XM8

The XM8 was a developmental U.S. military designation and project name for a lightweight Assault Rifle system that was being developed by Heckler and Koch for the United States Army from the late 1990s to early 2000s. The XM8 program was canceled in 2005, however, and the weapon never entered service. The reason for the cancellation was because of how expensive the Prototype was.

Battlefield: Bad Company
"Hey, where'd you get that gun? It looks slightly less crappy than the one you had before!"

In Battlefield: Bad Company's singleplayer, it's the most commonly used assault rifle by the Mercenaries. It is first encountered as a collectible in Welcome to Bad Company. After that, it can be picked up from dead mercenaries or in weapon collectible crates.

In multiplayer, the XM8 is issued to the Assault as an unlockable. It is fully automatic and its stats are seemingly average except for above average accuracy, making the XM8 very balanced. It uses a 50 round magazine, with 150 rounds in reserve, and has a specialized grenade launcher, the XM320, attached to the weapon. It normally takes about 7-8 body shots to kill.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2
In Battlefield: Bad Company 2's singleplayer, it is the first gun the player receives once taking control of Marlowe. Bad Company seems to have adopted it as their primary assault weapon since it is used by Redford and Haggard, and Marlowe in cutscenes.

In multiplayer, the XM8 Prototype requires 3000 points to be unlocked for the Assault kit. The XM8 is fully automatic and now has 30 rounds in one magazine. The gun is well balanced, having medium accuracy, above average damage and rate of fire. It has the XM320 grenade launcher attached and a red dot sight or 4x scope can be attached to the weapon. It is very effective at all ranges and remains competitive with SMG's at close range. However, to maintain accuracy, burst firing the weapon manually is recommended. The recoil of this gun resets before the visual recoil does, especially when using iron sights. Therefore, firing a second burst just before the sights line up again will still hit the target and can give you a higher chance in winning a firefight at medium range.

Trivia

 * The XM8 Baseline Carbine is Preston Marlowe's primary rifle in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
 * It is odd that the U.S. Army would be using both the XM8, and SCAR weapons systems, as they all competed against each other to be the new rifle for U.S. SOCOM forces.
 * As mentioned above, the XM8 should not even be in service because the project was canceled in 2005, but due to the fact that both Battlefield: Bad Company and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 are in the future, the U.S Army might have re-started the project and adopted it. And even so, the rifle should be designated the M8. (Like the HK416 was renamed the M416.)