Battlefield 3 Issues Heavy Weapon Balancing Patch Ahead of Armored Kill

EA and DICE have announced their plans to release a new Battlefield 3 patch, which is slated to go live on September 4.

The new patch goes live to coincide with the launch and release of Battlefield 3: Armored Kill, the latest expansion for the game. Those who picked up Battlefield 3 Premium will earn it automatically and will be able to access it a couple weeks before everyone else who picks it up.

In addition to adding support for Armored Kill, the new patch will issue a host of weapons balancing, especially to the reload timers of just about every gun. The reload timers have been rejiggered as the gameplay timers were out of sync with the actual reload animation—meaning players could fire their weapons before the reload animation was done, or had to wait for a split second longer than the animation played.

The patch will also adjust the damage output and range of various weapons, mainly increasing the effective range of UMPs and other submachine guns, and reducing the range penalty for suppressor attachments on weapons. A number of automatic assault rifles have also had their recoil adjusted based on feedback provided by the BF3 player community to provide a greater balance in the weapon choices players make. The M4A1 and the M16A3 have greater recoil to make them less attractive weapons, as they saw more use than any other weapon in the game.

The full list of changes can be read at the Battlelog here. Depending on which platform you play the game on, the new patch will weigh in around 1.44gb to 2.2gb. The patch will go live on September 4, with Armored Kill to follow on September 11 for Premium members on the Xbox 360 and PC, and September 25 for non-Premiums.