Battlefield Bad Company 2 - Xbox 360

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam Impressions

Matt Bertz — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:11:00 GMT

The wait is finally over. After six months of impatiently anticipating a full dose of new Battlefield: Bad Company 2 maps, DICE and EA return to Vietnam with 5 new maps, 15 new weapons, and 6 new vehicles.

The Vietnam expansion operates differently than most traditional map packs. Though it requires the original disc, adds ten new achievements/trophies, and carries over your ranking from Bad Company 2, the maps don't integrate with the base game. Instead, the expansion has its own submenu when you boot the game and the maps rotate amongst themselves. Only four of the five maps are available at launch, with the classic Battle For Hastings map unlocking once the community performs 69 million team actions. All four of the currently available maps are playable in the Rush, Conquest, Squad Deathmatch, and Squad Rush modes.

With the power of the Frostbite engine, DICE's latest trip to Vietnam better captures the atmosphere of the region than the first game did in 2004. Thick jungles give soldiers low visibility, the muddy water barely casts reflections, and the freshly napalmed countrysides smolder in ruins. DICE also did an admirable job of differentiating the experience from the base game. Maps are populated with far fewer destructible buildings, dense patches of foliage litter the environments, and the varied elevations of hills, tunnels, and trenches keep the battles from devolving into sniper-heavy firefights across razed settlements. Each map also caters to a different play style. The rice paddies of Pho Bai Valley feature intense chopper and tank showdowns. The Cao Son Temple includes a long shoreline for PT boat drive-by attacks. Hill 137 focuses on a hillside infantry battle, with half of the forest destroyed by napalm. The Vantage Point map is a vertical battle that pits defenders on the top of a plateau.

With no machine gun scopes on the '60s-era weapons, long-range battles are less frequent than in Bad Company 2. Though the game disappointingly lacks new weapons to unlock as you level up, you can collect bronze, silver, and gold starts for each of the 15 weapons. Shooter vets should be familiar with most of the arsenal, but that doesn't mean there aren't standouts. The most fearsome new weapon is the flamethrower, which is devastating at close range and makes quick work of squads trying to protect an M-Com crate in a building. Even if you kill the person wielding the flamethrower, if you're hit with a momentary blast the flame will stay alive, slowly draining your health and eventually claiming your life.

The class kits have also been adjusted for the historical setting. Assault soldiers have M79 thumpers instead of an M203 grenade launcher attachment, engineers use blow torches to repair vehicles, medics us syringes rather than defibrillators to revive fallen comrades, and snipers have TNT instead of motion sensors or claymores. These changes play perfectly into the vibe, as do the new radio stations featuring Vietnam-era songs players can listen to while riding in vehicles.

The most important change Vietnam makes to the Battlefield formula is the taming of the choppers, which often dominated the matches in Bad Company 2. Small-arms fire now damages the helicopters, so great pilots can't hold an army hostage as easily as they could before. The Hueys also can't strafe as aggressively as the Hinds, which makes it easier to concentrate fire on the birds even without access to an anti-aircraft battery.

Outside of occasional bouts of lag, the lack of new unlockables, and a strange skill level glitch that oscillates my ranking between 0 and 99 repeatedly, the Vietnam expansion pack delivers where it counts. If you're an AWOL soldier who found something else to do over the last six months or a diehard Battlefield fan, this expansion is definitely worth the $15. This is one draft you don't want to dodge.

Bad Company 2 VIP Map Pack 7 Impressions

Matt Bertz — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:00:00 GMT

It took half a year, but EA and DICE finally awarded the Battlefield faithful with two brand spanking new maps and a pair of classics from the original Bad Company. The absence of new content outside of unlocking pre-existing maps for new modes didn't do Bad Company 2 any favors, as the game dropped precipitously from its top-three status in the Xbox Live unique users charts as the year progressed. Though you could still find full matches, before Map Pack 7 Major Nelson reported that Bad Company 2 had slipped all the way to the 17th position, behind four Call of Duty titles, two Halo games, and a slew of sports and action games. So are these new maps enough to rekindle a love affair with one of the best shooters of the year? We dusted off our guns and headed to the battlefield to find out.

