Battlefield 3 UK shop pre-order deals

By Robert Purchese Published 4 August, 2011

Costumes, dog tags or weapons?

Varying Battlefield 3 goodies await, depending on which shop you place a UK pre-order with.

The choice is this: eight new multiplayer costumes, dog tags or two rare powerful weapons and some armour piercing ammo?

Game and Gamestation offer the latter, which is officially known as the Physical Warfare Pack. Inside is a type 88 light machine gun with bi-pod, the SKS sniper rifle flash suppressor and the armour-piercing flechette ammo for the DAO-12 semi-automatic shotgun. You'll unlock instant access to the latter, too.

These goodies will be exclusive to pre-order customers for a limited time. They'll "later" be offered to all players.

The eight multiplayer costumes belong to Amazon and make up the Specact Kit. Images are below.

The dog tags belong to Play.com. These dog tags are your in-game signature and display on screen when you take an enemy down or claim their dog tag.

Alongside the Standard Edition of Battlefield 3 will be the Limited Edition, which offers the expansion pack Back to Karkand for free. Back to Karkand offers four maps from Battlefield 2, including Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman and the Shaqi Peninsula. They've all be spruced up by the Frostbite 2.0 engine that powers BF3.

On PC, fans have the option to pre-order Battlefield 3 at EA's digital store Origin. Do so and you'll get the Physical Warfare Pack, Back to Karkand expansion and a pair of Battlefield Play4Free items for free. You'll even get early access to the Battlefield 3 beta test, which starts in September.

Pre-orders for Battlefield 3 are ten times the number of pre-orders for Battlefield: Bad Company 2, EA has revealed.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (49) Latest comment 10 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DreadedWalrus #1 10 months ago

    Shopto it is then!

  • customfirmware #2 10 months ago

    shopto for me aswell.

  • schnide #3 10 months ago

    There's a Battlefield 3? Next thing you'll be telling me there's a new Call of Duty out soon too!

  • jablonski #4 10 months ago

    You really are going to have a BF3 and COD story EVERY DAY until launch, aren't you?

  • neems #5 10 months ago

    Me three for Shopto!

  • CaptainQuint #6 10 months ago

    And pre-ordering at Blockbuster gets you... diddly squat. As always.

  • metalangel #7 10 months ago

    I love how they're already dividing the community into haves and have nots by having four entire maps as a fucking preorder bonus!

  • el_pollo_diablo #8 10 months ago

    I love the way that over the past five years we've gone from just buying a game to buying a certain configuration of a game depending on where you pre-order from, notwithstanding multiplayer which is either included or at additional cost should you wish to buy a second hand game. And DLC additional costumes of course. And gameplay videos and stats are an extra tenner a year too starting any day now.

    I mean there are more caveats, hidden costs and subclauses than Ryan fucking Air.

  • TheVoice #9 10 months ago

    I genuinely have no idea which version to buy or where to buy it from.

  • sfp_noodle #10 10 months ago

    How about you offer the same to ever customer regardless of where they buy the game from eh? EA have been the biggest customer raping leaches this gen.

  • Aargh. #11 10 months ago

    The more that is announced about this game the less I want it.

  • Raptaur #12 10 months ago

    shopto still the cheapest price at £36:85 and a pre order bonus

    @metalangel:
    The maps will probably be a seperate pack of maps and not in the normal map rotation, much like the Vietnam expansion pack

  • Raptaur #13 10 months ago

    shopto still the cheapest price at £36:85 and a pre order bonus

    @metalangel:
    The maps will probably be a seperate pack of maps and not in the normal map rotation, much like the Vietnam expansion pack

  • Scopeh #14 10 months ago

    Cheaper on Zavvi

  • Aargh. #15 10 months ago

    "On PC, fans have the option to pre-order Battlefield 3 at EA's digital store Origin. Do so and you'll get the Physical Warfare Pack, Back to Karkand expansion and a pair of Battlefield Play4Free items for free. You'll even get early access to the Battlefield 3 beta test, which starts in September."

    Except EA are charging £10-15 more than most games that are released on PC.

  • Anhunedd #16 10 months ago

    Eh? Why is everyone saying Shopto is the best choice?

    I've just compared prices on the PC version (the only *proper* version...) and they are one of the more expensive places AND don't give you any bonuses.

    Or was there a super-cheap pre-order in the past?

  • wo33er #17 10 months ago

    What do you get if you pre-order from Steam?

    /typed this whilst crying

  • jablonski #18 10 months ago

    "Eh? Why is everyone saying Shopto is the best choice? "

    Because this site's comments have been full of ShopTo plants for years

  • CaptainQuint #19 10 months ago

    @Eddie Mink

    Blockbuster are shite but there's one in spitting distance from my office so it's convienient for me to pick up titles from there on release day. I don't trust online day one deliveries because I've been let down twice in the past.

    I hope that answers your question, smart arse.

  • Zenball #20 10 months ago

    PUT IT ON STEAM YOU BERKS.

  • MattEdWithCheese #21 10 months ago

    The only way that retailers will stop doing these deals will be if they actively DECREASE sales especially when you have something like the physical warface pack, which will ruin and unbalance the multiplayer...

    Would the Ends of retailers and publishers no longer making such sordid deals justify the Means of griefing anyone who bought such game-breaking content editions?

