Today, we have some Battlefield 3 news for you straight from this year’s Electronic Arts press conference at E3.

On stage at E3, DICE Executive Producer Patrick Bach unveiled a whole year of great Battlefield 3 content. If you didn’t catch the press conference yourself, we’ve got the details for you right here!

Our biggest news is the launch of our massive content offer, Battlefield 3 Premium. If you buy Battlefield 3 Premium, you’ll also be able to download and play our latest expansion pack Close Quarters today. That’s two weeks earlier than non-Premium members on PlayStation 3, and one week earlier than Premium members on other platforms thanks to the early access that PlayStation 3 players are getting!

Here’s the Battlefield 3 Premium launch trailer hot from E3:

Battlefield 3 Premium:
So what does Premium get you? Well, purchasing Premium will give you all five themed expansion packs for Battlefield 3, including two weeks’ early access (except – of course – for the Back to Karkand pack that we released in December last year!). You’ll also get a number of unique in-game items, like the new ACB-90 knife, a set of Premium dog tags, weapon camos, soldier camos and more.

At E3 today, we also showed the complete line-up of expansion packs for Battlefield 3.

1. Back to Karkand
Giving you four fan favorite maps from Battlefield 2 with enhanced destruction (Strike at Karkand, Sharqi Peninsula, Gulf of Oman, and Wake Island) and 10 new weapons, this expansion pack also offers new vehicles like the US VTOL fighter jet, new Assignments, Trophies, and dog tags.

2. Close Quarters
Close Quarters brings the Battlefield indoors. The shift in environment means gameplay is fast and frantic, combining instant-action with the tactical squad play Battlefield has always been known for. Four new maps are included, and Close Quarters also adds what we’re calling “HD Destruction” – meaning you can destroy just about everything in the game by firing your normal rifle bullets at them.

3. Armored KillComing September 2012
In September, it’s all out vehicle warfare. Armored Kill includes four new maps (including the biggest Battlefield map ever) and a number of new vehicles including tank destroyers (a new tank class somewhere in-between Infantry Fighting Vehicles and Main Battle Tanks), mobile artillery, an ATV and an all-new gunship.

4. Aftermath and End GameComing late 2012 and early 2013 respectively
Stay tuned for more!

That’s it for now! Battlefield 3 Premium is available today at the PlayStation Store and the Battlefield 3 in-game store for $49.99.

Thanks for reading, and let us know what you think in the comments section below. I’ll also be happy to answer any questions you might have on Premium or the first three expansion packs!

Once you have downloaded Back to Karkand, the four new maps (Wake Island, Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, and Sharqi Peninsula) will be available in the server browser and in the Quick Match filter settings just like the nine maps from the base game. There will be servers that mix and match maps from the base game and Back to Karkand, so you will never have to commit to playing either base game or Back to Karkand maps in your gaming session.

That’s it for today; keeping it short and sweet so I can go back to chasing my new Assignments. Hope you enjoyed the launch trailer, and hope to see you online. Let us know what you think about Back to Karkand in the Battlelog forums.

If you are a Battlefield 3 Limited Edition owner, you are entitled to this entire expansion pack at no extra charge and you can get it from the in-game store or the PlayStation Store. Otherwise, you can buy it for $14.99 starting today, from the game’s in-game store or from the PlayStation Store. Every future expansion pack for Battlefield 3 will also be available one week early exclusively on PlayStation 3, just like Back to Karkand.

To recap, Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand is a massive themed expansion pack featuring four legendary Battlefield maps reimagined in the Frostbite 2 engine. You also get three vehicles (the VSTOL fighter jet, Desert Buggy, and an APC), ten new weapons that you can bring back to the base game, a new layer of persistence with our all-new Assignments, plus five shiny Trophies.

The maps we chose for this expansion pack are all classic fan favorites: Wake Island, Sharqi Peninsula, Gulf of Oman, and Strike at Karkand (from where the expansion pack got its name). These maps are about all-out warfare in a variety of settings and have collectedly been played literally billions of times by our players. Now, they are due for a reimagining with the power of the Frostbite 2 engine. This allows us do things like take the level of destruction to ridiculous heights. You can basically turn these entire maps into rubble (with the exception of Wake Island, which has a lot less buildings and is more of an open landscape).

