Check out this gameplay trailer from our reimagined version of Gulf of Oman. Like in previous Back to Karkand trailers, you can see some of the new vehicles in action here. The three combat vehicles that we are bringing back from Battlefield 2 in Back to Karkand are the STOVL fighter jet, desert buggy, and one of the APC’s.

"I wanted to complement what we already have in the base game, plus I wanted to bring back some of the classic vehicles from Battlefield 2 that we know players loved, such as the Short Take-Off/Vertical Landing fighter jet and the desert buggy. In today’s trailer, you can also get a first glimpse of a hitherto unannounced fourth vehicle bound to strike fear into the very hearts of the enemy. See if you can spot it!", said Back to Karkand Lead Designer Niklas Fegraeus.

Come back later for more details on Back to Karkand. We have more videos coming your way, and more details on the new Back to Karkand weapons that you can bring back to the base game.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emGXp-qRrVg&feature=player_embedded [youtube.com]


As always, if you pre-ordered your copy of Battlefield 3: Limited Edition, you are entitled to Back to Karkand at no extra charge and will be notified in-game once it is available for download and play in December. Anyone can buy it on the launch day for $14.99/1200 Microsoft Points, or the equivalent in their local currency. PlayStation 3 players will have exclusive 1 week early access to Back to Karkand.

Enables NVIDIA Surround support for Intel X79 SLI-certified motherboards.
NVIDIA SLI



Updates HD Audio driver to version 1.3.9.0.
Bug Fixes

Fixes random flickering as Windows boot logo is loading or fading away.
Fixes ability to set Surround resolutions to 5760x1080 using custom resolutions.
Fixes some random instances of triangular artifacts when playing Battlefield 3.
Fixes corruption and flickering of some objects in Battlefield 3 in the New York single-player level when anti-aliasing is enabled.
Fixes playback of videos or live TV using Window Media Center resulting in a black screen.
Fixes the issue where 1920x1080 @60Hz PC resolution mode switched down to @59Hz.
Fixes mouse cursor flickering and shaking in Battlefield: Bad Company 2

* We have released an update to the BF3 PC game client via Origin. It is ~500MB large. Everyone will be prompted to install the update.
* We have updated the master servers - mainly stability fixes.
* We have updated Battlelog - see the blog post for details.
* We have sent out a new game server build to all PC RSPs.

The new server is R9, build ID 886605.
Manual here: http://static.cdn.ea.com/dice/u/f/bfbc2/tmp/BF3_PC_Server_R9_886605_Docs_ServerAdministrator_v2.zip [static.cdn.ea.com]

Battlelog will only show Server R9 or newer. This is because the new game client is no longer compatible with the older game servers. The RSPs are gradually updating their servers. As they complete the update you will see more and more servers in the browser.

Here is a near-complete changelist for the game servers:

* Support for unranked servers (vars.ranked)
* Ranked servers have a few settings as read-only (see documentation)
* Unranked servers allow changing of all settings
* Reintroduced vars.allUnlocksUnlocked for unranked servers
* The game server will parse all of Startup.txt even if an error is encountered
* vars.roundStartPlayerCount / vars.roundRestartPlayerCount handling rewritten to be more natural
* vars.maxPlayers cannot be used to go past the server's max number of slots any more
* Security updates to the game server
* Fixed several server crashes, hangs, and a 10-second stall - all of which which would make the server drop every player
* vars.gamePassword can only be invoked during server startup, not while the server is already running
* vars.teamKillCountForKick 0 will disable team kicking instead of kicking people frivolously
* banList.add would sometimes crash; fixed now
* EOD bot scoring exploit fix

If you are a server administrator that run ranked servers, then you should take note that a few settings are no longer changeable for ranked servers.
The most notable example here is that you are no longer able to set the min # of players to start a round to less than 4. This is to prevent statspadding.
Secondly, the idle timeout mechanism is always on, and set at 300 seconds on ranked servers. This is to prevent people idling for long swathes of time on ranked servers. Having idle kick at 5 minutes is harsh, and we will revisit the max timeout for Server R10 - however, we do not plan to allow for turning of the idle kick altogether.

If you are a server administrator that run unranked servers, notice that you should set the server to unranked by having a 'vars.ranked false' at the top of your Startup.txt. You must set it to unranked during the server startup; once the server is present on Battlelog, it can no longer be switched between ranked and unranked status. Once it is set to unranked, all other settings can be controlled. And yes, the setting for unlocking all weapons & gadgets (vars.allUnlocksUnlocked) is back.

Major client update for the PC version Battlefield 3 as well as a server-side update for all platforms.

The update will be made on Nov. 22nd 7:00 AM UTC / Nov. 21st 11:00 PM PST.

We’ll share release timing on the console patches as soon as we are clear on the timing, these take a bit longer due to console certification process.