    Curious as to other peoples' opinions either way

  • geeza2020 #22 10 months ago

    Jablonski - Or it could be because its the cheapest shop without any of this frankly useless pre-order crap. You get the extra maps no matter where you pre-order from, as longs as its the limited edition.
    Edited by geeza2020 at 04/08/11 @ 16:05

  • Raptaur #23 10 months ago

    @Scopeh

    Fair comment

    PC is cheapers on Zavvi
    Xbox PS3 is cheaper on ShopTo

  • Raptaur #24 10 months ago

    @MattEdWithCheese

    I don't believe for a minute that having the physical warfare pack will unbalance the multiplayer

    Hell the first weapon unlocked was one of, if not the best weapon in a class in BFBC2
    Edited by Raptaur at 04/08/11 @ 16:09

  • Seehuusen #25 10 months ago

    All of this stuff will be available before christmas anyways/or can be unlocked. The only thing that really matters is the back to karkand pack :)

    They should offer the Karkand pack for free to all who registers BF 2 on their veteran page though. Would show a lot of appreciation from DICE to the community.

  • CaptainQuint #26 10 months ago

    @Eddie Mink

    Yeah, I was aware it was a joke. One of the self-serving smartarse variety, but a joke nonetheless.

    I hope you took it in your stride when I joked that you are a smartarse ;)

  • andywilkie35 #27 10 months ago

    Just put it all in the game you cunts

  • rojjer #28 10 months ago

    my guess is that people who loved bf2 but stayed away from bad company 2 are going to be sorely disappointed with BF3..

    Do you think that the flash suppressor for the sniper rifle is actually to suppress the crazy glint from the scope you can see from a distance when you look at snipers in BF3? I hope it is, as it kind of kills the point of sniping as it stands at the moment.

  • asphaltcowboy #29 10 months ago

    The Specact kit would be cool, but a) I'm not a fan of retailer-specific incentives and b) ShopTo is the cheapest I've found the Limited Edition, so ShopTo it is!

  • Raptaur #30 10 months ago

    @rojjer

    It's all speculation but I'd imagine that the flash suppressor is going to supress the muzzle flash that occurs when you fire the shot.

    I'd suspect that the glint and bullet trail that sometimes occurs is still going to be there, this is all conjecture of course.

    It may be more since the Recon class is no longer in a gullie suits so might need more protection agaist sniping though the prone position does a good job of lowering your visability to others.
    Edited by Raptaur at 04/08/11 @ 16:38

  • rudedudejude #31 10 months ago

    Hmmm...

    The skins look quite cool

  • CaptainQuint #32 10 months ago

    @Eddie

    Just admit it: you're one of those chav griefer's I'm sometimes unfortunate to have being "funny" in front of their mates, down my ear on Xbox Live, aren't you.

  • TheEarlOfZinger #33 10 months ago

    Any more info on the dog tag thing?...that sounds quite cool, especially if I can write something ridiculous on it.

    Pointless if nobody else can see it though.

  • tankboi #34 10 months ago

    Gameplay also offers the Physical Warfare pack...well at least that's what they say...iv ordered it!

  • TheEarlOfZinger #35 10 months ago

    Veteran status is in, surely?

  • peppergomez #36 10 months ago

    I'm in love with love.

  • Tryhard #37 10 months ago

    The dogtag will have a symbol of your choosing,and BF3 stat info that you wish to put on like K/d or grenade kills.Other players will see this when they...ahem,take your dogtags.

  • gm914 #38 10 months ago

    These latest 'SPECACT kit' costumes really highlight how lazy the FPS genre has become.

    For a start, they didn't even bother to:-
    a) spell 'SPACECAT' correctly, &
    b) show us any actual spacecat costumes.

    I am disappoint.

  • agparrot #39 10 months ago

    Finally, a news article that makes the inevitable spam comment for reeboks look like a reasonable demand for customer trade.

    I'm not getting BF3 at all now, retailer-specific pre-orders make me sick, and splitting the community with limited edition maps is lame.

    There, I managed to post a comment without calling EA a bunch of grasping cunts.

  • overcorpse #40 10 months ago

    Gamestation for me,midnight opening,10 minute walk from my house and take it back within 10 days if i dont like it.Easypeasy.

  • cheeky_BILLY #41 10 months ago

    Can I get a discount in GAME if I take the smelly yoof behind the desk some deodorant and zit cream?

  • welshben23 #42 10 months ago

    So I'll get the type 88 light machine gun with bi-pod, the SKS sniper rifle flash suppressor and the armour-piercing flechette ammo for the DAO-12 semi-automatic shotgun. Woo-hoo!

  • agparrot #43 10 months ago


    That's maniacal. And untrue!

    Don't you go ruining my nerdrage!

    ;)

  • Derblington #44 10 months ago

    The maps aren't exclusive t the LE, you just get them free that way.

  • GI-Joel #45 10 months ago

    BF1942 great, DC mod even better, BF2 Excellent, BF£.Oops ah whoops I pressed shift+3 and see what happens LOL

  • Nephirion #46 10 months ago

    Will be sub 25 on pc after a few weeks so what's the hurry?

  • Mr_Understanding #47 10 months ago

    Why would you want costumes when you cant see yourself in the game ?

  • xuiton #48 10 months ago

    i bought it on pc for 29.99 from game. However, most of my IRL friends will be getting it on ps3 or xbox which sucks.

  • Fallen_Angel #49 10 months ago

    xuiton, thanks for noting that, nearly went with Shopto thinking it was cheapest. Also found I've got £2.50 on my reward card, so even cheaper!