Battlefield: Bad Company

Battlefield: Bad Company is the latest game in the Battlefield series developed by DICE. It was released June 23rd, 2008 in the United States and 28th June in Europe. The game is anticipated largely because it adds realistic destruction to the game. It uses the new Frostbite Engine developed by DICE.

Frostbite Engine
Battlefield: Bad Company uses the newly developed Frostbite Engine by DICE It is built specifically for Xbox 360 and PS3, also multi core PC's.

Some Notable Engine Features:


 * Long view distance
 * Ground Destruction
 * Very high detail when looked at up close
 * Easy building destruction

Singleplayer
Battlefield: Bad Company is unique to the series because it contains a singleplayer campaign. The singleplayer campaign has 4 main characters, Redford is the leader in the squad, he is the most responsible of the four he is three days from retirement and then plans on fishing marlin. Redford is unique to the group in that he volunteered for the group, despite its dangers. He carries the common M416 that has been used only recently by forces in Iraq.
 * Sergeant Redford


 * Haggard

George Haggard's character has a Southern US accent and is Bad-Company's demolitions and explosives expert, he carries a 870MCS shotgun and a missile launcher. He's in B-Company for blowing up an ammo dump.


 * Preston Marlowe

This is the character you control in the game. He is just transfered to B-Company for reckless flying of a helicopter. The quietest of the group, Marlowe shows his voice through force. Marlowe tends to surpriss Haggard and Sweetwater by staying alive for so long. Marlowe, like Sarge uses the M416 and many other weapons of the players choice.


 * Sweetwater

Sweetwater is the mastermind of the squad. He's the most inteligent out of the four and is often mocked by Haggard as a nerd. He carries a M249 SAW. His antics as a hacker got him thrown into Bad Company, when really, he was saving up for college.

Battlefield: Bad Company's singleplayer is set in the near future, it depicts the United States fo America facing the Federation of Russia over a number of countries. Including Russias bordering nations, such as the fictional Sederistan.

Multiplayer
Battlefield: Bad Company has an online multiplayer for up to 24 players on Xbox Live and Playstation Network. The player can to choose from kits, or classes which will each have their own weapons, tools and purpose. For example the anti-tank kit, will have a rocket launcher with which you could destroy heavily armored vehicles, or obviously, tanks. New to the series however is the destruction. 90% of the environment ingame is destructible. You could destroy walls, vehicles, crops, foilage and even whole buildings. This could become very useful to a player. For example, if you choose the sniper kit, you could blow up a large piece of the second floor wall, then use that to camp and snipe.

This directly effects the battlefield online, making for tense and tactical negotiations between teams, this in order to make a successful assault/defense.

Weapons
Battlefield: Bad Company features 5 classes each with different weapons and 4 unlockable guns and 1 special piece of equipment. The classes are Assault (assault rifle and grenade launcher), demolition (shotgun and rocket launcher), recon (sniper rifle and pistol), specialist (sub-machine gun and dart gun that allows all allied demolition classes to fire a homing rocket on the targeted vehicle), and support (heavy machine gun and med kit which he can use to heal himself and his allies).

Here's how the classes perform in combat:

Assault Class

Assault Rifles

The general purpose weapon of the Assault class:

• Effective at all ranges but dominant in none. • Firing in bursts will maintain accuracy, and use the sights to zero in for a headshot. • The underslung grenade launcher that's fitted as standard on all Assault rifles adds destructive capability, and helps keep enemy heads down. • Rates of fire and damage will differ with each model; find the one that suits your style best.

'Demolition Class ' Shotguns

Unmatched in point-blank efficiency, the shotgun deals massive damage at extreme short range, as fitting the Demolition class.

• Designed for quick reaction shots, zooming will yield only minor benefit, but the cloud of pellets more than compensates for any lack of accuracy. • Don't try to go toe-to-toe with snipers – the effectiveness of the shotgun declines rapidly at range. • Choose between pump action or semi-auto versions.

Recon Class

Sniper Rifles

A superior long range weapon, the Recon class sniper rifle is unmatched at range.

• Demanding patience and a steady hand, zero in for the one-shot kill. • Bear in mind that at extended ranges you may need to lead your target to score a hit. • There are 2 main classes of sniper rifle, bolt action and semi-auto – one packs more punch, while the other will allow you more rapid fire. • And try not to get caught in close quarters – firing from the hip doesn't suit this gun.

