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. A sequel has been announced and will release Winter 2009.

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
 * Very realistic enviromental destruction
 * Very high detail when looked at up close
 * Easy building destruction

Single Player
Battlefield: Bad Company is unique to the series because it contains a single player campaign. The single player campaign has 7 main characters:


 * Sergeant Redford



Redford is the leader in the squad and 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.

George Gordon 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 the biggest ammo dump east of Paris, and blowing his CO's latrine sky high with a couple of claymore high explosive devices.
 * Haggard


 * Preston Marlowe

This is the character you control in the game. He is just transferred to B-Company for reckless flying of a helicopter. The quietest of the group, Marlow shows his voice through force. Marlow tends to surprise Haggard and Sweetwater by staying alive for so long.


 * Sweetwater

Sweetwater is the mastermind of the squad. He's the most intelligent out of the four and is often mocked by Haggard as a nerd; Sergeant Redford also criticizes him for talking too much. He carries a M249 SAW. He was thrown in B-Company for uploading a virus onto the US army's mainframe. Before the incident, he was saving up money to go to college.


 * Mike-1-Juliet

Mike-1-Juliet is the dispatch girl and will be aiding you through your earpiece, telling you what to do and also giving you valuable information. Her real name might be Michelle July, but we know for certain that in the first mission Sweetwater says her last name is Juliet.


 * President Serdar

Dictator of the small fictional country of Serdaristan, he was pretending to be neutral in the Russia-US conflict but has secretly been dealing with both sides. He hired the services of the Legionnaire but was unable to pay his fees, and was confined to his presidential palace until exfiltrated by B-squad. He is a quricky man as far as dictators go, owning a pimped-out Hind and a massive golf course.


 * The Legionnaire

The antagonist of the game. Little is seen of, heard of, or known about him, except that he is the leader of a deadly mercenary army that was hired by Russia, the MEC, and Serdaristan. He is ruthless in acquiring payment for his services, which must be paid in gold bricks.

Battlefield: Bad Company's single player is set in the near future; it depicts the United States of America facing the Federation of Russia and its fictional bordering country of Sedaristan.

Multiplayer
Battlefield: Bad Company has an online multiplayer for up to 24 players on Xbox Live and Playstation Network. The player can choose from kits or classes which will each have their own weapons, tools and purposes. For example, the anti-tank kit has a rocket launcher with which you can destroy heavily armoured vehicles or, obviously, tanks. New to the series, however, is the destruction. 90% of the environment ingame is destructible. You can destroy walls, vehicles, crops, foliage 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 affects the battlefield online, making cooperation between teams a necessity in any offensive/defensive operations. thumb|300px|right

Plot
Welcome to Bad Company: The game starts as Preston and the rest of Bad Company are brought from a helicopter to the front lines. An artillery barrage wipes out the convoy, along with B-company's truck. This is where the player learns to look, jump, crouch, shoot, fire grenades, and repair vehicles. B-company is sent to wipe out an artillery spot used by the Russians and use them to shell the incoming vehicles. As you see your helicopter shot down by anti-aircraft fire, B-company is sent to destroy the emplacement and raid Russian-occupied farms. As you head deeper into Russian territory, you encounter mercenaries and while an incoming airstrike kills them all, Haggard finds a gold bar in the suit of a Legionnaire.

Acta Non Verba: You move through more Russian territory when you find a house with the Legionnaires' motto, Acta Non Verba (Latin for "Actions Not Words"). Haggard sends you inside to check out the house. Inside you find a case of gold, which is where you would get the Trophy or Achievement 'I Love Gold'. You destroy fuel and missile storage facilities and meet up with a group of tanks as you escort them to a Russian-held town. You destroy the radio equipment and are sent to the harbour. You fight your way to the trucks and watch them drive away. As they go, a bar of gold drops out of the back and B-company is determined to follow them and retrieve the gold.

Crossing Over: Soon after you arrive in Sedaristan and as you look for the gold, Haggard runs into the border, starting a War with a neutral country. Sarge Tells Mike-1-Juliet that it was his idea to wipe out a potential threat. His tour of duty is brought back to 12 months and tells Bad Company they're going AWOL. Your first objective is to destroy 3 transmission towers to cover your tracks. You get intel saying the gold is in the harbour. After you arrive, you are about to enter the Legionnaire's cargo ship when the U.S. army comes and captures you.

