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Bad Company 2 to offer free March 30 'mapathy' cure
Oh man, EA's pursuit of Modern Warfare 2 just got hot, as DICE has announced via the Battlefield Blog that on March 30 -- the same day the Stimulus Package DLC will boost Modern Warfare 2's map count -- Battlefield: Bad Company 2's VIP members will receive the free "VIP Map Pack 2," which adds a Conquest mode scenario to the Arica Harbor map and Rush mode to Laguna Presa. Both maps aren't new to the game, however neither has been available for play in the "unlocked" game modes noted above. So, that kinda qualifies as a "map pack," right? Regardless, it's free, as DICE boldly proclaims in its jab at Activision and Infinity Ward: "How to avoid 'mapathy' without paying!" [Thanks, Qwaint]
DICE 'investigating' Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on Mac
Okay, Mac gamers, take a deep breath. It's been a busy day. Steam is coming to the Mac. The Left 4 Dead games will even support multiplayer across PC and Mac platforms. You're just not used to all this attention, we understand. Bear with it though, because there's more on the way. In a recent tweet, DICE's Karl Magnus Troedsson stated, "We like it!" in reference to Valve's Mac Steam announcement. When asked by UGDB.com whether the company had plans for a Mac version of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Troedsson responded, "We're currently investigating the possibility of making BFBC2 available on Mac." It wouldn't be the first time a Battlefield game was ported to Mac -- the most recent being Battlefield: 2142 -- but it could be the first Battlefield released on Mac via Steam. Again, Mac gamers, it's a lot to take in. Try to get some sleep and we'll start fresh tomorrow.
PS3 Bad Company 2 VIP access patch 'hopefully' today; PC issues addressed
SCEA is currently certifying a patch that should allow PlayStation 3 owners of Bad Company 2 to gain access to their VIP content, according to DICE. The patch will "hopefully" go live today in North America, with Europe following "shortly after." Once patched, PS3 players will gain access to Nelson Bay (Rush) and Laguna Alta (Conquest) -- along with the ability to access all future content. The PS3 isn't the only console having problems. Every platform the game is on has had consistent connectivity issues with BC2 since launch thanks to EA's servers, but the PC version is having significant issues beyond normal network problems. DICE has posted some "temporary solutions for PC gamers" while the developer works on a "permanent solution." Answers to several of those issues can be found on the EA forums. Well, at least it's a great multiplayer game ... when it works.
Review: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (single player)
You know, it's so rare that my job feels like work. I mean, I play and write about video games for a living -- it's not a terribly taxing gig. I mention this not to brag about how great my life is (Twitter's the only appropriate place for that), but so you have some perspective when I tell you that almost every moment of Battlefield: Bad Company 2's single-player campaign felt like real, actual work. The campaign isn't terrible, in fact, it's largely competent. But because of a lack of inspiration and a pretty crummy checkpoint system, Bad Company 2's single-player game is just plain not fun. %Gallery-43916%
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is new king of UK sales charts
It's debatable whether or not the server crashing this past week was a symptom of Battlefield: Bad Company 2's success. What isn't debatable is the game's explosive debut on the UK's Chart-Track all-formats chart. The multiplayer-centric shooter, which we've been thoroughly enjoying, outsold the original Bad Company's launch week numbers almost 3 to 1. According to Chart-Track, BC2 is the "best ever launch for any game released this early in the year." Interestingly, 53 percent of BC2 sales went to the Xbox 360 version, followed by 31 percent and 16 percent of sales for the PS3 and PC, respectively. (The game also topped the three, individual platform charts.) Of course, lurking in the corner was Just Dance. The game will not go away and continues to stay in the top three week after week after week. Last week's top game, Heavy Rain, slipped down to fourth and the battle of Aliens vs. Predator held onto third. Check out the complete top ten after the break. Source – Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a born leader [GFK Chart-Track] Source – Latest UK Software Charts [GFK Chart-Track]
