Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PC, 2010)

There is no shortage of online destinations for those who enjoy first-person gun-wielding combat, but no matter how many opportunities you get to shoot another player in the face, there is always room for one more. Especially when that one more is as exciting and intense as Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The online multiplayer in this modern military shooter is a standout, featuring huge maps, incredible destructibility, powerful vehicles, and excellent sound design. These elements combine to foster the sense that you are fighting on an actual battlefield, making many other online shooters seem more like combat arenas than believable war zones. Multiplayer battles are invigorating and addictive, but they aren't all that Bad Company 2 has to offer. The sizable campaign takes you to beautiful and exotic locations where you'll be sorely tempted to take a break from shooting bad guys and blowing things up to admire the scenery. Your hilarious and endearing squadmates are great companions, giving the campaign a rich sense of character not often found in the genre. The result is a very entertaining adventure that, coupled with the excellent multiplayer and top-notch technical presentation, makes Battlefield: Bad Company 2 something special in the world of shooters.

The beginning of Bad Company's second tour finds Sarge, Marlowe, Sweetwater, and Haggard stationed in a wintery valley, supposedly serving out Sarge's last tour of duty. Lofty mountains loom high against the bright blue sky as you sneak your way between snow-laden trees and out across a frozen river. As you infiltrate a small village, the snow muffles the sound of your footfalls, and when a firefight breaks out, your ears ring from the concussion of nearby explosives. One daring escape later, you're dropped into the Bolivian jungle, where mosquitoes whine in your ear as you walk in the dappled light of the jungle floor. Gunfire doesn't echo very far in the forest, but beneath the corrugated tin roof of a logging outpost, each bullet is a cacophony unto itself. This vivid, engaging world is a testament to Bad Company 2's remarkable technical presentation. The stunning landscapes are matched by the diverse, intriguing terrain in both rural and urban environments. The excellent sound design further enriches your sense of place, and each gunshot, footstep, and exclamation fuels your battlefield awareness and informs your tactical decisions. Though there are some blurry textures, occasional screen tearing, and awkward moments caused by the pervasive environmental destructibility, these are mere blemishes on the ambitious look and immersive sound of Bad Company 2.

Of course, just because the scenery is great doesn't stop you from wanting to blow it up. Trees, barricades, vehicles, buildings, and bridges all splinter and break apart when exposed to gunfire or explosives. Not only is it immensely fun to destroy things, but it's crucial to your survival and success. Say... there's a sniper perched in a tower covering your approach. You can try to pick him off without exposing yourself, or you can bust out your underbarrel grenade launcher and blow the platform to smithereens. The explosion showers debris in a realistic and satisfying way, and the sniper is taken care of. Destruction is a double-edged sword, however, as you'll learn the first time that the window you are shooting out of explodes and becomes a gaping hole through.

When I first heard about this game, I was playing Modern Warefare 2, and was told that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was even better, so I took a shot at it.

In my opinion, the game is great, if you are one of those people that love FPS games, and played games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, you will LOVE this game. One of the biggest and best features I find about this game, is the fact that near everything building wise is destructible. If someone is stationed between buildings with a heavy machine gun or sniper, and is just a pain to get to in normal games, just take out your grenade launcher and blow through walls to flank him. You can blow wholes in any part of the building, ceiling, floors, walls, etc. Not only that, if a building receives enough damage, the entire building collapses. This of course means if your up against a tank, theres few structures you can hide in, because they can blow right through :).

Now, if you ever played Modern Warfare 2, it had a great story, very dramatic and epic overall, including the ending, if you expect one just as amazing in this game, you may be a tad disappointed. Its less dramatic, bit predictable, however there is a lot more humor between the characters.

As with a lot of games, Multi-player is quite a bit different from singleplayer. In Multi-player, the online weapons is a mix between the first and second bad company, in addition to a couple WW2 weapons. You virtually see none in Bad Company 2's single player. However most of the starting weapons are in single player, but past that, Its a new experience. Anyway, gameplay wise, its lot different than Singleplayer, yet very very intense. I found myself overwhelmed at first, and had a hard time getting kills, however, once you get used to it, you'll pummel players with tanks, helicopters, motors, snipers, RPG's, Boats, and much more.

Overall if your looking for a fun, intense FPS with destructible terrains and fun weapons, this is a game for you.

This game is the best FPS game ever made after the good old Counter-Strike Source, the graphics are outstanding the game play is smooth lot's of weapons, vehicles and enhancements. It's a fun game with nice sound effects, the only thing it lacks is a better in-game voice chat and a chat option on the friends list just like Valve does with steam. An other problem is that lately there are lot's of people cheating and punk buster don't seem to get them but what the heck that's a common problem on on-line games now-days. Bottom line buy it and try it you won't regret!

Other thoughts: Game runs smooth on my computer but I'm still not able to use max settings because of the graphics card.

PC configs:

Asus Maximus III Formula
Intel Core i5 750
Zalman CNPS 10x Extreme (bought on e-bay refurbished great deal)
2x 2GB Kingston Hyper-x DDR3 1600
Currently using a HIS IceQ4 4850 waiting on my new Zotac GTX 470 AMP! with Zalman cooler from factory
Seventeam ST-550-PAM (might have to chance because of the graphics card)
Windows 7 64 Ultimate

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a great game. The graphics are stunning and the battle sequence is fast pace. This is the only first person shooter I have played that the environment is destructible. I would say over 70% of the landscape can be destroyed. Bullets will eat through walls, fences, and ceilings. You can actual destroy the buildings. It does take some doing in fire power (ie. tank or rocket launcher) but it can be done. If you never play a first-person shooter, then this game is the one you want to play. If you are a first-person shooter fanatic, then this game is DEFINATELY the ONE!

Cons: Very memory and system intense. I have a quad-core system with 4gigs of DDR3 memory with a GT 240 video card w/ 1gig of DDR3 attached. The game runs GREAT. Most players are playing with Duel-core systems with 2gigs of memory and lower video cards. This will work but you will suffer on graphic clarity. The only other con is that i can think of is that most players have to upgrade there systems to play. This will cost anywhere from $100-500 due to purchasing new video cards or replacing the whole system.

Just Built a new PC with an i3 2100 sandy bridge (1155 Platform-Windows 7 64bit) and a Sapphire HD5770 Video Card...An entry level $500 total system which is probably the minimum setup to use for Battlefield 2. With this system the game is absolutely incredible! My old system (Dual Core 2 with HD4650) would not be a pleasant experience with it, but the bottom of the line sandy bridge (i3) perferms extremely well. The only issue is that ALL computer fans (case, CPU, and Video Card) rev up to maximum since this game is so demanding! Would NOT recommend this for an older system, but if you upgrade your computer you will be really really happly with it!!!