Par for the Course: The army sends you on a mission to go through Sedaristan and capture the President. You make your way through the golf course and when you reach the presidential mansion, the grounds are crawling with mercenaries. You fight your way in to get the President but when Sergeant Redford calls for an evac chopper, Mike-1-Juliet tells them that the army ditched you there so you wouldn't cause any more trouble. The President then tells you he has a Russian Hind copter and you use that to escape from Sedaristan.

Air Force One: You take the President's Russian attack copter as you attempt to destroy Sedaristan's internet equipment, fuel silos, boats and supply lines. Your helicopter soon runs out of fuel and you arrive at a refueling station. You battle your way to one of the 3 trucks and bring it to the chopper. Haggard accidently pours the fuel into the cooling unit and Sweetwater tries to fix it. You hold off Sedaristan's Army and as tanks roll in, Sweetwater fixes the Chopper and you escape. The President than asks you to bring him to Russia for his exile and as he informs you about where the gold is, the Legionnaire shoots down your helicopter and takes the President and Bad Company prisoner, leaving you because they thought you were dead.

Crash and Grab: You wake up after the crash only to find your squadmates missing. Contact with Mike-1-Juliet has been made again and she directs you to several areas where she thinks the squad is located. In one of the areas, there is a video screen of the Legionnaire interrogating the President and later shooting the camera after finding out it is recording. You battle your way through a bunch of Russians to get to the monastery, where you find your squad. You later go back the way you went to get the President. After fighting tanks, APCs and a Russian Hind copter, you 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, takes a boat to Sadiz.

Ghost Town: The President gets his exile from his country on a small island near Sadiz while the squad goes after the gold. After fighting a bunch of MECs and slowing down the U.S. advance toward that area by destroying two bridges, the squad manages to find the gold, but is soon attacked by the Legionnaire in his chopper. You manage to destroy it with a couple of missiles, but when you and your squad get back to the gold, you see the U.S. Army loading it into their trucks. Just when the squad is about to leave in disappointment, a soldier goes to them and gives them orders to drive a truck full of scrap metal(which was the truck of gold) with the convoy. They follow the convoy for a while until they turn into a different road. The last scene shows the Legionnaire getting out of his chopper's wreckage.

Weapons
Battlefield: Bad Company features 5 classes each with 3 default weapons depending on the faction, 4 unlockable guns and 1 unlockable 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 a tracer 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 can be used to heal yourself and your allies). All classes also has a knife for CQC, being able to kill with one swipe if in range.

Here's how the classes perform in combat:

Assault Class

 * Assault Rifle: 50 rounds + 150 spare
 * -M416 (US starting assault rifle) Default
 * -AEK971 (RU starting assault rifle) Default
 * -AUG (MEC starting assault rifle) Default
 * -M16A2 (Highest damage out of all assault rifles at the cost of slowest rate of fire) Unlock points
 * -XM8 (A well balanced assault rifle with high accuracy and clean iron sights) Unlock points
 * -AN94 (Slight increase in both accuracy and rate of fire at the cost of decrease in damage) Unlocked Rank 25
 * -F2000 (Highest rate of fire at the cost of lowest damage) Unlocked Battlefield Veteran


 * Grenade Launcher: 8 shots
 * -M203
 * -XM320
 * -GP30


 * Fragmentation Grenades: 5
 * Auto Injector (Unlock): Infinite

Carries an assault rifle of their choice with an Underslung Grenade Launcher. Also carries fragmentation grenades (frags) and can spend 1 unlock point to unlock the Auto Injector.

Demolition Class

 * Shotgun
 * -870MCS (US starting shotgun)
 * -S20K (RU starting shotgun)
 * -T194 (MEC starting shotgun)
 * -SPAS12 (Short barrel resulting in a more spread of pellets)
 * -NS2000 (An unusual double barrel shotgun which has the highest accuacy of all pump-action shotguns)
 * -SPAS15 (Fastest semi-auto shotgun)
 * -USAS12 (The only semi-auto shotgun that can be fired in Semi/Full automatic modes this is done by holding down the fire button, highest damage out of all semi-auto shotguns)


 * Rocket Launcher (Each faction US,RU and MEC have their own rocket launchers, they all function indentical for game balancing purposes)
 * -M136 (US)
 * -RPG7 (RU)
 * -M2CG (MEC)


 * Fragmentation Grenade
 * Anti-Tank Mine (Unlock)

Carries a Shotgun of their choice and a Rocket Launcher. They also carry frag grenades and can spend 1 unlock point to purchase the Anti-Tank mine.

