14 DAY TRIAL // Battlefield 3, the first-person shooter that is being created by developer DICE and published by Electronic Arts, is one of the biggest releases of the fall and now all the fans who are interested in getting access to the beta state of the game can do so by pre-ordering it via the EA-powered Origin digital distribution service.
Those who are interested in getting in the beta and do not want to pre-order on Origin can also pick up a copy of last year's shooter Medal of Honor and use the code that comes with it to access the testing stage of Battlefield 3.
Pre-order for the DICE game can also be made in brick and mortar retail stores and players there will get bonuses depending on where they take their business, including access to the first downloadable content pack for the game.
One place where gamers cannot pre-order Battlefield 3 at the moment is the Steam digital distribution service, which might suggest that the problems between Electronic Arts and Valve might continue and that Battlefield 3 could be one of the victims.
Origin is a great concept for Electronic Arts and for any other publisher who is serious about the PC as a platform because it eliminates all middlemen between the gamer, his money, the game he wants to play and the publisher.
It will be interesting to see whether, at some point, Electronic Arts will launch a game exclusively through Origin, effectively forcing players to use its service.
Battlefield 3 will use the new DICE-made Frostbite 2 and the early demos impressed with the graphics and the level of possible destruction.
Battlefield 3 has a launch date of October 25 in the United States and 28 in Europe, and the game will be available on the PC, but also on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.