If you haven’t followed us before, Back to Karkand is our first expansion pack for Battlefield 3. It features four legendary Battlefield 2 maps reimagined in the Frostbite 2 engine, with enhanced levels of destruction.
More than just a map pack, Back to Karkand also features 10 new weapons to extend your arsenal (you can bring these new weapons back to the base game maps), three classic vehicles from Battlefield 2, including the STOVL fighter jet (excellent for hovering and capturing bases), Desert Buggy, and and APC, five new dog tags, and an added layer of persistence with the all-new Assignments you need to complete to unlock new weapons.
Now go back to Karkand and let us know what you think in the Battlelog forums! To find your new maps, just use Quick Match or the server browser as you normally would. The four new maps will appear together with the nine ones from the base game. For a full guide on how to use the server browser on console, check out this guide we prepared earlier. Just make sure you apply the latest multiplayer update for Battlefield 3, or you will not be avle to access Back to Karkand.
If you are a Limited Edition owner, you are entitled to this entire expansion pack at no extra charge. Otherwise, you can buy it for PC from Origin at $14,99 or for Xbox 360 from Xbox Live Marketplace or the in-game store for 1200 Microsoft Points.
DedEye wrote on Dec 13, 2011, 19:56:Another thing to note to is if you are trying to run the game with Ultra Textures but have less than 1.5GB of video ram you will probably experience some thrashing. Repi, DICE's rendering architect mentioned this on the twitters.PunkiBastardo wrote on Dec 13, 2011, 17:23:
Well might as well ask here... Does anyone know any possible workaround for massive continuous lag? That is, besides opening router ports? Only one of my buddies bought BF3 and he basically can't play cause he suffers what would amount to like 2000 ms ping at all times even tho BF displays only around 50 ping for him...
If he is using an AMD crossfire setup, try disabling crossfire.
I've tried many driver revisions and with crossfire enabled I get terrible pauses for seconds at a time in multiplayer. Works great on a single card thankfully.
Matshock wrote on Dec 13, 2011, 12:42:Fist days? Ouch!
Gah! Authentication servers are down. Just like the fist days of Steam...
But once it's updated- DIRKA DIRKA!
DedEye wrote on Dec 13, 2011, 19:56:PunkiBastardo wrote on Dec 13, 2011, 17:23:
If he is using an AMD crossfire setup, try disabling crossfire.
I've tried many driver revisions and with crossfire enabled I get terrible pauses for seconds at a time in multiplayer. Works great on a single card thankfully.
I had terrible stuttering and all that shit with my crossfire setup. They implemented a console command to cap the max fps, which fixed this for me.
Once you join a game, hit the console ~ key. Type g, hit tab, then type in the max fps you want. 65 works great for me, it instantly turned the game smooth.
Sacrifex wrote on Dec 13, 2011, 18:39:
I'm glad that the pack is not free to all PC players for one reason. Everyone who wanted to be a drama queen and ragequit their pre-order, but bought the game, has to pay a fee. It's rare that such exacting justice gets dealt out to the entitled masses. I'd have preferred if anyone who ragequit and came crawling back had to pay more than $15 honostly, but I can settle for savoring their infinite tears and butthurt over less than the cost of a crappy lunch on the town.
PunkiBastardo wrote on Dec 13, 2011, 17:23:
Well might as well ask here... Does anyone know any possible workaround for massive continuous lag? That is, besides opening router ports? Only one of my buddies bought BF3 and he basically can't play cause he suffers what would amount to like 2000 ms ping at all times even tho BF displays only around 50 ping for him...
Sacrifex wrote on Dec 13, 2011, 18:39:
I'm glad that the pack is not free to all PC players for one reason. Everyone who wanted to be a drama queen and ragequit their pre-order, but bought the game, has to pay a fee. It's rare that such exacting justice gets dealt out to the entitled masses. I'd have preferred if anyone who ragequit and came crawling back had to pay more than $15 honostly, but I can settle for savoring their infinite tears and butthurt over less than the cost of a crappy lunch on the town.
Yakubs wrote on Dec 13, 2011, 17:23:
These maps should really have been included at release or should have been free for everyone. There's no way I'm going to drop another $15 just to get the complete game.
It also seems like a dumb strategy to give it away for free as part of the LE. The people who pre-order are the same people who would willingly pay the extra $15 while the people like me who picked the game up on a whim are almost never going to pony up.
Hellbinder wrote on Dec 13, 2011, 12:14:If you're running a 32bit OS, give this a try. Fixed it for me: http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/forum/threadview/2832654489420350764/
Is this the release that lets me actually play the game for more than 30-45 seconds before it app crashes?
man im glad i spent all that money on a game i cant play, many others cant play, and no one at the dev or pub seems to care.
Tumbler wrote on Dec 13, 2011, 13:46:
Any impressions on the maps? I'm probably going to spend my evening on SWTOR so I'm curious if the maps are worth coming back to this game over? I only liked playing on Firestorm, Caspian and Kharg, I didn't think the other maps were "true" battlefield maps. Do the new maps all give you the full suite of vehicles to play?
Tumbler wrote on Dec 13, 2011, 13:46:
Any impressions on the maps? I'm probably going to spend my evening on SWTOR so I'm curious if the maps are worth coming back to this game over? I only liked playing on Firestorm, Caspian and Kharg, I didn't think the other maps were "true" battlefield maps. Do the new maps all give you the full suite of vehicles to play?