Cold War

Supported Modes: Rush, Squad Rush, and Squad Deathmatch

Fans of close-quarters maps should love Cold War. This winter map takes place in the mountainside Russian town of Chukotka. In Rush mode, the attacking team parachutes onto a ridge overlooking the cramped war-torn village. Given the tight avenues between buildings and surrounding tree lines, there are no vehicles and few long sight lines for snipers to exploit. This helps encourage freedom of movement for general infantry. While there is enough room to flank the three sets of M-Com stations, it's not hard for the defending army to set a perimeter and funnel the action into the village. Given the close quarters feel, this a great map for shotgun and assault rifle fans. Several of the crates are placed outside of buildings, which thankfully curbs the overzealous mortar spamming on buildings containing crates. Snipers and RPG soldiers can no longer demolish the crates by destroying the surrounding building or lobbing rockets from afar; if you want to advance to the next two sets of crates, you need to man up and place a charge in person.

Heavy Metal

Supported Modes: Conquest, Squad Deathmatch

At first, I was pissed Heavy Metal wasn't available in Rush mode. After loading up the map, I understand why DICE made it primarily for Conquest. Heavy Metal is HUGE, recalling the expansive maps of the series' PC titles like Battlefield 2. With the picturesque Chilean mountainside town of Aconcagua serving as the backdrop, three flags are positioned in a rugged valley sprinkled with high-tech windmills. Given the large swathes of terrain between flags, the map is perfect for vehicular warfare and sniping. Each side has access to multiple helicopters and tanks, and the key to holding the flags is air superiority. If you're up against an ace pilot and skilled gunner, it can be hard to get out of your spawn base, let alone move across the map to take a flag, if you don't have talented AA gunners taking them out before they are in striking range. Traveling in a vehicle to your next destination is recommended considering the long distances between objectives. With high ridges and towers overlooking the valley and large distances in between flags, you'll probably be picked off from afar by a bush wookie or turn into roadkill if you're running across the open plain. Though the vehicular combat offers a nice change of pace from infantry-based combat, the map seems too big given the 24-player cap.

DICE Declares War On Infinity Ward

Matt Bertz — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:42:00 GMT

Nothing improves competition like a great rivalry. After years as the kingpin of military multiplayer, Battlefield creator DICE found its title in jeopardy as FPS gamers abandoned PCs in favor of consoles and Call of Duty became the gold standard. At the core of Infinity Ward’s world-beating shooter was the Battlefield blueprint. The studio borrowed the persistent rankings and unlockable weapons concepts from Battlefield 2, refined them to unprecedented levels, and matched its robust online offering with an expertly crafted single-player campaign featuring thrilling scripted sequences that put action flicks to shame. Not content to settle for second place, DICE throws down the gauntlet with Bad Company 2, delivering its best multiplayer package since Battlefield 2 and a remarkably improved single-player campaign that openly mocks its rival while cribbing from them at the same time.

As with all Battlefield titles, a phenomenal multiplayer mode serves as the heart of Bad Company 2. The game successfully blends many innovations from the series’ past with impressive new features to create a robust experience that rightfully challenges Modern Warfare for the multiplayer crown. All the Battlefield staples return – player progression, rankings, squad groupings, unlockable weapons, and huge maps that allow players to attack via land, air, and sea. The deep progression system constantly dangles the carrot of achievement in front of you, offering a wealth of unlockable weapons, gadgets, and specializations with nearly every round. An impressive array of pins and insignia document your battlefield prowess, and the dog tags return as boast-worthy incentives to knife unsuspecting enemies.

Conquest and Rush still serve as the multiplayer pillars, but Bad Company 2 also introduces two new change-of-pace modes. Squad Rush places a four-player team in the role of attackers who must best the four defenders by destroying two crates. Squad Deathmatch, on the other hand, pits four teams of four against each other in a battle for kill counts and bragging rights. Both modes feature more intimate maps and take much less time to complete than the standard Rush mode. Teamwork and coordination are stressed to new degrees as well. Keeping close proximity to your squad is essential for reviving fallen teammates, which can spell the difference between successfully defending a crate and losing it while half your squad waits to respawn.

The multiplayer modes are complemented by a fantastic array of maps. Many pay homage to great maps from Battlefield’s past, and the diversity in locale and terrain assures every battle plays out differently. Some concentrate on vehicular combat, where controlling the air with choppers or mounting an assault with tanks are the keys to winning the war, while others stress infantry tactics in tighter urban locales. These expertly crafted environments are a far cry from their cramped and frantic counterparts in Modern Warfare 2, giving players room to orchestrate coordinated assaults.

A pair of useful new tools bolster the team tactics. The spotting mechanic helps improve communication by allowing players to mark enemy positions as they identify movement on the battlefield. In addition, the overpowered artillery from Bad Company has been removed in favor of a player-guided UAV that allows you to track and mark enemy movements from above between missile barrages.

