm royally pi**ed off. I really don't care what the game is actually like. If you can't play the sodding thing why would you even care?

11:50 - Bed"

[Domestic_Ginger]

I think alot of games are like this now. You need to be synced with the latest version and patches blah de blah; you used to have to go round the internet searching for patches on dialup! To me this has been alleviated alot with steam; something I think it is excellent at. Although not perfect it looks godly compared to some of the other update managers.

Pointing out the obvious that you should be ready to go now....... *hides*


EDIT: that wasn't your review *confused*

[kalniel]

Don't read Amazon reviews. Problem solved

[HoldenBurn1000]

Don't read Amazon reviews. Problem solved

I often don't! That was the main one on the page so I read on out of interest to see pages and pages of the same!

[blueball]

Can you install it straight from Origin by entering a key. It'll patch it and as long as you have the latest drivers for your card (300.xx i think) you should be away!

[HoldenBurn1000]

You mean download it? Didn't want to really as limited dl cap and 6mb connection. To damn slow!

[kalniel]

I often don't! That was the main one on the page so I read on out of interest to see pages and pages of the same!

Yeah, they get trolled. Same for most games now.

[Phage]

I bought the disc and didn't have any of those issues...
It's been relatively simple

[GoNz0]

stick the key in origin, let it update, agree with the contract and play. simple as that.

[KeyboardDemon]

It is easier to install if you do it this way:

If you don't have an Origin account, create one.
Download and install Origin (if you don't have it already)
Click on the settings menu (shaped like a gear cog) and then select "Redeem Product Code"
Let Origin download the latest patched version of the game

That's the way I did it, and that worked fine for me.

[Marenghi]

i would have thought if you're willing to blow silly amounts of money (IMO) on a GPU then minor issues of installing a game that should get the most out of the GPU shouldn't be a concern to you ...

[kalniel]

i would have thought if you're willing to blow silly amounts of money (IMO) on a GPU then minor issues of installing a game that should get the most out of the GPU shouldn't be a concern to you ...

Oh come on - how much time and effort does it take to click 'buy' compared with this install procedure Even installing the card and drivers might be easier

[HoldenBurn1000]

i would have thought if you're willing to blow silly amounts of money (IMO) on a GPU then minor issues of installing a game that should get the most out of the GPU shouldn't be a concern to you ...

It's not about time or money. It's about a game filling my pc with all sorts of spyware and bloat ware just to play a game. Title is a bit misleading as its more than the stress of any issues. Just wanted to hear if it really does fill my pc full of crap like all the reviews say.

All the games in the past you install disk you play. This just sounds like it has far far more surrounding it.

Just cause I "blow" money on a GPU doesn't mean I want all this rubbish on my comp. Not sure how they are linked.

[KeyboardDemon]

It's not about time or money. It's about a game filling my pc with all sorts of spyware and bloat ware just to play a game. Title is a bit misleading as its more than the stress of any issues. Just wanted to hear if it really does fill my pc full of crap like all the reviews say.

All the games in the past you install disk you play. This just sounds like it has far far more surrounding it.

Just cause I "blow" money on a GPU doesn't mean I want all this rubbish on my comp. Not sure how they are linked.

In that case I think the issue you are asking about has nothing to do with BF3 and more to do with Origin and Battlelog.

So I thought I'd have a little look to see what happens when I open Origin on my PC by watching what the resource monitor on Windows Task Manager does when I start it up.

Before:
CPU Services were tracking between 0% to 3%
Memory usage showed 1556mb in use.
svchost.exe (LocalSystemNetworkRestricted) and Steam were using the most memory between them occupying 135,464kb and 56,788kb respectively. I also had 9 tabs open on google chrome plus a plethora of other little applications and services that I tend to have running on my PC that I don't really need all of the time but I've been too lazy to kill/uninstall.

After:
CPU Services were tracking at 0% to 3%
Memory usage showed 1782mb in use
svchost.exe (LocalSystemNetworkRestricted) and Origin were now top of the memory hoggers list now svchost.exe was using 137,244kb and Origin had jumped in with 77,960

I don't know if that's a good or bad outcome for you, I know there are people that don't want Steam or GFWL so another similar service is just something else they would dislike just as equally, but if you have a rig with enough oomph to run BF3 then I doubt Origin would be the program that brings it to its knees.

[HoldenBurn1000]

Demon thanks loads for that. Tbh that's not as bad as I was expecting. Either way I think I'm going to get it as that was kind of the whole point all along. Doesn't seem as bloated as people make out I suppose.

Thanks again.

[blueball]

I wouldn't say it was bloated. I would say it is poorly implemented in that you have to jump from Origin, to battlelog (and install stuff there as well before you can play online) and then battlelog launches the game.

I prefer the steam way