Back to Karkand hits PS3 Dec. 6, PC and 360 Dec. 13

DICE has announced that Battlefield 3's Back to Karkand will be released next Tuesday, December 6 on PS3. The map pack will be a PS3-exclusive until December 13 when it arrives on PC and Xbox 360.

Those who pre-ordered BF3 get it free, and it includes the maps Wake Island, Sharqi Peninsula, Gulf of Oman, and Strike at Karkand. It will also come with three new vehicles: the VSTOL fighter jet, Desert Buggy, and an APC, along with 10 new weapons playable in the core game.

According to the Battlefield Blog, it will also contain "a new layer of persistence" with all-new Assignments such as Let it Rain, which tasks players with scoring "20 kills with Light Machine Guns and two mortar kills."

When the requirements are met, players will unlock a new Back to Karkand weapon with a matching set of dog tags to use in Back to Karkand and the original Battlefield 3 maps, which will mix in server rotation. Players will also unlock the next Assignment in the series, the new Creeping Death Assignment.

For those who didn't pre-order BF3, the map pack will run you $14.99/1200 MSP.