EA had released its highly anticipated update, which works to fix bugs and adds tweaks to its multiplayer dimension, ahead of the Back to Karkand expansion.

One of the biggest perks of the update is content for the new Back to Karkand pack, a part of the DLC expansion, which will be available on all devices Dec.13, as an Add-on purchase priced at $14.99.

Back to Karkand is a massive themed expansion pack featuring four re-imagined maps from Battlefield 2 including: Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, Wake Island and Sharqi Peninsula.

Four new weapons will be added to the game, with three new vehicles including the STOVL fighter jet, desert buggy, and an APC. More Unlockables and upgrades will also be added to the pack to keep players engaged for longer, EA announced.

Back to Kakand will feature the much loved Conquest Mode that starts with one team commanding all flags on the maps while the opposing team will assault and take the flags over in order to stop their tickets from bleeding down to zero.

James Walker for Technorati tested out the new updates, immediately noticing better response in the controls and less frequent game crashing. I also noticed that the 4 player minimum start enforcement enforced by the last BF3 patch had been removed. There appears to have been some work on gamepad/joystick controls as well. These changes are mentioned in the patch notes that follow, he wrote.

Here's EA's guide on how to get Back to Karkand on the PS3:

When you start the game, you will get a ticker message in the top right corner announcing that Back to Karkand is out.

Go to the main menu. Select STORE and hit X to enter it.

When in the in-game store, you will find Back to Karkand as one of the items. If you are a Limited Edition owner, the price will be set to 0. If not, it's yours at $14.99 (or the equivalent in your currency). Select it and make any necessary payment to start the download.

There are four new maps in Back to Karkand: Strike at Karkand, Wake Island, Sharqi Peninsula, and Gulf of Oman. After you have downloaded the expansion pack, these maps will all appear exactly the same way as the nine base game maps. You can find them by filtering for them in the Quick Match settings, or you can find them using the server browser.

You are now ready to go back to Karkand!

NOTE: If you do not have Back to Karkand and join a server running a Back to Karkand map in its rotation, you will eventually be returned to the main menu and a message will appear telling you that you did not have the appropriate content installed. You will never risk joining a Back to Karkand server via the Quick Match functionality if you don't have this expansion pack.

Those who ordered the Limited Edition of Battlefield 3 will be given the opportunity to download the expansion back from free.

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