‘Battlefield 1’ expansion packs bring the French and Russians to the front line

By Gabe Gurwin August 24, 2016

battlefield 1 expansions revealed open beta — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Battlefield 1 is still a few months away, and much of Electronic Arts’ focus the past few weeks has been on its other upcoming multiplayer shooter, Titanfall 2. But the World War I-era game is shaping up to be a massive return to form for a series that has lost its way. The content you get when you pick up a copy of Battlefield 1 on release day won’t be all the game has to offer — the game is receiving a Premium Pass that comes loaded with enough extras to keep you playing for a long time.

As detailed on EA’s Origin platform, the Battlefield 1 Premium Pass will get players 16 extra maps spread over four different expansion packs, each with a different theme. The first of these, They Shall Not Pass, focuses on the French army. It will arrive in March, quite a long time after the game’s October release, and Premium members will get access to it two weeks before everyone else.

A second expansion — though it’s not quite clear if it’s the second expansion — will feature the Russian Empire’s army. Both the French and Russians are completely omitted from the main game’s multiplayer maps, which led to a change petition that currently has more than 38,000 supporters.

In addition to the maps, the pass also includes 20 new weapons and 14 extra “Battlepacks,” which contain special weapon skins and new vehicles. The Battlepacks will be offered on a monthly basis, with the first arriving just after the game launches.

The Battlefield series has offered some of the best post-release content of any competitive shooter on the market, but the decision to relegate two important countries in World War I to paid DLC is a little odd. We’re hoping the game’s campaign manages to highlight the importance of every country’s contributions during the war.

Battlefield 1 will be released for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on October 21.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

The best Power Armor in Fallout 4 and where to find each set

Fallout 4 key art featuring the power armor suit hung up in an armory.

From the very first Fallout game, the Power Armor has been every wastelander's dream to pilot. This hulking suit of armor can make your normally squishy Vault Dweller nigh unkillable in Fallout 4. But there's more than just one type of Power Armor, and each one has different stats and requirements to wear. Not only that, but some you might find one piece at a time and need to build yourself, while others can be found as a complete set. If you want to make even a Deathclaw think twice about attacking you, only the best Power Armor will do. Here are the best suits in Fallout 4 and where to find them.
Raider Power Armor

This is the only Power Armor in Fallout 4 that even a base-level player can wear right off the bat. While that's great, it does mean it's the weakest option out there. The best stats you can get with it are 500 damage resistance, 250 energy resistance, and 1,050 radiation resistance for a total rating of 1,800. It's great for the early game if you can snag one, but is quickly outclassed by everything else on this list. A guaranteed spawn for this armor is in the cave right beside Skylanes Flight 1665 on your map.
T-45 Power Armor

Gaming

3 great Xbox Game Pass titles you should try this weekend (April 26-28)

The current gen version of Fallout 4.

This has been a pretty busy week for new releases, with the likes of Another Crab’s Treasure, Stellar Blade, Sand Land, and more coming out. Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft’s video game subscription service, has also had quite a busy week. Three games in particular stand out as must-plays this weekend for those who want to delve a bit further into the service rather than spend money on a new game.

One is an excellent single-player Star Wars game from 2023 that you might have missed because of how busy last year was for big releases. Another is a new real-time strategy game that earned buzz on Steam in the lead-up to its release. Finally, there’s a Bethesda Game Studios classic that just received an Xbox Series X update that you can experience free of charge via Game Pass. If you're looking for a new game to start this weekend, but don't feel like buying something new, give any of these a try.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Computing

Save $400 on this Razer gaming laptop with an RTX 4060

A game playing on the Razer Blade 14 gaming laptop.

For a gaming laptop that will be able to handle the most demanding games, you're going to want a machine that's as powerful as the Razer Blade 14 with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card. It's understandably expensive, but you can currently get it with a $400 discount from Razer that drops its price to an even $2,000 from $2,400 originally. We're not sure how much time is remaining before this offer ends though, so if you want the savings, you're going to have to complete your purchase as soon as you can.

Why you should buy the Razer Blade 14 gaming laptop
The Razer Blade 14 is capable of challenging the best gaming laptops with the help of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card, which offers excellent efficiency and strong ray tracing performance. Combined with the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor and 16GB of RAM that's good for gaming, according to our guide on how much RAM do you need, not only will you be able to play the best PC games without any issues, but you'll also be prepared for the upcoming PC games of the next few years.