Battlefield 3: Pre-Order Bonuses and Limited Edition Details

It’s not long now until the October 28th launch of Battlefield 3, and apparently fans have already pre-ordered ten times more copies of the game than they did for the launch of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, so it’s looking to be a pretty darn big launch. In addition to winning over 50 awards even before launch, developers DICE and publishers Electronic Arts have announced a number of bonus items and extras you can get by carefully choosing which version you fancy buying, and pre-ordering once you’ve decided.

So what’s the difference if you go for the Limited Edition? The Battlefield 3 Limited Edition includes the Back to Karkland DLC expansion pack, which includes four maps from Battlefield 2, including Strike at Karland, Gulf of Oman and the Sharqi Peninsula. If you d go for the standard edition and want to download the map pack seperately, it’ll cost you a fairly heft £11.99, so you may as well go limited from the start!

Battlefield 3 Pre-Order bonuses:

If you commit to a Battlefield 3 pre-order now, then various retailers are offering bonuses for your custom. And the split between the retailers is:

Physical Warfare Pack: Available in the UK from Game.

You’ll get three exclusive weapon bonuses unlocked for a limited time in-game, before they later become available to all players. The three goodies you’ll get access to straight away are: The Type 88 Light Machine Gun with Bipod, the SKS Sniper Rifle Flash Suppressor, and Flechette Ammo for the DAO-12 Semi-Automatic Shotgun, and the DAO itself will also be unlocked for you, giving you a healthy headstart with increased stealth from the flash suppressor, and the hefty stopping power of the armour-piercing flechette rounds. So if killing is your business, then you should probably consider pre-ordering from Game right away.

SPECACT Kit – available from Amazon UK:

You’ll be able to expand your look with a set of eight unique multiplayer skins, with one for each class in Battlefield 3, because as we all know, looking good is second only to getting the kills! So if you fancy being ‘on trend’ this season, get your pre-order in at Amazon.

 

Dog Tag Pack – available from Play.com:

The role of dog tags in Battlefield is your in-game signature, which get displayed when you make a kill or claim an opponent’s dog tags by sneaking up on them and stabbing. So you’ll be able to select one of five new and unique dog tags to stand out whether you’re the one claiming the kills, or being stabbded in the back. Quite a classy way to show off the fact you’ve pre-ordered from Play.com.

 

So what would we recommend? Well, the Limited Edition appears to be the sole version available for pre-order at the moment, and given the fact that so many people are going to have access to the extra maps, and the hefty price to download them later, it seems like a bit of a no-brainer to pick them up at launch.

As for pre-order bonuses – despite the fact that limiting game content by pre-order retailer makes us slightly uneasy as gamers, the time-exclusive option and the fact that it will give us a gameplay advantage means that we’re choosing the Physical Warfare bonus from Game over the other two. After all, nothing looks better than a high kill/death ratio, and people aren’t as likely to notice your custom skin or dog tag as much as the fact you’re taking them out with high-powered flechette rounds. Plus it’s a moral duty to encourage the use of time-limited content which is then opened up to every gamer, regardless of retailer, rather than permanent exclusives most of us will never get the chance to access. So we’re pre-ordering the Limited Edition via Game, but which version is tempting you?