Bad Company, like Fallout 3 before it, has absolutely dominated my Xbox for a while now so I might as well review it. In fact it's been a while since a multiplayer game has been so addictive...
The Battlefield franchise is hardly known to be a bad one. There have been loads of installments around for a long time, varying quite a lot with each one. The latest, instead of taking place in a real war eg. Vietnam, World War II is more similar to Battlefield 2, with a modern day war going on (only with the Chinese replaced with the Russians).
The single player campaign was not a bad experience, while it lacked in variety and a lot of features that FPS games need to really rise above other games of their ilk, it had many things hard to find in a lot of today's games. One of those things is decent, light-hearted comedy throughout. This is hardly to be expected in a war game, it has been pulled off very well, and as well as making you laugh it shows you that war is not always doom-and-gloom, to many it is just a job they have to endure for the sake of money - or in the case of these guys, getting out of trouble by serving their country - and that they will make light of it to keep it bearable. The characters have been made purposefully rememberable; anyone who has played the game through will be able to remember that Haggard is the dim-witted redneck who enjoys nothing else than blowing everything up, Sweetwater the bullied nerd always fighting with Haggard, Redford the classic tough black guy who doesn't care to joke around, and your charcter, Preston who plays the timid new guy who just plays along. In this way it works very cinematically and really pulls you into the storyline, however basic it is. The environments won't vary hugely but the destruction physics of the game really turn anywhere into a battlefield; walls will be blown to bits by rockets and grenades or crumble from heavy vehicles smashing into them, trees will collapse with impact, and all this is both hugely immersive, and brings a little more tactical approach to fighting with cover not being an infinite life-saver any more; so the trick is to keep moving. Another thing which I found made the game very immersive, though not usually a hugely important point with games, is the audio. I don't even mean the soundtrack; guns sound so incredibly life like that people should be forgiven for thinking a mob war is going on in your bedroom, explosion will make your ears ring and reloading has never sounded so satisfying.
Keep in mind that although the campaign isn't perfect, everything good about it is used in multiplayer, and THAT is close to perfect. In my opinion, CoD can suck it, THIS is the ultimate army shooter. Battlefield is known for its huge maps and large scale battles, and I find it hard to describe how much fun this is. The game type is Gold Rush, one not yet used in the Battlefield series and it's a lot of fun. There is a defending and an attacking team: the defenders must protect the gold by killing all the attackers, and the attackers must destroy four pairs of gold crates before being wiped out. This can last between 10 and 30 minutes and although it doesn't sound like a realistic warfare experience, the atmosphere certainly is. You have to use tactics and teamwork, and there's an armoury of vehicles and class upgrades that can be used in different ways to help your team. All this goes towards one massive, balanced multiplayer experience which you'll find yourself playing for hours on end. Don't pass up on this, this is one of the best multiplayer games I've yet seen of this generation.
Negatives for Bad Company have mainly been noted already, the campaign could have been improved with some different mission types (hate to say it but they could have taken a leaf out of CoD4's book and done a sniper mission) other than just the ordinary formula and one helicopter mission. It also didn't have co-op, which I think it really should have, it being a squad-based storyline, and it would have topped off the multiplayer brilliantly. Graphics also weren't diamond, even if the colour scheme made the environments beautiful. There's also something which stops it being an all-time 'best game ever' type, perhaps because of the rather generic modern warfare genre which can be improved and improved, but perhaps never perfected - though I suppose that's not what Modern Warfare fans say...
I give Bayyyyyyddddd Company an 8/10. It hasn't got everything but I would say anyone who does online gaming should buy this and give it a go, even if you're not an age-old fan of the Battlefield series. You'll be getting at least 30 hours out of this and I doubt very much you'll regret it.
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