Publisher Electronic Arts and developer DICE are announcing a host of new stuff that is aimed at extending the life of the multiplayer component of Battlefield: Bad Company, which has proven to be very interesting to gamers.

The really big news is that EA has decided to give out codes that can unlock three of the five weapons which were only available to those who got the game through special retailer promotions. So, you'd better write this down. If you are a heavy Recon Kit user and want to get your hands on the QBU88, you need to enter “your3mynextt4rget” for the unlock. Those that use the Special Ops kit most can get their hands on a UZI if they enter the “cov3r1ngthecorn3r” code. The people that play the Support class most can use the huge firepower of the M60 if they enter the code “try4ndrunf0rcov3r”.

The USAS12 that is available for the Demo Kit can be unlocked if a player checks his stats on the Battlefield: Bad Company website. And you can even get the fifth weapon if you enter EA's Veteran program, which costs money.

An update is coming to the game soon with two maps included, the single player Acta Non Verba and Par For The Course which are adapted for multiplayer games. It seems that the update is free and will also bring a fix for server lag and for Dog Tag lag. PlayStation 3 owners will be happy to learn that there are plans to introduce expanded Voice Over Internet Protocol support for their consoles. It also seems that Trophies will be introduced soon.

In an effort to accommodate the huge numbers of players that overwhelm the servers each day, the Battlefield: Bad Company leaderboards have been expanded to include 500,000 entries.