Today is a pretty big day for EA studios Bioware Austin and DICE. Each of them has a pretty major release today. DICE has come out with the first DLC expansion for Battlefield 3, Back to Karkand, and Bioware has just started up the early access for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Both of these should be pretty exciting for fans who pre-ordered The Old Republic and/or Battlefield 3.
Although not everyone will be able to access The Old Republic today, anyone who pre-ordered the new Star Wars MMO will have a chance of receiving an invite to begin playing. This staggered early access period, which will last a week until the 20th when the game officially launches, not only provides a nice perk for anyone who pre-ordered the game, but will most likely help ease congestion both on the servers and just the number of players in the starting areas. Anyone who has played an MMO on launch day will likely understand just how useful spreading people out a bit can be.
Back to Karkand brings a number of beloved, classic maps from Battlefields past, updated for the Frostbyte 2 engine, and apparently sporting an extra level of destruction. While this DLC map pack will set some people back a full $15, it is available for free to anyone who pre-ordered Battlefield 3 before it came out. More maps are always welcome additions to games like this, but it also comes with the Conquest Assault mode and a number of new vehicles, weapons, and other items.
Battlefield 3 has been one of the more successful games of the year on the PC, and had been one of the most looked forward to titles of the year for PC FPS fans. That makes for a lot of people who are excited about the new DLC launch. The Old Republic is also one of the biggest online game launches of the year and had a massive number of pre-orders, and it is a game that has all eyes turned onto it to see just how well it does in the highly competitive MMO market. Over all, it makes for a good day in online gaming.
