Electronic Arts announces Battlefield 3 is now available in North America, offering the latest installment in DICE's series of military first-person shooters. They say more than three million preorders make this the "biggest first-person shooter launch in EA history." Here's word on the game:

Celebrated for its immersive single-player campaign, intense co-op mode and explosive multiplayer gameplay, Battlefield 3 launches with a 93 on Metacritic and is being heralded as “unforgettable” by IGN.com, “mesmerizing” by Joystiq and the “must have first-person shooter of the year” from GameSpy, who awarded Battlefield 3 a perfect 5 out of 5. Even prior to launch, fans around the world have already demonstrated their anticipation for the game with over 100 million video views and over 2 million “likes” on the Battlefield Facebook page in addition to thousands having purchased fan merchandise at the DICE store. Additionally, an astounding 9.5 million gamers downloaded the September beta and collectively set new social online play records for EA with 42 billion shots fired and 1.6 billion kills registered, 21 million exploded M-Com stations and 19 million dog tags lost at the end of a knife.

Battlefield 3 goes above and beyond the competition with the state-of-the-art Frostbite™ 2 game engine that creates a massive sense of scale, completely destructible environments and enables players to pilot a range of vehicles from jets and tanks to choppers and jeeps. With the addition of Battlelog, the Battlefield social network service, fans old and new can stay connected as they rise to the challenge to become one of the world’s best soldiers. To accompany the game, Orion Publishing will release a novel called Battlefield 3: The Russian written by the highly decorated ex-SAS operator and best-selling author of Bravo Two Zero, Andy McNab, with co-author Peter Grimsdale. McNab worked with the creative team at DICE to ensure the authenticity of today’s warfare is experienced in the single player, co-op and multiplayer campaigns.