Eurogamer Readers vs. Battlefield 3

Chris Hockey also thought Bach comes across well in person. "Patrick struck me as incredibly thoughtful about his game and its place in the market. I wish everyone who posted an, 'OMG this sucks,' post about an aspect of the game that they're not happy with could have a chance to experience a roundtable interview. As gamers I think we sometimes forget that actual people make these games for us."

Colin Gallacher, meanwhile, draws attention to Bach's comments about the competition between Battlefield and Modern Warfare, specifically the fact that DICE plays down the comparisons (something that Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling also frequently does on the other side for Call of Duty).

"Something interesting to point out to the masses is that they don't see themselves competing with the Call of Duty franchise," notes Colin. "They are creating their own game regardless of what other competition they have to battle." It's almost as if this whole Battlefield vs. Call of Duty thing is a marketing invention. "Also they have an incredible bakery nearby."

"I was really impressed at his determination to make the game he wanted to make - not to the exclusion of player feedback, but without pandering to excessive demands," Chris added.

Sadly, after a mere day impeding development at the studio, we were kicked out of the building and sent home - itself an amazing journey involving cancelled flights, provincial Swedish hotels and dubious injuries. Once we're settled back in the UK, I ask the guys whether their impression of Battlefield 3 changed as a consequence of the trip.

"Although I'll still be buying it on PC, I'm no longer worried that it won't be a top-notch console experience," says Chris Hockey. "Likewise, having seen Bach's vehement defence of the PC SKU as the lead version, I'm not particularly worried that having to produce a multi-platform game will have diluted the PC version."

"Meeting the lovely people at DICE showed me that a lot of time, effort and care had gone into the game and that they really believed in what they were creating," says Colin Gallacher.

As for Joe - "I'm a bit of an evangelist for it now, in a lot of ways," he says. "The guys we met at DICE were so passionate about their game, about how they weren't competing with the people their publishers wanted to compete with, just to make their game the best it could possibly be, that I couldn't help but be won over.

"I don't think it's a beautiful game any more, because 'beautiful' implies something clean, or natural. Battlefield 3 is just war, on a computer, and I'm not sure that can be reasonably called 'beautiful', filled as it is with fire, dust and blood. It'll look and feel incredibly realistic, though, and that's something I can't wait to get my hands on again, although next time my sniper rifle will probably be much more successful with a keyboard and mouse under my hands.

"Also, and this is significant to me, I think I've found the multiplayer game that'll finally drag me away from Team Fortress 2, which up till now has repeatedly dragged me back. I'm kind of glad I'm going to be away for three of the weeks until it comes out, because it's one of the few games I really want to play right about now."

If you also fancy playing it right about now, check it out at the Eurogamer Expo, or in the imminent multiplayer beta. The game itself is due out for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on 28th October in Europe. Oh, and we do hope to take more readers out to developers again in the future, because these guys were lovely. Although we'd still shoot them in the face at the drop of a hat, obviously.