Activision’s Call of Duty Elite may be long dead, but EA’s response to that, Battlefield Premium, surprisingly still lives on, and items and perks are locked to Battlefield Premium subscribers tot his day. The upcoming Battlefield Hardline, jointly developed by Visceral Games and DICE, is no different, as items are anticipated to be exclusive to Battlefield Premium in that game too. But if you were curious what items exactly, well then, the beta may have given us a first look at that.

It’s nothing special, – just some nice cosmetic items. These will be wearable gold and silver patches, and they will be reserved only for Premium members. In fact, their description reads, “Premium subscribers will find these Patches in Silver and Gold Battlepacks.”

I guess this is a nice way of further monetization- it’s a very minor and cosmetic change, and does not unfairly favor a player over the other based on who paid more, but still incentivizes all players to cough up more cash. It’s pretty player friendly, and I can safely say I am surprised at seeing something like this coming from EA.

Battlefield Hardline launches on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, and PC. Stay tuned for more coverage.

The Battlefield 4 Community Test Environment is what has effectively let DICE get proper simulations of what full fledged releases of Battlefield 4 products- such as expansion packs- will be like before they actually release, something that is sorely needed after the disastrous launch that Battlefield 4 had last year (it was only this year that the game finally got to a functional stable point).

Now this service will be coming to consoles as well, which should mean that console players get the same kind of input in the development process of Battlefield 4 that PC players do. Of course, to have that privilege, you will need to be a member of Battlefield Premium, which costs $50 a year, so… yeah.

Battlefield 4 launched last year on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, and PC. A follow up, developed by Visceral and DICE, and, controversially enough, focusing on cops and robbers, called Battlefield Hardline is due out next year.

Final Stand, the final ‘expansion pack’ slated for Battlefield 4, will be coming to the PC version of the game shortly in a few weeks, but DICE have been nice enough to go ahead and make arguably the most alluring part of that package available to players beforehand, as the new maps that will be made available with that DLC are now already available to PC players.

In a manner of speaking- you will need a Battlefield Premium account to actually get access to these maps beforehand, and only one per day will be released, each as a Community Test Environment.

“The amount of feedback we’ve been getting via the CTE has been incredible, and is a tremendous asset to the team here at DICE LA,” the developer stated in its most recent blog post. “That’s why we have decided to bring the community into the process even earlier as we reach the finish line of Final Stand.”

Battlefield 4 launched last year in what might be the most disastrous product launch in history. A lot of time and effort was spent damage controlling and fixing the product post facto, but the damage may already have been done. Regardless, a brand new Battlefield game, Battlefield Hardline, is due out in early 2015.

DICE’s newest DLC for Battlefield 4, titled Naval Strike, will be releasing today on Battlefield Premium for current and next gen console users (we’ve got some bad news for the PC gamers though). To prepare for the same, DICE has issued a new update to social service Battlelog.

The most obvious update is that Battlelog will now support Naval Strike, with the video background enabled by default (you can disable this by going to Settings on specific computers). It also seems that Carrier Assault won’t display Live Scoreboard and BattleScreen scores currently but DICE has assured players that this will be fixed with the next update due in 2 weeks.

A whole plethora of other additions and fixes have been added though including 15 new ranks for Platoons, bringing the max ranking to 25; no longer being able to equip anti-air mines with rocket launchers in Loadout; and much more, which you can check out here.

Battlefield 4: Naval Strike releases for regular, non-Premium users on April 8th.

Though EA hasn’t officially confirmed the same, a chat between an Origin user and EA Customer Experience has revealed that Battlefield 4: Second Assault will be releasing on PC in February.

The Customer Experience representative stated that an update would be provided via Battlelog, but if you’re a subscriber to Battlefield Premium, you’ll receive the game two weeks earlier than other consumers. Second Assault first debuted on the Xbox One and contains reworked versions of popular Battlefield 3 maps such as Metro, Operation Firestorm, Caspian Border and Gulf of Oman.

