We earlier reported that Battlefield 3 has been very successful for EA, and as is the norm these days for successful FPS’, more downloadable content (DLC) is incoming.

During an investors call, EA VP of Investor Relations Peter C. Ausnit said, ”You’re going to hear some announcements from us on Battlefield actually as early as next week in an event we’ve got in New York.”

While Ausnit didn’t offer any other details, it’s been heavily rumored that the new expansion/map is the “All American” DLC; a map pack which consists of all-new fighting places such as: New York, Miami, San Francisco and more. It is titled “All American” for a reason, after all.

If true, hopefully it’s not just a map pack but an expansion – complete with new weapons, vehicles, Achievements/Trophies and more.

The latest DLC for Battlefield 3 has been Back to Karkand, an expansion that was offered free for those who bought the game’s limited edition.

Does the All American DLC sound good to you or would you rather they make an expansion sequel to Battlefield: 2142?

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First off, this is required viewing for those who aren’t familiar. It’s a dude ejecting from the cockpit of his jet in Battlefield 3, then shooting down an enemy fighter with a bazooka while mid-air, and finally landing right back where he started, all accompanied by the sweet sounds of the A-Team theme…

Well, time to see it re-created in real life. Not 100%, but close enough…

So the cockpit shots are fake, that much is apparent. In fact, they somewhat feel more real in the game, for whatever reason. Same goes for him being airborne sans aircraft, to blow up another, and returning to his seat. Obviously. But that really is someone in the air, way up in the air, legs and hands all flailing about. Crazy, huh?

Here’s some behind the scenes footage, which you always see with many YouTube clips, but this is the only instance in which I think it’s actually worth investigating (though you may want to fast forward to the 3:28 mark if you’re strapped for time)…

“Together with the 3rd party service providers we have taken steps to remove the faulty bans, and improve the protection against future fake bans,” the blog post reads.

“We have determined that the root cause resulting in the server bans is not directly related to Battlefield 3, but rather related to select 3rd party services which server owners can use in conjunction with PunkBuster to protect their servers.

“If you are able to log in to Battlelog, your account has not been banned by EA or DICE so there is no need to contact Customer Support.

“This issue did not affect Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 players of Battlefield 3.”

The dev post concludes that some people are still reporting the problems on some servers, and recommends that affected players “try joining other PunkBuster enabled servers”.

In the game, the single-player storyline is revealed through a series of flashbacks as Marine Staff Sergeant Henry Blackburn races to prevent an attack on New York City by a deadly force known as the PLR. As Blackburn recalls key events leading up to the attack, players take control of several characters in heart-pounding missions across land, sea and air. One of these characters is Dmitri “Dima” Mayakovsky, a legendary and pragmatic GRU operator in the twilight of his Special Forces career. Known as a “cleaner”, Dima is the sort of person that does whatever it takes to get the job done.

On January 7 and 8, 2012 Battlefield 3 will host an event on the Xbox 360 and PS3 to finally settle the age-old rivalry between metal and hip hop. Join world-renowned stars Big Boi, Korn, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, and Mickey Factz as they go head-to-head to settle it once and for all. For this special occasion, DICE and EA are calling on all Battlefield fans to pick a side, join a platoon with their musical compatriots and get into the fight.

Lucky fans have the chance of a lifetime to play alongside their chart-topping heroes when the stars jump into public matches and join the fray on the classic Battlefield multiplayer map, Strike at Karkand, from the recently released digital expansion pack, Battlefield 3 Back to Karkand. By siding up with either the metal or hip hop platoon, players will show their allegiance and start firing bullets in the name of their chosen musical genre. In a bid to see which force is the mightiest, there will also be a race to see which platoon gets the largest group of fans. Players can become a fan of their chosen platoon via Battlefield 3’s social newsfeed and stat tracking tool, Battlelog.

Additionally, Xbox 360, PS3, and PC players can create their own player-created metal or hip hop platoon to support the war throughout the month of January. Utilizing Battlelog, stats will be logged and monitored so that the world knows just how many bullets are fired, how many vehicles are destroyed and how many virtual kills each side registers. All player-created metal or hip hop platoons must be created before January 31, 2012 and named so that DICE team members can easily find them to crown the champions.

Battlefield 3 leaps ahead of its time with the power of Frostbite 2, DICE’s new cutting-edge game engine. This state-of-the-art technology is the foundation on which Battlefield 3 is built, delivering enhanced visual quality, a grand sense of scale, massive destruction, dynamic audio and character animation utilizing ANT technology from the latest EA Sports games.

The experience doesn’t stop with the engine — it just starts there. In single-player, multiplayer and co-op, Battlefield 3 is a near-future war game depicting international conflicts spanning land, sea and air. Players are dropped into the heart of the combat whether it occurs on dense city streets where they must fight in close quarters or in wide open rural locations that require long range tactics.

