BattleField3 will require EA's Origin installed to run

[ArithonUK]

It has been confirmed by Daniel Matros on his Twitter feed that regardless of whether you buy BF3 from digital distribution or get the DVD, you will still need Origin installed to run it.

Now some argue that promoting EA's new launch vehicle by blocking its next AAA title from the main competitor (Steam) is a little underhand and perhaps had they offered a better (or god forbid) cheaper service, we might have switched on our own. We'll never know.

Those of us who remember how bad Steam was in its earliest form, won't be so shocked at Origin's shortcomings. However, the bigger issue (in my opinion) is the fact that you have to run a 50MB background task that is little more than a shop-front with some Facebook plug-ins.

I would ask EA to seriously look at the Origin application and devise a way to split the "friends" and "shopfront" from the "drm" section, so only one of the three need run when a game is launched.

The switch to Origin + BattleLog is going to make for a lot of ragin' on forums from people who (quite rightly) want to launch a game from an icon on the desktop and then find everything about the game and needed for the game IN THE GAME!!

[smilodon]

Well done EA you've more or less created enough barriers to playing this game for me, that I'll most likely give it a miss.

[Gone_Away]

That is seriously poo.. If it weren't for the game itself I don't know why anyone would want to switch to Origin. It would have to be cheaper and better of which EA is offering neither at this moment in time.

[Naldo]

Those of us who remember how bad Steam was in its earliest form, won't be so shocked at Origin's shortcomings. However, the bigger issue (in my opinion) is the fact that you have to run a 50MB background task that is little more than a shop-front with some Facebook plug-ins.

Origin consumes less than Steam.

Just taken this from my system

[ATTACH=CONFIG]793[/ATTACH]

The switch to Origin + BattleLog is going to make for a lot of ragin' on forums from people who (quite rightly) want to launch a game from an icon on the desktop and then find everything about the game and needed for the game IN THE GAME!!

Personally I loved the new BattleLog interface. Fast,easy to navigate everything you need to manage your clan.
From what I experienced I saw no negatives, and its going to be an excellent tool for the game leader/admins, and especially the users.

I have been playing a game for the last few years called "The Hunter" That also has a web browser interface to the game. Its brilliant.

As for launching from an icon... You can do that now with origin, as I have been doing with BC2. Unlike with steam were you run the shortcut and steam will boot up regardless.
Origin does not, Only the game runs.

I don't see any barriers, only great community tools that will benefit dMw.

Forget Steam for a minute..  For the guys that participated in the Alpha, what were your thoughts on Battlelog?

[kregoron]

what uses most memory... that varies a lot, this taken 2 mins ago shows origin as using twice the amount of steam..



on the battlelog question.. well, its browser based so its limited by this, failed to open in your std browser sometimes (no idea why) (noticed issue on 3 dif computers) a few other minor kinks, but it will probably be fine, tho i would prefer a ingame based server browser and stuff...
on the upside tho, stuff like stats are updated on your profile instantly..

[Naldo]

Weird how it varies between systems :S

on the battlelog question.. well, its browser based so its limited by this, failed to open in your std browser sometimes

How do you mean by limited?  

I used firefox, once the plugin was installed I had no issues.

tho i would prefer a ingame based server browser and stuff...

Can you expand slightly? I could not see any disadvantages to what we used.

[TE_owner]

is it that you dont have to keep origin running in the background whilst you are playing the game? or does it have to be running to play battlefield?

 tbh if EA want  to make a COD killer this is not the way to do it tho im beginning to wonder weather it simply wants to muscle steam out of its vice-like hold on the digital distribution market  instead of making a larger profit  than COD (i.e. be better than in their eyes at least which im begining to doubt, call me cynical) ive seen plenty of people on PC gamer forums and RPS who are very disgruntled at the lack of mod support/tools lack of the game on steam and forcing to install origin  :sad:

[Naldo]

Like I said above TE, If you create a shortcut to the game on your desktop then Origin does not open.

