By my multiplayer gaming experience, with a good host, the less player the better the server, it will be 64 player for the PC, and 24 player for Consoles server I don't think you can use controller with BF3 since the controller doesn't work with BF2 even Xpadder are not compatible with the game at all That's why my choice for this game is to buy it for the Xbox.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.