Seems that Windows 8.1 is somewhat not wholly compatible with battlefield 3. Error message is "Battlefield 3 has stopped working" Happens just as the load screen is finished and the level is about to load. Did a reinstall, repair, reinstall drivers, installed new drivers, the whole EA support checklist,reupdated punkbuster, finally got the call escalated where I was told that Windows 8.1 isn't compatible yet with Battlefield 3 and to basically wait. Nothing works. Suggested that I rollback to Windows 8.
Specs: i5-2500k HD Radeon 6970 MSI Lightning Edition 16gb RAM directx 11.1 Windows 8.1 64bit