On the same day that Battlefield 3 is released, October 25th, a patch fixing bugs and making general improvements will be made available. While this may seem an odd thing to do, it's being done, because the developer DICE are perfectionists and want to released the best possible product. This means that development will continue right up to release day and the patch includes the sorts of things one would expect, such as added features as well as the bugfixes and is available for free on all three gaming platforms. This is the official statement from DICE about the patch:

Copies are set to arrive on Tuesday because there is a Day 1 update. DICE are perfectionists -- they will not stop polishing the game until it is in your hands. The Day 1 update incorporates real-time feedback from the beta, ensuring that the consumer experience on launch day is outstanding. It is the actual consumer experience that we wish to be reviewed. The game with the Day 1 update will be available for review on Oct. 25.

Given this high expectation, gamers and reviewers alike will be expecting the game to be near-perfect in every way and certainly to be free of any obvious and annoying bugs such as crashes or graphical and gameplay glitches.

Here is an interesting Gametrailers interview with Kevin O'Leary of EA discussing the beta and final fixes. The graphics certainly look very impressive indeed and it has great social networking and gameplay features.

Official Battlefield 3 website: www.battlefield.com