Battlefield: Bad Company

Battlefield: Bad Company is the sixth game in the Battlefield series and is developed by DICE. After being first hinted at along with Battlefield 2: Modern Combat before the release of Battlefield 2 in April 2005, the game was officially revealed by EA on August 21, 2006. It was released twenty-two months later on June 23, 2008 in the United States and June 26 in Europe. The game was highly anticipated, largely because it added realistic destruction to the game using the new Frostbite Engine developed by DICE that supports 24 players online in large battles featuring tanks, helicopters, and in some cases, boats.

Setting
Battlefield: Bad Company take place in the near future and focuses around a war between the United States and Russia mainly in the fictional country of Serdaristan, located in Eastern Europe along the border of Russia. This is where Bad Company discovers their true ambition of collecting gold and selling it in an attempt to become wealthy.

Plot
The player follows the story of Preston Marlowe, a recently transferred member of the US Army to the "B" company of the 222nd Army Battalion, known by many as "Bad Company" due to it being a conglomerate of "all the insubordinates, hell-raisers and troublemakers that won't fit in any other unit". Preston fights alongside Samuel Redford, Terrence Sweetwater, and George Haggard against the Russian Army, the Middle Eastern Coalition and the Legionnaire Mercenaries.

The game starts as Marlowe is brought from a helicopter to the front lines. Preston meets his new squad-mates and quickly learns from Redford that Bad Company is much less formal than other military units. An artillery barrage wipes out the convoy, along with the squad's truck. This is where the player learns to look, jump, crouch, shoot, fire grenades, and repair vehicles. Mike-One-Juliet, the dispatch officer, sends Bravo-One Charlie (Preston's squad), to wipe out an artillery battery used by the Russians and later to use them to shell the incoming vehicles attacking Juneau convoy. The squad is then sent to clear a Russian-occupied river crossing when the Russians destroy the bridge. Bravo-One is then sent to clear a Russian-occupied farm before being extracted, but when their helicopter is shot down by anti-aircraft fire, they are then sent to destroy the anti-air emplacements and raid another Russian-occupied farm in Juneau Convoy's path. When the squad joins Juneau convoy, it is attacked by another artillery barrage. They barely manage to escape, and are sent to destroy radar jammers to let an airstrike destroy the artillery. After the airstrike finishes, Bravo-One clears out any survivors and encounter the Legionnaire Mercenaries, a mercenary group said to be the strongest military organization in the world. Haggard finds a gold bar in the suit of a dead Legionnaire mercenary, starting their interest in the Legionnaire's gold.

On what was supposed to be Redford's last mission before retirement, the squad is sent to move through more Russian territory when they find a house with the Legionnaires' insignia on a sign in front, Acta Non Verba - Latin for "Action, Not Words". Haggard sends Marlowe inside to check out the house. There, Marlowe finds the first case of gold. The squad had been given orders to destroy fuel and missile storage facilities and to then meet up with a US Armored Division and escort them into the Russian-held city of Zabograd. Bravo-One Charlie is sent ahead to clear the pass of anti-tank missile launchers and to escort the tanks to the other side of the town where the main assault is to take place. The squad is then sent to destroy a Russian radio outpost before they call for reinforcements, but they are too late as the call is made and more Russian forces arrive. Just then, a rocket is heard hitting a US tank nearby, to which Mike-One-Juliet sends the squad to defend it from the enemy reinforcements until more US forces arrive. Mike-One-Juliet then sends them to a harbor full of suspicious activity and says that if they do a good job, she could get them out the company and in to a better unit. They arrive at the harbor, but find that it is full of mercenaries. The squad, led by Haggard and the thought of gold, fight their way through, but after checking the bodies, find nothing. They then spot some trucks and watch them drive away. As they go, a bar of gold drops out of the back and they become determined to follow them and retrieve the gold.

Soon after arriving on the border of Serdaristan, Bravo-One Charlie finds the trucks crossing the border and realize they can't follow it any longer as Serdaristan is neutral in the war. Overcome with greed, Haggard runs across the border, "single-handedly invading a neutral country". When asked why they were in Serdaristan, Redford Tells Mike-One-Juliet that it was his idea to wipe out a potential threat. Redford's tour of duty is consequentially increased by another year. This pushes Redford over the edge and he tells the squad that they're going AWOL. They first destroy three radio transmission towers to cover their tracks. Redford then figures out that the gold is in another harbor. After they fight their way through, they are just about to enter the Legionnaire's cargo ship when the US Army shows up and captures them.

The army sends Bravo-One Charlie on a top-secret mission to go into Sedaristan and capture the President, who they believe is selling arms to the Russians. However, the squad realizes that Serdaristan is no longer neutral when they witness their chopper being shot down by Serdaristani anti-air emplacements. Mike-One-Juliet sends them to destroy the emplacements so that another chopper can be flown in to extract them with the President once they capture him. Later on, Miss July sees lots of activity at the Presidential Palace, so she sends Bravo-One a laser designator and directs them to a enemy weapons cache. They make their way through the President's personal golf course and head towards the Presidential Palace. Once they arrive, they find that the grounds are crawling with Legionnaires. They fight their way in to get the President but when Redford calls for an evac chopper, Mike-One-Juliet tells them that she cannot because the Army ditched them and that they were on their own. President Serdar then tells them he has a personal Mi-24 Hind that they could use to escape from Serdaristan.

