While many of our Battlefield 3 reporting has been segregated to news regarding the title’s multiplayer and single player developments, the most recent piece of news that comes to us by way Executive Producer Patrick Bach is more of a public service announcement.

According to Bach, the previously revealed high-res textures pack should be installed by anybody who wants to experience Battlefield 3 in high definition.

As revealed by Bach, the high-res pack allows the game to stream in many of the details that gamers have been seeing in the game’s trailers and in the multiplayer beta. Without the pack installed, the game will, for lack of a more placid term, be running in standard def.

"The thing with the 360 is that you need to be able to give consumers a game where you don't have to install it on a hard drive, because there are 360s without a hard drive. So we need to give you the option of installing it, rather than just demanding it. You could call it a 'standard-def' version for the 360 if you don't have a hard-drive."

Obviously DICE doesn’t want any gamer to not feel included, so the hard drive install is optional, but highly recommended. Much like RAGE benefited from a full hard drive install across its multiple discs, one has to figure that Battlefield 3 should be installed, if space is available, beyond just the high-res textures.

This pack and install are only being talked about with the Xbox 360 version, though; PS3 and PC users are already streaming the content once the game is set-up for play. It does appear that as we move further and further into this console generation that greater steps need to be taken to keep the consoles up to speed with the PC.

Obviously, DICE isn’t going to show what the game would look like in this “standard def” iteration, so expect those gamers who might have the arcade version of the Xbox 360 to continue the complaints surrounding the game’s perceived graphical inconsistency. Still, this is one of the fall season’s most anticipated titles, and should not be missed.

Are there any gamers out there who will switch which version of Battlefield 3 they pick up because of this news? Have hard drive installs become a requirement to get the best gaming experience out of an Xbox 360 title?

Battlefield 3 releases October 25, 2011 for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Source: Video Gamer