Battlefield 3: Aftermath patch readjusts gun recoil, tweaks medal qualifications

Battlefield 3's rubble-strewn Aftermath DLC won't rumble onto your hard drive until December 4 when Premium players step into the dusty demolition of post-earthquake Iran. (Non-Premium players can access Aftermath on December 18.) Accompanying the new maps, weapons, and Scavenger mode is a hefty patch rebalancing recoil and accuracy of some of the more commonly used guns across each of the four multiplayer kits. The patch notes tell all (via PCGamesN ), including a slight reduction in the requirements needed to nab those lofty high-tier medals.

Chambering a few nerf darts, DICE slightly increased the first shot and horizontal recoil of both the M5K and M416 for greater variety in your arsenal's characteristics. Lastly, the UMP45's rate of automatic fire lowered a little bit—instead of "brap-brap-brap," you'll now get "phut-phut-phut." Or something like that.

DICE also noticed the drought of challenging medals throughout the community and accordingly knocked down prerequisites to nab them, writing, "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."

An overview of one of Aftermath's four maps, Talah Market, surfaced today, as well. Drawing inspiration from the similarly Dust-y classic Counter-Strike, the ruined market is a tighter, arena-style map for lightning-quick infantry skirmishes.

Omri Petitte is a former PC Gamer associate editor and long-time freelance writer covering news and reviews. If you spot his name, it probably means you're reading about some kind of first-person shooter. Why yes, he would like to talk to you about Battlefield. Do you have a few days?