Battlefield 3 PC patch tweaks squads, boosts performance

As promised, DICE has rolled out a hefty patch for the PC edition of Battlefield 3, with squad improvements plus performance improvements, unranked server support, and heaps more. Console players, you'll need to wait a little longer for a patch to shake up squads.

DICE details the extent of the squad changes in a post on the Battlefield Blog. You can also see the full client-side patch changelog if you have a Battlelog account, but here are the highlights:

• 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

• Fixed several crashes that occurred when joining multiplayer and co-op sessions

• Fixed a problem with high speed mouse movement (aka "negative mouse acceleration")

• 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 (dangerous in Hardcore mode!)

• You should no longer spawn too close to enemies in TDM, SQDM, or Conquest

• A large number of damage and range tweaks on a number of weapons to fine-tune overall balance in the game

• Added round duration and ticket summary at End of Round screen

• Fixed a problem regarding key bindings while playing

• Significant changes to the Join Squad interface

On the server-side front, Battlefield 3 now properly supports unranked servers on PC, letting server admins "freely control all settings" at the price of not having play tracked by Battlelog.

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