XM8

For other uses of "XM8", see XM8. The XM8 Prototype is an experimental assault rifle produced by German arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch for the United States but was canceled in 2007. It is made entirely from polymers, which allows the weapon to be light as well as durable. It has a rate of fire of 750 rounds per minute, and fires the 5.56x45mm round, which makes the XM8 very effective at medium to long ranges. While not designed with Picatinny rails, the XM8 can fit an XM320 grenade launcher to the underside of the handguard, as well as being able to fit optics to the top of the carrying handle using a special adapter.

Battlefield: Bad Company
In Battlefield: Bad Company's singleplayer, it's the most commonly used assault rifle by the Legionnaire Mercenaries. It is first encountered as a collectible in Welcome to Bad Company, where the rest of the squad suggests Marlowe looks inside a small house. After that, it can be picked up from dead Mercenaries or in weapon collectible crates.

In multiplayer, the XM8 is issued to the Assault kit as an unlockable. It is fully automatic and its stats are seemingly average except for above average accuracy, making the XM8 very balanced. The XM8, like many other Assault Rifles, has open sights. 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 single player, 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. The XM8 is always equipped with a scope(the version Marlowe uses), but the unscoped version can be found by a fallen Marine laying next to the fence by the ambush point in the level High Value Target. To find it, the player must go to the right backwards. There is also a fallen Marine by the humvee, but the player cannot pick up the weapon from him. Follow the fence and the player should see a dead marine too and his weapon laying beside him. if the pick up text pops up, then you have found it.

In multiplayer, the XM8 Prototype requires 3000 points to be unlocked for the Assault kit. The XM8 is fully automatic and has 30 rounds in a magazine. The gun is well balanced, having medium accuracy, above average damage and a steady rate of fire. It has the XM320 grenade launcher attached and a red dot sight or 4x scope can be attached to the weapon. With the 4x scope the XM8 can prove very effective at medium to long range.

Its notable stats are its recoil, which is the among highest and most acute of the assault rifles, and its reload animation time, which is the fastest of the assault rifles, however others can reload faster by reload cancelling.

It is very effective at all ranges and remains competitive with SMGs at close range. However, to maintain accuracy, burst firing the weapon manually is recommended, because there is a considerate recoil when firing fully automatic at range. 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 Marlowe's, Sarge's and Haggard's primary rifle in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, whilst, in Battlefield: Bad Company, it is the M416 for Marlowe and Sarge and the 870MCS for Haggard.
 * In Battlefield: Bad Company, the XM8 in 3rd person view is completely gray, however, in first person view, it has a two-tone grey and black paintjob.
 * In Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Haggard's XM8 features a red dot sight, but it can't be found anywhere else in the singleplayer campaign.

Videos
thumb|300px|right|A gameplay and review video for the XM8 Prototype in Bad Company 2 thumb|300px|left|Gameplay with the XM8 Prototype in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 at [[Valparaiso in Rush mode]]