Specialist Class

Sub-machine Guns

The Specialist class silenced sub-machine gun has the highest rate of fire of any weapon.

• Specializing in close quarter combat, the SMG nevertheless retains some effectiveness at range. • Fire in short bursts over distance but let rip up close – watch your ammo levels though, you’ll eat through magazines in no time • Rates of fire and damage differ for each version.

'Support Class ' Light Machineguns

The Light machinegun is the support class weapon of choice, specialising in laying down large amounts of concentrated fire.

• If you need to pin down an enemy at mid-range, this is the gun for you. • With all the shaking from firing the weapon, it's not the most accurate, but sheer volume of bullets will counter that. • Watch out for low ammo levels – the gun is heavy, so reloading is time-consuming, make sure to pick your moment. • As with the other automatics, rate of fire and damage will vary for each.

The unlockable equipment for the classes are, assault (self-healing device like the one in campaign), demolition (anti-vehicle mines, one mine can destroy a fully repaired tank), recon (laser designator with self guiding bomb drop), specialist (c4 that you can detonate at any time, two c4's can destroy a fully armored tank), and support (an artillery bomb drop that is useful against vehicles and infantry).

Vehicles
Battlefield series has always featured a wide array of vehicles ranging from Land, Sea and Air. Battlefield carries on with that tradition. It will contain helicopters, trucks, tanks and jeeps. However, jets, which have appeared in Battlefield 2, are confirmed to be excluded from Bad Company.

One vehicular add on for the single player, is the mission exclusive gold plated helicopter, it is confirmed to include a disco ball.

There are 6 groups of vehicles in Bad Company,

1. Light transport - The only type of light transport is the buggy, It is the same for each army, it's the fastest but least armoured vehicle. It is armed with a grenade launcher, machine gun a place for a fourth soldier at the back. The variation is a russian van like vehicle, the same as the same as a Battlefield 2 MEC armoured car.

2. Armoured Transport/Car - This is a Hummvee with a heavy machine gun a 2 extra places, There is a variation for the single player mode but it isn't included online.

3. Light Tank - Russian and US variations of a light tak exist within the game, with multiple firing grenade launchers which can flatten enemy infantry and small buildings with ease.

4. Tanks - The US version and Russian version are similar, yet obvious interior and design exteriors are altered. They are the most powerful vehicles in the game due to their heavy guarding, and large cannons.

5. Helicopters - Helicopters dominate the sky online and off, in order to immerse the player in dog fighting with others.

6. Golf Carts - Not strictly a vehicle type, yet a fun addition that adds to the humour of Battlefield: Bad Company.

Find All Five
Find All Five is a way for players to unlock specific weapons. The game's official website includes promotional events that give the player codes for free downloadable weapons. These "Find All Five" weapons include the F2000 Belgian assault rifle, USAS-12 automatic shotgun, M60 general purpose machine gun, QBU-88 sniper rifle and silenced Uzi sub-machine gun. The five events from EA's website instruct the users to participate in the Battlefield Veteran's program, check the player's stats online after playing the game, register for the BF newsletter, pre-order the game through participating stores, and get to rank 4 in the demo.

On the 11 September, 2008, Battlefield: Bad Company's website revealed that 3 of the Find All Five codes would be released due to lack of availability. These 3 guns were the QBU-88 Sniper Rifle, M60 Light Machine Gun and the Silenced Mini Uzi Sub-Machine Gun. The F2000 Assault Rifle and USAS12 Semi-Automatic Shotgun are still remaining exclusive.

Beta, Demo And Release Date
Recently, there was a populated beta of Bad Company on the Xbox360 and Playstation 3. Seeing footage and screenshots from the beta the game is looking nice and refined although bugs are being reported constantly most of them shall be fixed in the retail version.

On the 5th of June, the Demo was released, containing the map oasis and only allowing 4 level increases, However players are rewarded if they reach level 4, with a Uzi silenced sub-machine gun for use in the full game. If anybody was lucky enough to pre-order BF:BC they had access to it on the 29th of May. Nearly all of the bugs in the beta version have been fixed. Dice did not predict the large amount of demo users causing the ranking system of the demo to shut down, DICE is doing all it can to start up more servers to compensate for the amount of users.

Battlefield Bad Company had been released worldwide by Friday 27th June, 2008.

Links and Sources

 * 
 * Planet Battlefield
 * Frostbite Engine Video
 * Destruction Demonstration Video