BF3's map packs were incredible. Each one raised the quality of the overall game and truly added to it in unique ways (I just wish they had come out quicker). China Rising is the first original DLC pack for BF4 and it is big. The maps are big, the ceilings are big and so are players' expectations. And in conquest, you'd be mad not to stick with engineer pretty much all the time for this. There is a lot of metal. It will bear down on you. You will cry. You will be in pain. You will be pinned down. And then scream for joy as your mines wipe out some distant foe.

Rising features four new maps, some new vehicles and weapons, plus the "Air Superiority" aircraft and helicopter game mode, which is surprisingly fun. Bikes are back! I love the bikes. They're very easy to control but compared to the other vehicles - feel quite unrealistic. They feel like they're missing some physics and should perhaps drift about a bit more.

Altai Range

Altai Range has a giant mountain and globe like facility in the middle of the map. During rush, it's especially thrilling pushing up steep hills to capture points. In conquest, it's about skirmishes around the surrounding flag points as you try to sneak around sides and deal with snipers on the mountain. I found conquest a little weak and samey but in rush, it's my favourite of the lot. Sadly it's also where I first discovered how the new recon SUAVs (small flying player controlled drones) can ruin a match. One shotting you, or your friends... buzzing around your head. They seem too powerful to me.

Guilin Peaks

Guilin Peaks is surrounded by farmland, which provides some good infantry combat in all modes. The caves in the middle of the map are sadly free of bats, but they're a solid unique and strategic zone. Multiple paths and darkness make fights intense and suddenly quietly-eerie moments later. Gunshots will echo around your headset. Out in the trees, choppers are especially fun, whizzing through trees and dodging stingers. This reminded me of the excellent Vietnam pack for BFBC2.

Dragon Pass

Dragon Pass is a reimagined Dragon Valley from BF2. This WAS my least favourite map at first, but it's grown on me. In conquest, between AA and choppers smashing about, you just can't do anything as infantry until you work out the stealthier paths to take. Then things get very tricky for metal, as you sneak around sides in darkness and lay traps. It's a nostalgic hit for fans, but I'm not sure it works very well now.

Silk Road

Silk road is by far my favourite. At first it seems quite flat and boring, but each point is actually quite unique in approach from high ground to cover. Zipping about on a bike taking points, while smashing tanks as a kind of Mad Max, lone bounty hunter is so much fun. The middle section is always in chaos and flux too and the tight sand banks surrounding the base create nice bottlenecks for vehicles to get taken out, or to own. And in rush, one point is just a bunch of boxes in the open surrounded by tanks and fire. It's exhilarating and I like how different the points this map are.

Except for Silk Road's desert, these maps have beautiful greenery to them with more vegetation than I think we've had before in BF. And the stunning sunlight effects seem more vibrant too which is probably just because the mountainous zones bend the light more into your view.

That lighting. Phenomenal tech. The spectrum of colours changing as you move... drool.

The biggest disappointment about this DLC is the lack of "levolution". It's such a big feature of BF4 and all these maps have are bombers you can control from a captured points. They do hit hard, but they're not really map changers: more of a distraction.

That small issue aside, this is a quality set of maps, especially in rush. In the end, I like that it makes you use the engineer class more and it's making me appreciate how solid the carbine guns are. They're also fantastic showcases for commander mode! Now if we can just find someone who knows what they're doing to command - and some squad leaders who pay attention to orders. Including myself. I never notice when I've been ordered somewhere. Probably all that sun bloom in my eyes.