Battlefield 3 'Back to Karkand' DLC available in December

Battlefield 3's first expansion pack, Back to Karkand, will be available in December, developer DICE has announced. The DLC pack will include four maps from Battlefield 2.

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Battlefield 3's first expansion pack, Back to Karkand, will be available in December, developer DICE has announced. The DLC pack will include four maps from Battlefield 2, remade in the game's shiny new Frostbite 2 engine. Gulf of Oman, Shargi Peninsula, Strike at Karkand, and Wake Island will all be included in the bundle.

In addition, the expansion pack includes Conquest Assault, and new "assignments" to complete for unlocks.

A voucher for DLC access is included with all early copies of the game with the "Limited Edition" moniker printed on it. If you didn't pre-order, you'll be able to download the map pack for $14.99, or 1200 Microsoft Points.

A specific date has yet to be announced, but a deal with Sony will mean PS3 owners get the content one week before everyone else.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 4, 2011 9:30 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Battlefield 3 'Back to Karkand' DLC available in December.

    Battlefield 3's first expansion pack, Back to Karkand, will be available in December, developer DICE has announced. The DLC pack will include four maps from Battlefield 2.

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      November 4, 2011 9:36 AM

      $15 for 4 remake maps, lol. Good thing I pre-ordered.

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        November 4, 2011 7:24 PM

        These are actually remakes. The destructibility is looks awesome. I still regret the MW2 mappacks that had MW1 maps that they just dragged and drop from one game's folder to another's.

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      November 4, 2011 9:38 AM

      I REALLY hope that a snow map pack is released. Cold War, White Pass, Nelson Bay etc were some of my favorites from BC2.

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        November 4, 2011 9:40 AM

        I was just thinking that. Once the newness of BF3 has worn off I'll likely split my time between BC2 and BF3 somewhat.

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        November 4, 2011 9:42 AM

        Also, what about a patch that enables TOD changes on maps. Caspian at night anyone?

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      November 4, 2011 9:39 AM

      Nice. That's a decent amount of time since release for a little batch of fresh maps. Will be a lot of fun seeing some of these good old maps in the new engine. Still wish we could get some of the big 1942 maps in BF3 though. I'd pay a couple of bucks per map for that.

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      November 4, 2011 9:42 AM

      [deleted]

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      November 4, 2011 9:45 AM

      Neogaf rumors were right. December release and $15 price tag. I figured it would cost at least $10. $15 isn't too bad since we get more than just maps but $5 of that price is probably because it's Karkand and they know people will pay for Strike at Karkand if it was the only new map in this DLC pack.

      I hope BF3 gets a lot more DLC, and I mean a lot. I want to see new armies, new vehicles, guns, perks, and especially character customization options.

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        November 4, 2011 10:58 AM

        I think they are pricing it high because everyone will have it except for people who bought the game late, and because so many have it they are more likely to want in.

        Later expansions wont have anywhere near the adoption rate this one will have.

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          November 4, 2011 2:34 PM

          The high price is also probably being used as an incentive to get rid of any unsold stock of the limited edition. People who are wanting to "wait until it goes on sale", might be inclined to buy now if they know the DLC is that high priced...

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      November 4, 2011 9:46 AM

      [deleted]

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        November 4, 2011 9:47 AM

        After 1942 & 1943, I am waked out :(

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          November 4, 2011 10:08 AM

          It was in BF2 as well.

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      November 4, 2011 9:48 AM

      [deleted]

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      November 4, 2011 9:49 AM

      [deleted]

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        November 4, 2011 9:52 AM

        I didn't get a code either. Makes me wonder if EA is working it some other way. Perhaps they have some way to identify which keys are preorders/limited editions vs regular editions.

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        November 4, 2011 10:17 AM

        When you register your code, it should have registered as "Battlefield 3 Limited Edition" Presumably if you didn't preorder, your copy would have just registered as "Battlefield 3". Since copies of the DLC come free with the "Limited Edition" version, I'm assuming it will automatically be activated.

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        November 4, 2011 12:11 PM

        You're on 360, right? Is it in the game case or on the back of the leaflet?

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      November 4, 2011 9:49 AM

      Wow...just like CoD...

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        November 4, 2011 10:59 AM

        cept if you preordered it you get it for free.

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        November 5, 2011 10:56 AM

        except you get 5 completely redesigned maps along with a slew of new weapons and unlocks. not exactly like COD

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      November 4, 2011 10:05 AM

      Can't wait for this. The current maps are already getting a little boring.

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        November 4, 2011 10:06 AM

        [deleted]

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        November 4, 2011 10:48 AM

        you kidding? the fuck haha. i'm barely just learning them. i still get my head sniped off every other second peaking around the wrong corners.

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      November 4, 2011 10:30 AM

      i love that i "preordered" 30 minutes before the game digitally unlocked and i get this bonus. the download took longer than the preorder window!

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        November 4, 2011 11:24 AM

        I bought it at release and there was a code in the box for it.