The design idea for Back to Karkand is that these legendary maps have aged since you last saw them. If you are a returning veteran, you will feel instantly at home, but there will also be a sense of exciting rediscovery about them. If you have not played on the before, they are simply a great addition to the nine available multiplayer maps in Battlefield 3, building on all the strengths of the series.

Now, let’s turn our eye to take a closer look at Assignments, specifically the “Let it Rain” Assignment. To complete this assignment, players must score 20 kills with Light Machine Guns and two mortar kills. The game will keep track of how far along you have come fulfilling this assignment. When you have met the requirements, you will unlock a new Back to Karkand weapon (with a matching set of dog tags) to use on any map including the base game. You will also unlock the next Assignment in the series, the new Creeping Death Assignment.

As with all of the Assignments introduced in Back to Karkand, you can keep building towards these no matter if you play on regular maps or maps from the new expansion pack itself. Your regular persistence will also be intact and keep building up no matter what map you play. In this way Back to Karkand is completely integrated into the base game, including the ability to have a map rotation mixing base game maps with Back to Karkand maps.

And before we go, here are the five new Trophies you can hunt in Back to Karkand:

Complete Warrior (Silver)
Get a kill with the following weapons in a single life: Rifle, Jet, Tank

Third Tour (Bronze)
Get a kill with the new APC, Desert Buggy, and STOVL fighter jet

Gunslinger (Bronze)Get 10 kills with all B2K weapons

Like a Boss! (Silver)
Get a kill with the skid loader

Jaws (Bronze)
Take a swim in the pool at the Oman hotel

We will keep supporting Battlefield 3 on PS3 for a long time, so we hope to see you online Tuesday and beyond. Let us know what you think about Back to Karkand in the Battlelog forums.

If you are a Battlefield 3 Limited Edition owner, you are entitled to this entire expansion pack at no extra charge and you can get it from the in-game store or the PlayStation Store, just make sure to activate your Online Pass if you have not done so. Otherwise, you can buy it for $14.99 from the game’s in-game store or from the PlayStation Store. Future expansion packs for Battlefield 3 will also be available one week early exclusively on PlayStation 3 like Back to Karkand.”

Hey everyone! The team at DICE is super excited to get Battlefield 3 into the hands of our PS3 fans. And, if initial reactions are anything to go by, you are equally excited….

Don’t forget: you will be able to purchase, download and play the upcoming expansion pack Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand one week early exclusively on PS3. And hey, don’t miss your chance for everlasting fame and glory – or at least being included in the in-game credits for Back to Karkand. All you have to do to be in the running is to enter our Name it and Claim it! Challenge and submit your suggestion for our new control point on the redesigned Gulf of Oman map. But don’t wait – the challenge closes on October 28th!

But today is all about the launch of the base game. Before I leave you, I just wanted to let you know what Trophies are lying in wait for the skilled and dedicated gamers we know you are. And with that, I hope you enjoy the game. Looking forward to hear from you, here or on Battlelog!

Battlefield 3 Trophies

Not on my watch
Bronze
Protected Chaffin from the soldiers in the street in Operation Swordbreaker.

Roadkill
Bronze
Kicked the car and killed the soldiers in Uprising.

Involuntary Euthanasia
Bronze
Killed the 2 soldiers before the building fell on them in Uprising.

You can be my wingman anytime
Bronze
Completed Going Hunting in a perfect run.

The Professional
Bronze
Completed the street chase in All Russian in under 2 minutes 30 seconds without dying.

Scrap Metal
Bronze
Destroyed 6 enemy tanks before reaching the fort in Thunder Run.

Army of Darkness
Bronze
Shot out the 4 lights in 4 bullets in Night Shift.

Twofor
Bronze
Took down 2 enemies in 1 bullet in Night Shift.

What the hell *are* you?
Bronze
Took a Russian Dog Tag in the forest ambush on Rock And A Hard Place.

Float like a butterfly…
Bronze
Took down the jet in one attempt in Rock And A Hard Place.

Practice makes perfect
Bronze
Headshot each of the targets in the gun range in Kaffarov.

Between a rock and a hard place
Bronze
Beat Soloman, flawlessly, in The Great Destroyer.

Ooh-rah!
Silver
Completed the campaign story.

Semper Fidelis
Gold
Completed the campaign story on Hard.

Push On
Bronze
Reached the garage without going into man-down state in Hit and Run.

