Battlefield 3 – Back to Karkard expansion was released during the week; giving you 4 of the most popular maps from Battlefield 2 and some new weapons. Having played Battlefield 2 I was expecting great things from this but sadly in true EA style they have managed to stuff up a few too many aspects of the game.
Let’s get the problems out of the way first, there are new glitches in the game including;
- Available kit unlocks disappearing when you join a game. Joined a game last night with Lostagent2 and EnergiserX and we were all hit with this glitch.
- Simultaneous kills are back; having clocked in over 88 hours of online game play I have not had this occur until the release of the expansion.
- Resetting your kit preferences; this had happened a number of times since the game update; your preferences on your kit deploy resetting back to no unlock or just changing the primary weapon to the one before your preferred option.
But the update has given us a few changes that have improved the game including;
- Added round duration and ticket summary at end of round screen
- Grenades now drop to ground if you get killed while attempting to throw it
- Being able to spot explosives i.e.; C4, Anti-Tank Mines, Claymores
- Claymores no longer disappear almost immediately after you die; they now stay in game until replaced by others or blow up.
Now onto the new things; well kind of new things. The Back to Karkard expansion gives you 4 maps from Battlefield 2 remastered with the Frostbite 2 engine including;
- Golf or Oman
- Strike at Karkand
- Sharqi Pennsula
- Wake Island
This is great but my favourite of these maps; Wake Island just isn’t the same. The rush is only half the map and the conquest the American side doesn’t start on the aircraft carrier. It could be the fact that on console the games have half the number of players but the map just doesn’t seem as epic as is used to be.
Also included are 10 additional guns that were also in Battlefield 2; these are unlocked by completing certain opjectives e.g. 10 Revives, Destroy 1 enemy vehicle with Repair Torch, Arm 10 MCOMs.
If you have Battlefield 3 you will have either had the expansion free when you purchased the game or you will have to purchase. As it’s just new maps and guns it’s going to be part of the game and you will need to get this update. But let’s hope they look at fixing a few of the new bugs they have introduced.
Also if you want to join me and my friends, come join the Neo-Terran Front Platoon (NTF) – www.neo-terran-front.com.
Here is the release trailer for the Back to Karkard expansion;