I've been playing on the PC and the PS3. I started on the PC about a week ago and I'm level 6 I believe. I"m a level 44 on the PS3.
Being a lower level is a completely different experience because your kit will be crap. Getting use to the keyboard + mouse is also a challenge. I've been playing assault and now that I have the M416 it's a bit better since that gun is pretty darn good. I tend to play Conquest, Conquest DOM and TDM.
Mark is right about the M27 and M16, however that means you have to play the american faction which you probably won't 50% of the time.
If you want to level well and get to decent guns, play TDM or conquest DOM and use the shotguns which you should have almost immediately and you can use with any kit. Then get to the UMP which is pretty fantastic and you can use with any kit. Play assault or support and spam your medic kit or ammo to get points to level up. I find that ammo gets you more points because even the best of teams will need ammo.
There are a lot of people just screwing around also because they know BF4 is coming and maxed out BF3.
So don't get discouraged with the game if you are just starting now.
I know I'll be getting BF4 over COD. I just don't know for which platform yet. I Find BF3 a hell of a lot more fun the COD at the moment. Perhaps it's servers or having the different abilities but at least the game plays well for me. I can live with my own inabilities but constantly getting screwed over by lag just drives me nuts.