In the nick of time
Bronze
Disarmed the bomb in under 20 seconds in The Eleventh Hour.

Car Lover
Bronze
Completed the mission without losing a humvee in Operation Exodus.

Untouchable
Bronze
Completed the mission without using the fire extinguisher in Fire From The Sky.

Bullseye
Bronze
Saved the hostages without alerting any enemies in Drop ‘em Like Liquid.

Ninjas
Bronze
Reached the VIP without setting off the alarm in Exfiltration.

Lock ‘n’ Load
Silver
Unlocked all unique co-op weapons.

Two-rah!
Silver
Completed all co-op missions.

Army of Two
Gold
Completed all co-op missions on Hard.

Vehicle Warfare
Bronze
Recieved all 3 vehicle warfare ribbons.

Support Efficiency
Bronze
Recieved all 4 support efficiency ribbons.

Infantry Efficiency
Bronze
Recieved all 4 weapon efficiency ribbons.

Decorated
Gold
Received one of each ribbon we have in the game.

M.I.A
Bronze
Took your first enemy dogtag.

It’s better than nothing!
Silver
3rd MVP in a ranked match.

1st Loser
Silver
2nd MVP in a ranked match.

Most Valuable Player
Silver
MVP in a ranked match.

Colonel
Gold
Rank 45 achieved!

FlashForward
Bronze
Hidden Trophy

Shock Troop
Bronze
Hidden Trophy

Rad Loot
Bronze
Hidden Trophy

SacreBOOM!
Bronze
Hidden Trophy

Wanted: Dead or Alive
Bronze
Hidden Trophy

No Escape
Bronze
Hidden Trophy

On behalf of the entire team at DICE, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who played and participated in our Battlefield 3 Open Beta. The information that we’ve gathered from your play time is invaluable. It will help to make Battlefield 3 even better!

But it’s not all network load balancing and matchmaking algorithms; When it comes to data, the real star is you! Just look at these killer numbers we pulled down from all of you PS3 players:

Crazy numbers and we couldn’t have done it without you! Just a few more days now before the game launches on the 25th, and as you may know already, PS3 players will get access to the expansion pack Back to Karkand one week early.

But before I leave you, here is a short selection of just some of the hundreds of changes and additions we are making to the game before launch, as a direct result of your feedback in the Open Beta:

Improved Squad Functionality

There will be improved squad functionality in the retail game (including but not limited to): the ability to create squads prior to launching into a game, sticking with your squad when joining a game and continuing together through future games (if team balance on the server allows it), inviting friends to a squad, and changing squads once in game.

More Accessible Settings Menu

The ability to modify your settings via the deploy screen has been added into the retail game.

Improved Kill Cam

In the Open Beta, the Kill Cam would sometimes behave erratically. This has been fixed for the launch of the retail game.

Netcode Optimization

The netcode is one of the many things that we tested as part of the Open Beta and it was not necessarily reflective of the final retail game. The DICE team appreciates, and has heard, the feedback you’ve provided and is further optimizing online play.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your great interest in this Open Beta. By joining, you will help us stress test servers, allow us to run important tests on the game’s back-end and Battlelog. Remember that this software is in Beta and does not represent the game’s final quality — you’ll have to wait for October 25th for that! For a full FAQ on the Open Beta, head here.

Please leave any feedback to us at DICE via the forums in the social platform Battlelog. Make sure to also head to our free social platform Battlelog to check your in-depth stats progression, start your own Platoon, and see how your friends are doing in the news feed. To get you started on the Operation Metro map, here are some playing tips straight from us at DICE. You can also study the PS3 control scheme in the image below. Enjoy, and let us know what you think!

DICE’s Top 10 Battlefield Tips for Operation Metro

1. Stick to your teammates, and remember to spawn on them to stay close to the fight.
2. Use your kit specific abilities to help your team mates. Assault can hand out med kits, Engineers can repair vehicles, and Support can hand out ammo.
3. When you arm an M-COM station, defend it to ensure it’s destroyed.
4. The bombed-out tunnel section in Operation Metro is an excellent place to use a flashlight as one of your weapon attachments. Use it to light the tunnels up – and to blind your enemies!
5. Attach bipods to your weapon and deploy it automatically by pushing up against cover or laying prone and zooming in – this gives you a huge increase in accuracy and stability.
6. Use suppressive fire (shoot close to enemies behind cover) to negatively impact the enemy’s fighting capabilities.
7. Watch out for falling debris — it can hurt you! But you can also hurt your enemies by taking out buildings with the Engineer’s RPG.
8. Shotguns are excellent for CQC (Close Quarters Combat) in the tighter tunnels sections.
9. Fire automatic weapons in short bursts for accuracy, or switch to single-fire mode if applicable.
10. To grab your enemy’s dog tag as a souvenir, perform a stealth knife kill from behind.