Review: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (multiplayer)
For those who prefer their multiplayer experiences to be full of camaraderie rather than competition, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 delivers a bonding experience like few other games can. By pushing the idea of teamwork upon players, Bad Company 2 is a game that discourages the "lone wolf" mentality found in many, if not most, online first-person shooters. A question I've been asked a lot this week: "I barely played and/or didn't really enjoy the first Battlefield: Bad Company's multiplayer. How does this stack up?" The sequel is more Battlefield 1943 than Bad Company. It's a more balanced experience like developer DICE's summer hit, but with a modern setting and delivering the scope one would expect from a full-priced retail experience. Squads. It's one of the most important elements to Battlefield and a feature that has gotten better through each iteration. A squad is your mini-team within the game; working with them just makes sense, since you'll be respawning with them when you die. In previous Battlefield games, squad members would sometimes be switched to the other team, even as total strangers were inserted in your squad. (As one comrade-in-arms aptly put it this week: "It's like being invited to a Rock Band party, but you're accidentally given the address next door and they're playing Guitar Hero. Sure, it's almost the same, but that's not the party you wanted to attend.") Thankfully, the biggest problem with making a squad is resolved in this outing. %Gallery-43916%
Metareview: Battlefield: Bad Company 2
While not quite the 94 review average that Modern Warfare 2 eventually ended up with, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is off to a generous start on Metacritic, averaging a 90 as of this writing. The developers at DICE have certainly kicked up some dust in challenging the monolithic multiplayer of MW2, but it remains to be seen what will eventually shake out online. For now, we've got the single-player reviews for you, just below: GamePro (5/5 Stars): "Bad Company 2's unexpected emphasis on survival skills caught me completely off guard ... The radical change in pace forced me to think and react differently to the situation than I normally would, and it made for an incredible experience. Bad Company 2 definitely has the necessary chops to give the current king of, well, modern warfare, a run for its money.." GameDaily (9/10): "Combat is both intense and exhilarating. Nothing beats unloading a few grenades at a house and watching the ammo tear chunks from it while dead bodies sail through the air. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is an immensely entertaining shooter that demands your attention" Official Xbox Magazine UK (8.0/10): "While the likes of Call of Duty and Gears of War lead you into bottlenecks where they can dazzle you with explosions and special effects, Bad Company 2 feels more like a diluted sprawl of ideas across a large canvas. This variety ensures things stay interesting but it makes it a solid rather than spectacular effort. You'll enjoy it, but will find that you struggle to recall any standout moments once the credits finally roll." Totally Video Games: (7/10): "While Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (on previous-gen machines) and the original Bad Company both featured standalone single-player campaigns, both fell well short of the kind of gameplay we've come to expect of the Master Chief or Sergeant 'Soap' MacTavish. Unfortunately, DICE still hasn't turned the corner with its single-player design in Bad Company 2." %Gallery-43916%
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 TV ad features explosions, accolades
You love explosions, right? You're a fan of head thrashing music, are you? Can't get enough of text flying at your face, you say? Well hold on to your underwear because the television spot for EA's upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company 2 includes all of those things and more. Developed by DICE and coming soon to the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 hits stores March 2 and will probably feature more explosions and generic rock music. Hopefully the lines of accolades will be omitted during gameplay -- being obscured like that would ravage our kill/death ratios.
