Uncharted 3 Two Year Anniversary Multiplayer Patch and Free Maps For Everyone!

Hey readers, first off, apologies for not posting much in the last couple months, I've been rather busy with other stuff and to be honest, there hasn't been much news for me to talk about. That''ll probably change in the coming weeks, what with Call of Duty: Ghosts launching tomorrow and various other titles of interest starting to pick up production pace. Anyway, down to business, as you may or may not have realised, last week was the two year anniversary of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (where has the time gone eh?) and to celebrate, the crew over at Naughty Dog have released a big patch for multiplayer and at the same time, made all multiplayer maps available to everyone for free! In addition to all that, they've also released one brand new map 'Dry Docks' (again, free). For those who avidly followed teaser trailers before the games release, you might recall the name, well it was a map that was going to be included in the retail version but was actually cut for whatever reason before launch. Naughty Dog released a short video to announce all the maps becoming available for free, which I've embedded below for you to check out. As well as the video, I've also included the full list of changes that come into affect with the patch, most of them are warmly welcomed but there are a couple that raises eyebrows and as per usual I'll discuss this at the end of the article in my review section, enjoy.

Maps

• All DLC maps are now available to download for free! Go to the in game store and download the Flashback Map Pack 1, 2 and Drake’s Deception Map Pack.
• Dry Docks makes its triumphant debut and is available in all competitive playlists and custom games!

Co-Op

• Old Quarter map has been added to Co-op arena mode
• The drop rate for all co-op treasures has been increased
• Old Quarter has been removed from the Hunter Arena playlist.

Weapons

• Hipfire accuracy has been greatly reduced on all weapons along with the angle and distance at which the auto lock engages. But Blindfire from cover has not been changed
• Increased recoil on the M9
• Decreased recoil on FAL-SS
• Rate of Fire mod has been decreased on the M9, Arm Micro and KAL-7
• The recoil of the last round fired in a G-MAL burst has been significantly reduced
• The burst delay and recoil have been reduced on the Raffica
• The accuracy mod on the Raffica has been slightly improved
• The recoil has been reduced on the Tau Sniper and the weapon does not automatically scope
• The rate of fire mod has increased effectiveness for the Tau Sniper

Gameplay

• Sprint maneuverability moderately reduced
• Mega Bombs and Cluster Bombs can no longer be thrown back (competitive mode only)
• The Marked Man power play now occurs when a team is up 8 kills instead of 6
• The Exposed power play occurs when a team is up 10 kills instead of 8 and the range that player names appear has been reduced from 40 meters to 20
• The Double Damage power play now occurs when a team is up 15 kills instead of 10 and the damage the losing team does is only x1.5 instead of x2
• Deathmatch has been removed from Team Objective
• Increase score limit in three-team Deathmatch from 20 to 25
• Increase score limit of free-for-all from 15 to 20
• Multiple steps have been added during the matchmaking process to help find games with lower ping. Wait times to find matches during off peak hours may increase

Medal Kickbacks

• The Medal Kickback Creepy Crawler now costs 12 medals and lasts for 25 seconds
• Quick Boom now costs 12 medals and lasts for 12 seconds
• Explosives now costs 5 medals

Boosters

• Slot 1 now has Kickback Endurance, Ammo Award, Bargain and Team Safe
• Slot 2 now has Beast Mode, Regeneration, Explosive Expert and Explosive Shell Expert
• Bargain paid booster cost increase from $100k to $250k
• PING paid booster cost increase from $100k to $250k

New 3rd Buddy Boosters

• Cutter – Cutter KAL-7 – Jade Para 9 – Sugar Buddy
• Eddie – Eddie’s AK – Jade Para 9 – Booty Buddy
• Draza – Draza’s Dragon – jade Para 9 – Thanks Buddy
• Flynn – Flynn’s G-MAL – Jade Para 9 – Explosive Buddy
• Lazarevic – Lazarevic’s FAL-SS – Jade Para 9 – Stealth Buddy

Map Adjustments

• Gate added to London Underground tunnel to block off dead end
• Plunders chests have been rebalanced on Syria and Museum

As you can see, quite a lot has been tweaked in the game and as I mentioned earlier, most of them seem to have gone down well with players but there are a few that are slightly bemusing, at least to me anyway. Let's start with the weapon changes, I approve of all of them apart from those made to the M9 assault rifle, in previous patches it's already been battered with nerfs and still they choose to down grade it's effectiveness further *smh*. I applaud all the changes made to gameplay; it didn't happen often but the fact enemy players could toss back kickback 'nades was always stupid in my eyes, unless of course it was me doing it, then it was just bare lol :P Upping the limits before a power play kicks in, should've been implemented a long time ago, yes they're a novel concept and do give the losing team a reason to not give up but they should only get a helping hand if they're getting absolutely crushed i.e. at least double figures. Quick Boom was somewhat of an issue in competitive games but I think raising the requirement to twelve medals is a bit much, the time extension is sort of a moot point because it's unlikely that you'll be able to pick up more than one grenade after you activate the kickback anyway.

Can't really say how much of a change the swapping of Boosters (to the other slot) will make to competitive games, I guess time will tell on that but what I will say is that I'm puzzled why they'd even bother this late in the games life. I remember when the paid boosters got a price hike the first time and I was pretty surprised at the change back then but the prices now are draw dropping. I'm assuming the changes were made because most people have a fair bit of cash going spare in their UC3 bank accounts but in my eyes all this does is allow those who already have the ability to do well, continue there successes with boosters that the average player won't be able to purchase. It's nice that the other characters now also get a bonus buddy booster, again this probably should've been added much earlier but to be fair I rarely use one of those full character set ups. I've yet to play on the maps that have been adjusted but I'm glad the plunder chests on Syria have been relocated, it was always such a chore playing as the heroes on that map.

This is most likely the last patch for Uncharted 3, unless of course a major issue arises in the future, so this will probably also be my last post on Uncharted 3. I've already put a lot of hours into the game and I imagine with all the maps becoming free for everyone else, I'll no doubt put in a few more, though not until after I get bored of CoD: Ghosts :P Hopefully we start getting news on Uncharted 4 in the coming months and when we do, you can be sure I'll share it with you guys!

 Are you happy with the changes implemented in this last patch? Let me know below :)

Source: Naughty Dog Website