Here’s another. While storming a sewage facility of some kind towards the end, I scuffed out an enemy posse with a rifle grenade as they breached an outside door. Sweetwater spearheaded the counter-charge, rounded the corner… and promptly vanished before my eyes, possibly because the game didn’t want him ruining the show for the Russian special forces troops dug in a few metres ahead.
The on-rails turret sequences aren't too offensive, but come on chaps - this was getting old back in 1999.
At an anorexic six to eight hours in length, the campaign calls it a day just as unexpectedly – and right when the going’s getting good to boot, with a claustrophobic shoot-out aboard a hijacked airliner. Just as well there’s that online component for dessert.
Bad Company 2 adds two new modes to Bad Company’s Conquest (fly the flag over as many control points as possible till one or the other team’s respawn counter runs dry) and Rush (one side defends a handful of bases while the other tries to nuke their ICOs), each aimed squarely at those who prefer to cooperate rather than collapse, coughing up blood, drilled through the torso from several directions at once. Squad Deathmatch pits four four-man squads against one another, with a solitary infantry-killer vehicle ripe for commandeering somewhere on the map; Squad Rush, as the name implies, is Rush with an eight player limit.
With fewer players and tighter lines of communication, Squad matches are naturally far more contained and controlled than standard Rush or Conquest; they add a pleasant inner layer of endeavour to the robust, evenly weighted but sometimes rather chaotic Bad Company formula. As regards combat roles, the original game’s Assault, Recon and Support (now Medic) classes return with minor tweaks, but the comparably skilled Demolition and Specialist classes have been merged in the person of the tank-killing Engineer.
Maps are predictably excellent, each having its signature dynamics. Tall bare islets off forested coastlines prove popular with snipers, while snowbound two storey settlements deteriorate gradually into rucks of exposed foundation and a criss-cross of charred beams. Vehicles have a much larger role here, as buggies barge into harbor facilities and trikes take flanking routes down sandy access roads, but given the size of the play areas, effective communication is the more crucial factor. The Recon class’s motion sensor, which flags up tangos on all allied minimaps, is worth its weight in gold.
Pro tip: always let the guy in the tank go first.
Bad Company 2 as a whole isn’t quite worth its weight in gold, but it’s probably worth its weight in bronze. Or I don’t know, Prada accessories. DICE has essentially repeated one of 2008′s better party tricks, rolling out a hearty, well-defined shooter that offsets limited solo enjoyment value with immense online replayability. If we must dwell on the profundities of blowing stuff up, this is the way to do it.
Why not discuss our score in the forums? Well, because you can discuss it here instead. Take your pick. And go read the scoring guide.
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Kaz Hirai Video Interview - the first of Kikizo's interviews with the man who went on to become global head of Sony.
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I really like the look of this, however, I think I’ll wait because of EA’s ‘project ten sterling’
I was not at all worried about this when i bought Mass Effect2, as i wanted the game new anyway (and do realise 2nd hand sales go entirely to the shops). Buuuut…now i would quite like to trade it in for something like Battlefield…i realise it’s me not said shops that take the hit in this menage a trois, the trade in price is rubbish.
So…it’s making buying Battlefield…more of a risk should you not like it. In some ways i support the principle of what they’re doing, but games just cost too much.
Anyway, i’ll keep it in the memory bank and make sure i pick it up sometime.
It shocks me that you could play this multiplayer for more than a few minutes and conclude that it focuses on tactics no more than it’s genre’s predecessors. Blowing up buildings and driving tanks through (close to) real physics means SO much more than just giggly fun. With Bad Company 2 you have so many ways to do EVERYTHING you do. In previous games, you try to flank your enemy, hit him with a grenade, or shoot him quicker (usually this last). The winning team in Rush has little to do with technical skill. This coupled with each class’s distinct roles make for a multiplayer experience that is second to none when it comes to tactical game-play. I looked up a clan once I realized this, started playing with 8 ppl on a team, and now MW2 feels like an empty shell fit for playing only while intoxicated (for stupid people).
This game does suffer from some little bugs, but when you compare it to it’s predecessors and keep in mind that it’s something like 20 times more complex… they are nothing. Remember the javelin glitch in MW2, the infinite crate glitch? Walking below the lvl in World at War? Getting your foot stuck on a piece of concrete feels tame compared to that.
moi mää haluna optla pisää psp peliä
In awe of that awnrse! Really cool!
“Giggly fun”? You destroy my cover for giggly fun? What the hell. The game is only as complicated as the person playing it. When I go in with a full fireteam playing rush, you are the sort of person I order a cease fire on just to see where you will go. People who don’t understand the tactical aspects of BC2 screw everyone over. You didn’t once mention enemy highlighting in this game, a key feature. You didn’t bother to mention weapon balance, weapon customization, weapon variety, class use of gadgets or anything related to the multiplayer game in any meaningful way except for a few of the key innovations. Are you reviewing the playability of the multiplayer, or the durability of the gimmicks?
Eh, you make good points. The sparsity of fine detail on multiplayer in this piece has been bothering me, though I think I’ve expressed the gist adequately and no, I would not change the score/verdict on the basis of playtime since review. Fancy writing a more in-depth ‘pro-gamer’ piece for us about BC2 online as it stands today? Can’t pay you, but you’ll have the satisfaction of bitching at me in a semi-official capacity. I’d do it myself, but revisiting titles is a luxury we can seldom afford…
EA…
Fix the lag!
The game is really sucking.