Battlefield 4 screenshots have us more than a little excited

one of the most highly awaited games of 2013, Battlefield 4, is coming soon. Last week during the 2013 Game Developers Conference screenshots and a trailer video of the game leaked, spurring excitement from fans of the battle sim. Multiple leaks happened right around the same time, all ahead of any official announcements from publisher EA.In the gallery above you can see the hi-res screenshots.

Here is the Rihanna-filled teaser trailer. It’s a minute long and appearsto have been created as a TV spot.

Scenes from the trailer match up with those from the screenshots, most noticeable a striking scene of an open field with the birds flying above (at 0:31). The end of the trailer mentions that a 17-minute gameplay video is available at Battlefield4.com, but that URL was not working at the time the video leaked, again confirming that things were a bit ahead of schedule for EA.

The 17-minute video was available on BF4′s YouTube channel though. Get yourself a Red Bull/Monster Energy drink and kick back and enjoy it now…

This video will give you more than a short peak at the single player campaign, with all its wonderfully destructible environments and non-stop gun play. At one point the player blows up a wall, runs through the hole he created to flank and shotgun a bad guy with a mounted machine gun, and then steals a dune buggy, perfectly summarizing both the Battlefield experience and many of the ways in whichBattlefield is not Call of Duty.

Shortly after, at 7:19, the player crashes the buggy, but some how land in the gunner’s seat. It looks a like the game could still use some polish, but it’s not exactly a problem. The environment is gorgeous, the scenes are huge, and the lighting looks great. Minor bugs aside, there is a lot of look forward to… even if no one buys Battlefield for the single player campaign.

Official Xbox blog reveals Battlefield 4 release date

t’s not uncommon to see a retailer accidentally leak a video game launch date as they typically know first so as to have stock and marketing ready. But it’s the official Xbox blog that seems to have leaked the launch date for Battlefield 4.

The game was revealed last week alongside a 17 minute gameplay video, and Xbox.com gave it coverage on March 27. But whoever wrote the post messed up and included the following sentence:

Battlefield 4 will arrive on the Xbox 360 on October 29, 2013.

It didn’t take long for the mistake to be noticed by Microsoft and the sentence changed to just read “is coming to the Xbox 360.” But the damage had been done and someone on the Internet always clocks these things.

So unless EA and Dice claim otherwise, you can expect to be playingBattlefield 4 on October 29. Whether it hits Xbox 360 first is unknown, but maybe Microsoft has negotiated an exclusive release deal for a week or two?

That release date is going to bring the release of the game very close to when PlayStation 4 and probably the Xbox 720 also hit store shelves. It’s likely the game will appear for both next-gen platforms, and I’m sure Microsoft and Sony would love to have it as a launch title.

At the same time, gamers will remain skeptical as to whether this is going to be another SimCity, as the wording EA used in the press release announcing the game suggested Battlefield 4 is another always connected title.

Now read: Battlefield 4 screenshots have us more than a little excited