DICE made many logistical changes to the multiplayer experience, but failed to address some other minor hindrances. You can finally kick unwanted players from your squad to make room for a buddy, but large groups will gripe when their party gets split by the sometimes unaccommodating matchmaking system. The sketchy statistics updater still takes awhile to post the results from your most recent match (a legacy problem that’s plagued Battlefield for years), and the annoying kill cam is sure to anger players using the recon class because it gives away sniping positions. Snipers also won’t be pleased that DICE once again doesn’t allow players to go prone. Thankfully, you can ditch the kill cam in the new Hardcore mode, which also turns off many HUD elements and increases the damage to deliver a more realistic war experience.

As great as the multiplayer is, DICE takes its biggest strides forward with the drastically improved solo campaign. The follow-up to the Swedish studio’s first attempt at a crafting a meaningful single-player experience finds success in mimicking some of the best games to date – keen gamers will notice borrowed elements from Call of Duty and Uncharted 2 sprinkled throughout the campaign. The most drastic improvement comes with its renewed sense of pacing. By ditching large open-world environments in favor of a more linear path, DICE is better able to craft memorable scripted sequences that the first game sorely lacked. Amazingly, DICE pulls this off without sacrificing the player’s sense of freedom – the levels are still big enough to offer several tactical options for players to explore.

The jokers from B Company resume their role as the loveable heroes, but DICE trades in the humorous Three Kings storyline of the first game in favor of a more somber mission. When the U.S. learns the Russians are after a secret WMD the Japanese developed during WWII, a routine mission turns into a globetrotting escapade that takes B Company from the jungles of South America to the peak of the Andes mountains. Though the stakes are higher, that doesn’t stop Sarge, Sweetwater, Haggard, and Marlowe from cracking jokes at each other’s expense. The comedic dialogue shines throughout the game; these eccentric soldiers have more personality than all the protagonists from Call of Duty, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, and Medal of Honor combined.

A number of subtle improvements keep the campaign moving along with the clip of a Hollywood blockbuster. DICE ditched the health syringe from the first game in favor of a regenerative health system, the forgiving checkpoint system doesn’t punish players, and you never have to babysit your more-than-capable squad during the intense firefights. The only thing the campaign lacks is co-op; since four heroes are already fighting side-by-side throughout the game, this was a missed opportunity for DICE to one-up the competition.

Though the campaign doesn’t top the brilliant set pieces found in Modern Warfare, the drastic improvements bring it near the level of Infinity Ward’s juggernaut. Placed in tandem with the exceptional multiplayer, Bad Company 2 is a memorable shooter that should be a favored destination on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network for much of 2010.

Bad Company 2 Multiplayer Beta Impressions

Nick Ahrens — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:07:00 GMT

EA and DICE have unleashed Bad Company 2’s multiplayer onto the masses in the form of a PlayStation 3 beta, and we were on the front lines. While the beta only includes one of the maps from the final game, I was more than happy to spend hours testing my skills against the world. I even did pretty well among the insanity. Being a huge Battlefield fan from day one, it was also a great opportunity to answer questions both myself and some of you, the readers have had about the game.

The new map that I played, Arica Harbor, is a long, kidney shaped stretch of land that has the offensive team pushing down a long hill through a fort, urban city, train wreck and finally the harbor. The map contained tanks, Hummers, the new quads and a UAV in the form of a little helicopter that’s flown by the player. Everything that fit like a glove from the previous title returned with obvious improvements. Everything looks better, controls smoother and has overall more polish to a formula that DICE has been perfecting for years across many titles.

First and foremost, this game looks great. Even the draw distance is impressive and you can easily see across the map – which is enormous, I might add. In classic Battlefield fashion, DICE does not play around with tiny little arenas when it comes to multiplayer. The other great improvement is the sound. It may be the most striking thing I noticed during my playtime. The staggering number of things going on means there are a bazillion sounds triggering all around you. Grenades pop with force, sniper rifles crackle, and the in-game characters are chatterboxes. I’m not kidding about that part, and it’s awesome. The amount of dialogue that’s spoke in-game is sheer craziness. Where a game like Modern Warfare 2 will have a guy maybe yell about reloading or make an “ugh” sounds when he dies, Bad Company 2 has multiple lines for when a tank is spotted. Check out the side bar to the left for more info.