Key Features:

• Frostbite 2 – Battlefield 3 introduces Frostbite 2, the incredible technology that takes animation, destruction, lighting, scale and audio to new heights. Built upon this powerful game engine, Battlefield 3 immerses players physically and emotionally to the world around them like never before.
• Feel the Battle – Feel the impact of bullets and explosions, drag your fallen comrades into safety, and mount your weapon on almost any part of the terrain. Battlefield 3′s cutting edge animation, spectacular visuals and real as hell battle gameplay attack your senses and make you feel the visceral warriors experience like no other FPS.
• Unparalleled Vehicle Warfare – The best online vehicle warfare experience gets even better with a fitting sonic boom as fighter jets headline impressive lineup of land, air and sea vehicles.
• Urban Combat – Take the fight to iconic and unexpected places in the USA, Middle East, and Europe including claustrophobic streets, metropolitan downtowns, and open, vehicle-friendly landscapes as you fight your way through the war of tomorrow.

Those anxious to start the fight can pre-order the Battlefield 3 Limited Edition now at the EA Store . The Battlefield 3 Limited Edition includes Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand at no extra charge. This themed expansion pack features four legendary maps from Battlefield 2 boldly re-imagined with Frostbite 2 physics, destruction and visuals. Completing the package are classic Battlefield 2 weapons and vehicles, unique rewards, new achievements/trophies, and more.

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I picked up both Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 (for Xbox 360) on their respective launch dates. I was excited to play both with Battlefield offering something new for me and Modern Warfare was the next title in a series of games that I quite enjoy. I’ve spent quite a bit of time with both games in the two months or so that they have been out, and I find my copy of Modern Warfare 3 sitting on the shelf more often than not as I play Battlefield several hours each week having a blast. This post isn’t an argument as to why Battlefield is the superior game to Modern Warfare, it’s why Battlefield is the superior game for me.

The Call of Duty franchise has been a mainstay in my console since the original Modern Warfare and I have picked up each title since, enjoying hopping online and playing with friends. It was a nice change of pace from my go-to FPS title, Halo. I was excited for the Call of Duty franchises return to Modern Warfare and as soon as I picked it up I was anxious to get hope and hop online and get to the online playing. I spent several days with the game playing Team Deathmatch and other game types online. It was fun, but I found myself a bit bored and a bit frustrated.

The maps seems to have no rhyme or reason to them and are essentially just mazes of buildings to run through hoping you are the first guy to pull the trigger when you turn a corner and come face to face with a member of the opposite team. In all previous titles in the CoD series I have not used shotguns more than I have in MW3, but I found they were the most useful for this type of game play and found my game improving after I settled on the fact this was the best tactic. Then there are the kill streak rewards. Constantly throughout every game played there is some sort of ridiculous kill streak being used, raining hell fire down from overhead padding the kill-death ratios of those who called upon them. I use them myself obviously, but there is something slightly less satisfying knowing that your 27-3 K/D spread was mostly due to calling in an AI chopper to do away with all the poor guys that didn’t equip the proper class to hide them on the map. Not every second of every match needs to be filled with bombing runs, attack helicopters and other over-the-top attacks covering the map in explosions decimating the other team to keep me interested, but perhaps this is needed for younger gamers than myself. After a few days it occurred to me that this was just like all the other Call of Duty games: Chasing red dots on the map to build up enough kills to unleash a killstreak reward. It just wasn’t as fun as it used to be.

A few weeks prior to MW3, Battlefield 3 dropped. I had played and enjoyed the beta and was eager to hop into the full game. My experience with the Battlefield series was limited to playing the single player campaign in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, but I was looking forward to something new and what I found really impressed me. Air and ground vehicles for support, four classes to provide a role to play to support your team, no ridiculous kill streak rewards and most importantly: a first person shooter game that encourages team work by rewarding you for it. My friends and I immediately took a shine to the Rush game type and jumped into it feet first. Here was a game where the point wasn’t to try to get an amazing kill-death spread, but to work as a team towards the objective. You could score just as many points as the guy who got 25 kills in the game if you were distributing ammo, healing team mates, repairing vehicles, and accomplishing the objectives. Sniper rifles didn’t shoot perfectly straight over a mile distance – you had to account for bullet drop due to gravity and shotguns won’t instantly kill you from fifty feet away.

When I get online to play a video game with friends, I want to play with them, not just be playing the same game as them and Battlefield promoted this. It wasn’t long until within our squad we had all taken on our own roles and were great at working together tackling objectives. If one needed more ammo, there was someone to supply it; if a man went down, there was a medic to revive them; if a tank was damaged an engineer was on hand to repair it and keep it moving. Over and over again we found ourselves in epic battles holding down an objective, all working together and warding off wave after wave of attacks as buildings crumble around us thanks to the awesome Frostbite 2 engine.

