Battlefield 4 Premium announced, five expansions planned, beta launches early October

Maps! Modes! Levolution! Premium! More ridiculous remixes of the Battlefield theme! It was an info barrage as DICE shot visual bullets into the face of Gamescom attendees, finishing off the EA conference more revelations about their FPS sequel. In fairness, many of those announcements could have been predicted by those well versed in recent history. Most notably that Battlefield 4 will, like Battlefield 3 before it, offer an optional Premium upgrade, given early access to the five planned DLC packs.

Here's what DICE have in store for Premium members:

  • Battlefield 4 Second Assault – Includes four fan-favorite Battlefield 3™ maps now re-imagined with the power of Frostbite™ 3. Available first on Xbox One.

  • Battlefield 4 China Rising – Players fight for dominance across the vast and majestic Chinese mainland. Available December 2013.

  • Battlefield 4 Naval Strike – Experience dynamic ocean combat as the Chinese armada takes the fight to the sea. Available Spring 2014.

  • Battlefield 4 Dragon's Teeth – The US strikes back engaging in all-out urban warfare. Available Summer 2014.

  • Battlefield 4 Final Stand – Bring the war to its epic conclusion. Available Summer 2014.

  • Two-weeks early access to all expansion packs for that competitive edge

  • Unique personalization options including camos, paints, emblems, dogtags and more

  • Priority position in server queues

  • New content every week

  • 12 bonus Battlefield 4 Battlepacks

DICE also announced the game's beta, which will launch in early October, just a few weeks before the game's full release.

Then, finally, as our brains were near bursting from fact overload, we were treated to a visual tease of the Paracel Storm map:

The future is distorted bass being fired into your eardrums forever.

Battlefield 4 is released in October 29th in North America, and October 31st in Europe.

Gamescom coverage cannot be stopped. You may as well just read it all .

Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.

Latest in FPS
Atomfall hidden cache locations - Blue fungus ravine
All Atomfall endings and how to get each one
A female druidic figure clutches a heart riven with thorns in Hunt: Showdown
'We want to increase the cost of silence': Hunt: Showdown 1896's latest update brings a new event, a massive list of bugfixes and a tougher challenge for stealthy players
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Ogryn
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide adds a psychic horde murderzone mode and makes Ogryns even smashier
Starfield's companion robot giving a thumbs-up
Former Bethesda dev who quit Starfield to go solo says it's 'much less stressful as an indie' without daily meetings or 'office politics': it's 'very refreshing to just care about the game'
A crew of prospectors in Wildgate, featuring a robot, a rabbit man, and a small aquatic creature in a combination mech/aquarium.
Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime's new company is putting Sea of Thieves-style shenanigans in space with a new crew-based shooter
Team Fortress Spy being shocked
An FPS studio pulled its game from Steam after it got caught linking to malware disguised as a demo, but the dev insists it was actually the victim of a labyrinthine conspiracy
Latest in News
A screenshot from SaGa Frontier 2, showing one of the protagonists wandering through a quaint fantasy village
One of Square Enix' most underrated PlayStation-era JRPGs just shadow dropped on Steam
The titular character from Princess Mononoke is depicted riding the wolf goddess Moro and carrying a spear.
Studio Ghibli AI image trend floods social media, cheered on by OpenAI and denounced by critics as an insult to Hayao Miyazaki
Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine
Marvel Rivals director says a future patch will reduce the shooter's insatiable hunger for RAM: 'It's a very big problem'
Hogwarts Legacy potions professor holding a potion
An unannounced Hogwarts Legacy expansion and 'definitive edition' have reportedly been cancelled
Story of Seasons - A cahacter in a purple tuxedo stands outside in a town square talking to the player
Story of Seasons is doing another Harvest Moon remake and it might be the best the series has ever looked
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
Assassin's Creed Shadows puts up the 'second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history'