At long last, the “community designed map” has arrived, and with it comes a whole host of weapon changes, score changes, and some much-needed vehicle rebalancing. The map, titled Operation Outbreak, was voted on by the community and is set within lush jungle environs, with an ancient temple, ghost town, waterfall, and more for those looking for more maps to battle it out in. Based on what little I've played of it, the map leads itself to intense firefights around the middle, and not a whole lot else. If you enjoy nonstop action, you'll enjoy it, but there's not a whole lot else that goes on.

Other changes coming are reducing the force on many missiles and tank shells (not the actual damage, the actual Newton strength), making all missiles on jets more distinct, and generally trying to separate all of the different equips from one another. Before, there were specific loadouts for each vehicle that simply outperformed the others, but Dice LA has done their best to make vehicles feel and play very different, depending on personal preference.

Shotguns have been nerfed again, which comes as no surprise to anyone who's played the game. Rocket launchers have also been tuned, further separating one launcher from another. One of the more mystifying changes comes in the form of reducing C4 damage across the board, making it far more risky to play offensively with the equipment.

There's still the remade BF2 map to be released yet, and two other nighttime maps. At the very least, high tickrate servers are now available for the interested to rent, making matches feel much more responsive, and reducing the feeling of “cheap” kills, at least as far as I can tell. Stay tuned for more news about Dice LA's continued efforts to maintain interest in BF4.