The squad then takes the President's helicopter and use it to destroy Sedaristan's military infrastructure. Their helicopter soon runs out of fuel and they arrive at a refueling station. As there is no source of fuel near the helicopter, Marlowe and Haggard are forced to drive an M939 truck carrying fuel to the Hind. Haggard then accidentally pours the fuel into the cooling unit, making Sweetwater have to fix it due to Haggard's incompetence. They hold off Serdaristan Army reinforcements and as several BMD-3's starting moving towards them, Sweetwater fixes the fuel problem and they escape. The President than asks Bravo-One to bring him to Russia for his exile and as he informs them about where the gold is, but the Legionnaire appears in his personal Ka-52 and shoots down the pimped-out Hind.

Marlowe wakes up after the crash, only to find his squad-mates and the President missing. He tries contacting Mike-1-Juliet, to which she guides him to several areas where she thinks the squad is located. In one of the areas, there is a video screen of the Legionnaire interrogating President Serdar and later shooting the camera after he finds out that it was recording. Marlowe makes his way through a large Russian Army force to get to the monastery located on top of a mountain, where he finds his squad did not actually need much saving as they had just escaped captivity. Together, they all head back down the mountain, evading Russian reinforcements as they head towards the sea where they may find a boat to escape with. After fighting tanks, APCs and a Russian Hind, they find the President in a small port about to be executed by the Legionnaires. The squad manages to stop the execution and, with the President, take a boat to Sadiz, along the Caspian Sea.

The President gets his exile from his country on a small island near Sadiz while the squad goes after the gold. After fighting a large number of Middle Eastern Coalition soldiers and tanks, Bravo-One Charlie overhears that the US army is pushing onward toward the port of Sadiz, where the gold is located on the Legionnaire's tanker. The squad then destroys two bridges to prevent the Army from getting there first. When they reach the port, they find the stash of gold in a warehouse. While they were staring in awe at the piles of gold, the Legionnaire shows up and attacks the squad in his helicopter. They race towards the end of a pier where Sweetwater believes and anti-aircraft gun is located. However, just as Marlowe is about to man the VADS, the Legionnaire destroys it. Marlowe finds a M2 Carl Gustav helipad above and with a few well-placed shots, destroys the Ka-52. They return to the warehouse to find the US Army packing up all of the gold in the warehouse in to trucks. Just when the squad is about to leave in disappointment, a US Army Officer notices them and gives them orders to drive one of the trucks full of "scrap metal" with the convoy. They follow the convoy for a while until they turn off to a side road and speed away, each talking about how they will spend their share of gold. The last scene shows the Legionnaire getting out of his chopper's wreckage with a look of vengeance in his eyes.

Multiplayer
Battlefield: Bad Company has online multiplayer for up to 24 players on Xbox LIVE and Playstation Network. Destruction plays an integral role into online combat as every kit has at least one way that they can dismantle a building or other structure.

The player can choose from five different kits, each having their own weapons, gadgets, and purposes. The five kits are: the Assault Kit, which specializes in using assault rifles with attached 40mm grenade launchers and is a well-balanced class that suits most needs; the Demolition Kit, which specializes in using shotguns against infantry and a multitude of explosives for use against vehicles; the Recon Kit, which specializes in sniper rifles and spotting infantry with Motion Sensors; the Specialist Kit, which specializes in using silenced carbines and submachine guns to go behind the lines and sabotage the enemy base with DTN-4; and the Support Kit, which specializes in using light machine guns to provide suppressive fire as well as using Medkits and Repair Tools to keep soldiers and armor in good health.

When a player ranks up online, they are given an unlock point every other level that they may spend on one weapon or gadget in the main menu. The game supports 25 ranks and 15 unlock points in total, ten of which are weapons (two for each kit) and five of which are gadgets (one for each kit). There are also five weapons reserved for those who reach Rank 25 or have purchased the "Gold Edition" of the game as well as the Find All Fivepromotional weapons, both the former and latter having one weapon for each kit.

Find All Five
Find All Five was a promotional effort to allow players to unlock specific weapons for the game that were, at the time of the Final All Five event being released, unobtainable through playing the normal game. The five weapons were: the F2000 assault rifle, the USAS-12 fully automatic shotgun, the M60 machine gun, the QBU-88 sniper rifle, and the silenced UZI submachine gun.

The five unlock requirements, as said on the game's website, are: participating in the Battlefield Veteran program, granting an unlock for the F2000; checking one's stats online after completing a round in an online matchof the retail version, granting a code for the USAS-12; registering for the Battlefield Newsletter, granting a code for the M60; pre-ordering the game through participating stores, granting a code for the QBU-88; and achieving Rank 4 in the game's demo, granting a code for the Uzi.

