Battlefield 3 Armoured Kill AC-130 detailed, Aftermath set in post-earthquake Tehran

Battlefield 3 Armored Kill

DICE revealed more details about the upcoming vehicle-centric DLC pack, Armoured Kill, in a live chat on Origin yesterday . There were many questions about the AC-130 gunship shown in the recently released Armoured Kill screenshots . DLC lead designer Niklas Fegraeus provided some answers.

To get the AC-130, your team must first capture a base, at which point it will spawn and start taking its own route around the map. There are two gunner seats equipped with a 25mm autocannon and "a big cannon." The gunship will also act as a roaming spawn point, so the remaining members of your squad can choose to para-drop from the gunship on respawn.

The AC-130 gunship is by no means invincible. Fegraeus says that "if your team has the AC130 it's really, really important for your pilots to protect it because it is vulnerable, it's a big target, it's not nimble in any way, it's just flying on its path."

The live chat was accompanied by footage of Bandar Desert, the biggest map in Battlefield history. Armoured Kill will come with three other maps that will also be expansive enough to stage some fierce vehicle battles. Fegraeus promises some "diverse environments" too. There won't be any new guns in Armoured Kill, but the new vehicles included in the pack will have their own unlocks.

Armoured Kill will be the third DLC pack for Battlefield 3, following on on last year's Back to Karkand pack and the imminent, infantry-focused Close Quarters pack. Beyond Armoured Kill there will be two more packs, including Endgame, which will add motorcycles to battlefield 3, and Aftermath, which Fegraeus reveals will be set in post-earthquake tehran.

Battlefield Premium was released at E3 this week, giving players a chance to buy all five Battlefield 3 packs in a $50 bundle and get some bonus tags and camo.

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.