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        November 4, 2011 11:32 AM

        Best Buy had a bunch of Limited Edition Xbox 360 copies two days after it released. I managed to pick up one of those. Wish I could play PC instead but my laptop just isn't going to hack it.

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      November 4, 2011 10:46 AM

      I never liked sharqi peninsula all that much in BF2 but I think it'll be more fun in BF3.

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        November 4, 2011 10:50 AM

        I liked it a lot more than Karkand. I hope it's good.

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          November 4, 2011 11:01 AM

          Yeah more than Karkand definitely. Both maps should play well with BF3's superior small arms combat.

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      November 4, 2011 10:50 AM

      lol, no mention of the cost for the PC, or is it buried in the actual EA press release?

      If they charge for the maps on the PC, that's a fucking shame, and I hope DICE / EA burn in hell.

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        November 4, 2011 10:57 AM

        $15 bucks!

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          November 4, 2011 11:58 AM

          EA / DICE is absolutely fucking retarded. You don't charge $15 for a map pack 1 month after release of your game. At the very least these map packs better be free by the time the second map pack comes out. Holy fucking dogshit is that terrible. I will not pay for maps on the PC. Join me mercfox1! BF3 is going to be dead by spring, which is a complete fucking shame.

          MW2 shipped with 16 maps (sure one or two of them were complete clusterfucks), before DLC came out.

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            November 4, 2011 12:00 PM

            [deleted]

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              November 4, 2011 12:27 PM

              What about the next set of maps? I will not pay for maps on the PC, especially after BFBC2 Vietnam, complete waste of money imo.

              If they want to foster the community, and keep people convincing their friends to spend $50-60 bucks on the core game, they need to support it with free MP maps. It's as simple as that.

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                November 4, 2011 7:27 PM

                Hey if IW/Activision can do it and make millions, what's stopping Dice/EA from doing it? You can always just not play them or wait until they go on sale or something.

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                  November 4, 2011 8:49 PM

                  Eh, I'm making my stand. I will support developers that release map tools and help the community.

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      November 4, 2011 10:54 AM

      Awesome! It's going to be nice to have some more maps in the rotation

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        November 4, 2011 10:57 AM

        Looking at the way the filters are set up in battlelog plus the fact that it's an "expansion" like BC2 Vietnam and not just new DLC maps, you might not be able to just toss them into the larger rotation, which would absolutely suck and makes me wonder why they'd even bother.

        Hope it's not separate!

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          November 4, 2011 11:03 AM

          Isn't there a big check box next to the Karkand pack in the filters? That would say to me that some servers can have all the maps together in one rotation. I would be concerned if there was another Multiplayer tab at the top that said "Back to Karkand" - that would be more like Vietnam.

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            November 4, 2011 11:13 AM

            What if that checkbox essentially functions like your imaginary tab? It's in the very first slot along with the main BF3 game with the default maps so you can see one or the other or both types of servers (base game + expansion). That's what leads me to believe it will be separated. That and because DICE really hasn't said one way or another afaik.

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              November 4, 2011 11:28 AM

              As long as the guns carry over to where ever I don't care how they handle the maps. Odds are though they're keeping it separate in server rotation so people who don't own it aren't getting kicked every other match ala COD

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                November 4, 2011 11:41 AM

                Yeah, that too. It'd be absolutely ridiculous to split any game like that only a month or two after launch with additional MP content though, yet if anyone could manage to do it wrong, I'm sure EA is high on that list.

                Either way, they should have made it work like the BC2 VIP maps, free to everyone who buys the game new.. So everyone on PC and those with the key on console has them rather than just those who pre-ordered. Worked fine before :/

                Seems like they did it this time as pre-order promotion to drive up sales so they could say they pre-sold x many more copies. I'd rather they do what's best for the game.

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                  November 4, 2011 12:36 PM

                  They basically did as far as I know they've only been selling "limited edition" copies with the code in it so far.

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              November 4, 2011 11:35 AM

              If it was a radial button, where I could only pick vanilla BF3 or Karkand, I'd be with you on the separation thing.

              I think this will function more like CoD's map packs, where connecting to a server that runs the packs requires you to own the pack itself. I'm not sure why they would want to split it off. I guess we'll see in December.

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          November 4, 2011 12:54 PM

          @Battlefield Can you confirm yay/nay for servers running karkand and vanilla maps in the same rotation?

          @Megasoum in the same rotation

          https://twitter.com/#!/zh1nt0/status/132513787633872897

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            November 4, 2011 1:16 PM

            Awesome news, thanks for finding & sharing!

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      November 4, 2011 11:16 AM

      this is the first time i regret not preordering a game, damn. although with the amount of time ive spent playing BF3 it's hardly a bad deal.

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        November 4, 2011 12:36 PM

        The game should have come with a code if it was a limited edition copy.

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          November 4, 2011 3:13 PM

          nope, they didn't have any when i bought it :(

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      November 4, 2011 11:17 AM

      Has the official video been posted yet? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyN_Zjw4l-s&feature=feedu

      Wake Island going to be awesome!

