Those who pick up the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield 3 later in the month may want to take the time and install it; better quality textures will be your reward. DICE producer Patrick Liu explains: “There’s a voluntary install on the 360. I think Rage did it as well, where you can install content to stream higher res textures. “We’re pushing that technology to the limit, and compared to our competitors, I would argue that we’re the best looking game.” Gamerzines got the news out of the man, but whether the PS3 version uses a similar approach remains unknown.
Source: http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2011/10/07/install-battlefield-3-on-360-get-better-textures/