Battlefield Bad Company 2
Tags: Battlefield, Company
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June 8th, 2010 at 6:11 am
I bought BC2 off Steam after hearing all the hoopla about Modern Warfare 2, and after trying the BC2 Beta. I made the purchase for the multi-player only; I hear the single player campaign is pretty short. As a newcomer to the Battlefield series, I am quite impressed with Bad Company 2.
PROS:
- Fully destructible environments; it’s amazing to stand inside a house while it’s getting shelled by a tank, only to have the walls, roof, and windows get blown to bits around you. Nearly everything on the map can be destroyed (with the exception of some boulders). For instance, when shooting at an enemy who is hiding behind a concrete wall, the concrete first starts to get chipped, then gradually larger pock-marks form, then re-bar is exposed, then the concrete is reduced to dust. It’s pretty incredible.
- Gravitational effects; yes, gravity plays a big part in this game. Shoot a tank shell half a mile, and the shell doesn’t fly straight to the target. Rather, it assumes a parabolic arc. The same is true for sniper rifles, so one needs to make suitable adjustments.
- Achievements; I enjoy the multi-player method of unlocking weapons and gadgets. Many modern-day weapons are modeled, and various gadgets include new scopes, holographic sights, extended magazines, etc..
- Sound; fully immersive, adds to the authenticity.
- 32 Player multi-player servers; brilliant online madness.
- Huge maps; the urban combat maps are tricky, snipers hiding around every nook and cranny. The island warfare map is lush with waterfalls and plant life. Great map design.
- Weapons balancing; the vehicles/weapons feel more balanced in the full game, than they did in the beta. Helicopters no longer reign the skies with impunity, and can be taken down more easily. The same goes for vehicles.
- Graphics; weapons, vehicles, everything modeled with great detail. Love the Russian/American uniforms.
- Snipers not being allowed to go prone; there are already too many users who jump for the sniper class in every multi-player match, and allowing players to go prone would make them nigh impossible to spot. Being allowed to crouch is more than sufficient; the maps are huge, and there’s enough rubble around to generate many good hiding spots that already make a ghillie suited sniper hard to see. If you play on a hardcore server with no killcam, you won’t miss the lack of prone at all- snipers are all but invisible.
- Performance; the game runs pretty well despite my not having a top of the line gaming rig. With a Core i7 920, 4 GB RAM, and Nvidia GTX 260 with Core 216, I can run all settings at maximum and still get 70-90 fps.
- **UPDATE**; I did finally get around to trying the single player campaign, and like others have said, it is pretty weak. However, think of the SP as an extended tutorial for the multi-player, where you can try out different weapons and get used to the recoil and handling.
CONS:
- Server browser interface; it’s slow and could be optimized better. Adding favorite servers takes a few seconds to do, when it ought to be near instantaneous. Also, I get kicked randomly from certain servers and EA Online occasionally disconnects for no apparent reason. **UPDATE** The connection issues were primarily in the first week of gameplay, when EA’s servers were overwhelmed by players. Since then, connection has been rock-solid. Love the dedicated servers.
- Headwave; in an effort to implement more realistic effects, DICE went overboard on the headbobbing that the player experiences when walking around. It was initially rather extreme, causing motion sickness and nausea. Eventually, I acclimated to the bobbing, but it wouldn’t hurt the realism if they turned it down a notch.
- Too many persons using sniper online; but you have that problem with any online FPS game.
In conclusion, I’d say the pros far outweigh the cons to make BFBC2 a great and enjoyable multiplayer first person shooter.
**Note: To unlock the M1 Garand, you need to be a Battlefield Veteran (e.g. own at least 2 games of the BF series, including BFBC2). If BFBC2 is your first purchase, you can still qualify by downloading and playing the FREE game, Battlefield Heroes. Then visit [...], to register and view your account (same login/pw as your EA Account).
Rating: 5 / 5
June 8th, 2010 at 6:59 am
I’ve always been a fan of the Battlefield series. Battlefield 1942 could do no wrong and I spent countless hours logged in fighting on epic WWII maps. Battlefield Vietnam was awesome. Battlefield 2 was/is pure win for a modern combat FPS game and I have duked it out with numerous online opponents.
