Battlefield Hardline

The first Battlefield Hardline DLC has now been announced by Visceral Games and some of the content we can expect to find in the expansion has been detailed.

The first Battlefield Hardline DLC has been called Criminal Activity. As expected, Criminal Activity will come with four new maps. The expansion may include other content as well but at this point in time it has not be announced by Visceral Games or EA.

Two of the new Battlefield Hardline maps will be set at night, whilst the other two will be set at day. All four maps will be set in Florida and California so we can expect to be fighting in an urban environment. Personally I think urban maps are the best settings for Hardline, so it's great to see we’ll be getting some more city action soon.

Unfortunately no solid release date for Criminal Activity has yet been revealed. We do know that the next DLC pack for Battlefield Hardline, which is scheduled for release after Criminal Activity will be launching in the summer

Battlefield 4 has already had a season pass but DICE aren't quite done with developing content for the game just yet. However, instead of charging players extra on top of all the other additional DLC costs already tied onto Battlefield 4, DICE has made the noble choice to release all of the future DLC content for free.

Whilst previous DLC will still cost players the same it does today, any new content created by DICE and released for Battlefield 4 from this day forwards will be absolutely free to all players.

So far there are a lot of details that haven't been shared by DICE, but we do know that they are working on some new maps, including night time maps. The night maps should be variants of previously released maps. So far we already know that Siege of Shanghai, Zavod 311, and Golmud Railway will be receiving nighttime variants. A new community-made map is also in the works and should be released for free in the not too distant future.

A new patch is planned for this

Even though Battlefield Hardline is just around the corner, Dice do not want players to feel the need to jump ship every time there is a new Battlefield game at your local Gamestop. In fact, new details reveal Dice's plan to keep Battlefield 4 going strong throughout 2015, and perhaps even further than that.

Dice already announced that additional content was planned for Battlefield 4 passed the pre-planned DLC packs, and this week we've received more information about what this new content will include.

The most expensive thing to come out of the new update is that Battlefield 4 players will be treated to two new expansions, hopefully planned for this year. To make things better, most, if not all of the new content pushed out this year should be available for no charge, even for those that have not spent a penny past the original cost of the game.

Part of the reason why the new content may be free might come down to a new initiative that Dice will be opening up to their

The second Battlefield Hardline beta is set for release this week, and a lot of players are getting ready to jump in to the game. The beta will be running from the third of February to the eighth of February, and it will include a previously unplayed game mode called Hotwire.

Hotwire is perhaps the best game mode to capture what Battlefield Hardline is all about. Both the cops and the criminals will need to take control of marked cars, and each team will need to take down the other team's car. I'm expecting to see a lot of high speed chases through cities and other environments.

On top of Hotwire, players will also be able to play Heist mode in the new Battlefield Hardline beta, and that will be on the Bank Job map. In Heist mode, criminals will need to break into an area and collect a certain number of packages, then take them to drop off points in various locations on the map.

As you can imagine, the cops job is to stop the criminals from stealing the valuables. Unlike

DICE has announced that they will be releasing the Heist mode into the upcoming Battlefield Hardline beta, but there is a catch. Players will need to work together as a community to unlock the Heist mode.

A new 'community mission' has been announced for Battlefield 4 players, and it asks players to accumulate a global total of 2 billion points in Battlefield 4's Rush mode. If players manage to reach this goal before the end of the month, then players will be rewarded with the Heist mode for Battlefield Hardline.

Whilst this seems like an odd move to get more people playing Battlefield 4 in anticipation for Hardline, I have a feeling that the 2 billion Rush points should easily be reached. In fact, I expect that the average amount of weekly Rush points is close enough to two billion anyway so players should not have to worry about getting the Heist mode unlocked for the Hardline beta.

If you do want to do your part, you can head into Battlefield 4 and play through any

EA has just revealed a bunch of new bits of information about their upcoming game, Battlefield Hardline, including details about new maps, weapons and equipment.

Firstly, the two newly announced maps have been named as Bloodout and Hollywood Hills. As you can imagine, the latter of these two maps places players in a large Hollywood villa. Whilst the level is considerably smaller than some others, the large size of the villa will give players enough space to breathe in.

The other map, Bloodout, is a set of inner city streets based on real life Los Angeles. The difference between Battlefield Hardline's depiction of LA and the real life LA is that there is a lot more debris, wrecked cars and scrap in Battlefield, as can be expected.

In other news, Steve Papoutsis, Vice president of Visceral Games and Battlefield Hardline, revealed that there will be a total of 51 weapons and 38 gadgets in Battlefield Hardline. Considering players have access to primary and special weapons,

A brand new trailer for EA's, DICE's and Visceral Game's upcoming Battlefield Hardline shows off a brand new unannounced game mode called Hotwire.

In the new trailer, the Hotwire game mode is explained as a cops n' criminals themed car chase that gives criminals the opportunity to steal numerous marked cars within a level. The cops, in response, must try to recover the marked cars.

Players in the passenger seat of the marked vehicles will be able to shoot at others whilst the driver is controlling the vehicle, so I expect Hotwire will end up being quite chaotic.

The trailer honestly makes Hotwire look like a fast paced enjoyable game mode that takes a fresh approach on the typical FPS game modes already seen within the game. However, whilst Hotwire is explained as a game mode with 'high speed chases' I doubt it will turn out to be anything like a race from Need for Speed, and sounds more like a vehicle control gametype similar to party modes we've already seen in games

Despite releasing a new Battlefield title every year for the past few years, Visceral Games and EA have made the collective decision to push back the release of Battlefield Hardline, breaking the current annualization of the franchise and offering the developers more time to iron out any kinks with the game in it's current state.

The reason behind the delay is primarily down to a range of new inspiration that has led Visceral Games back to the drawing board, thanks to the community's input from the recent Battlefield Hardline multiplayer beta.

Visceral Games recently made a blog post on the EA Battlefield website to address the sudden launch date change, and details of that post can be read below.

1. Multiplayer Innovation: Coming out of our E3 beta, internal focus tests, and work with our community, we have received a lot of great Multiplayer thinking. We're going to be adding some new feature ideas direct from the community that will evolve the cops and criminals

Battlefield Hardline has now been confirmed to be the new upcoming Battlefield title, and despite not hearing much about the game until very recently, the new Battlefield game has been planned for release some time this year.

Battlefield Hardline has said to be a take on the criminal heist gameplay we've seen in many games recently, including titles like Payday 2 and Grand Theft Auto V. The single player in Hardline will offer a cinematic approach to gameplay content, and each campaign mission supposedly ends on a cliffhanger to keep players interested in playing the next mission, similarly to episodes in a TV series.

Battlefield Hardline will of course also come with a great selection of multiplayer content, and players will be able to play new modes, including Hostage Rescue mode that gets one team playing as SWAT who are required to rescue a hostage, and the other team playing as the hostage's captors.

Another interesting game mode is Heist, which will give criminals