Today DICE, an Electronic Arts Inc studio, announced that as a thank you to Battlefield fans for their passion and loyalty, they shall be hosting a Battlefield 3 “Says Thanks” Sweepstakes weekend in the near future. Battlefield gamers who play between Friday, November 11th 12.01am (GMT) and Sunday November 13th at 11.59pm(GMT) has the chance of winning one of three amazing prizes!

For the Grand Prize, it’s been announced that this will include a round-trip visit to DICE in Stockholm, Sweden for one lucky winner accompanied by three of their squad mates for three nights. In this visit, the four of you will get a tour of the state-of-the-art studio and also get an introduction into the development team behind the award winning game.

The second place prize is $5,000 in cash, or the equivalent of in local currency and third place prize is a brand new gaming system and the full catalogue of Battlefield games. All of the rules for the Sweepstakes weekend can be found at www.battlefield.com/saysthanks.

If that hasn’t made you want to play more Battlefield, EA has also announce that  Battlefield 3‘s first digital expansion pack “Back to Karkand” will be available next month.  This expansion pack features four fully remastered maps from previous Battlefield games which include maps such as Strike at Karkand and Wake Island. All of the four maps have been fully enhanced and include more destruction within them. As well as the maps, DICE have added in five new dog tags, an additional five trophies/achievements as well as additional vehicles, weapons and a new persistance system where players can complete assignments to earn their rewards.

Interested on when you can get your hands on this? Well Back to Karkand will be sold separately for $14.99 on the PlayStation Network or 1200 MS points on Xbox Live Marketplace. Back to Karkand is available for pre-order now on PC at Origin.com