{"id":8168,"date":"2010-03-18T07:12:22","date_gmt":"2010-03-17T23:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=8168"},"modified":"2010-03-18T18:40:12","modified_gmt":"2010-03-18T10:40:12","slug":"battlefield-bad-company-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2010\/03\/18\/battlefield-bad-company-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Battlefield: Bad Company 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reposting this from the other blog<\/a>.:)<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

I used to be really good at first-person shooters \u2013 and by that, I mean the first-generation first person shooters of the early 90s with titles like Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Doom. But that was a younger me when I was quicker and more agile on the fingers. These days, my 18-19 year olds would easily give me a sound trashing if they ever got me into a counter-strike match \u2013 which also explains why I always politely decline any invites coming from them to join in a match.:)<\/p>\n

That’s about the degree I got into Battlefield: Bad Company 2 <\/em>on the PS3<\/strong>, the second title of the Battlefield: Bad Company<\/em><\/strong> series \u2013 that I was really surfing through the game as a \u201ccontent tourist\u201d, which is the game title\u2019s equivalent of the easiest difficulty mode. This write-up is also then more a commentary than a critical review.<\/p>\n

First-person shooters set in current times aren\u2019t really very special anymore, and there\u2019re even a couple of titles that have done games of this genre and type well, e.g. the two titles in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare<\/em><\/strong> series. Nor are spectacular graphics and open world environments sufficient to make an FPS title stand out too much anymore.<\/p>\n

\"blog-bc2-b\"<\/p>\n

But BC2 <\/strong><\/em>has two things in its corner: world destructibility, and the colorful cast of characters (your squadies) that debuted in the first title all return for this second outing. Most of what you see around you in BC2 can be brought down if you have sufficient firepower, and that adds a huge tactical dimension to the proceedings and how you get through each combat encounter. The fellow that\u2019s parked himself on the top of that tower taking pot shots at you? You could snipe him back, or shoot an RPG into the support structure of that tower and bring the whole building down. The latter will require a bit more work, but the payout\u2019s a lot more satisfying and visual too. This gameplay element works both ways too: protective obstacles that you seek cover behind are similarly no longer invulnerable and can be destroyed, which keeps you from getting too comfortable with any one single position.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But what really takes it in for me is the cast of characters. You\u2019ve got a 44 year old Sergeant who\u2019s leader of the squad and who\u2019s one mission away from retirement, a demolitions expert who loves to watch stuff blow up but also has a thing for the Dallas cheerleaders, a bespectacled techno-geek who gets dumped into the special ops squad as he thought it\u2019d be fun to upload viruses into military servers, and finally yourself \u2013 who used to be \u201cthe new guy\u201d in the first title but now an accepted member of your squad. Many of the single campaign\u2019s most memorable moments come not through its by-the-numbers story of a stolen super-weapon and the squad\u2019s attempts to get it back, but through the banter between your squad mates.<\/p>\n

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Technically, while great visuals in FPSes are no longer as special they might had been before, BC2 is still a visual and audio powerhouse. The single-player campaign will see you traipsing through dessert, jungle, urban, rainforest open world environments. There\u2019s even a mission onboard a huge cargo plane that\u2019s reminiscent of the last special bonus mission from Call of Duty 4<\/em><\/strong>, and which ends with a stunning combat sequence that feels exactly like what you\u2019ll see in a James Bond film (won\u2019t spoil it for readers here though). The soundscape too also elevates the immersive experience up a notch. Bullets and gunfire sound factor in the environments you are operating in. For example, firefights in an enclosed room sounds very different from out in the open.<\/p>\n

One of the most annoying bits of the first game have been exorcised in the second game too. I\u2019m referring specifically to that segment in which you had to commandeer a Mil Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunship and fight in it at the same time. There\u2019re still a couple of segments in BC2 where you\u2019ll be operating out of choppers, but your role will be as gunners this time where you\u2019ll be letting rip with those awesome gatling guns, and in another segment blowing vehicles and enemy troopers with cannon fire off a Hind chopper.<\/p>\n

Minor gripe: repeated death animations. There\u2019s this little sequence where the enemy fellow grips his throat as he collapses in agony. It\u2019s fun the first time you see it, but it\u2019s used a lot of times. And also that enemy character models are repeatedly used a lot in single-player campaign i.e. “Didn’t I just kill this guy 2 seconds ago…?!” Thankfully a lot of engagements and firefights occur occur at mid to long range especially when you’re equipped with sniper rifles as your secondary weapon. It’s not as bad as it might had been as you don’t see the enemy troopers and soldiers up close too often unless they’re just around the corner or charging at you.<\/p>\n

\"blog-bc2-c\"<\/p>\n

Still, I had a blast playing the single-player campaign, and am going to redo the entire thing again on higher difficulty level modes in the next few days to come.:)<\/p>\n

(Pictures from Gamespot)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reposting this from the other blog.:) — I used to be really good at first-person shooters \u2013 and by that, I mean the first-generation first person shooters of the early 90s with titles like Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Doom.<\/p>\n

Read More Battlefield: Bad Company 2<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home","category-entertainment","wpcat-6-id","wpcat-10-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}