Sparking my interest, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was one of three games I bought in a row on Steam. Since I have a relatively new computer and no games to push its graphics limit, I was excited to start playing this newest member of the Battlefield series. I’d like to qualify this review. I have not played Battlefield: Bad Company (the first one). The only experience I have with this series is as stated above so all of my comparisons will be in direct correlation with those older games.
Let’s start with single-player mode. Single-player is a joke and leads you on a linear storyline. Probably a third of it is spent watching cut scenes and whatnot with you jumping into the action for about a minute before leaping back into another cut scene. It’s not too fun to be honest and seems like it’s trying to emulate Call of Duty too much. I prefer the older single-player modes in the Battlefield series where you can practice your skills on various maps you would find in multiplayer. The graphics of course are outstanding and the voice actors are excellent (anyone who has played Arma knows how horrible voice actors can ruin a gaming experience).
Multiplayer is what I wanted though. So after familiarizing myself with the controls in single-player, I decided to leap into some online battles. Okay, “leap” maybe too strong of a word. How about “inch”? Yes, INCH my way into some online battles sounds better. As others have stated in reviews and comments, it takes forever for a server refresh. And by “forever” I mean about a minute. But that’s forever in gamer time. So once the server list comes up, I’d like to apply certain filters to find the specific games I’d like to play. I click some check boxes and hit server refresh and BAM…wait…another minute goes by then…BAM! There’s my updated server list. The load times into multiplayer games themselves seems to be on par with the load times with Battlefield 2. Maybe a tad bit longer. One of the rumors I have read in regards to the unholy server load times was that EA wasn’t expecting this game to be a “success” or to be as popular as it has become. What? Really? You mean to tell me the success of the other Battlefield games wouldn’t have given EA a clue as to server loads? Thought they were smarter than that.
Anyway…
The online action is intense and joining a squad is the smartest thing you can do. Being able to spawn on any squad member is cool in my opinion though several people have scoffed at the idea. Also take note of which servers are “hardcore” as opposed to “normal”. In hardcore servers, you have no mini-map available, no crosshairs, no ammunition counter, and no heads up display on screen should enemies be spotted. I didn’t know this was even an option so I would join some regular servers that provided this info then I’d join another server that was hardcore. I kept thinking I had hit a series of buttons that had removed this information from my screen.
It took me a couple of rounds to figure out some controls but overall, the controls are the same as most FPS’ you have played. One thing that is rather annoying is the lack of the ability to go prone. I’m not sure why this wasn’t included as it seems like a vital and rather common control that would aid in your survivability online. I’ve had my clock cleaned with a couple of well placed headshots because I couldn’t go prone behind a large rock, woodpile, etc…
I dig the unlocks and achievements for Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Battlefield 2 had unlocks so it seems this game is improving on that, as well as latching on to the popularity of “achievements”. Who doesn’t like looking at their stats and seeing all those cool medals and badges?? I do. I’ll sit for hours staring at them, plotting my next achievement, and calculating time ratios and differentials in my head while drinking copious amounts of Mountain Dew and not sleeping for days.
So, as I wind down this review, I will say that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 can be addicting but it can also be a lot better. A few things that I’d like to see are to bring back the big maps and more vehicle warfare. I know this is primarily an infantry slugfest at the moment, but the appeal of the Battlefield series was that you had the option to use any kind of vehicle throughout the game; from tanks to APCs, jets to helicopters, and anti-air to hummers. It was epic! Bad Company isn’t epic. It’s small scale and that’s what is most disappointing to me. Sure, you can use a few vehicles now, but they are limited. I have fun, but the maps are few and horribly small and the battles are too quick. I can already feel the excitement draining from playing this game. Let Call of Duty do their thing. Why try to emulate CoD when you already have a successful franchise built on solid online gameplay? Let’s get these patches going and see what Battlefield: Bad Company 2 can really do. This could easily be one of the best online games if EA would have just stuck with the previous formula used in the series.
