Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (also known as Bad Company 2 or BF:BC2) is a video game released by DICE on March 2nd, 2010 in North America and on March 4th and 5th in Europe and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. The game is a direct sequel to Battlefield: Bad Company and is the 8th game in the Battlefield series. The game was announced at one of Electronic Art's earnings conferences, and was showcased at E3 2009.

Overview
In this installment, Bad Company once again find themselves in the heart of the action, where they must use every weapon and vehicle at their disposal to survive.

Gameplay
thumb|left|300px

thumb|left|300px|Battlefield: Bad Company 2 First Look

Gameplay in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 resembles that of Battlefield: Bad Company but seems to have more of the style of classic Battlefield games. The story seems to take place mostly in South America. The game allows players to play through missions using any tactics they choose. Like its predecessor, Bad Company 2 features destructible environments. However, more destruction is now possible; players can now completely destroy a building rather than just its walls. Also, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Battlefield Vietnam are the only two games in the series to have blood in them without a third-party modification. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is the only Battlefield game to be rated Mature 17+ by the ESRB.

Singleplayer
The Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Singleplayer was revealed on Thursday, January 21st 2010, at 12:30 on Spike TV,&nbsp showing 10 minutes of never before seen footage of the single player campaign. The singleplayer trailer shows the return of the original gang of Battlefield: Bad Company. B-Company is now chasing what appears to be a super weapon that might cause a new world war created by the Russian Federation, and is again sent in before other army units. Evidently however, the role of B-company has seem to have been elevated from their previous role as cannon fodder and a group of troublemakers, instead seeming to appear more as a a small unit of special forces. The game seems to have a more serious mood than the first Bad Company.

Campaign
The game starts off with a mission during the Pacific Theatre of World War II. You play as a U.S Marine during Operation Aurora. Eventually at the end of the mission, the player will see and hear a large explosion before a massive tidal wave kills the character and his squadmates, as well as their escort, a Japanese scientist that had crucial information about a Japanese WMD. The game returns to modern time. It follows the Bad Company gang as they try to recover a Russian weapon. After getting it, they fight their way to the Extraction Point. They then meet with a General who informs them that it was a fake. He then says that they are now part of the Special Activities Division (SAD), which he leads. This disappoints Redford, who says that his vacation is postponed. The General then sends them to Bolivia to rescue an Agent Aquire. Bad Company finds heavy Russian forces along with Bolivian militia, but are able to find Aquire before he is transported out by the Russians.

Multiplayer

 * See main article, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Multiplayer 

thumb|300px|right|Official Multiplayer trailer

Multiplayer will allow players to choose from four weapon kits before the start of each match. These kits include Assault, Engineer, Recon, and Medic. Each match will give players experience, and kit related experience points, allowing players to specialize their kits. Experience points will be gained by each opponent killed and when an opponent is killed, the points gained will be displayed on screen. A dog tag system has been included in the game. If a player is killed with a melee attack you collect their tag and that information is stored in your profile and additional experience is given. There are four different gametypes:

Conquest: Players must capture and hold flags for as long as the enemy respawn tickets hold out. Every kill makes the enemy lose one ticket, and enemy tickets constantly decrease when a team controls more than half of the flags on the map. Vehicles unlock as control points are held.

Rush: Players must defend or destroy pairs of M-COM stations for as long as the attacking teams respawn tickets hold out. An M-COM station can be destroyed by planting a charge, using conventional weapons, grenades or when a building is collapsed down on it.

Squad Rush: Rush mode played with only two opposing squads and one M-COM station.

Squad Deathmatch: Four squads and one Infantry Fighting Vehicle roam the map. First squad to fifty kills wins the match.

Each gametype has specific maps only available for that gametype. Unlike competitors such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, who use the peer-to-peer style hosting systems, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 features dedicated servers support.

Major Changes from Battlefield: Bad Company

 * Increased weapon damage
 * Destruction "2.0" allows players to "chip away pieces from cover and take down entire buildings."
 * Different weapon attachments like sights and under-barrel shotguns.
 * "Specializations" in multiplayer add abilities to classes.
 * Enemies can be tagged and called out via the back/select button while aiming at them.
 * Addition of Squad Rush and Squad Deathmatch gametypes.
 * The "Specialist" and "Demolitions" kits have been removed, with their weapons and gear being spread out among the Recon, Assault, Engineer and Medic classes.
 * There is a new "Hardcore" mode for any gametype that removes all HUD elements, disables the killer camera, and reduces player health by half.
 * Now available on PC

United States of America
Light Vehicles
 * HMMWV 4WD

Tanks
 * M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank
 * M3A3 Bradley

