More BF3 goodness is on it's way. Soon. As in just around the corner kind of soon.

Comie December we're going to have receive a new expansion pack which will, hopefully, reignite the excitement so many of us have for the game.

But first, a history lesson. Not that you need it but I do like to wax philosophic from time to time.

The BF series is long and full of amazing games and incredible failures. Battlefield 1942 is the grand daddy of them all and is what caught my attention. I got sucked on from the console side of the house and was eager for more, that's what forced me into the PC side of the house. Battlefield Vietnam, however, was an amazing flop even though it did allow us to shoot from moving vehicles. The less said, the better....

As interest in the original Battlefield games began to fade and folks began to peel off to play Call of Duty, DICE brought us back into the fold with the release of BF2. An instant classic was born! (Ok, I'm joking here. Nobody really plays Call of Duty....) The mixture of ground pounding and flying was awesome. Aerial maps such as Wake Island, Dalian Plant, Daqing Oilfields, Dragon Valley, FuShe Pass, Kubra Dam and Zatar Wetlands were a pilot's joy. Lots of great flying was had, and all without leaving tank whores and ground pounders behind. Let's not forget the always underplayed Operation Clean Sweep: what a great map that was with so many approaches to the island it made attacking a dangerous prospect but defense was a real nightmare. Ground pounding maps were also excellent. Road to Jalalabad brought the first real touches of door to door fighting mixed with wide open areas primed for serious sniper action. The addition of vehicles made the map fast paced and action packed. For ground maps, my favorites were Mashtuur City and Sharqi Peninsula. Mashtuur boiled battle down to the simple things: 7 points, a couple of helos, some vehicles and lots of terrain to cover. You had to keep moving or you'd lose very early on. Sharqi was so popular, of course, that it made a strong comeback in later versions of Battlefield. Awesomeness.

Then there was the hybrid bastard child known as Battlefield: Bad Company. BFBC introduced us to the Frostbite engine and some funny new POV animations. Thank God we got through that one relatively unscathed.

Just to mention BF Heros and BF 1943 is to give them more attention than they deserve which is why I prefer to jump right ot Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The singleton missions were almost fun but the multiplayer action was unbeatable. Unfortunately, the Commander's map that made BF2 so beloved was taken away. Worse, BFBC2 never quite got away from the feeling of having been designed for a console system and then ported over to PC. The real magic of BC2 came in the downloadable content. DLC maps included Nelson Bay and Laguna Alta. Later on DLC map packs include new game play styles and maps such as Laguna Presa (an outrageou map!), Atacama Desert and (wild applause!) Panama Canal. White Pass was one of those passable maps but Harvest Day, Cold War Rush and Heavy Metal were the maps that showed what BFBC2 was all about. Then came the BFBC2: Vietnam expansion pack which lead folks to wonder three things: 1) Will DICE EVER stop releasing expansion packs? 2) Vietnam? Again? 3) Is the end near for DICE and EA? There was really only one good thing that came out of the BFBC2: Vietnam expansion pack and that was the Flamethrower. Sadly, it was never to be seen again.

Then, to much fanfare and joy, DICE finally gave birth to BF3. And it was not an easy birthing. Many of the game play aspects that made the BF series so fun were missing: in game VOIP, the commander's role and the commo rose were all hosed up or missing. The addition of Battlelog to the fray seemed to be the ultimate downer and there were hopes it'd go away. (It didn't.) Then began the real horror: DLC abounded. And it all had to be purchased. Unless you bought in at the right place and time. If you bought the Limited Edition of BF3 then you received Back to Karkand which promised (and delivered) the joys of the original Strike at Karkand along with some other goodies like Gulf of Oman, Wake Island and Sharqi Peninsula. Alas, Panama Canal was nowhere to be found. The next DLC in the chute was Close Quarters which focused on those folks that tankers like to call "crunchies"; yep, the ground pounders got four new maps, new weapons and a butt-load of assignments to complete. Then came Armored Kill, a DLC focused on the tank whores (here's looking at you DHS Hawk). New tanks, new maps and a few new airplanes and life was fun again. Especially the Gun Master mode. Wow! What a great game.

Now the interest in Battlefield is starting to fade again. And players are starting to peel off to go play Call of Duty. (Well, OK, nobody really plays Call of Duty but it sounds so much better than the reality that CaptPhrede has been playing Polly Pocket in Strawberryland with his grand kids.) Aftermath will be released 4 December 2012. And we're excited. (We includes everyone except CaptPhrede, he's pretty taken with the Polly Pocket thing....) Urban warfare is the focus of this map with the addition of the crossbow as the weapon of choice for snipers. It's sounding pretty exciting and L1S is going to have it available for you from day 1. We're all going to be there waiting anxiously to play, we hope you'll be there too.

So here's to you and us! Cheers!

(Now, where'd my flamethrower get off to?)

BFBC2 came.

And went....

Just like that half-remembered one night stand from so many years ago. Sometimes it returns and brings a little smile to one's face. But we know it's gone and eventually will be replaced by a shiny new play toy.

And that toy is called Battlefield 3. With improved graphics and smoother game play everyone found their twinky fix. All wasn't well in Sugarland though. The Commmander's position failed to make a return to the battlefield, which bummed out our diehard team-killing Commander wannabe's. But we played on. The knifing action was strangely alluring for some of our clan mates. But the greatest triumph of all had to be the improvements to the vehicles. The tanks had a more fulfilling rumbly sound that reaches down into the seat of your pants and stirs you little tanker's soul. The planes, quite frankly, sucked ass. Almost as if they were added in as an after thought. The joystick integration brought no joy to Mudsville.

And it seemed BF3 was destined for failure, following the same lazy route of BFBC2 and it's half-aborted add-on called BFBC2 Vietnam. Haphazard support to patch updates and ignoring player demands loomed on the horizon. But BF3 had something else going for it. The maps. It's not that they were any different than before, indeed some of the very best maps never made a return to BF3, but there was a quality about the maps that wasn't there in the past. Walls stopped bullets, at least until they were destroyed by some yokel in a tank with a vibration in the seat of his pants. The ground cover actually provided cover. People's body parts didn't stick through walls as much as they used to. And most exciting of all, it became fun all over again to look for new hiding spots to sniper from. (Pardon my dangling grammatical pieces.)

But DICE did something unthinkable. They took an interest in supporting BF3. Patches rolled out. Minor things started getting fixed and eventually the suckage was removed from the jets. And then came the announcement: new maps and play modes were coming. And they did. And they were good. Karkand came back, much to the joy of the old timers. And the promise of more to come was made.

Now the Premium pack has arrived and people are happier than pre-pubescent teenagers watching their first skin flick. And in the process, DICE has revived a flagging game and breathed new life into long-time fans of the Battlefield series.

So stick around and join us in-game for a few frag fests. You'll like it. Besides, we have cookies.