Battlefield 3 Back to Karkand map pack detailed

DICE have released more information on the Battlefield 3 Back to Karkand map pack that will come with pre-orders of Battlefield 3, and be available as extra DLC at launch.

The lead designer of the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam expansion is heading up development on the pack, which will include Battlefield 2 weapons and vehicles, and a selection of classic Battlefield maps, described as "four of the best Battlefield maps ever created by DICE." Read on for more details, some Strike at Karkand concept art and a fiery Battlefield 3 wallpaper pic.

Strike at Karkand, Wake Island, Gulf of Oman, and Sharqi Peninsula are the four maps included in Back to Karkand. All of the maps have been rebuilt from the ground up to work with the Frostbite 2 engine.

Lead designer on the map pack, Niklas Fegraeus, writes on the Battlefield blog how this will effect one of the pack's most famous maps, Strike at Karkand, saying "destruction is the biggest addition compared to the original map in Battlefield 2 back in 2005. I remember this particular building by the square in the original where players could defend very effectively. Now, with the destructive power of Frostbite 2, someone can just RPG that building and expose the defenders within.

"Back to Karkand will also include iconic Battlefield 2 weapons and vehicles to bring back to the base game, new unlocks and persistence, and more content that we will talk about later," he adds.

Back to Karkand comes free with pre-orders of Battlefield 3, available now on the Battlefield 3 site . Check out our most recent Battlefield 3 preview for more on the game, or have a watch of the 12 minutes of in-game footage DICE released a few weeks ago. Here's that shiny new concept art.