Helicopters
 * AH-64 Apache
 * UH-60 Black Hawk
 * UAV-1

Watercraft
 * Personal Watercraft
 * Patrol Boat

Russian Federation
Light Vehicles
 * Vodnik 4WD
 * Cobra 4WD
 * Quad Bike

Tanks
 * T-90
 * BMD-3 Bakhcha
 * BMD-3 AA (ZU-23-2 Anti Aircraft Gun equipped)

Helicopters
 * MI-28 Havoc
 * MI-24 Hind

Weapons and Gadgets
Weapons can now be modified with attachments. Attachments include the ACOG and various other scopes and a red dot reflex sight. All assault rifles in-game automatically come with grenade launchers, all submachine guns have a silencer equipped for aesthetic purposes, and all sniper rifles have telescopic scopes.

Assault Rifles/Carbines (Assault Kit)

 * AEK-971 Vintovka
 * XM8 Prototype
 * F2000
 * STG 77 AUG
 * AN-94 Abakan
 * M416
 * M16A2

Submachine Guns/Carbines (Engineer Kit)

 * 9A-91 Avtomat
 * SCAR-L Carbine
 * XM8 Compact
 * AKS-74u 'Krinkov' Carbine
 * UZI
 * PP2000 Avtomat
 * UMP.45

Light Machine Guns (Medic Kit)

 * PKM
 * M249 SAW
 * Type 88 LMG
 * M60 Machine Gun
 * XM8 LMG
 * M36 LMG
 * MG3 Machine Gun

Sniper Rifles (Recon Kit)

 * M24
 * SV98 Snaiperskaya
 * GOL Sniper Magnum
 * M95
 * QBU-88
 * SVU Snaiperskaya Short
 * VSS Snaiperskaya Special

Shotguns

 * 870 Combat
 * Saiga 20K
 * SPAS-12
 * T194 Shotgun
 * USAS-12
 * Neostead 2000

Pistols/Revolvers

 * M9 pistol
 * M1911 (included in the Limited Edition)
 * MP412 REX
 * M93R
 * MP-443 Grach

Miscellaneous Battle Rifles/Sub-Machine Guns

 * M14 MOD 0 Enhanced
 * G3 Battle Rifle
 * WWII M1 Garand (Unlocked if you're a Battlefield Veteran. http://veteran.battlefield.com. Requires a Veteran Rank of 1, however two games are needed to be registered. Note that Battlefield Heroes does count and Battlefield: 1943 is not currently active in the system.)
 * WWII M1A1 'Thompson' Sub-Machine Gun (included in the Limited Edition)
 * Type 100 Sub-Machine Gun (Singleplayer only)
 * Type 5 Semi-Automatic Rifle (Singleplayer only)

Launchers

 * RPG-7 AT Rocket Launcher
 * M2 Carl Gustav Anti-Armor Recoilless Rifle
 * AT-4 Anti-Armor Rocket Launcher

Explosives

 * C4 Explosive
 * ATM-00 Anti-Tank Mine
 * M67 Fragmentation Grenade

Gadgets

 * 40mm Grenade
 * 40mm Smoke Launcher
 * 40mm Shotgun
 * Mortar Strike
 * Defibrillator
 * Combat Knife
 * Medic Kit (Dropped by Medic class. Heals teammates when in range)
 * Ammunition Box (Dropped as Assault Class. Resupplies ammo for teammates when in range.)
 * Motion Sensor
 * Repair Tool
 * Tracer Dart Gun (Fires a dart which acts as a Beacon for RPG-7AT and M2 Carl Gustav to lock on to and home in on the target)

Stationary Guns/Launchers

 * XM312 (static)
 * KORD (static)
 * M134 Dillion Minigun (Uniquely mounted on UH-60 Blackhawks)
 * BGM-71 TOW
 * 9M133 Kornet

Beta/Demo
The PC Beta ran from January 28, 2010, to Febuary 25, 2010. The demo was scheduled to be released for consoles at the first of February 2010. As of 12:40 AM January 31st, the multiplayer demo was confirmed for the Xbox 360. In order to have played the PC Beta, you must have had pre-ordered the game from certain retailers, or you could have registered for a beta key at the Battlefield Bad Company 2 site, which will give you a code to access the multiplayer. Without this code, the beta was useless. The Battlefield Bad Company 2 demo features the map "Port Valdez", a snowy map set in Alaska. The game mode included was the new "Rush" mode, which is essentialy "Gold Rush" from Battlefield: Bad Company simply renamed.

