Take that, Infinity Ward!, March 2, 2010

By 

Senor Zoidbergo (Washington D.C.) –

  

  

= Fun: 

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).

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Fun game, but it can be so much more…, March 8, 2010

= Fun: 

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…

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