Recon Class

 * Sniper Rifle
 * -M24 (US starting sniper rifle)
 * -SV98 (RU starting sniper rifle)
 * -GOL (MEC starting sniper rifle)
 * -SVU (Attached silencer)
 * -M95 (Uses anti-material rounds and highest damage out of all bolt-action snipers)
 * -VSS (Built-in silencer, can be fired semi or full auto modes, has fastest rate of fire out of all semi-auto snipers and uses special 'sub-sonic' rounds which travel below the speed of sound and ammo is anti-material much like it's reality counter part)
 * -QBU88 (Has highest accuracy and damage out of all semi-auto snipers at the cost of lowest rate of fire)


 * Pistol (Each faction US, RU and MEC have their own sidearms)
 * - 92FS pistol (US)
 * - MP443 pistol (RU)
 * - MP412 revolver (MEC)


 * Motion Sensor
 * Laser Designator (Unlock)

Carries a Sniper Rifle of their choice and a pistol. They also carry motion sensors and can spend 1 point to unlock the Laser Designator. The stronger the sniper, the better the pistol.

Specialist Class

 * Compact Assault Rifle
 * -SCAR-L (US starting compact assault rifle)
 * -AKS74u (RU starting compact assault rifle)
 * -9A91 (MEC starting compact assault rifle)
 * -UMP (Highest damage out of all compact assault rifles at the cost of lowest rate of fire)
 * -PP2000 (Highest rate of fire out of all compact assault rifles at the cost of lowest damage and accuracy)
 * -XM8C (A good well balanced compact assault rifle)
 * -UZI ( Has slight decrease in accuracy and increase in hip-firing)


 * C4 Remote Explosive (Unlock) (NOTE: Placing a 6th piece of C4 cancels the 1st C4 you placed)
 * Fragmentation Grenades
 * Tracer Gun (Can track vehicles, fixed turrents and even infantry!)

Carries a Compact Assault Rifle of their choice and can spend 1 unlock point to acquire the C4 Remote Explosives. They also carry frag grenades and a tracer gun.

Support Class

 * Light Machine Gun
 * -M249 (US starting light machine gun)
 * -PKM (RU starting light machine gun)
 * -QJU88 (MEC starting light machine gun)
 * -XM8 LMG ( Good well balanced light machine gun, offers better hip-firing and slight decrease in recoil, best fired in controlled bursts)
 * -MG36 (The ONLY light machine gun to have an intergrated Red Dot Sight has highest accuracy because of this and slight increase in rate of fire, however at the cost decrease in damage)
 * -MG3 (Has highest rate of fire out of all light machine guns at the cost of lowest accuracy best fired in controlled bursts.
 * -M60 (Has highest damage at the cost of lowest rate of fire)


 * Medical first aid Kits
 * Mortar Strike Designator (Unlock)
 * Power tool

Carries a Light Machine Gun of their choice and medkits. They can also spend 1 unlock point to purchase the Mortar Strike Designator and also begin with a power tool.

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 7 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.

2. Armoured Transport/Car - This is a Hummvee(US), Vodnik(RUS) and Cobra(MEC) with a heavy machine gun and 2 extra positions, There is an AA variation for the single player mode but it isn't included online.

3. IFVs/APCs - This is a M2 Bradley(US), BMD-3(RUS) and 2T Stalker(MEC) all with rapid firing autocannons which can flatten enemy infantry and small buildings with ease. There is a machine gun position and room for 2 passengers.

4. Tanks - The M1A2 Abrams(US), T90(RUS) and Black Eagle(MEC) are similar, yet obvious interior and design exteriors are altered. They are the most powerful vehicles in the game due to their heavy defence, and large cannons.

5. Helicopters - AH-64 Apache(US), Mi-28(RUS), Mi-24(RUS, single player only) and Ka-52 Gator(MEC). 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.

7. Boats - A patrol boat, light that has 4 positions and 2 grenade launchers. All factions have the same version

Both IFVs and Tanks have a remote-controlled machine gun with camera sight which can be controlled by a second player inside the vehicle.

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 still remained exclusive, but eventually the code was released to unlock the USAS12. EA still wants the F2000 to be reserved for Battlefield Veterans.

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.

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.

Sequel
A sequel to Battlefield: Bad Company has been announced, Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Links and Sources

 * BF: Bad Company Official Website
 * Planet Battlefield
 * Frostbite Engine Video
 * Destruction Demonstration Video