Pre-order Battlefield 4 on PC, as I imagine many will this weekend, and you’ll get first expansion pack China Rising in with the (relative) bargain. Pay £10 more for the Digital Deluxe edition and you’ll get beta access, as well as something DICE call a ‘Gold Battlepack’. Three of ‘em, actually.
EA describe the packs as “bonus in-game content” on their help page, and have already set up a page to redeem them – post-SimCity, they daren’t be caught unprepared – but aren’t really forthcoming on the details.
Over on Amazon.com, however, we learn that Battlepacks will contain a combination of new weapon accessories, dog tags, knives, XP boosts, and character customisation items.
“The packs are designed to add an all-new layer of multiplayer persistence with an exciting element of chance,” write the retailer, “and are awarded during gameplay.”
An unconfirmed Battlefield 4 survey back in May suggested the game would feature 300 possible packs and a tombola of more than 1200 items. The more you play, reportedly, the faster you earn them.
These packs have the ring of Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer about them, or perhaps Warface’s Random Boxes – scratchcard type affairs which see cash exchanged for a few of several potential prizes.
Whether or not DICE’s packs are exchanged for XP, real money or both remains to be seen – but expect to see a new level of persistent character customisation in Battlefield 4.