games wont initiate because a red box pops up in the lower-right corner that says . 'Cannot communicate with running game, Please check that it is not launched outside of the web."

Heya, please open your task manager and check if the bf3.exe process is running, if yes, kill it (via the right-click menu) and then try again to join a server via Battlelog. Also, make sure that the plugin is installed properly, and that your browser and the game are not blocked by your antivirus/firewall.

Usually a computer restart might help as well in such a situation.

Please let us know if this issue persist.