Battlefield 3’s multiplayer beta has officially gone live for all PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 players today. There’s no registration requirement, so you’ll be able to start playing as soon as you’ve downloaded the beta from Xbox Live, PSN or EA’s Origin service on PC.
The beta itself includes a single map, Operation Métro, and the game type Rush where one team must attack two M-Com stations while a defending team tries to prevent them. It’s about a 3.9GB download for the PC version. The map will feature 4 fully unlocked Areas and allows up to 32 players to join in a match. If you haven’t done so already, be sure to download the latest drivers for your AMD or NVIDIA video card, as they’ve been specifically optimized for the game.
There’s also a second map called Caspian Border being played on several password-locked servers, complete with jets and tanks while allowing up 64 players at once during Conquest mode. A Community Manager for DICE shared the password “sexyelevator” on the official forums but it was changed after a few hours. A new password might be posted in the forums at some point but getting in won’t be easy since only two servers are running this map.
The beta will only last until October 10, roughly a week and a half from today. Since this is a multiplayer-only affair, gamers will have to wait until the full game launch on October 25 in the U.S. and October 28 across Europe to play the single player campaign of what is arguably this year’s most anticipated FPS title
