Battlefield: Bad Company Beta Impressions

Were you playing the beta blindfolded, Kevin?

Graphics are really nothing special. It looks like Modern Combat with extra normal maps. It has the same crappy, sluggish controls as Modern Combat. The new things DICE did add this time around are horrible hit detection, a stupid "auto-squad" system where you are randomly assigned who you play with instead of being allowed to - ya know - CHOOSE who you squad with.

The voice chat is a stupid, stupid design decision. This game is supposed to be all about working with your team to cap an objective. Well, good f*ckin luck coordinating when you're only allowed to voice chat with the 3 other guys in your squad. You can't talk to the rest of your team, and squads can't comm with each other.

Did I mention that it takes over 15 perfectly placed M249 SAW rounds to drop someone? Do you know what 15 SAW rounds would do to a human? There would be nothing left, but in this game, you can shake that off and keep on truckin. You can also shoot someone directly in the face with a grenade launcher and they'll live. These are design decisions the developer has made and still defends after being called out on it by many beta testers.

Don't even get me started that you have to f*cking buy. Yes, I said they actually expect you to f*cking BUY INDIVIDUAL GUNS off the Xbox Live! Milkitplace. Not just any guns, but guns that are already finished during the beta test. Guns that will be on the retail disc that you buy, put in your xbox, and can see on all the menus. But you can't use them unless you pay $2 per gun. Not even a "weapons pack" where you get like 10 for $5. . . they want you to buy them one at a time.

Ladies and gentlemen. . . if you're new to the gaming scene. . . this is a prime example of why all gamers HATE EA GAMES. They spend more time trying to figure out a way to squeeze an extra buck out of the videogame hobbiest when they could be fixing boneheaded design moves like taking out prone or getting rid of parachutes.


Damn Rob, how much do you guys pay for a video game journalist? I can do waaaaay better than this joker.

Hi Rob

I was in all honesty looking forward to this game.But of course I can't... PC man all the way.After learning What EA is doing to this title I'm no longer interested.Trying to make us pay for better guns.....and such..I dunno....seems rather excessive.Lots of parents are going to be upset as well when little 14 year old Johnny needs to pay again after 'said dad or mom' has already laid down the money for the game and needs to fork over more stash.
From my perspective as an adult supporting EA when they do things like this only add fuel to the fire...since they will be tempted to keep milking people for money after a game has been bought.

You guys do know that you can buy the Gold edition of the game when it launches and get all those guns for free right? It's really just a "limited" edition type bonus. They didn't want to leave everyone else out though, so they offer the additional guns at a cost, just so that the limited edition guys don't have a big advantage.

Anyhow; how on earth can anyone seriously be playing FPS on a console? They probably had a little chance with auto aim, health cheat and invisibility. I really don't get that....

Yep; this might be true for Halo; that's probably why I don't like the series at all. It's just something different on a PC...

Yes I do know what 15 m249 rounds will do to someone Ive seen it first hand(even more than 15 rounds in some cases), you would for sure be down for the count taking 15 rounds from an m249, there is hardly "nothing left". it would be a body riddled with 15 entry wounds, thats it. The M249 shoots the same 5.56mm NATO round as the M-16A2/4. Now if you want to talk .50 cal then we can talk about arms legs and heads going kablooey.

Back to the topic at head, this selling weapons to the user is BS, honestly thats almost like Blizzard Selling WoW gold and Epic items. No dont rank up and earn the items! Just pay us more money!

^Says it all

As with any review, hands-on preview or blog, this article was merely one gamer's opinion. That's the beauty of Freedom of Speech. Obviously not everyone shares the same opinion as the next person. The sensible thing to do is to research other outlets and get a feel for the average opinion of a product. Don't just take one guy's review and run with it: read several and form your own take. With that said, a beta is just a beta, and you can't accurately judge the game until it's complete. You certainly can't judge how a pizza will actually taste until it's fully cooked.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback. I'm definitely looking forward to this game when it ships in June.

NOTE: remember that EA and DICE have dedicated servers in place for the multiplayer portion. The cost will need to come from somewhere, and providing downloadable content for Microsoft Points is highly probable to offset the expense.

i would just be stuck playing COD4 forever and ever and ever......

I hope EA/Dice is reading this..... what are you thinking not coming out with a PC battlefield game? You dissapoint me!

They are making a game for PC based off the same engine, although its development obviously started after this ones. Don't be so impatient.

All this may be a market test too, just to see how well this works/pays off. I cant seriously see this as the future

While you may be right ......And I hope you are ..........I was never found of being a GP.

I dont quite get you?

GP----Ginnie Pig

I'm not sure... I keep reading on the net that there might be a BF3 coming out late this year... maybe they'll release news of this in a few weeks/months (one can only hope... man I love BF2)