Battlefield Takes the Battle... Downtown.

Battlefield: Hardline, the latest game in the Battlefield series, is switching gears a bit, placing the action in an urban environment - not in some foreign theater, but in hometown, U.S.A., where players play cops 'n' robbers, instead of different military units.

One mode that was demonstrated at the EA 2014 Press Conference is called "Heist." In this mode, one team plays the part of the Robbers, and they have to break open a secured location (such as a vault or an armored car), then once the loot is secured, they then have to make it to their destination. Meanwhile, the opposing team plays the police - or more specifically, SWAT - and they have to stop them from achieving their objective and, should they recover the loot, must return it to the vault. It's just a variant on Capture the Flag, I suppose, but it looks like fun - especially, with zip-lines to let you get you from one building to the next, as well as the ability to drive Police Cars around L.A.

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Battlefield: Hardline is set for an October 21, 2014 release, but the Closed Beta is available now... And, pre-order at GameStop for a limited edition Battlefield: Hardline money clip.

Editor's Note: As of moments after the announcement of the Closed Beta availability, the system appears to have been overwhelmed... disruptively so. You may find yourself unable to access the Beta... and, perhaps, your Origin games, temporarily. This is an unconfirmed report, but that's what I'm seeing on the twitch.tv chat.