There are four classes to play as, Assault, Engineer, Medic, and Recon. Each class starts with one main weapon, a pistol, and the class' respective gadget. As the player gains more point with a certain class, a second weapon for that class becomes avalible. Also availible for unlock is the Tracer Gun, the G3 combat rifle, the Mk 14 EBR, M1A1 Thompson, M1 Garand (only for BF veterans), several shotguns, and the "Vehicle specialty".

Your stats, pins, and experience earned from the beta are NOT be transfered to the full game.

Multiplayer Footage
Many videos of BF:BC 2 have been released by DICE and players playing the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC multiplayer beta.


 * The Gold Rush (objective offense/defense) mode has been renamed "Rush" and it's about destroy/protect M-COM stations wich are set inside buildings like Bad Company.
 * New maps: Arica Harbour, Panama Canal, Laguna Presa, and Port Valdez.
 * The Medic class can revive teammates with a defibrillator within 5 seconds of them dying.
 * The hypo needle from the first Bad Company has been removed (along wth the numerical health system) in favor of a regenerative health system similar to Call of Duty series altought it won't be a fast process. Health packs will still be available and useful for healing teammates more quickly than regenerative health will allow.
 * 4 person squads with your squad mates names viewable in the lower HUD.
 * No user controllable jets.
 * More spread-out achievements (in the achievements contest the winner achievement is called "The dentist" to achieve this you have to get a headshot with the repair tool).
 * Players can customize their loadouts before spawning.
 * More gadgets.
 * Projectiles are now influenced by gravity (meaning that if one snipes at a great distance, he or she would have to aim slightly above their target)
 * 6-8 crates per map.
 * More game modes coming in addition to Rush and Conquest - 4 game modes confirmed at launch, new game mode called squad deathmatch and a Squad Rush feature similar to rush and squad deathmatch, but now has 2 objectives with a 1 on 1 squad war.
 * New vehicles, such as ATVs, two-man patrol boats, and UAV helicopters controlled via computer console.
 * Blood has been added to the game.
 * Destruction 2.0 allows you to chip away at cover and completely destroy buildings (destroying buildings is another tactic to destroy the M-COM stations).
 * Spotting enemies works a little differently. To spot you press the "Back button" (on Xbox 360), "Q" (on PC) Or press the "Select" button (on Play Station 3) and the enemy will show up on your squad and team in the screen and in mini map as a red arrow (for infantry), a small tank picture (for tanks and heavy vehicles), as a 4 wheel vehicle (for quads and troop transport vehicles) or as a helicopter picture for helicopters.
 * Ammo crates have been removed. Assault Class players now can drop ammo kits like in BF:2 or BF:2142.
 * 4 kits - Assault, Recon, Medic, and Engineer.
 * Vehicles are customizable from your loadout.
 * Several guns now fire in a 3-round burst.

Dr. Pepper Promotion
Soft drink company Dr. Pepper is currently holding a promotion that runs until March 31, 2010 (it will return later in 2010), in which every specially marked 20 oz., 16 oz. and 14 oz. bottles or 32 oz. fountain cups of Dr Pepper®, Dr Pepper Cherry, Diet Dr Pepper and Diet Dr Pepper Cherry will have a code under the cap good for one redeemable piece of DLC on Dr. Pepper's website. As of March 20, 2010, it is currently unknown what will be available, and the DLC is not avalible to be redeemed. There will be special camos and kit upgrades, with some containing a special achievement/trophy.

Soundtrack


The soundtrack for Battlefield Bad Company 2 was released on February 2 2010 and contained 11 tracks all composed by Mikael Karlsson. However, none of them ressemble the classic Battlefield Series theme.

1. The Storm (Main Theme) (4:30)

2. The Secret Revealed (4:01)

3. Cold War (0:49)

4. Snowy Mountains (3:03)

5. The Ancient Weapon (3:50)

6. Operation Aurora (1:14)

7. Snowblind (0:43)

8. The Storm (Edit) (1:01)

9. The Secret Revealed (Edit) (1:01)

10. Snowy Mountains (Edit) (1:00)

11. The Ancient Weapon (Edit) (0:58)

Critical Reception
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 received generally high reviews from critics. Many praised the engaging singleplayer, memorable characters, destructable enviroments, and the amazing multiplayer. The Playstation 3 and PC version of the game recieved a metascore of 90, while the Xbox 360 version recieved a slightly lower score of 88.

Trivia

 * Throughout the game, many references are made to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, mainly to third mission, Cliffhanger.
 * The final mission of the single player campaign is based off of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's epilogue mission, 'Mile High Club'.