EDIT 03/15/10: Soon after I posted this review, maybe a few days later, the server refreshes have considerably improved. I’m assuming EA has done a little maintenance on their end. There is still a bug that persists when you click on a server to join. Sometimes your log-in name in the top right corner of the screen will disappear and you will be unable to join a game. I have to click on the “Favourites” server tab, then back, my name will come back on screen and I can join a game. It happened to me a lot this weekend which was annoying. I was using the search feature to find a specific server and it happened more when I used that.
EDIT 04/06/10: Okay, so the little bug where your log-in name would disappear and you were unable to get into a server has gone the way of the Dodo! The interface is much smoother and a few new maps have been added to the Conquest and Rush server rotations which is cool. For a week or so I was playing this everyday just to get all the unlocks for each class (Assault, Engineer, Medic, Recon and Vehicles) and I’m about 80% of the way through all of the achievements. I enjoy the game to a certain extent, but still yearn for something more…
Rating: 3 / 5
June 8th, 2010 at 8:07 am
Everything you read about the game is right. Great gameplay, especially for multi-player. Most importantly, they kept all the PC-specific features that make the PC the best gaming platform out there. I hope PC gamers will show appreciation for this effort by buying this game up. If we talk with our wallets, maybe the Call of Duty team will get their stuff together and realize that PC gamers are still a viable source of income and worth a little extra work.
Rating: 5 / 5
June 8th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Let me start by saying:
I had fun playing Modern Warfare 2, and I’ll probably still play it occasionally, but it will be an exercise in frustration when compared to this game. It has already been well documented that IW made the PC version of MW2 with as little effort as possible. It is, quite simply, the XB360 version ported over to the PC with no effort to make use of the greatly expanded capabilities of the PC as a gaming platform. We know you sell fewer units to the PC gaming market than you do to XB360/PS3, but we prefer to not be treated like outcasts. MW2 would NOT be the game it is today on ANY platform without the PC gaming platform on previous versions, especially because of the modding community. Since IW/Activision has effectively squashed them, I believe that innovation on future versions of the game will stagnate drastically.
Enter DICE.
Previous games in the Battlefield series have been quite good, but it is a different world in 2010. More people are buying games than ever before and MW2 sold 4.7 million copies in the first 24 hours of release (largely by catering to consoles). BFBC2 will sell well on the consoles, too, I believe, but MW2 left a big, wide door open with the PC community. DICE made a very distinct effort to step through that door and to bring some deserved features to the PC version of the game.
For instance:
A server browser…because we can use dedicated servers. Whew. MW2′s matchmaking system is awful.
A UI that is built for mouse input, not adapted from console input.
Adjustable FOV (AWESOME).
32-players can play in a single game. Fantastic.
…and many more features, including improved graphics performance. The PC version played on a 1920×1200 screen (or higher) on a DX11 card is FAR superior to video output from a console on the greatest of TVs.
As for game play, it is a real hoot. The vehicles and destruction of buildings really brings a bit of realism and fun that MW2 is sorely lacking. After bringing down a building to kill all the enemies inside (in BFBC2), it is really frustrating to play MW2 and have a javelin missile not hurt your enemies because they are taking cover in a 3-wall wooden shed. Every time you play BFBC2, even on the same maps, the game will be different. That building you took cover in last time to snipe at the enemies? Turns out a tank flattened it already. Better find a different spot. I haven’t had time to play too much multiplayer yet (although I played the beta quite a bit), but I’m enjoying the single player much more than I enjoyed the MW2 single player game.
UPDATE: I’ve been playing multiplayer BFBC2 like some kind of addict. Jumping into a game alone is fun, but when you have at least 3 friends on your team (and you have communications, such as teamspeak), the teamwork aspect of the game really shines. Well done, DICE.
Rating: 5 / 5
June 8th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
*EDIT* I will not change my original review text, but I wanted to update that DICE is pushing a patch to fix the server browser issue in the near future and connection issues are nearly 100% fixed (at least for me). Well done DICE!