---- Client-Side Changes:

-- Visuals, Stability and Performance Fixes:

• General performance and loading time improvements
• “Black Screen” fix for an issue occurring on some PC Configurations
• Stereo and Rendering Support for Nvidia and AMD Graphics Cards
• Adjusted the “stuttering” encountered on some PC configurations.
• Fixed several Crashes when joining MP and Co-Op sessions
• Fixed multiple problems when using multiple monitors (Eyefinity / Surround).
• Fixed visual corruption issues on certain Nvidia Cards
• Improved loading times for certain textures
• Added console command “GameTime.MaxVariableFps” to limit max FPS

-- Balance and Gameplay Adjustments (PC)

• Fixed a problem with high speed mouse movement
• Added back some missing Growlers on Kharg Island Conquest Large
• Added back EOR sound for SQDM and TDM
• You should no longer be able to damage a friendly vehicle when sitting in an open position
• Grenades now drop to ground if you get killed while attempting to throw it(note the affect this will have on Hardcore mode!)
• Spawn protection now should work in Conquest. You should no longer spawn on points too close to enemies
• You should no longer spawn too close to enemies in TDM and SQDM
• Combat areas on Kharg Rush tweaked in order to disallow defenders to access the carrier ship after 1st base is taken and being able to enter the AA gun
• Fixed a problem with revived players not suffering suppression
• Fixed a problem with the camera when being revived in COOP
• Added joystick deadzone setting
• Fixed sound for when climbing ladders
• Fixed an issue with some weapon sounds in first person
• Fixed a swim sound loop error
• Increased the damage of Helicopter Miniguns, AA guns, and Jet Cannons against infantry
• Increased the damage of Helicopter Miniguns against jeeps.
• Reduced the physics impact of AA guns and Jet Cannons, players under attack from these weapons should no longer lose control.
• Increased the damage of the 44 Magnum slightly.
• Increased the range and minimum damage of the .357 Round from the MP412 Rex.
• Increased the range of all .45cal and 9mm weapons.
• Slightly increased the range of the P90 and MP7 and PDW-R.
• Slightly increased the range of the 5.56mm PDW-R and decreased the minimum damage at long range.
• Slightly increased the minimum range of the Mk11, SVD, and M39 EMR 7.62mm rifles.
• Decreased the maximum damage and maximum range of the G3 and SCAR-H 7.62mm weapons.
• Reduced the damage from FIM-92 and SA-18 IGLA missiles against aircraft.
• Increased the damage and range of the 40mm BUCK rounds.
• Reduced the damage .50cal weapons do against Helicopters.
• Updated T90 canister shell tweaks to match Abrams canister shells
UI Changes (PC)
• Added round duration and ticket summary at EOR
• Advanced squad polish – should be more intuitive
• Significant changes to the Join Squad functionality (see below)
• Fixed a problem regarding keybindings while playing
• You should now get a better error message when being disconnected via Battlelog

---- Server Update Highlights

• EOD Bot exploit fix
• Several crash fixes
• Anti-stat padding measures taken, disallowing ranked servers to run obscure settings
• Improved team kill kick configuration
• Support for unranked servers. Unranked servers do not report players' scores to Battlelog, but server administrators can freely control all settings


-- Share your profile and stats with new Battlelog functionality

• Ability to share your Profile and Stats pages to Facebook, Google+, and Twitter
• User Profile and Stats pages on Battlelog can now be accessed without being signed in to Battlelog if you know a user's URL
• Single sign on from Battlelog to Origin. If you're not logged in to Origin and join a game server, Battlelog will automatically sign you in to Origin in the background and join the game server


-- Quick notes on Squad changes in the Nov 22 update

• Removed FIND ME A SQUAD option
• Allow players to join empty Squads alone, thus having 1/4 squad members
• Change order of options to LEAVE SQUAD, INV A FRIEND, SWITCH TEAM
• Disable Privacy flag when 1 man squad
• Reset Privacy flag from Private to Public when squad drops to 1 player
• All occupied Squads will now show up colored blue on the Squad Selection screen
• Players who choose not to join squads will also show up as Blue in the "Not in a Squad” line
• Squads that are currently empty will display as white -- if you wish to join an empty Squad, you can choose the first one marked with white text


-- A detailed look at Squad refinements

A detailed look at Squad refinements

Today's PC client patch features numerous tweaks to Squad functionality and is part of our ongoing efforts to make it easier to play with friends and Platoon mates. These changes will also be implemented for consoles when we release the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 updates shortly. Stay tuned for the exact date of the console updates.

First, we need to look at how joining with Squads and Platoons affects the balance of teams. Initially, servers are commanded to equal out each side, so joining with friends can impact that balance while joining with Platoons further hinders this. As a result we have made some adjustments to the in-game Squad management screen.

For PC, you are now able to highlight the various Squads and select which one you wish to join by selecting a Squad and then clicking the Join Squad button. Please note that the Squad Privacy option still allows 2 man Squads which, during 64 player sessions, can lead to players with no squad position –- the number of people with no Squads will be shown at the bottom of the Squad selection list.

After the patch is applied to consoles (in the near future) you will be able to join Squads by cycling through the list and selecting which Squad you wish to join.

Maintenance will occur between:

04:30 - 06:00 PDT
07:30 - 09:00 EST
13:30 - 15:00 CET
12:30 - 14:00 GMT

Maintenance will affect Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 as well as the PC platform.

You will still be able to access our forums and browse around on the site.