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#video Here's your first look at gameplay footage from EA's upcoming Battlefield 3. If you thought that would mean a clip free from singleplayer scripting, well, you thought wrong. More »

Battlefield 3 and EA Sports titles may seem to be a no man's land apart, but a recent interview with Tobias Dahl, lead animator on the shooter, reveals how DICE turned to the company's sports juggernauts, like FIFA and Madden, to enhance the new Battlefield's animation.

"I started to look inside EA and see what we had there," Dahl said in a video featurette posted by Game Informer. "And, quite naturally, I started looking into the sport games because what they have is animation -- that's what drives their games [...] and it looks pretty good, I'd say."

The animation tech used by EA teams, dubbed "ANT," was created 7-8 years ago, by Dahl's count, and has evolved into a "powerful" tool, combining the knowledge of EA's otherwise separated programming teams over many years of iteration.

Get every angle on the gameplay from the Hit the Ground Running Teaser with the GT Gameplay Extract!

DICE community manager Daniel Matros has posted on the Battlefield 3 forums that the Back to Karkand content pack (free on launch day with an in-box code, EA-style) will have four old Battlefield maps done up in the new Frostbite 2 engine: the original Wake Island, along with Battlefield 2's Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, and the Sharqi Peninsula. That's right, Wake Island again, as if enough blood hasn't been shed on that little patch of ground.

When a player asked if that's all of the retro maps returning to the game, Matros declined to "comment on any of that at the moment," which in community manager speak usually means something other than no, leaving a chance, however small, to get your Kubra Dam action on someday. But seriously, who's going to be bothering around with all of those old maps on launch day anyway? Gotta go find those new chokepoints, right?

[Thanks, tengu_soldier!]

DICE community manager Daniel Matros has posted on the Battlefield 3 forums that the Back to Karkland content pack (free on launch day with an in-box code, EA-style) will have four old Battlefield maps done up in the new Frostbite 2 engine: the original Wake Island, along with Battlefield 2's Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, and the Sharqi Peninsula. That's right, Wake Island again, as if enough blood hasn't been shed on that little patch of ground.

When a player asked if that's all of the retro maps returning to the game, Matros declined to "comment on any of that at the moment," which in community manager speak usually means something other than no, leaving a chance, however small, to get your Kubra Dam action on someday. But seriously, who's going to be bothering around with all of those old maps on launch day anyway? Gotta go find those new chokepoints, right?

[Thanks, tengu_soldier!]

DICE announces massive pre-order incentive for fall blockbuster.

In war, you have to hit the ground running.

You've been reading a lot about DICE's fancy Frostbite 2 engine, and now you get to see it in action in a slick new gameplay trailer for Battlefield 3. The footage apparently shows U.S. Marines engaging PLR forces (i.e. "the baddies") in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The trailer also confirms the previously rumored "Back to Karkand" DLC, which comes included with all limited edition (first-run) copies of the game. The pack contains four Battlefield 2 maps that are "re-imagined" with Frostbyte 2's "physics, destruction and visuals" -- similar to what DICE did for older maps in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. For those who don't pick up the limited edition, you can expect Back to Karkand to become available for purchase sometime after Battlefield 3's launch this fall.

What we know so far about DICE's big sequel.

Game Informer's cover story on Battlefield 3 reveals DICE's plans to support dedicated servers, and delves into some of the particulars of its multiplayer offering. Once again, you'll be able to select between four classes -- executive producer Patrick Bach calls this number "the sweet spot" -- and Bad Company 2's four-person squad mechanic will be expanded, though no specifics are given. "Squads are really easy to set up, but how can you take that further? We have some really cool things that we'll show later when it comes to dictating how you play with friends," Bach teases.

Furthermore, due to BF3 using a new version of DICE's game engine, Frostbite 2.0, mod tools won't necessarily reflect earlier Battlefield mod functionality. "We will not deliver mod tools in the way that we delivered them for Battlefield 2," Bach says. "Creating mod tools today -- dumbing them down -- takes a lot of energy and what we are discussing more every day is, 'Where do we put our focus?' Right now our focus is to create the best possible multiplayer, single-player, and co-op game -- the core game of Battlefield 3. We're still discussing how we handle modifications of any kind," he adds.