Here’s the summary up front if you don’t want to read a wall of text:
This is a solid 4-star game. If you’ve played BF games before you will most likely enjoy this outing. These 1-2 star reviews from people on here are clearly upset mostly with the server browsing problem and the connection to EA’s master server. These types of problems will be ironed out so take those reviews with a grain of salt. The online game play is solid, the graphics are very good, the mechanics excellent, and the single player game is a bonus for those of you who have paid $50 in the past for games like BF2 or 2142 and only received the online portion. Whatever the case, BC2 is my preference for online FPS gaming now. Previously COD 4 was simply because BF2′s vehicle play was way too over-powered. A good pilot could dominate a map and there was little you could do short of getting in a jet yourself and taking him out. This is not the case in BC2. Vehicle play is merely an added dimension to the game, but not a dominating one now.
I’ve spent about 45 hours playing BC2 now between the Beta and the actual release (about 20 of those hours were on the release title) and racked up hundreds of kills (and deaths) online. I must say I am truly impressed by this game. Sure getting online is a bit of a chore right now thanks to EA’s master server having issues and the sever browser being a tad slow, but once you get online there is very little not to like about this game.
I’ve mainly been playing the Conquest mode online but have also made it about half way through the single player portion which actually surprised me on how good it was. It’s not the engaging experience that COD 4 and MW2 had but it is very good in its own right. The comedy and banter between the squad members is fun to see/hear…if I had to complain about one thing it is that the game play is not seamless, there are quite a few scenes in-game where you lose control over your character and are forced into a cut scene where you have no control save for the ability to look around if you like. It breaks the immersion as one other reviewer indicated. Of course, the single player game is not really why you buy this game as many PC BF vets can attest to…this is the first BF on the PC that actually has a single player story-based mode so it really isn’t bad for DICE’s first attempt on the PC and second attempt overall (the first Bad Company was console only).
The Battlefield series history lies in the multiplayer online portion of the game and this does not disappoint. I’ve played Battlefield games since 2003 and played each BF game as it came out (except for the console port of BF2 called BF2 Modern Combat) and BC2 is clearly the best iteration of the series to date. It has a great mix of maps and the vehicle combat is there but is not overwhelming like they could be in BF2 where some maps could literally be dominated by a single jet. The classes are all there except the Medic/Support /Assault classes have kind of been merged in some aspects. Medics carry the PKM, SAW…etc type-weapons and Assault class drops the ammo bags. There is no more support class and also no going prone. This is actually very nice, though on both counts. I prefer the medic class the most because it allows me to support the team through heals and revives and packs heavy fire-power. As for no going prone, this is bad for snipers, but great for those of us that suffered through the “dolphin diving” eras of previous BF games…i.e. players jumping then switching to prone in mid air making it very difficult to shoot them. No prone also attests to this game’s roots being on the console and not the PC leaving you with the feeling you are playing yet another “port to PC” game. The maps are very well-thought out with choke points, ambush zones, sniper spots (tons of these). Most of the maps I have seen thus far are medium to large in size although I haven’t seen any that were as large as the bigger 64-player maps in BF2…that is a good thing for me. For those of you that enjoy playing infantry first you will be very happy to know that there is quite a few cover spots as you move from objective to objective however be aware that things are easily blown up so be prepared to run. One of the cool moments for me was when I was hiding on the second floor of a barn and a tank rolls by and decides to blow up the barn and the section of the floor I was standing on collapses killing me. Sure I died, but I have never experienced that before and it was interesting to go through. This adds a degree of complexity to the game that now must be considered when taking cover or hiding from vehicles.
For those of you who wonder how this stacks up to the Call of Duty series I must say you might not like this game if you are a fan of COD. Both games are first person shooters based in the modern era of war, but that is really where the similarities end and I see no other parts to compare. There are no game changing perks in BC2, there are no fully player-controlled vehicles in COD. BC2 is best played in squads all working towards the designated objective while COD games do not need it. COD maps are very small, fast, frantic and game-play features arcade-like shooter physics while BC2 is tad more realistic and requires more strategy when attacking an objective due to vehicles, destructible buildings and the larger maps. Both games have their place in the FPS genre but fans of the COD type of play may not find the way BC2 plays appealing.
Rating: 4 / 5