Posted by Chris Scott Barr on Nov 2, 2011

A lot of Battlefield 3 players have been pretty upset by the fact that in order to play the game on their PC, they must install EA’s Origin client. After all, most people already use Steam, and don’t feel like loading down their computer with yet another piece of software that does little more than simply allow you to play a game. And since the game is only available on Origin, you have no choice but to download it. Or do you?

A group by the name of Razor1911 has released a piece of software that will allow you to completely bypass Origin altogether. That’s right, after unpacking the files found here, you’ll need only move the Battlefield .exe file to the folder, and double-click. The game will fire up immediately, without so much as opening Origin.

This does leave us with a few questions. The first being whether or not EA has the capability to find out if you are running Origin, and penalize you for bypassing it. Another is whether being forced to use Origin is any worse than being forced to use Steam for various games. Personally, I don’t like being forced to use any extra software that isn’t truly necessary. Valve has just done a good enough job with Steam that given the choice, I’d prefer to use it, rather than not. And that’s exactly what EA needs to do if they want people to get on board with Origin. Make it useful and unobtrusive enough that people actually want to use it. At least now, thanks to Razor1911, you have a choice.

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