Battlefield changed my idea of what a FPS could and should be. No longer was it just about getting an awesome kill/death ratio as you chase red dots around a map, now it was about team work, tactics, skill and working towards a common objective on expansive, exciting maps. Here we are now over two months after both titles have come out and Battlefield has rarely left my console – and when it has it’s been to play Sonic Generations, Batman: Arkham City, or Marvel vs. Capcom 3 not Modern Warfare 3. My desire to jump in to MW3 has pretty much dropped to non-existent, especially as more and more of my online gaming friends convert over to Battlefield. The fact of the matter is that Activision has been pushing out the same game under the Call of Duty umbrella year after year, never really changing much, never trying to introduce something new. There are millions of Call of Duty fans who love the game as is, so this formula seems to work for now, but for me Battlefield offers something new, engaging and expansive that keeps me coming back for more.

For the time being I’m considering myself done with the Call of Duty franchise. Perhaps in the next few years Call of Duty will come out with a new game that completely changes the FPS landscape once again, but right now I know I can get $30 store credit at my local gaming store. That seems more worth it to me than holding onto a game that will do little more than sit on my shelf collecting dust as I defend my base against waves of enemies descending upon me at Damavand Peak.

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Let’s start by telling you exactly what the document says, it reads:

“Objective: Retrieve all Dinosaurs, Details: We lost 5 or 6 dinosaurs on the island, it is of the utmost importance that we retrieve all samples and return them safely to HQ! Additional Details: The General promised cake!”

Initially there was some confusion as to whether there were really six dinosaurs hidden on the Wake Island map, however a tweet from someone over at EA DICE confirmed that there was, so SpotTheOzzie and some of his buddies decided to get to work and locate all six of them. Rather than write complicated instructions as to where to find each dinosaur we have embedded two videos at the bottom of this post, the top of the two shows you how to find the first five, whilst the bottom video shows you how to find the last one.

After watching the two videos carefully you will be able to find all the dinosaurs, but there is still some confusion surrounding this easter egg and whether there is more to it other than just finding all six locations – let’s not forget that the top secret document said “The General promised cake!”, what do you think this means? It also asked you to return them safely to the HQ – how can this be done? Some people are hoping that this easter egg will somehow lead to a Dino-survival mode – that would be great, but we very much doubt it would ever happen.

As we hear more about this easter egg we will keep you posted, have you spotted anything we have missed?

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 may be winning the video game sales campaign — and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim the awards victor so far — but Battlefield 3 came out on top as the hottest game of 2011.

That’s the finding from Google’s 11th annual Zeitgeist report of global searching trends. Battlefield 3 came in as the No. 5 fastest-rising queries. No. 1 hot search subject: 13-year-old singer Rebecca Black.

Coming in Nos. 2-4 were Google+, the late MTV daredevil Ryan Dunn and Casey Anthony. For the full top 10 and details about the search trends go to the Zeitgeist site. (By the way, if you Google “zeitgeist” you will learn that it is a German term for”the spirit of the times”.)

There are dozens of lists on the site, with interesting tools that let you compare different search topics over weekly activity.

Among the lists is the Most Popular Video Games in the U.S.:

1) Black Ops
2) Call of Duty
3) Halo Reach
4) Super Mario
5) Mortal Kombat
6) Skyrim
7) Battlefield 3
Dragon Age 2)
9) Diablo 3
10) Mass Effect 3

Also ranked were Most Popular Online Games:

1) World of Warcraft
2) Addicting Games
3) Free Online Games
4) Miniclip
5) Webkinz
6) Tower Defense
7) Kids Games
Armor Games
9) Tetris
10) Juegos

Other interesting findings:

– Batman: Arkham City came in as the No. 2 most popular movie after Star Wars.
– The Amazon Kindle Fire surpassed the iPhone 4S, other smartphones and tablets for the global fastest-rising consumer electronics device.
– Battlefield 3 also came in No. 6 on the fastest-rising Google News topics (No. 1 was Fukushima).

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Soldiers using PCs and Xbox 360 devices will have to wait until December 13 to access the pack, which costs $14.99 (or 1,200 Xbox points). Many gamers who preordered Battlefield 3 Limited Edition automatically received Back to Karkand free, so this will be a nice change of scenery for those already tired of playing.

It’s fair to say the re-imagined maps from Battlefield 2 look incredible. (Click to enlarge.)

DICE and EA released a spicy trailer showing off some of the thrilling moments in Wake Island, one of four maps included in the DLC. Other maps include these Battlefield 2 classics: Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, and Sharqi Peninsula.

There’s also a new Conquest Assault game mode along with the addition of 10 weapons and 4 vehicles. One vehicle is a bulldozer, which will surely guarantee some epic win and a larger amount of epic fail.

 

Assignments adds a little dimension to the unlocking experience.

(Credit: DICE/EA)

Perhaps most interesting is how you obtain the new weapons. A new feature for the Battlefield franchise, Assignments (full list), challenges players to unlock weapons in a different way. For example, to unlock the MG36, you must get 100 kills with light machine guns, 50 suppression assists, and 50 ammo resupplies. Obtaining that weapon then permits you access to earn the next weapon in the hierarchy.

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Longer version for your scrutiny: http://youtu.be/B_LplAoJwdY

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