We’re unsure if it’s coming at a good time though since Battlefield 4 multiplayer is still facing a variety of errors and issues – enough for some firms to initiate a class-action lawsuit against EA and DICE. Regardless, we’ll update you on Second Assault for PC as soon as EA gives us the details. Will you be revisiting BF3 via Second Assault on PC this February? Let us know in the comments below.

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If you’ve been playing Battlefield 4 and haven’t encountered one problem or the other, than you’ve either been very lucky or really captivated by the single-player campaign. Regardless, the game has been facing problems with connectivity, multiplayer and much more.

Now it seems that users are complaining on the PlayStation Support forums about the purchase of BF4 Premium. Some have reported that the “P” icon that usually appears next to the Premium option in the main menu is absent. Others have complained about downloading Premium content and the service “waiting to install” but being incapable of actually installing it.

There are some fixes though. The best way is to restore your license via the PlayStation Dynamic Menu settings. While you could also download and install Premium on a different console – with a user stating that this fixed problems for him – it seems that restoring your license is the best route if you’re lacking an extra PS4.

Have you been facing problems with Battlefield 4 Premium? Let us know in the comments below.

Battlefield 4’s China Rising DLC is now available…for Battlefield Premium subscribers, that is. For normal players, you’ll need to wait till December 17th to get a hold of the new DLC. Or you can watch the new launch trailer and get pumped up for the new features to look forward to.

Aside from the new multiplayer maps – which include Silk Road, Altai Range, Guilin Peaks, and Dragon Pass – you’ll also have new vehicles, the People’s Liberation Army of China as a new faction and the Air Superiority game type. This allows all players to combat each other in planes and helicopters, with all the action taking place in the skies. There’s also enough destruction on display as is par the course for a Battlefield 4 trailer.

Battlefield 4 is currently available for Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Xbox One and PC. Those who pre-ordered the game will receive the China Rising DLC for free, while others will need to pay $15 for the same.

Second Assault is essentially a map which features four fan-favorite maps from the previous game, Battlefield 3. This include Operation Metro, Caspian Border, Gulf of Oman and Operation Firestorm. So in case you were wondering about all the stories being mentioned above, there’s your explanation. These maps are redesigned using Frostbite 3 and new features such as Levolution though. That means improved destructibility, dynamic weather and much more.

Battlefield 4, meanwhile, is set to launch tomorrow on the Xbox One with the Second Assault DLC.

Speaking about annualizing Battlefield, Jorgensen stated that, “The challenges are you’ve got to most likely do it out of two studios because it’s hard. It’s a two-year project.

“Battlefield takes us about two years to develop and so you want to make sure that you’re sharing talent across studios, so you keep [the] core talent of the product and the experience for the consumer there. You also want to be really careful that you don’t destroy the franchise along the way. You got to make it exciting and different, but at the same time you want to make sure you maintain a great franchise.

“And Battlefield is a product that doesn’t just sell once, it sells for 24-months associated with not just Battlefield, but all the additional Battlefield Premium activities that the consumer wants. So you’ve got to be careful that you don’t destroy some of that tail that is on the Battlefield product.”

Considering that Battlefield 3 stayed alive thanks to Battlefield Premium and its DLC, even as Call of Duty kept getting refreshed each year, Jorgensen has a fair point. Nonetheless, it would be interesting to see how the series would fare against Call of Duty if it were released on a yearly basis. Would it fall prey to the same criticisms of recycled visuals, maps and gameplay features? Let us know what you think below.

Battlefield 4 has been released to a fair amount of critical success with reviewers praising the visuals, destruction and multiplayer mode along with the new “Levolution” mechanic while criticizing the story and campaign. Stay tuned for official review of the game in the coming days.

Battlefield 4 will be releasing on November 1st in Europe for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, with a PS4 release due on November 15th/29th in North America/Europe and an Xbox One release due on November 22nd. Stay tuned for more details on upcoming DLC.