It’s been less than a month since we last saw Battlefield Heroes at Austin GDC and a few new details have emerged. To kick off our time with the game we witnessed a short demo on one of the two maps called Seaside Skirmish. This is a small coastal town that includes plenty of tanks, planes, and flags that are up for capture. Anyone who’s played any iteration of Battlefield will find the experience familiar.

Of course, the experience has been adjusted to appeal to a much wider audience. Firefights last much longer than in a shooter like Call of Duty 4, allowing players to react and adjust to an attack. Tanks and Planes are also less affective to take away the annoying occurrence of constantly being blown to smithereens by vehicles. The colorful graphics, the drag-and-drop customization system, and a third person view are all meant to make the game as approachable as possible.

Unfortunately we still didn’t get to look at the web site or item store that will accompany Battlefield Heroes. We’ll have to wait longer to see the Theater of War meta game that accompanies the core shooter and uses player’s experience points to play a Risk-like game on a grand scale.

The development team admits that building the web based components of the game have taken them a lot longer than they originally planned. While the development team was only about 26 people, the same number of people are scheduled to continue working on the game post-release. The plan is to quickly respond to the wants and needs of the community with loads of extra content. Some of the content will cost real money, but DICE has stated that items that give players a gameplay advantage will not be charged for in the U.S.

It was announced at TGS that Battlefield Heroes will also be made available in Asia, specifically Singapore, Japan, and Thailand. Whether or not it will be able to compete with other free-to-play titles that are popular in these regions remains to be seen. With its low system requirements, excellent pedigree, and eye-catching visual style it should be a strong contender in the free-to-play market in the States.