And though the third Battlefield title will arrive on launch day in Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 flavors, the game's primary development platform is the PC. "We won't make it for console and port it to PC -- that's not how we do things," Bach says. "We're focusing on PC first, and then we fiddle with it to fit it onto consoles." Frankly, we wanna fiddle with it wherever it is.

While the Battlefield 3 pre-order text appearing on GameStop is almost identical to the text that briefly appeared on EA's own pre-order site, BF3Blog.com snagged the full copy from EA before it was stripped. While the GameStop text simply says that battles will be fought in "diverse locations from around the globe including Europe, Middle-East and North America," the original EA text was a bit more specific: "Paris, Tehran and New York." What that tells us is that Battlefield 3 will have some seriously urban environments, which is a good thing for the seemingly massive multiplayer levels.

While we've known that the PC version would support 64 players in its multiplayer component, Best Buy lists "massive 24-player online battles." Game Informer - which is hosting the reveal of the title via its March issue - lists the multilplayer component as supporting 64 players on PC and 24 on consoles, a not-unusual limitation for console face-shooting. And lastly, so long as you're here already, we wanted to share this video of Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2 engine busting out real-time radiosity using the Enlighten middleware toolkit. We're sure DICE will be highlighting the work it's put into this new engine, so consider this an early (and admittedly sedate) look at the tech behind BF3.

[Thanks, Darren and Zach the Maniac]

Although EA has yet to officially detail the contents of the upcoming Battlefield 3 limited edition, this rather official-looking image has surfaced on Gamersmint. According to the poster, the LE version (all first-run copies of the game) will include "Back to Karkand" DLC "at no additional charge." The add-on includes four maps from Battlefield 2 "re-imagined with Frostbyte 2," the upcoming sequel's new engine, in addition to new Achievements/Trophies, unique rewards, and weapons from the previous title. Those that don't get the LE will be able to buy Karkand "approximately one month after the game's release."

While these details aren't confirmed, they certainly fall in line with EA's many other "Project Ten Dollar" offerings. We're bound to find out exactly what EA has planned for the LE in "late February," according to the EA Store.

#rumor Someone from the Battlefield 3 forums unearthed a poster that purports to reveal plans for the extra maps included in the game's limited edition. A four-map redo of the "Strike at Karkand" map from Battlefield 2 will be included. More »

The next installment of DICE's classic series is coming!

Call of Duty will go head-to-head with Battlefield 3 in 2011. The third game in the series, which will be <a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/114/1143319p1.html" target=new><b> ...

EA has launched the official website for Battlefield 3, revealing a Fall 2011 launch window for the DICE-developed warfare fest. The game utilizes the Frostbite 2 engine, which delivers "earth-shattering destruction" and compels official product descriptions to insert phrases like "real as hell combat gameplay" and "dramatic immersive First Person Shooter experience."

To catch an early glimpse of those dramatic immersive things, you'll have to watch the game's all-too-brief teaser after the break. (Does anyone else hear a garbled Terminator theme in there?)

Call of Duty will go head-to-head with Battlefield 3 in 2011. The third game in the series, which will be <a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/114/1143319p1.html" target=new><b> ...

#video Yesterday afternoon, Kotaku reported that Battlefield creators DICE would be releasing the game's first trailer. That trailer, apparently, is already online, supposedly leaking tonight. More »

After years of DICE playing "dont ask, don't tell," Battlefield 3 is ready for its big coming out. The game will be featured in the next issue of Game Informer and the game's official site is expected to launch a teaser trailer tomorrow.

The title will utilize DICE's Frostbite 2 engine with upgrades like deferred rendering, real-time radiosity, a new animation system borrowed from EA Sports and more destructible environments. The developer also announced today it was canceling other projects in order to focus on making Battlefield 3 "the best Battlefield game ever."

Battlefield 3 is expected for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. No word yet on how all that fancy techno jargon will play out when comparing the PC versions of the game to its console companions.

#dice Battlefield creators DICE will give us our first peek at the long-awaited Battlefield 3 tomorrow, February 4, in video teaser form. But the latest Game Informer magazine cover gives us a small hint at what to expect. More »

Electronic Arts promises new game announcements.