Unlike steam that does load up. But booting up this way,you loose your ingame chat ability. If you run your games through Origin then it will check your game is ok and look for updates. Once you have the shortcut I guess you could link it into your steam account and just use that as normal.

So in theory once a game has been installed you don't have to ever open origin again. I see it also as a great barrier to the people who prefer to "steal" their games from download sites. Although they always find a way to bypass this stuff.

[KKND]

[h=2]Have you read the EULA for Origin[/h]
Part of Origin's EULA allows Electronic Arts to snoop through  your system -- including installed and uninstalled software -- and send  that information to third-party service providers.
                               ZoomHonestly EA, what are you up to now? The gaming publisher is currently under fire by outraged consumers after a close examination of the End User License Agreement for Origin reveals that it grants EA the right to snoop through desktops  and laptops once the user agrees to the terms. If that wasn't invasive  enough, the agreement also allows EA to share all that information to  third party service providers.
  "You agree that EA may collect, use, store and transmit technical and  related information that identifies your computer (including the  Internet Protocol Address), operating system, Application usage  (including but not limited to successful installation and/or removal),  software, software usage and peripheral hardware, that may be gathered  periodically to facilitate the provision of software updates,  dynamically served content, product support and other services to you,  including online services," the agreement reads. "EA may also use this  information combined with personal information for marketing purposes  and to improve our products and services. We may also share that data  with our third party service providers in a form that does not  personally identify you. IF YOU DO NOT WANT EA TO COLLECT, USE, STORE,  TRANSMIT OR DISPLAY THE DATA DESCRIBED IN THIS SECTION, PLEASE DO NOT  INSTALL OR USE THE APPLICATION."
  Now here’s the kicker: if EA customers don't agree to the  company's snooping and sharing of private data to third parties, then  they won't have access to exclusive PC games like Battlefield 3 and Star  Wars: The Old Republic. The Origin agreement also doesn't allow the  user to opt out at any time after the initial acceptance, meaning that  they either must choose to share their personal information  indefinitely, or not play EA's exclusive PC games at all.
  Reddit is currently rallying EA gamers to contact the company by  email or snail mail to protest against the invasion of privacy.  According to EA's privacy policy instructions, consumers can first try  to settle the matter with the company directly using the contact info at  http://www.ea.com/1/privacy-contacts. Consumers can also drop an email to the relevant statutory privacy body or advocacy group, presumably the Electronic Frontier Foundation which typically stands up for gamer privacy rights.
   Then again, Origin's invasive nature may have been one of the  reasons why EA chose to launch its own client in the first place: to see  who is pirating EA games... if it indeed scans all installed and  uninstalled software on a system, that is.

[smilodon]

Needs a closer look. Often EULS's sound dreadful but in normal speak mean "you allow us to check your copy of the game for the purpose of making sure its a legit copy  and provide updates and patches specific to your OS. If some services get sold to 3rd parties you allow us to pass the data on, so they can provide the updates etc."
There's a similar clause in Google Chrome Browser that allows background updating that doesn't need user intervention. I doubt EA crawling your PC and taking any data it wanted would ever pass through UK (or USA) data law's. Worth more research IMHO.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

[Naldo]

Slightly too late to worry about things like this.

I have punkbuster installed, they have have been doing this since day one. To ALL my files on ALL my drives. Does not matter how many partitions you make.

Hands up whe has PB installed lol.

Sent from my SG2

[smilodon]

Good point. As I mentioned there's a huge difference between a piece of software being designed to discover if your game is out of date or if you're running cheat code and a program that reads all your files and sends the results to advertisers for you to be profiled and advertised too.

I'd rather non of it happened at all, but EULA's are by definition incomprehensible and don't really every tell us what the application is actually going to do.

[TE_owner]

surely after battlefield 3 has had its day or turns out to be a stinker (which i highly doubt one) one could simply uninstall Origin and EA would be unable to snoop about ones computer contrary to what the article says about EA having indefinite access to your HD and files dunno rly