Prepare for battle in the bombed-out metro tunnels on the outskirts of Paris in the upcoming Battlefield 3 Open Beta!

Alternatively, if you have redeemed a Medal of Honor: Limited Edition or Tier 1 Edition Online Pass, you will receive early access via a personal email invitation from DICE that includes 48-hour early access, which will allow you to start playing on September 27th.

The Open Beta is your chance to play Battlefield 3 early, try out our free social platform Battlelog, and give your valued feedback directly to those of us at DICE. You participating in the Battlefield 3 Open Beta means that you are not only helping us load test the servers, but more importantly, helping us fine-tune the final components of the multiplayer game.

During your time in the Open Beta, you’ll be playing on the map Operation Métro – a map you might have seen coverage of from E3, where we won the Best Multiplayer Game award.

But that’s not all for our PlayStation fans! You’ll be happy to know that beginning with our first expansion pack Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand (to be released later this year), all full-blown upcoming expansion packs for the game will appear one week early exclusively on PS3, brought to you by Sony!

As you may or may not have heard, Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand is a themed expansion pack containing four of the most loved maps from Battlefield 2, boldly reimagined in the Frostbite 2 engine. It also features new weapons and vehicles, unique in-game dog tags, new persistence, as well as new Trophies.

Make sure to stay tuned for more on the PS3 version of Battlefield 3 and all things related. And do let us know what you think of the Beta once it’s up and running. For more stories on Battlefield 3, feel free to check out the official Battlefield blog where I post from behind the scenes under the name “H Brun”.

I also wanted to say thank you for your continued support for DICE and Battlefield 3. Meeting our fans in person is always very rewarding and exciting. We went to gamescom with the PS3 co-op mission Exfiltration, and at Tokyo Game Show we let visitors play the single player mission Operation Guillotine. The response so far has been overwhelming, and we look forward to showing you more action from Battlefield 3 before the North American launch on October 25th.

“Snake-66 is mission go!”

Hi all! Having just come back from a great gamescom show in Germany, here’s your chance to learn all about the co-op campaign in Battlefield 3 that we showed off on PS3. We designed co-op to be the perfect blend between the strong narrative from single player and the open-ended action from multiplayer. We are fusing the replayability of multiplayer with a pick up-and-play mentality to create a totally new flavor of Battlefield.

Co-op follows the same philosophy as our award-winning multiplayer game mechanics. Teamwork is practically never forced upon you, but working together will make things much easier and — more importantly — lead to victory.

For the most part, the missions in the co-op campaign are asymmetric. This means that one mission can have you piloting a helicopter while your friend is the gunner, for example. Other situations have one player disarming a bomb and the other one defending him. Or (as you could see in our press conference playthrough at gamescom) you can do tandem kills to avoid detection. There are also other mechanics requiring teamwork, such as spotting enemies to make large firefights easier, or the essential concept of reviving one another to avoid ending up at the game over screen.

Man down! Give your co-op buddy a helping hand to stay in the game.

The co-op missions in Battlefield 3 all take place in the same world as the single-player campaign, and follow a unique series of events that lead up to an explosive finish. Players in co-op will take the role of soldiers that are not tied to any one particular branch of the Armed Forces. This is an intentional design decision to allow for a vast variety in gameplay in the different co-op missions.

Extracting Hamid El Zakir

At gamescom 2011, we ran Battlefield 3 in co-op for the first time, with the mission Exfiltration on 10 PlayStation 3 stations. During the five days of the show, thousands of fans and journalists got hands-on time with Exfiltration. The mission revolves around a defecting informant, El Zakir, that you and your co-op friend need to escort to safety. The mission starts outside the building where El Zakir resides. You need to move in, remove any opposition, and extract the target. If you can make it that far without raising a single alarm, there’s a little bonus in it for you.

