DannyJBeckett said:
let alone one as capable as the XBox 360
Ah ha ha ha oh ho ho...wait, what? You're serious?
Oh dear.
The root of this problem is the DVD, and Microsoft's stranglehold on the hard drives you can and can't use for the 360. While the PC uses DVD's, it is generally understood a PC user is going to have a ton of hard drive space. You can get a 1TB hard drive for around $60. Meanwhile for the 360 you're having to shell out $100 or something ridiculous for 120 gigs.
Battlefield was a large install on the PC, sure. But after you install it, you can use your two discs as frisbees for all it cares. As per my understanding of the 360 and PS3, you still need the disc in the disc drive to play. Installs are necessary due to hardware limitations, which is why when even games that don't require installs but have them optional, when you do install them, you get shorter load times and other positive effects.
Battlefield 3 was developed first and foremost for the PC, as it damn well should've been. The secondary development was the PS3, and tertiary was the 360. Due to the 360's hardware constraints. Out of the 3 listed, it's easily the weakest. And-wait, why am I even typing this? One of your biggest problems is they tried to make it easier on the 360's hardware, but at the cost of some convenience, and it's not even the system you'd get it on.
Well, if that's the case then, due to your moral standing you can't ever get the following games: Halo 2 (bad PC port), Rage (hardly even functioning on the PC out of the box), Fallout 3 (DLC timed exclusive for one console), New Vegas (same as Fallout 3 but with the addition of being crazy buggy), Black Ops (A 10ish year old engine and computers that could run Cyrsis could hardly run it, apparently Treyarch had never heard the word 'optimization'), Dead Rising 2 (straight up exclusive DLC for one system, not even timed) and many, many more!
Edit: And where did you get the information that the HD textures weren't on the disc? They most certainly are. 3 seconds of googling led me to this information. But who has time for that when there are disingenuous assertions to be made?