360 owners are going to want to clear some space on their hard-drive ahead of next week's Battlefield 3 launch.
As previously reported, the 360 version of Battlefield 3 will ship with an additional DVD containing a texture pack for optional installation to the 360's hard-drive. These high-definition textures will be streamed from the hard-drive during the game to enhance DICE's visual representation of its own take on modern warfare.
The original story raised a number of questions concerning a possible disparity between the different versions of Battlefield 3 and so at this week's EA showcase in London, Gamerzines asked executive producer, Patrick Bach, to clarify the purpose of the optional texture pack.
"There's nothing magic about it," explained Bach. "It's the same thing we do for PC and PS3, so there's nothing extra."
"I think the controversy about this is that we actually let you do it on 360 for once. So what it does is it gives you the same abilities, kind of, as the PC and PS3. You can actually stream information from the hard drive.
"That's new for Xbox 360, but it's not a new idea for the gaming industry as a whole. No one has really tried to do it properly, so us doing it will create question marks."
Bach was insistent that the optional install is most definitely worth it, though was unable to state exactly how much HDD space the textures will require.
"It does make a difference, yes, absolutely. The whole engine is based around streaming textures, streaming terrain and a lot of other content.
"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."
It seems, then, that the optional nature of the texture pack is simply to negotiate the potential issue of some 360 owners being unable to install it due to the console's proprietary HDD add-on. It's likely, however, that if you're purchasing BF3 you're going to want to ensure you have the HDD space to be able to play the game in all its HD-glory.
"We're really trying to push the limits of what we can do on the consoles and the PC. Our goal is to see how we can utilise as many of the systems that you actually have in your machine that some people haven't utilised before. Some (developers) just do it like, if it doesn't fit into memory we just make a lesser game. We don't do that. For us, it's about how we can give you the most game ever even though the hardware is over five years old."
Battlefield 3 launches on PS3, 360 and PC Tuesday October 25 in the US and Friday October 28 in Europe.