French Bad Company 2 ads ape military ad slogan
[Erwan Cario] If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, EA's marketing team (at least the one that handles the company's French ads) was really, really trying to flatter the French military with its latest Bad Company 2 ads. Adopting the slogan "Devenez Plus Que Vous-Meme" for its website ("Be More Than Yourself"), EA has seemingly borrowed the French military's strikingly similar "Devenez Vous Meme" ("Be Yourself.") "We are clearly in a situation of abuse of slogan ... So far, our campaign is working very well, we have very good returns," French army general Philippe Pontiès told Écrans. Allegedly, the posters will be altered sometime in the coming weeks, with the French military and EA reaching an agreement amenably. Perhaps unsurprisingly, EA has chosen not to comment. [Via GamePolitics]
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 getting two DLC maps on day one, more coming in March
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will unlock two multiplayer maps on launch day, free to players that input a "VIP code" included with new copies of the game (think: "Project Ten Dollar"). VIPs will also gain free access to a second map pack, which developer DICE will airdrop later in March. If you purchase the game second-hand, you can access the VIP code separately via the in-game store (think: $15). We can already see a repeat of the Mass Effect 2 account confusion coming from five klicks away, so make sure your affairs are in order before you redeem the code. BC2 Senior Producer Patrick Bach claims, "These first two map packs are just the beginning. We're planning ongoing support for the community by always keeping the experience fresh and ensuring the best possible gameplay experience." This is where Battlefield 1943 fans wipe the tears from their faces as they march toward a more modern battlefield.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 PC walkthrough gets into the nitty gritty
For those of you wondering just how superior the PC version of Battlefield Bad Company 2 is to the console iterations, the answer lies at least partially in the above PC version walkthrough. Sure, stuff like kit selection and squad layout is a bit more in-depth, and there's the near-ubiquitous (for PC games) server browsing/dedicated server support -- multiplayer count also gets a boosted 32-player count over the console's 24 -- but other than that ... alright, that's kind of a lot. When you also factor in DirectX 11 support (for fancy lighting, among other things), the differences get starker. It would certainly seem that DICE hasn't forgotten its roots as a PC game developer. That said, even if you're a strident console-only gamer, the above walkthrough also gives us our first eyes-on with "Valparaiso" -- a multiplayer map apparently set in the Chiléan city. Here's a shocker: it looks just as impressive as everything else we've seen from the game thus far (even more so, graphically speaking, as it's running on a presumably tricked out PC). Bad Company 2 arrives on your console of choice (minus the Wii) in early March. %Gallery-43916%
Over 3.5 million people have downloaded the Bad Company 2 demo
Ever noticed how you rarely place bullets into the same dude during two consecutive games while playing the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 demo? There's a darn good reason for that -- according to a recent tweet from EA, over 3.5 million people have downloaded the sneak peek on 360 and PS3. We weren't sure Bad Company 2 would gain a ton of traction while sharing an audience with MAG and Modern Warfare 2, but apparently we were wrong. Maybe there's a special portion of the market set aside for multiplayer shooters/preposterous ATV stunt simulators.
Interview: Greg Grunberg at the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 celebrity challenge
Lots of the celebrities at last night's Battlefield: Bad Company 2 celebrity benefit tournament didn't know much about gaming, but Greg Grunberg is the exception. Even if he can't dive deep into the differences between next-gen shooters, he at least knows the audience, having appeared on Lost and Alias and controlled minds as Matt Parkman on Heroes. He was at the benefit in West Hollywood promoting the Epilepsy Foundation (his son deals with epileptic seizures, and Grunberg has done some advocacy work on his own as well), and right before he sat down to play BFBC2 alongside Chad Ochocinco and Marshall Faulk, he sat down to chat with us. Read on to hear about what Grunny is doing for Halo: Reach, his favorite iPhone games and why he's so sure there should be one more full season of Heroes.
Interview: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Senior Producer Patrick Bach
The Battlefield: Bad Company 2 celebrity bracket challenge was a lonely event for us gamers -- while there were lots of TV stars and NFL players around to talk to, we had to really search the club for someone who actually had some insight on the game for us. But there in the back, among the PR organizers and "Athlete Relations" representatives, we found the game's senior producer Patrick Bach (second from right in the picture above). He may never have starred on a network drama or celebrated on the field after a touchdown, but the guy knows how to make first-person shooters, and that's good enough for us. After the break, hear what he thinks of celebrities playing his game, just how ready DICE is for release, and what kinds of secret plans his team has for DLC.
