August 4, 2011
Those with early access to the Battlefield 3 beta will get in 48 hours before it goes live for everyone else. This is available only to people who either purchased Medal of Honor ‘s limited edition or pre-order the digital version of BF3 through Origin. As for all of the other perks that are available for pre-ordering, that’s a bit more complicated.
As with a number of Electronic Arts games these days, the first wave of copies of Battlefield 3 will be the limited edition version. You can guarantee yourself a copy of the LE by pre-ordering; if you plan on picking the game up and playing multiplayer, you’ll want to make sure you do that: it comes with a code to download the Back to Karkand expansion pack, which is said to be the size of Bad Company 2 ‘s Vietnam expansion. Karkand includes a number of remastered Battlefield 2 levels and other content. We’ve known all along it would be available separately for non-LE buyers, but we now also have a price: $14.99. The content will be made available to everyone at the same time after launch.
Other pre-order bonuses, as officially outlined today, are available at select retailers, making it a slightly complex process to figure out the ideal place to pre-order. Early beta access is only being offered through Origin, as is exclusive Battlefield Play4Free content. Other places will offer gear for your Xbox 360 Avatar, an in-game dog tag pack, the SPECACT kit upgrade (additional multiplayer skins), and the Physical Warfare pack (exclusive items that will be released for free at a later time). It should be clear by mid-August which places will offer what content.