On September 11, 2008, three of the five codes were released by DICE due to the lack of people having completed the necessary task for each unlock. The three codes released would unlock the QBU-88, the M60 and the UZI. The F2000 and USAS-12 still remained exclusive for a time, but the code to unlock the USAS-12 was released afterwards, with the F2000 still being reserved for Battlefield Veterans.

Beta and Demo
On June 5, the demo for Battlefield: Bad Company was released. Featuring the soon-to-be-popular Oasis, and a segment of the first mission in the campaign "Welcome to Bad Company". The demo allowed players to try out the singleplayer campaign and battle it out on Oasis with up to a total of 24 players.

The online portion of the demo only allowed players to reach Rank 4. Although Rank 5 was listed, requiring over a million points to achieve, it was not worth trying to get to for the duration of the demo. Players who reached Rank 4 by the end of the demo were awarded with the UZI for use in the retail version of the game. Those who were fortunate to pre-order Battlefield: Bad Company were granted early access to the demo on May 29. Nearly all of the bugs in the beta version have been fixed by the time of the demo's release. DICE, however, did not predict the large amount of players who tried the demo, causing the ranking system to shut down. DICE did all it could to start up more servers to compensate for the amount of users and resolved the problem over the course of a few days.

Gold Edition
A limited edition of the game, known as the Gold Edition to fit with the theme of the game, was released along side the standard retail version. It cost slightly more than the retail version and features a gold printed cardboard piece to slip on top of the game case for the PlayStation 3 version, or a gold tin case for the Xbox 360 version, as well as a unique Battlefield: Bad Company poster for both versions. The game itself featured some integrated strategy videos for the original Gold Rush maps, as well as a "Behind the Scenes" video, and it automatically unlocked the weapons players would normally unlock once reaching Rank 25.

Reception
Reviews for Battlefield: Bad Company were positive, with the deformable environments, large maps, high-quality audio, humorous characters in the single player mode, and diverse array of vehicles earning it praise from critics. Battlefield: Bad Company received an average of 83 on Metacritic for the Xbox 360 version and an 84 on the PlayStation 3 version.

GameSpot gave the game an 8.5 out of 10, saying that "Battlefield Bad Company is the most fun, addictive shooter released so far this year. While far from perfect, the intense sandbox warfare is something that you have to experience. Dice calls it tactical destruction. We call it explosive fun."

IGN gave the game an 8.6 out of 10, saying that "There are plenty of flaws that FPS gurus will be able to nitpick about, but Bad Company delivers a fun-filled single-player campaign with a multiplayer component that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the best in our industry."

Giant Bomb gave the game a perfect score of 5 out of 5 stars, saying that "Between its easy-to-enjoy multiplayer and the romp that is the single-player campaign, Battlefield: Bad Company is an easy game to like. It looks great, has fun characters, a load of interesting weaponry, and works nicely whether you're playing alone or with a squad. The campaign lasts long enough to feel fulfilling, and the multiplayer kept me coming back once that was complete."

Sequel
The sequel to Battlefield: Bad Company, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, was released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on March 2, 2010 in North America, March 4, 2010 in Australia, March 5, 2010 in Europe, and March 11, 2010 in Japan. Taking a much more serious tone than the first, the sequel follows the squad as they attempt to stop the Russian Army from recreating a secret Axis super-weapon developed during World War II to deploy against the United States in an ongoing war for global domination.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack for Battlefield Bad Company was released on March 11, 2008 and contained 10 tracks all composed by Mikael Karlsson, in addition to the main menu theme The Beast by Milt Buckner.
 * 1) Battlefield Theme (Orchestral Version)
 * 2) Battlefield Theme (Chamber Version)
 * 3) Prelude To A Lost Cause (Orchestral Version)
 * 4) Prelude To A Lost Cause (Chamber Version)
 * 5) War Theme (Orchestral Version)
 * 6) War Theme (Chamber Version)
 * 7) Legionnaires Theme (Orchestral Version)
 * 8) Legionnaires Theme (Piano Version)
 * 9) Legionnaires Theme (Chamber Version)
 * 10) Legionnaires Theme (Cello Solo Version)
 * 11) The Beast (Menu)

Unique Facts

 * During the gameplay it can be noted that the NPC's including the enemy soldiers and the ally US soldiers share the same facial structure and expression like the four characters in the game. One such example would be during the events of the first stage in which we could observe the US soldiers on the road.
 * Also another Unique Fact would be during the time one enters the vehicle. If the other three players are far away from the vehicle then they appear to teleport to the vehicle like shadows.
 * One more is that the main menu background and music changes depending on what level of the singleplayer campaign the player is currently in. For example, if you left off in Air Force One, you would see the warehouses, enemy barracks and the fuel station with "Prelude to a Lost Cause (Orchestral Version)" playing unlike if you left off in Welcome to Bad Company, which shows the farms, farmland and artillery firing with "The Beast" playing.
 * Bad Company's storyline is based off the 1999 satirical war dramedy Three Kings.
 * In multiplayer, players can take screenshots by pressing the Select/Back button on their controller. Originally, players could then access them from the Battlefield: Bad Company website, but now the website has been replaced by one that only shows developer-made screenshots and videos for the game.