Part two of Exfiltration has you clearing a path for your convoy so you can reach the outskirts of the city, before entering two vehicles and manning the top-mounted machine guns to provide some assistance. There’s much more to the mission, but that gives you an idea of what to expect.

Lend a Helping Hand

To survive through the co-op missions, you’ll need to stay close to your buddy. If he goes down, lend a helping hand with the new co-op “Man down!” mechanic, that lets you revive him in the heat of battle. While being down, you can still use your secondary weapon to defend yourself, while slowly crawling to a safer spot where your friend can help you without getting shot. If both of you go down, it’s game over.

You fight together. You die together. And you score together. After having cleared a co-op mission with your friend, your total combined score will be displayed via Battlelog, our suite of free social features that connect all Battlefield 3 players. Missions are designed to be shorter than single-player missions, so you can easily do multiple rounds in an evening to try and beat your friends’ high score. The best score of your friend will be displayed for each mission, so you know what to aim for.

Expect to encounter high difficulty: We are definitely going for a tough challenge in all missions. Also, since competitive players will likely try each mission several times, all of the co-op missions contain randomized elements to keep every playthrough fresh. Clearing the co-op missions not only gives you scores and bragging rights – it also has benefits for your multiplayer career. There are a number of weapons that you can unlock in co-op and take with you to the regular multiplayer modes. These unlocks are based on your combined scores accumulated throughout the co-op campaign.

We hope you enjoyed this first look at Exfiltration. It was very rewarding meeting our fans at gamescom, and we hope you stay tuned for more blog posts here at the PlayStation.Blog as we move ever closer to launch. And don’t forget there’s an upcoming Open Beta in September!

As we get closer and closer to the launch of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam (December 21 (NA)/December 22 (EU)), let’s take a look at the hard-earned medals you can be awarded for your heroic actions in combat. Below is the complete list of every trophy in the game (these are bronze).

Can I Go Home Now?
Achieve a team victory on all Vietnam levels

Every Gun has a Silver Lining
Get silver stars on all primary Vietnam weapons
(Veteran weapons not included)

Ecstasy of Gold
Get gold stars on all primary Vietnam weapons
(Veteran weapons not included)

Doing the Rounds
Get a kill with all Vietnam vehicles

Cantankerous Chauffeur
Get 100 kills with Vietnam tanks

Ride of the Valkyrie
Get 50 kills with the helicopter

Would you Kindly STFU?
Destroy a Hannoi Hannah propaganda speaker

Great Balls of Fire
Get 20 kills with the flamethrower

Just Because I Can
Finish 1st on the scoreboard on any Vietnam level

Secret Achievement
This one is secret (duh)

That’s it for this week! If you missed our announcement of the fifth multiplayer map last week, check out our sweet “Battle for Hastings” trailer on the PS.Blog right here.

More Battlefield goodness than you can shake an RPG at.

You get a ton of stuff in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Ultimate Edition, with Onslaught Mode, Limited Edition Unlocks and the full version of Battlefield 1943 — DICE’s PSN WWII shooter from the summer of 2009, now making its first appearance in retail stores.

As you may or may not remember, when Battlefield 1943 first launched, DICE ran the Coral Sea Challenge. As soon as the gamers on PS3 reached 43 million kills collectively, a fourth map would unlock. For a latecomer to the party, it’s still a blast to soar through the skies on the Coral Sea bonus map, even though I missed out on contributing in the challenge.

Back to the beautiful Pacific in Battlefield 1943.

Back then, it took the PS3 gamers only eight days to reach the 43 million kill limit! Which got me wondering: What has happened since then in the Battlefield universe, numbers-wise? So I dove into the official PS3 stats for Bad Company 2 (released only six months ago) and came back with the following impressive figures:

Total body count: 2,551,119,430
Total time played (hours): 61,391,471 (that’s 7,000 years!)
Total dog tags taken: 76,712,440
Number of deaths by defibrillator: 828,069

Turns out a medic can use his tools for more offensive duties than reviving his comrades! Of course, by the time you read this, these numbers will have increased even further. So make sure to stop by and check out the global stats, as well as your individual, detailed battle records.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Ultimate Edition is out now for $59.95. If you want to get the skinny on everything happening in the Battlefield community, stay tuned on Twitter @OfficalBFBC2 and battlefield.com.

Oh, and as always, remember to keep your squad tight.