EA hosts Battlefield: Bad Company 2 celebrity benefit tournament
As reported on these very pages yesterday, EA and DICE got a group of semi-celebrities together last night to celebrate the impending arrival of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 with a charity tournament, pitting NFL stars and 90210 actors against each other in a bragging rights team match. The celebs also selected their own team names for an upcoming Major League Gaming tournament, and the winning team in that match (which you can predict right now on GameStop's website) will end up giving $25,000 to the winning celebrity's charity of choice. The event kicked off with a red carpet event, and Matt Lanter and Tristan Wilds of the new 90210 joined gossip blogger Perez Hilton to talk about crushes on their costars and how awesome Bad Company 2 was. Meanwhile, we wondered, where's the actual game? %Gallery-86003%
Semi-stars fight it out in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 charity event
Imagine you told us that Dr. Chad Ocho Cinco (Hon.) and Olivia Munn intended to throw a Battlefield: Bad Company 2 party and invite all their pseudo-celebrity pals to play for charity. If you asked us to dream up a guest list, we doubt we would be physically capable of coming up with a more ill-suited and uninspiring crew than the one that will actually be in Hollywood tonight for the Battlefield Celebrity Bracket Challenge. We understand Hal Sparks and Perez Hilton are there, that's just the law, but the rest of the NFL players and 90210 and CSI:NY stars that fill out the list so strain and pervert the word "celebrity" that it can now be accurately applied to karaoke DJs and birthday party illusionists. The sole exception here is Heroes star Greg Grunberg, who's a totally decent guy that just seems to have fallen in with the wrong crowd. Bad company indeed, Greg. Bad company indeed.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 includes 'VIP code' for free day-one DLC
John Riccitiello's "Project Ten Dollar" endeavor -- in which EA looks to combat used-game sales by offering free DLC goodies with new purchases -- has another game marching under its banner: Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Just like Mass Effect 2, the game will ship with a code that enables access to free DLC. The first batch of add-on content for DICE's shooter will be a set of new multiplayer maps, MTV Multiplayer reports. "In the future you will get more content, for free, if you have this VIP code," noted producer Patrick Bach, describing a free content delivery mechanism similar to BioWare's Cerberus Network. Also of note: the VIP code will be attached to your EA.com account, so make sure you keep potential hazards in mind if you buy Bad Company 2 when it launches on March 2, 2010. [Thanks, Michael]
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 demo downloaded over 2 million times
"We couldn't be more thrilled to hear that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is already in the hands of almost 2½ million gamers, and it hasn't even shipped yet." That statement from Patrick Bach, Senior Producer on EA and DICE's eagerly awaited shooter, is doubly impressive when you realize that he's not talking about the PC version -- he's talking about the demo that was recently shared with Xbox Live and PlayStation Network users. Having reached over two million downloads within a span of five days, the Bad Company 2 teaser is "on pace to become the fastest downloaded demo in EA history," at least according to the Big Company behind it. With the PC beta netting "hundreds of thousands" of sign-ups too, it seems the overt confidence isn't misplaced. But come March 2nd, will all those downloads translate to an impressive, post-Modern impact? If there's one thing uglier than the console wars, it's the console war game ... wars.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 to have day-one DLC
In what's becoming the rule rather than the exception for EA games, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will receive day one DLC. Speaking to Worthplaying, senior producer Patrick Bach said, "We have an in-game store where you get free content or you can buy new content to the game, so it's a very integral part of the game that we will have a long post-launch campaign. I think people will be thrilled to see what's in that already. On day one, you will get some really cool stuff." It's still not clear if that "really cool" stuff will be free, for-pay or both -- in the case of EA's usual in-the-box DLC strategy, it would be free to new buyers and sold separately for used copies of the game. You'll remember that during the release of the first Bad Company, EA was actually threatened with a boycott for its (soon abandoned) strategy that would have created an in-game gap between players that spent extra money and those who didn't. Hopefully EA and DICE will be a bit smarter about things this time around.
ESRB outs WWII-based opening of Bad Company 2
The original Bad Company spinoff in the Battlefield series kept the franchise's setting firmly in modern times, but if the Bad Company 2 ESRB description is true, you'll be seeing a return to WWII in the sequel. At the very least, the game's opening will bring players back to the Pacific side of the war, with the ESRB description saying, "In single-player mode, players conduct missions on an unnamed Japanese island during World War II and then move into the modern day through jungles, deserts, and snowy terrain." Just like we've discovered in our way too many hours with the game's multiplayer demo, the description details the inclusion of "melee attacks with a power drill" (yes, seriously) and the characters use of profanity "during cutscenes and in the heat of battle." And yes, we're just as excited by the former as you might imagine. %Gallery-43916%[Via BigDownload]
