Battlefield: Bad Company
Battlefield: Bad Company is a video game that consists of 15 releases
Reviewed on July 2, 2008
Bad Company's pro-explosion agenda makes its solo and multiplayer components markedly better than they would be otherwise.
Read Jeff Gerstmann's full review
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Bad Company Review
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The venerable Battlefield franchise returns for its second console-only outing, this time with a fleshed out single player campaign and a new multiplayer game mode, Gold Rush.
Overview
Bad Company
Singleplayer
The single-player missions are about an hour or two in length each, and consist of following the trail of gold to a rumored cargo ship that the mercenaries leader (the Legionnaire) stores his gold in. The gold hunt takes place in the midst of a war, so the mercenaries aren’t the only people you need to fight off to reach the prize. What starts with a war against the Russians ends up crossing over into the fictional country of Serdaristan. Within Serdaristan the Legionnaire and his mercenaries have taken over control from the President, Zavomir Serdar, changing the country's stance toward U.S. forces from neutral to hostile. Found throughout the single-player campaign are gold bars that can be collected for Xbox 360 achievements or PlayStation Trophies. There are also achievements and trophies for collecting every tool and weapon in the game.Missions
There are 7 missions in total.- Welcome to Bad Company
- Acta Non Verba
- Crossing Over
- Par for the Course
- Air Force One
- Crash and Grab
- Ghost Town
Collectibles
The game contains two types of optional collectibles.- Weapons - There are 29 weapons hidden throughout the single-player.
- Gold Bars - These are the gold bars that are the center of the storyline. There are 5 in each mission.
Multiplayer Details
Game Modes
Gold Rush - The primary game mode in Bad Company multiplayer, Gold Rush, consists of two belligerents, the attackers and the defenders, who battle out over gold crates scattered across the map in pairs. At any point in the match the defenders are tasked with defending two gold crates while the attackers are tasked with destroying said crates. When a pair of gold crates has been destroyed by the attacking team a new section of the map is revealed. The defenders must fall back to their new outpost and defend the pair of gold crates at that location until they too are destroyed, at which point the cycle repeats. The attacking team wins by destroying all of the defender's gold crates, while the defenders can achieve victory by causing the attackers to run out of re-spawn "tickets" before they've taken the final crate. This game mode creates a concentrated frontline that previous Battlefield games have lacked. Matches tend to last between 10-20 minutes.
Conquest - Conquest, the staple game mode that the Battlefield franchise is built upon, consists of two teams constantly contesting various control points scattered across a map. Both teams begin the match with an equal number of tickets, and the first team to reach zero tickets loses the round. There are two ways to lose tickets: The first way to lose tickets is for one team to hold fewer control points than their opponent. The more lopsided the balance the quicker the tickets will bleed. The second way in which a team loses tickets is through re-spawning, as every re-spawn costs the team one ticket. The Conquest game mode was released as a free update on August 7th, 2008. Matches tend to last between 8-15 minutes, depending on the map, but it is not unheard of to see matches end in under 3 minutes or last over 20.
Multiplayer Maps
Gold Rush
- Harvest Day - A large map with a lot of armor that takes place in a large space of farm land before moving into a small village. Has five bases.
- Over and Out - Played sequentially to Harvest day, an infantry based map that moves from water-side housing, to hilly ruins, and to a hidden military base. Has three bases.
- End Of The Line - A very large map with armor and helicopters that starts out in an open area before moving towards more populated areas. Has five bases.
- Ascension - Played sequentially to End Of The Line, an infantry based map that moves uphill before ending in a large monastery. Has three bases.
- Valley Run - A long and tight map with a river inside a narrow valley. The map moves from outposts to heavier military bases before ending in a oil refinery. Has four bases.
- Deconstruction - Played sequentially to Valley Run, a mostly infantry based map that moves from first base, past a bridge, and into a construction site. Has three bases.
- Oasis - A very large map with all forms of vehicles. It moves from a large opening to sequentially smaller and smaller areas until reaching a town square. Has five bases.
- Final Ignition - Played sequentially to Oasis, this is a mid-sized map with a mix of infantry and armor that starts with light armor before ending in all out chaos. Has three bases.
Conquest
- Harvest Day - A mid-sized map is a favorite for many different players. Map is large enough for armor and snipers, but small enough for individual soldiers to work with.
- End of the Line - A large map that wraps around a lake with an island base with complete with artillery. This map can be dominated by a skilled helicopter pilot.
- Ascension - The smallest map in the game lends itself to some very chaotic battles. Ambushes, perching snipers, mortar strikes, and fast moving squads are characteristic of this map.
- Oasis - One of the most favored maps, this mid-sized map can yield some of the most intense battles in the game. It is the "Strike at Karkand" or the "Wake Island" of Bad Company.