The dialogue of the in-game characters is quite intense and includes many different types of lines. Some are even pretty helpful if you pay close attention. Here are a few heard in the beta:
- F***! I think there’s a shooter up there!
- Take cover! Sniper!
- Take that mother f***er!
- Target down!
- Watch that f***ing target!
- Grenade! RUN!!
- S***!

The game mode I was playing is very similar to the Gold Rush mode in the previous Bad Company, with a few tweaks and now dubbed just Rush. Fans should note that this is not the famous Conquest mode where teams capture flags and knock down team tickets from BF 1942 and BF 2. Instead of boxes of gold to destroy and defend, the points are now called M-COMs, but the feel is pretty much the same. The campy tone to the mode has also been removed and the game feels more serious. This is also obvious when the in-game characters are swearing up a storm.

For those of you that are new to the series, the game plays out as an attack and defend mode. The attackers try and push their way into the defender’s base and take out two objectives by setting a timed explosive and blowing it up. If they destroy both, the battle is pushed forward to another set of points further along the map. The attackers win if all points are destroyed, and the defenders win if they thwart the advance and/or wear down the total number of tickets (lives/respawns) of the attackers.

The weapons and vehicles system is much deeper than the previous game. There are more than before with the addition of things like the quad ATV vehicle or the defibrillators from Battlefield 2, which medics can use to revive a fallen mate. The class system has been totally overhauled and there are now just four:

Assault: Uses machine guns and can give out ammo
Engineer: Uses small, spec-ops weapons and carries anti-tank weapons
Medic: Uses large machine guns (LMGs) and deals out health packs and revives fallen mates
Recon: Uses sniper rifles and carries stealth-based gadgets

Each class unlocks its own specialization options but also has a pool of options that any class can use, such as the ability to be lighter and run faster or the option of upgrading the damage dealt by a vehicle when in the driver seat. I counted over 25 specialization options in the beta. The other new option is the ability to mess with the classes a little bit to better fit your style. Some of the secondary weapons like shotguns can be swapped out for any class’s primary weapon. So I was eventually picking Recon with a shotgun and hiding in the bushes for some unsuspecting attacker fools.

Read on to the next page for a Q&A section that includes info on things like going prone, the new kill cam, and more. Also be sure to check out all-new gameplay footage from the beta level as well as screens we grabbed from playing.

DICE Readies Up a Fresh Batch of Destruction With Bad Company 2

Matt Bertz — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:59:00 GMT

Battlefield: Bad Company may have alienated PC gamers with its console-only appearance, but DICE senior producer Patrick Bach believes the decision to dedicate the experience to consoles bodes well for the franchise’s future.

“One of the things we learned is that you can build a proper Battlefield multiplayer experience on a console,” Bach recalls. “We hadn’t really gone into that territory before – making an all out, full-on Battlefield.”

For the sequel, Bach and his team plan to use those lessons to full capacity, intensifying the game’s signature brand of open expanse warfare filled with destructible environments, vehicular combat, and deep progression systems. Rather than achieving this by upping the player count to 64 players (like it traditionally was on PCs), DICE is focused on honing elements of the first game that came up short.

“Player count is a hot potato,” Bach remarks. “Some think bigger is better. We want to make more and better use of the players we have.” To that end the team is responding to several common community complaints by improving vehicle handling, allowing full environmental destruction, and tweaking squadmate spawning. The hope is that these fixes will result in more intense and action-packed battles.

Blackhawk helicopters equipped with two miniguns also help drive up the explosion factor. These transport choppers can fit an entire squad, allowing talented teams to rain bullets on infantry to rack up the kills. Now that soldiers can deploy parachutes, squads can also use the choppers to employ hit-and-run tactics on gold crates or conquest flags. On the ground, DICE is adding nimble ATVs to the fray that allow two people to cruise quickly though hot zones.

DICE has always had a reputation of giving Battlefield titles great post-launch support, but that wasn’t the case with Bad Company. Glitches still exist in the game to this day, leaving many to wonder if the DICE philosophy has changed regarding post-game support. Bach insists that the problem had more to do with figuring out the proper patching strategy on consoles, not a shift in philosophy. While the PC platform allowed DICE to issue patches whenever it saw fit, the consoles have limited memory and patches to service the community, which means the developer needs to do a better job prioritizing to make sure the most necessary changes make the cut.

“We’re looking into a lot of community management this time around because we actually agree that we could have done a better job at handling the community in Bad Company,” Bach admits. “The whole studio is looking into how we can get better at handling community issues.”

Bach says the team has several more exciting new features to reveal, including two new game modes focused on squad play. Stay tuned in the coming months for more information.