Having only completed a few missions on the single player I wasn't planing on reviewing Battlefield 3 so early but I felt the need to comment on the multiplayer side of things. After playing plenty of Battlefield Bad Company 2 I was all set to make Battlefield 3 my next shooter to play to death. Unfortunately, by playing Bad Company 2 so much it's actually greatly lowered my opinion of Battlefield 3's multiplayer. The thing is, Battlefield 3 has some incredibly frustrating bugs and mechanics that Bad Company 2 didn't have. 

Since deciding to write a multiplayer review I've continued to play online. Initially I was going to review Battlefield 3's multiplayer properly but the more I play it the more it's annoying me. And so this 'review' is in reality going to be a list of bugs and annoyances, starting with the least annoying items first. 

• The first annoyance was actually present in Bad Company 2 but still annoys me and takes away my valuable sleep. You cannot quit the current game between rounds. After a match is the prime time to leave as you give time for the match making system to find a replacement but you must load the new map, then leave. This causes me to forget I wanted to quit and forces me to play round after round when I should be counting sheep. Of course you can quit the game completely or turn of the console but I generally like to look at the new equipment I've unlocked and alter my classes accordingly. 
• Menus are too deep. To change your gun's attachments you have to navigate through level after level of menus. On the console it doesn't work well. The menus take for ages to navigate and some of the weirdest controls. It may work for PC but not console.
• No private servers on console. On day one PC players get this. I have no plans to open up a server and leave my PS3 on all the time but I would like to set up a server so I can practise flying and learn the maps. Rumour has it that this will be patched in at some point which is good but PC get's it day one? Thanks for forgetting us DICE.
• On a side note and not officially part of my list is the maximum number of players per server. On PC it's 32 (but can be 64) and on console it's only 24. Resistance 3 did 64 players on PS3. What gives? 
• Squads don't always keep together. When you invite a friend to your squad you generally want to play with them, not against (however, I thought having the option to evenly split up your squad would be nice so you could have half on one side, half on the other). This issue should be higher but DICE have recognised this as an issue with match making and are working on it. Thanks! 
• The input is laggy and inconsistent. If you played Killzone 3 you'll know what I mean but with Killzone it was intentional. Close quarters firefights are a mess. The controls also seem to have two areas of sensitivity. Small movements close to the centre of the analogue stick move the cross-hair slower and the further away you move the analogue stick from the centre the faster it moves. Having the ability to do smaller movements when aiming do the sights and faster movements when aiming from the hip sounds great but it's doesn't work right.
• One of the big features of the new Frostbite 2 engine is sound. Rounds skimming by your head, explosions making your round shake... are there to make you feel more in involved in the game but quite often the ambient sound cuts out. What happens is you'll be in the middle of a fierce battle with tanks in front of you, soldiers all around and jets and helicopters in skies above. That's a lot of sound. Then silence. All sound goes, except for your footsteps and when you fire your weapon. 
• In many of the maps the game play area is really small and it limits you too much. Flanking becomes hard (near impossible) and some areas of the map that seem accessible, aren't. Probably the worst example of this in the map Grand Bazaar on Rush. Attacking on this map is limited to small corridors that are easy to defend, hard to attack. Not all bad. It provides a more challenging assault and in real urban warfare you'd most likely get stuck in choke points. The issue is the alleyways only let you go half way down when the enemy can go all the way, preventing you chasing the them down or any attempts to flank them. 
• VoIP is terrible. It's impossible to understand your squad mates when they break up so much you hear only a third of what they say. I'd like to say it doesn't happen all the time but it happens ALL the time. It's rare to make it through a round without the VoIP messing up.
• And the number one most annoying part of Battlefield 3 goes too... not being able to jumping over small objects and in windows. By small objects I really mean small. Walls that aren't even as high as your knees will get you stuck and get you dead. Also, jumping through windows sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. 

So why all these issues? If you discount the issues with menus, small map areas and lighting as they are by design, then you are left with bugs. DICE openly say that PC is their lead platform (I watched this long video presentation about Frostbite 2 but cannot find the link) which in it's self shouldn't be a problem. However it appears DICE completed the PC version and rushed the console versions, probably to beat Modern Warfare 3 to the stores. This seems like the most likely reason to me, since MW3 is only around the corner. 

This post has been very negative. Battlefield 3 is a great game but the items I've outlined almost ruin it for me. So far the story mode is going well and as soon as I complete it I'll post a proper review.