Its just over a week until the release of Battlefield 3 and, if youve already read our comparison piece, youll likely have made up your mind as to whether or not its the title for which youre going to part with some of your Christmas shopping fund. Unless, that is, youve played the beta. Released for public consumption at the end of last month, the open beta was met with a huge amount of hype generated by all those gorgeous gameplay demos and screenshots wed been in awe of at E3 and beyond. We were being given a more comprehensively destructive environment, a new engine makeover, a co-op mode, tons of new features and the almost incalculably awesome inclusion of jets, promising a whole new dimension of combat, hilarity and griefing. However, something went wrong. Within twenty-four hours of the beta release, a backlash had erupted and a host of confused, disappointed and angry console-owning fans and journalists were expressing their first impressions at the multitude of bugs, awful graphics, exclusion of vehicles and overall lack of variety. Coupled with some questionable tactics on the part of EA with regards to exclusive DLC content, it didnt take long before pre-orders started getting cancelled. Its true; the graphics do pale in comparison to the PC counterpart. There is only one map available to play and it is completely lacking of vehicles and largely destruction free. The frame rate does suffer on occasions, especially when placed against Modern Warfares locked-in 60fps and there are some strange and frustrating bugs such as falling through the floor and occasionally going blind for a few frames. None of these things, however, make Battlefield 3 a bad beta and they certainly dont make it a bad game. They do make it a bad demo. Therein lays the problem. Atop the page for the (now defunct) Battlefield 3 beta download, you are encouraged to try the new shooter from DICE before everyone else. If you go to download it over Xbox Live, youll find it under the Demo section. DICE have repeatedly stated that theres a reason they called this a beta and not a demo. A beta isnt intended to sell the game to an undecided gamer who wants to try before they buy; theyre data mining the hell out of that one level, stress testing servers, building a comprehensive list of bugs to fix and generally getting all the information they need to tweak the game in its final stages before release. The issue is that, in recent years, the word beta has become too closely related to the word demo. This probably isnt the fault of the developer and its certainly not the fault of the audience. When its placed under the demo section of Xbox Lives Marketplace, the official website parades it as an exciting chance to play the game early and the road to its release is almost as hyped as the release of the full game, what are we supposed to expect? The good news, however, is that this bodes well for Battlefield 3. The issues that were commonly raised in the beta are exactly the kind of issues that needed to be the ones that can be fixed as a result of testing. Already theres talk of a day one patch for the game, in addition to DICEs announcement of a hi-res texture pack as an optional install for console versions. Simply put, if playing the Battlefield 3 beta made you wary of the full game for any of the above reasons, theres no reason why you shouldnt go ahead and buy it. In the long run, the public have had their consciousness raised about the difference between a beta and a demo, cancelled pre-orders have taught EA a harsh lesson about sensationalising public testing and DICE have gotten all the help they need to make the game they want you to play. Were still very excited. Battlefield 3 is released on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC from next week.