Battlefield 4 server update fixes "Death Shield" bug

I've got it! The only explanation for Battlefield 4's ongoing campaign of unfortunate bugs, glitches and miscellaneous issues: the game was cursed by a wizard. I've arrived at this conclusion because—as part of the blog post announcing the end of the "Death Shield" bug—DICE also revealed a console based Rent-a-Server program. Then, soon after, they updated to say it wasn't working properly. Seriously, who has that luck?

The important thing is that one of the game's stranger quirks is now fixed. As discovered only a few weeks ago , but potentially present much longer, the Death Shield would block projectiles from passing over the bodies of incapacitated soldiers.

"We'd also like to inform you that with today's server update," DICE wrote, "we are deploying a fix for the issue being referred to as “Death Shield,” where an invisible “shield” would appear around killed enemies, blocking weapons fire. Thank you for being patient as we worked to get this resolved."

That server update also deployed with the now traditional BF4 refrain, "General stability improvements".

Last week, DICE announced that they'd found the cause of a rubber-banding that had emerged around the release of the Naval Strike DLC. "We are already seeing performance improvement with 64-player matches and expect this to continue," they wrote.

"While the process took longer than we would've liked," DICE continued, "we wanted to be 100% sure it was done right and that the long-term solution was properly in place."

Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.