Battlefield 3 is one of the latest in a line of games that is compelling people to "take pictures" of their gameplay.

I loved battlefield 3, but now I'm in love with it. I'm in love with it so much I alt+tab to play it while sitting in Star Wars: The Old Republic server queue (that's a really big deal). The huge pre-Karkand patch is near perfect (there's still a few pre-round spawning issues and the big 64 player maps can be a little laggy) but it fixed many of the major annoyances that were bugging the community, such as the magical FBI agent torch which could blind enemies even if they were on other planets.

It also made the game more stable which upped my personal frame rate. It raised the ceiling height for jets which helps the 'stalling in cheese' issue (with only a few very tiny background graphical glitches as a result) and there appears to be much more destruction and more big events happening in the maps too. Get ready to fall through the floor again.

These big events matter. Buildings get smashed in the first minute of play by some NPC airborne missile... watching that Caspian border tower fall is a small addition (really - it's just a big pole that fall down) but it makes a huge difference to the feel of the maps, especially to the people underneath it. They make the maps feel less static, and I hope more of them will continue to appear.

As a result of the tweaks, weapons are more balanced (some much needed nurfs!), battlefields are now more explosive, vehicles are more fun and generally the game is more interesting to play. And it already was pretty damn good.

But it's the Back to Karkand maps that has shown us what this battlefield can be. They're MASSIVE in scale... so big you can go out and find some 2D trees if you really skirt the edges.

But the best part is they're mostly heavily populated with tall breakable buildings which adds an urban warfare feel.

If you are still on the fence about spending more time with MW3 or Battlefield 3, play a round of squad rush through these nostalgic BF2 map recreations with the easy to unlock FAMAS assault rifle, and you'll see why this game really caters for all, and is the greatest FPS of our time. Plus there are hover jets now. HOVERJETS. Hovering is pointless but you can still hover in them and be in a hover jet.

BF3 is flexing the muscle of a stable Frostbite 2 engine. You get the feeling developer DICE held back these maps and some of its more hardware intensive effects until they had the game out for a while, and made it more stable. Now they're turning up the dial a little and it's making a subtle, but huge difference. Small big difference.

Something else that has matured over such a short time is the detailed weapon specs and gameplay tips that have come out of people delving into the code of the game. Thanks to @bennettring for putting me onto these.

The most interesting analysis I've seen is how much accuracy is affected by your movement. So if you're a run-and-gunner, you want to make sure you have a laser sight on so you have less recovery time when you stop moving. You'll want to choose a weapon that helps with hip fire and recovery too, such as the F2000 which shoots a wall of bees. Even so, the drop on an enemy is just under half the battle. BF3 rewards you for moving - stopping, staying still for a moment and then firing small bursts. It means a tactical solider wins the accuracy war every time... and it just feels cool.

Due to the sheer size of the new maps, they also highlight the importance of smoking up an assault on a rush point, using soflam to help targeting, and when to switch out your flack for some speed.

Once you start unlocking squad perks you see how a class-balanced, reactive squad who communicate well just wins.

This game is turning into an explosive bond film, but without all the derp and bow ties. Seeing well-piloted helis and jets make a mess of a warzone while you're assaulting a point in a bobcat, with your teammate mowing down the enemy from its shovel is one of the greatest moments I've had in an FPS. It also shows DICE has a sense of humour and the bobcat is actually quite useful covering the big distances between points in Wake Island.

I can't stop recording and screenshotting this game... and the incredible videos we're seeing come out (such as the now famous 'mid air RPG' moment) just scream how much we need a theatre mode to help preserve those spectacular random moments. Some are shown below.

There are so many subtle improvements and tweaks still going on here that it makes me excited and curious to see where this game will be in a year.