Battlefield Bad Company 2

An entire month to go before the official release of the next Battlefield, I was honestly hoping that MAG would be the perfect game to keep me busy during February but alas as per my previous review this was not to be the case, lucky for us though DICE released a demo for Bad Company 2 a month in advance! I'm not 100% sure on when it will be available for PS3 but sources say that it wont be long now.

The demo comprises of a single multiplayer map and a nice supply of vehicles, on the face of things it seems very similar to the original BC, there doesn't seem to have been a lot of change to the Frostbight engine as most of the buildings are still not 100% destructible and the graphics are slightly better than those of the original, which in my opinion is not a bad thing at all.

The sound effects as in the original BC are just brilliant and one of the most impressive aspects to the game in my mind, the wide open areas accompanied with echoing gunfire in the distance give the player the feeling of being a single cog in a much larger war machine, this effect is accentuated thanks to the different class types, snipers tending to find a position providing a nice view of the battlefield, rifleman and engineers taking on more of an assault role and support gunners... well providing support. It's this kind of gameplay I'm sure upsets the typical Call of Duty player, games like Modern Warfare provide for a much faster pace of gameplay, one that relies more so on a quick trigger finger than that of finding your correct place within the war machine I spoke of earlier, I'm sure I could go on for ages discussing the psychological difference between a MW player versus those of a BC player suffice to say that the games are different and so are the players, I personally enjoy both types but I suppose the real point is that the gameplay in BC allows for a much better sounding game based purely on the fact that as apposed to MW2 the gunshots in the background are those made by players miles away and it's this that provides for such an immersing experience.

Some notable changes to the gameplay include the player upgrade system, allowing players to do this during the game, thereby negating the need to exit and re-customise a class. As it was only the Demo played I cant say for sure how much class customisation there is available but I'm sure it would be a safe bet to assume something of a similar calibre to the first, this along with a matching campaign and multiplayer map list will in no doubt provide for weeks of enjoyment.

My one and only hope is that EA/DICE have sorted out the constant sever problems that seemed to plague the last 2 Battlefield games most noticeably 1943 on the PS3, I was never sure if this error occurred on PSn only but to say it was annoying is an understatement, I found it almost routine to be dropped from a game after about two matches with a message stating a network error had occurred and requesting me to "check your connection"... I'm sorry EA/DICE but could you not do us all a favour and check your own connection before requesting we do the same? There is just nothing worse than coming home from work, switching on the PS3 to find you can't connect to a single game due to "network error"! This time I shall be buying on the xbox as my hope is that Microsoft will ensure the gameplay experience is smooth, that said I shall keep my fingers crossed for all PS3 players just in case (I do so wish they made these games cross platform...).

Gameplay 9/10

Graphics 8/10

Sound 9.5/10

Total 88/100