'Battlefield 3' Install Sizes Revealed

Game Rant

By GR Staff

Published Oct 24, 2011

Xbox 360 owners planing to fully install 'Battlefield 3' should start clearing out HDD space, while PS3 owners may want to set the alarm clock. Read on to find out why.

It seems that mom and pop retail outlets have been breaking street dates again, and as a result a few lucky gamers found themselves with a copy of Battlefield 3 on Friday of last week. As of last Saturday, install sizes for the platform versions of the game had already been posted on the net, with a full list now compiled.

Looking at Battlefield 3 for Xbox 360 in particular, owners of that platform are going to need a sizable amount of free space if they hope to install the full contents of both discs, the day one patch, and the infamous high-res texture pack.

In fact, if fully installed, the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield 3 weighs in with a size so massive that it beats even the PC game in terms of HDD space. The only real downside that PlayStation 3 owners will have to face, by comparison, is mandatory install time. Install size for the PS3 game, incidentally, is roughly the same as that of the texture pack for Xbox 360.

Here's a list of things that will need to be installed if you're hoping to run Battlefield 3 at optimum efficiency on your Xbox 360 (via Trendy Gamers):

Single Player Disc: 6.7 GB
Multiplayer/Co-Op Disc: 7.3 GB
High-Res Texture Pack: 1.5 GB
Day One Patch: 167 MB
Total Size: 15.5 GB

In contrast, the PC version of Battlefield 3 weighs in at 11.6 GB and the PS3 version comes in as the lightest, at a mere 2 GB.

While we should stress that the installations are not mandatory for Xbox 360 owners, at the very least the high-res texture pack is recommended in order to obtain high-definition graphics for the game (check out this comparison video). So those of you picking up the game at midnight tonight (which we expect is many of you) may want to start clearing some space on your console's hard drive if your plan is to install the full game -- assuming that you haven't already done so.

Of course, some pro-PS3 people in the audience will be quick to laugh at their fellow Xbox 360 gamers, but unfortunately the PS3 version of Battlefield 3 suffers from another, slightly different problem. While it's true that the PS3 version is only 2 GB in terms of size, GamePro is reporting that the install time for that 2 GB takes five times longer to complete than the texture install and updates for Xbox 360 version. Too bad console owners can't pre-load the game.

Xbox 360 owners, is it worth the necessary space to install Battlefield 3, or will you simply play off the disc? PlayStation 3 owners, do you resent having to wait so long for the game to install? Let us know in the comments below.

Battlefield 3 will engage enemy hostiles on October 25, 2011, for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.

Source: Trendy Gamers, GamePro

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