Battlefield doesn’t do “map packs.” At least, that’s the key talking point EA wanted writers to walk away with after sinking a few hours into the first “expansion pack” for Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand. It seems that DICE and EA want to conjure up images of shooter expansion packs of old, rather than the IV drip of DLC that modern games offer players. Back to Karkand will include four new maps, but it also offers three new vehicles (including a sweet looking VTOL F-35B), five new dog tags, ten new weapons, and five new Achievements/Trophies. A hefty package to be sure, especially by today’s standards. However, the phrase “expansion pack” seems a bit forced — Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII this is not.
I’d love to tell you about all the new weapons and vehicles, but we don’t actually get a chance to touch them in our three hours playing the game on PS3 at EA’s offices. We start out with level one soldiers — denying us the opportunity to check out the new weapons — and the versions of the maps we play lacked the fancy new vehicles. We do however get to spend those three hours exploring two of the new maps available.
