Can't you turn these off in the settings?

In the advanced - Origin Experience reporting (or is this something else...)

I think you can run the client in sandbox mode, but the "Scan all my stuff" thing can be disabled. And if it does that, it only does it once.

As for redeeming games, most games from 2009 and onwards will work. There used to be a list but it looks like EA took it down.

https://help.ea.com/article/origin-code-redemption-faq

I've redeemed retail codes from Mirror's Edge (retail box) and The Godfather II (Cosmi Corporation budget rerelease), plus a Bulletstorm GFWL key (from an Amazon.com purchase) in Origin and have had the games added to my account. I also got Sim City 4 Deluxe added after talking to a customer service rep and giving them my retail key.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I also added Shank to Origin by using a Steam key I got from a bundle, but it looks like this doesn't work anymore.

So they just basically gave me away a second copy.

You can use that key to register the game to gain access to more features.

A little question - as someone who shuns multiplayer like a plague, is there even any point in downloading Battlefield 3, or should I just not bother?

I read that Battlefield 3 has a single player campaign.

why not just try it, maybe you'll like it. I haven't played any of the new battlefields but I remember battlefield 1942 was a blast in multiplayer.

I actually did it the wrong way (origin redemption) and had to get live support to give me keys to redeem on sims3.com for everything but the base because I had that in my account already. PS: Dead Space 3 for 1 dollar? frees up money to purchase the 2 DLC I did

I can't get myself to shoot anyone when I know there is another human being behind there

Short story - When I stopped playing WoW ( after Lich King), I had 9 level 70 chars, and loads others. Between them all i had 2 PvP kills, and both were by accident :) . I just can't hack with any form of PvP.... Not to mention that I am also a very slow and meticulous player, not a playstyle suited for PvP.

If you want a generic modern FPS single player experience that makes you launch the game through the website, then by all means give it a go. I'm not very far into it and I'd rather play Halo single player and I hate Halo. All silliness aside it looks nice and reminds me a bit of Call of Duty (also not a huge fan of).

Cheers, I might give it a try one of these days then, just to see how it is

You should. The single player is alright. All things considering, it's good for the price. The multi player is great fun whether you're good at multi player or not. I am not the best but I was the top 3 on 2 leader boards simply for healing my squad and making sure they had ammo. I had 2 kills in an hour. There are more ways to play then running in a circle with an itchy trigger finger. :)

Can't be worse then Medal of Honor. I figured I'd go to that since I just finished Black Ops, and it is the most mechanical, soulless game I think I have ever played. Though having watched an LP of Battlefield 3's single player, it doesn't look too hot either. I am also one of those people who avoids multiplayer.

Edit: For the price you might as well try it out, I don't feel ripped off by having Medal of Honor, at the very least.

Well Humble Bundle has added this line back for Sim 3 "The Sims 3 Date Night DLC will appear here, after some technical difficulties are sorted out!"

I can dump my Bulletstorm key from Gamefly into Origin!?!?!?!?! kick-ass!

*Edit*


Total payments:
$5,578,437.00
Number of purchases:
1,161,432
Average purchase:
$4.80

god damn, and this is only day 2; this must be kinda like watching the bank account for a publisher on a major release .... I now have no fucking tolerance for Square Enix saying that Tomb Raider "under performed."

$5.5 million dollars selling 1 million copies for less than $5, Tomb raider sold over 5 million copies for about $50 a pop.

that is about 200,000,000.00, after retailer's cut.