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      November 4, 2011 11:19 AM

      I bet they're going to screw up the maps somehow. The maps they have now are pretty small compared to BF2, even though they said the are the biggest Battlefield has ever had. In BF2 there wasn't 1 map where I can see/shoot at the enemy base from my own base. They're going to shrink the BF2 maps to and make them terrible.

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        November 4, 2011 11:24 AM

        I hope not. I was hoping for 64player Dragon Valley. I think that was my favorite map.

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        November 4, 2011 11:27 AM

        BF2 also had a wall of fog after a certain distance like BF42, view distance is a lot larger in BF3. The maps they picked for the Karkand pack weren't the biggest in BF2 to begin with, and even if they are a similar size in BF3 they are going to seem smaller because of the additional visibility.

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          November 4, 2011 12:27 PM

          I've played with trainers in "Single player" in BF2 and tuned off fog and you can't see the enemy base because of mountains and buildings.

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        November 4, 2011 11:34 AM

        i hear this complaint a lot, but what did most of the size bring to the table in terms of gameplay? you'd spend minutes walking across open terrain doing nothing, or driving for a mile with no enemies in sight.

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          November 4, 2011 12:29 PM

          It also allowed people to get around the bulk of the action and cap the back points. Now all of the points are visible by shuffling your feet a little.

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        November 4, 2011 11:44 AM

        Pretty small? What are you fucking stupid or what? You could've killed somebody upstairs!

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          November 4, 2011 12:25 PM

          They're "big" for air vehicles but most of the infantry and tank battles are in the center of the map.

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          November 4, 2011 1:19 PM

          But there ain't nobody upstairs.

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      November 4, 2011 12:43 PM

      I'm curious as to which versions they are going to copy, I hope its the 64 player versions, It would suck if it was as the 16 player versions but wouldn't be out of the question given the size of some of the current maps. Has there been any offical word on this?

      Here are some links for comparison (Wake Island only had the 64 player version):
      Sharqi penisula http://wiki.bf2s.com/maps/battlefield-2/sharqi-peninsula
      Gulf of Oman http://wiki.bf2s.com/maps/battlefield-2/gulf-of-oman
      Strike at Karkand http://wiki.bf2s.com/maps/battlefield-2/strike-at-karkand

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        November 6, 2011 7:43 AM

        Anything less than versions based off the original maps would piss off PC users for sure. Console versions would have to be different due to hardware limitations. Anyway, anything less than 64 players for PC would be a travesty.

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        November 7, 2011 8:43 AM

        look at the flag count in the trailer i think all of em have 7 flags so one would think its the 64 player versions

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      November 4, 2011 1:10 PM

      Does anyone know what may be causing my client to CTD? I'm being vague because I honestly have no idea what's causing my crashes. I'll be playing anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, the game will freeze for several seconds with sound cut out, then I"m back at desktop. Once, I caught a "Battlefield has stopped working" screen but that's it.

      I'm asking for any and all suggestions because I have no idea what's going on.

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        November 4, 2011 1:15 PM

        Step 1: Post system specs
        Step 2: Post temps of cpu / gpu
        Step 3: Drivers updated?
        Step 4: Firmware updated?
        Step 5: Brace for slew of random shit thrown your way.

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          November 4, 2011 1:18 PM

          I'm at school, otherwise I would have posted that. Don't remember my specs off the top of my head.

          I did update my nVidia drivers last night but that was it. I have integrated sound and need to go looking for those. I also don't have any temp programs installed.

          Anyhow, I'm pretty much willing to try any and all suggestions, so throw shit all you want!

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            November 4, 2011 1:45 PM

            Do you have a factory overclocked GPU? Some people have had to underclock their video cards to get it to not crash.

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            November 4, 2011 7:39 PM

            Which integrated soundcard? There is a problem with Punkbuster and Realtek onboard audio that causes the game to freeze every 10-15 minutes. Disabling the soundcard from your BIOS or playing on a Punkbuster-free server are your only options aside from buying a new soundcard, which is what I ended up doing.

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        November 4, 2011 5:07 PM

        Also you might want to check if there's a more recent bios for your motherboard.

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        November 4, 2011 7:21 PM

        I am assuming everyone gets that, just some systems less than others. Because my PC is fine in everything else, yet everyone I know is getting it sooner or later. I think it's actually a bad network packet or something.

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          November 5, 2011 2:05 AM

          Nope. Was only happening before I manually updated Punkbuster like they said to on their homepage.

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      November 4, 2011 2:41 PM

      Now if they can only get the base game to work by then.....

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      November 4, 2011 3:23 PM

      yAak tells me to buy this game. So I go buy it, install it, play for about an hour. Then yAak calls me up and says "Oh, make sure you buy the Limited Edition version, they have a bunch at Best Buy still."

      Thanks for the TOO LATE heads-up dude!

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