It's a long time until Battlefield 3 is released later this fall but Electronic Arts is already putting a lot of marketing and promotion into getting people to pre-order the game (there's even been TV commercials released). Now EA is giving players of its recently launched free-to-play shooter Battlefield Play4Free another incentive to buy Battlefield 3.

According to EA's Gun Club web site, folks who pre-order Battlefield 3 via EA's online store will be able to access two exclusive items when they play Battlefield Play4Free with the same EA account. One is a special beret for your avatar to wear and the other is the Battlefield 3 Edition 870 combat shotgun. We suspect this will be just the start of pre-order activities for Battlefield 3.