Full release at the end of October

In today's press conference at gamescom, EA announced that the Battlefield 4 beta would roll out in early October, with the final game shipping for current generation consoles on October 29th in North America and October 31st in Europe. Next generation console releases are expected some time later.

The biggest focus of the spot in the conference went to what DICE is referring to as "levelution," describing it as a way to manipulate a level throughout a match, constantly changing it for an advantage. Examples range from small things like cutting the power to a building and switching to night vision to causing a warship to wreck in order to use its onboard anti-aircraft cannons.

A bit of time went toward extolling Battlefield 4 Premium, which will cost $50 and will include early access to all five planned expansion packs, as well as exclusive customization options and server queue priority. The five expansions planned are China Rising, Second Assault, Naval Strike, Dragon's Teeth, and Final Stand.

Other new features mentioned include amphibious vehicles to complement the ground and air vehicles and a new game mode called Obliteration involving a single neutral bomb that spawns in a random location to be used to destroy an enemy-held objective.