New Battlefield 3 Patch Notes Released

Battlefield fans can look forward to a hefty Battlefield 3 patch along side DICE’s upcoming multiplayer expansion, Aftermath.

Battlefield 3: Aftermath will release for PlayStation 3 Battlefield 3 Premium members tomorrow, November 27, along with the patch for both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. PC users will see the patch on December 4, the same day Aftermath goes live for Xbox 360 and PC Battlefield 3 Premium members.

Console players should note that Battlefield 3 will be unavailable between 09:00-10:00 UTC on Nov 27 for maintenance. Exact times here.

In the patch notes below, you’ll see DICE has further looked into the PlayStation 3′s input lag issues as well as the sound dropouts many users have been experiencing. There are also a number of new weapon tweaks and fixes along with other general tweaks, including more AC-130 Gunship changes, so start reading!

Also, let us know in the comments what you think of the fixes. Anything in particular got you excited or upset?

Battlefield 3 Multiplayer Update 5 (November 27/December 04) Patch Notes

Addressed “input lag” on PS3
If you have been experiencing “input lag” playing Battlefield 3 on PlayStation 3, we now believe we have significantly improved this situation for all players.

Improved audio stability on PS3
The audio dropouts reported by some PlayStation 3 gamers playing Battlefield 3 should now be fixed for the majority of players .

Weapons balancing
Based on detailed community feedback and data analysis we have made some minor weapon tweaks to recoil and accuracy. The goal of these tweaks, and the overall goal in Battlefield 3, is to give each weapon a unique feel and competitive performance to other weapons of a similar type.

•M416: First shot and horizontal recoil slightly increased. This should make the choice between M16 and M416 more interesting again.

•L85A2: Slightly reduced horizontal recoil.

•AUG: first shot recoil slightly to increase weapon controllability.

•FAMAS: Slightly reduced horizontal recoil.

•G53: Vertical recoil reduced to make this weapon more controllable.

•QBZ-95B: Slightly reduced horizontal recoil.

•LSAT: Hip accuracy has been increased to highlight the weapon’s role as a highly mobile LMG.

•Type88 LMG: Recoil has been decreased to make it a viable option when compared to the M249.

•M5K: Increased horizontal recoil and decreased vertical recoil to focus this weapon as a high damage, low control PDW.

•UMP45: Decreased fully automatic fire to differentiate this weapon from the PP2000.

•MP412: Increased its accuracy to better distinguish it from the .44 Magnum.

•M26: Increased aimed accuracy to be in line with the other shotguns.

Weapons bug fixes

•Fixed the MTAR’s range not being correctly reduced when equipped with the sound suppressor.

•Fixed a bug where suppressive fire had reduced effect on the M16 and M5K when compared with other weapons.

•Fixed a bug where the M5K’s Flash Suppressor had no effect on accuracy.

•Fixed the L86A2 Heavy Barrel’s hip accuracy penalty being far larger than other weapons.

•Fixed an issue with the Mk3 shotgun’s ACOG being low resolution.

•M-COM disarm fix

Fixed an issue where M-COM stations couldn’t be disarmed from the left side while standing up.

Alborz Mountains rock fix
Rocks and stones collision tweaked on Armored Kill maps. Players should no longer be able to exploit a collision issue that allowed them to hide inside rock formations.

Operation Shield/Alborz Mountains Tank Superiority area fix
Tank Superiority visual combat areas fixed on Operation Shield and Alborz Mountains. There was earlier a 10×10 meter patch on the mountain that became out of combat for US. This was technically already fixed server side, however this will update the actual visuals to be correct.

[Note: DICE most likely meant "Armored Shield," not "Operation Shield," which could be its internal name.]

Death Valley collision fix
Collision tweaked on the railroad tunnel roof. This fix prevents players from being able to hide inside the railroad tunnel roof.

Sharqi Squad Rush spawn fix
Players would sometimes spawn out of combat if spawning shortly after the first M-COM explodes on Squad Rush on Sharqi Peninsula. With this fix, spawn points have been moved back to prevent this from happening.

Alborz Mountains Squad Rush fix
Cameras were incorrect in the spawn menu, pointing to old locations and not where you would actually spawn in. This has now been fixed.

Gunship balancing changes
We have now removed the gunship FLIR view (the position is still available, just not the black/white view) and decreased the damage radius of cannon explosions. This was done because of balancing reasons. Previously it was too easy for the gunner to get visual contact on enemy soldiers on the maps, and the splash damage is reduced to make it harder to kill infantry from the cannon seat.

Mobile Artillery spawn bug fixed
Two players can no longer spawn into the Mobile Artillery. This was a spawn-in-menu bug on the Operation Shield map which has now been fixed.

Tweaked hard to get medals
Looking at the persistence system, we could see that a number of the hard to get medals were actually too hard to achieve (in our opinion based on our intended design). While we never meant for all medals to have an equal distribution, the hardest ones were still intended to be more achievable than they have proven to be so far. Therefore, we have slightly decreased the prerequisites to achieve a number of the hardest to get medals in the game. One positive side effect (if you like playing Recon) is that we will likely see a slight bump in the Recon kit’s average Score Per Minute overall.

How to download the latest update (Multiplayer Update 5)

PLAYSTATION 3 SPECIFIC INFO
Patch goes ****** November 27
How to download patch once it is ****** When starting the game, the patch will automatically download. It is mandatory to accept this download if you want to play the game.

XBOX 360 SPECIFIC INFO
Patch goes ****** November 27
How to download patch once it is ****** When starting the game, you will get a popup notifying you that Multiplayer Update 5 is available. It is not mandatory to accept this, but we advise you to do so. Otherwise, you can find Multiplayer Update 5 both on Xbox Live Marketplace and in our in-game store as a manual download.

PC SPECIFIC INFO
Patch goes ****** No later than December 4
How to download patch once it is ****** As soon as you start your Origin client, the latest game update will automatically start downloading (unless you’ve disabled the option “Automatically keep my games up to date”, in which case it will start downloading when you try to run the game). In Battlelog, you will be notified from the Game Manager. Once you acknowledge the update, it will start downloading within the Origin client.