Battlefield 4 Beta Now Open To All

Today DICE expanded the beta test for Battlefield 4. Now all interested gamers on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC can download and play the free sample of the game's multiplayer.

Battlefield 3 Premium members, Battlefield 4 Origin pre-order customers and Medal of Honor: Warfighter owners have been able to play the beta since Tuesday. The beta offers only limited progression though so you're not going to run into players with tricked-out weapons and crazy gadgets. Still, expect some rough times while you're learning the map. These early access players have found plenty of good ambush spots.

The beta takes place on "Siege of Shanghai," the map featured in the E3 demo. The urban environment is split in two by a body of water that can be traversed by patrol boats and jetskis. There's also a set of bridges at the northern edge of the map.

The middle capture point in the map is at the top of a skyscraper on the north-central portion of the map. You can get up there with a helicopter or by riding the elevators in the lobby. Don't get too comfortable up there, though; the enemy team can destroy the support pillars of the building and send it toppling over. The capture point will be moved to this new pile of rubble.

"Siege" can be played in two modes in this beta. Conquest gives you access to the full map and allows you to use air, ground and water vehicles. Domination is an infantry-only experience with tighter boundaries, quicker captures, and fewer respawn tickets. These are only two of the seven modes shipping with the game.

If you're playing on PC, you'll need the following system requirements (via Battlefield.com:

Minimum

OS: The BF4 Beta requires a 64-bit version of Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 (the full version of Battlefield 4 will also support 32-bit operating systems.)

PROCESSOR: AMD ATHLON X2 2.8 GHZ, INTEL CORE 2 DUO 2.4 GHZ

MEMORY: 4 GB

GRAPHICS CARD: AMD RADEON HD 3870, NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GT

GRAPHICS MEMORY: 512 MB

HARD DRIVE: 1.6 GB (approx.)

Recommended

OS: The BF4 Beta requires a 64-bit version of Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 (the full version of Battlefield 4 will also support 32-bit operating systems.)

PROCESSOR: AMD SIX-CORE CPU, INTEL QUAD-CORE CPU

MEMORY: 8 GB

GRAPHICS CARD: AMD RADEON HD 7870, NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660

GRAPHICS MEMORY: 3 GB

HARD DRIVE: 1.6 GB (approx.)

The beta will run until October 15th on all platforms. BF4 will then debut two weeks later. All players who participated in the beta will unlock a "Was there, did that" dogtag in the full game.