We have been busy making some welcome fixes for our PlayStation 3 players, fine tuning a lot of weapons based on your feedback, and tweaking some gameplay mechanics. This update goes live November 27 on consoles, and no later than December 4 on PC. Full details below, including how to download this essential multiplayer update once it is live on your platform.

1) 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.

2) 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 .

3) 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 decreased 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.

4) 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.

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

6) 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.

7) 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.

8) 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.

9) 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.

10) 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.

11) 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.

12) 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.

13) 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 live: November 27
How to download patch once it is live: 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 live: November 27
How to download patch once it is live: 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 live: No later than December 4
How to download patch once it is live: 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.

We just released this month’s Premium exclusive video, featuring a detailed breakdown of the all-new game mode Scavenger in Battlefield 3: Aftermath. In Scavenger mode, players start with only a sidearm and have to search the earthquake-ravaged environment for more powerful weapons. Check it out at the video section here on Battlelog.

Quick reminder to all Premium members: This month’s Premium exclusive competition is on! Join now to see who can capture the most amount of bases in Armored Kill! Full details in this earlier News post.

And: Whether you’re a Premium member or not, do join the ongoing dog tag challenge where we ask you to perform 6.66 million base captures in Armored Kill for a new bonus dog tag! Full details in this earlier News post.

Have a great Thanksgiving (or just random weekend) and a great gaming weekend. See you next week!

Presenting our third monthly dog tag challenge to the entire community. Can you clear it before Aftermath is launched and claim your third bonus dog tag as a reward?

This month, we are preparing the dog tag “Trolling” for unlocking – if you can complete the challenge we have set before you. And this time around, we are asking the entire community irrespective of platform to help reach the goal together.

Your mission: Capture and/or defend 6.66 million bases in Armored Kill before the end of November 27.

We will start measuring your progress towards this goal on November 23 00:00 UTC (which means November 22 in the afternoon if you’re on the US west coast).

If you collectively reach the goal of 6.66 million bases captured and defended in Armored Kill before the launch of Aftermath on November 27, we will instantly unlock the “Trolling” dog tag for you in the game.

We will get back to you once the dog tag challenge starts. Click the links below to see start times and end times for this challenge. We will automatically count your stats as long as you play Conquest on any map from Armored Kill on any server.

Good luck and have fun!

November Dog Tag Challenge starts (click link for time comparisons)
November 22 15:00 PST (Los Angeles)
November 23 00:00 UTC (London)
November 24 08:00 JST (Tokyo)

November Dog Tag Challenge ends (click link for time comparisons)
November 27 07:00 PST
November 27 16:00 UTC
November 28 00:00 JST

In preparation for our next release, Aftermath, we are rolling out some updates on PC that are affecting Close Quarters and Armored Kill. Thanks to the delivery system Origin provides, all users should get these updates automatically.

We have noticed that under some circumstances the download is interrupted which can cause issues when trying to play your existing content. If this happens please follow the steps below to re-synchronize the files on your hard drive with those on the Origin servers:

First, in Origin right click on your Battlefield 3 image and select Show Game Details:

Next, right click on each expansion pack and select Check for Updates:

You may need to Check for Updates on both Armored Kill and Close Quarters:

Should Origin detect a difference between the files on your hard drive and those on the main system it will re-synchronize the files that are different. We do not expect anyone to require any major download and any file sync should be less than 1MB.