Right on the heels of releasing the Matches feature, DICE posted their latest Inside DICE blog, with Designer Inge Jøran Holberg detailing Bandar Desert, the new largest map in Battlefield history.

Veterans of the series may remember El Alamein from Battlefield 1942, and FuShe Pass from Battlefield 2 as the largest maps of their time, or even Heavy Metal from Bad Company 2. Bandar Desert will beat all of those maps in its size.

From each runway between the Russian and American base, there are almost two and a half kilometers of space available. But don't think that means the map is incredibly narrow like the Rush maps of Bad Company 2. From the mountains on one side of the map to the sea on the other, there is almost two kilometers of space available That makes the total area in the range of just about five or so square kilometers.

By comparison, Caspian Border is just over a kilometer from end to end, and about the same distance wide, with the control points within 400 meters of each other. Bandar Desert's control points are instead within 1200 meters of each other, giving the main battlezone an 800 meter increase in size from end to end.

And don't think this map will have only a few bases to control. Bandar Desert has been shown to have seven bases available on PC, which may or may not carry over to the Consoles as well, but it seems likely given the size. Sadly, console players will still be capped to 24 player on these maps due to bandwidth reasons on Microsoft and Sony's end, but PC players will be able to enjoy 64-player all-out armor engagements on this gigantic map. Holberg also states that even though the console version's playable area is scaled down, play-testing has shown it still is incredibly large.

If you think this map will be only filled with Engineers, think again. The bases are scattered around the massive expansive desert, but the cover is intelligently placed to give infantry a slight advantage near the control points. Sand dunes and rock outcroppings litter the desert, while a village, construction sites, and military outposts all provide cover for infantry moving about on the map.

Armored Kill releases this September, with a two-week early access for Premium subscribers and one-week early access for PS3 players, while Xbox 360 and PC players have to wait it out, at a cost of $15 USD for those who haven't purchased Premium. The pack will include Bandar Desert and three other as-of-yet unknown maps, five new vehicles, five new weapons, ten new assignments, and over 20 new vehicle unlocks, five of which will carry over to vehicles already in the game.

Source(s)

• The Battlefield Blog | Inside DICE: Building our biggest Battlefield map ever, posted by H Brun - retrieved 07/13/2012

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