Community Conquest Map Pack
- Acta Non Verba - The bridge across two sides of the town is the center point of this map. Most attacks are for control of the dangerous bridge flag, but watch out of river-fording squads.
- Crossing Over - The largest conquest map, Crossing Over lends itself to armor, snipers, and helicopters. But with sufficient emplaced weapons, infantry can keep them at bay.
- Par For The Course - Voted number one in the community map pack vote, this large and sprawling map is known for it's location within a golf-course, complete with golf carts and a caddy shack.
- Ghost Town - A mid-sized map, the battles fought here are often between infantry on the street, but don't be surprised when one of the heavy tanks of the map rolls in to ruin your party.
Classes
Assault - The backbone of any team, the well-rounded Assault class is designed to be a lethal mid to close-range fighter. The default Assault class is assigned an automatic assault rifle, underslung grenade launcher, and frag grenades. The Assault class can also unlock a rechargeable auto-injector to instantly restore full health.
Unlocks - M16A2, XM8, AN94 Abakan, FN F2000 (Find-All-Five), Auto-Injector
Medic!
Support - The heavy-hitter out on the battlefield, the support class is charged with both killing the enemy and aiding the friendly. The default Support class includes a light machine gun, an impact wrench to keep friendly vehicles in working order, and a health pack that can be used to heal both yourself and your team mates. The Support class can later unlock the ability to call in a mortar strike on enemy positions.
Unlocks - XM8 LMG, MG36, MG3, M60 LMG (Find-All-Five), Mortar Strike
Demolition - The main duty of the Demolition class on the battlefield is to keep enemy vehicles out of action. The default Demolition class includes a shotgun to make quick work of close enemies, frag grenades, and a rocket launcher for dealing with vehicles. The Demolition class can also unlock anti-tank mines.
Unlocks - Franchi SPAS-12, NeoStead 2000, Franchi SPAS-15, USAS-12 (Find-All-Five), Anti-Tank Mines
Specialist - Quick and silent, the Specialist class can make quick work of enemies at close range. However with the tracer gun and C4, the Specialist also becomes an intimidating enemy to any vehicle. The default Specialist class includes a silenced, bullet-spitting SMG, a tracer-dart gun, and frag grenades. The Specialist can later unlock C4 explosives, handy for dealing with tanks or gold crates.
Unlocks - HK UMP, PP-2000, XM8C, IMI UZI (Find-All-Five), C4
The Barret M95
Unlocks - SVU, Barret M95, VSS Vintores, QBU-88 (Find-All-Five), Laser-Designator
Ranks
Bad Company's online multiplayer has 25 ranks similar to those of the US army (Private, Corporal, Sergeant...etc). Players rank up by earning experience (XP) from online ranked matches. Each kill, capture, assist, etc. earns XP. The average XP earned per match is 50-650 whilst the highest rank in the game takes 37,000 XP to earn. As an award for ranking up, players are given unlock points which can then be used to unlock weapons and equipment for each class. XP can also be gained by earning the in-game awards.
Awards
When a player achieves a certain objective or goal they will earn an award. These awards have requirements which when met will earn the player XP as well as the award in their "trophy cabinet". There are 60 awards in total and can highly encourage players to do certain things they wouldn't usually do in a normal match. Awards come in the form of patches, wildcards or trophies. Patches are gained from earning a certain amount of trophies and can only be earned once. Wildcards are gained for a combination of different requirements in total or in a single match and can only be earned once. Lastly trophies are gained by earning a certain amount of kills, assists or captures often under strict circumstances such as with one weapon without dieing, trophies can be earned and unlimited amount of times.
Vehicles
Vehicles are usable in both singleplayer and multiplayer however not all multiplayer maps contain each of the vehicles. There are six vehicles in total, heavy tanks, infantry transport vehicles, helicopters, boats, light tanks and golf carts. Unlike previous Battlefield games there are no Jets or any form or airplane.Heavy Tank - M1A2, T90, BLCK
This vehicle has the toughest armor out of all the vehicles and can carry two people at once. One person controls the cannon and movement whilst the other operates the mounted machine gun. The tank will become a huge target and will take heavy fire when near enemies due to them knowing it's power so it therefore needs an engineer to repair it. The tank is fairly slow so isn't a good retreat vehicle although it is equipped with smoke which will cover the tank so it can make a quick getaway when in danger.Light Tank - M3A3, BMD3, STLK
Faster then heavy tanks but also light armored, it is equipped with a main gun which quickly fires shells making it good for taking out infantry and light armored transport vehicles. There are four seats, one person controls the movement and main gun, one controls the mounted machine gun and the last two seats are for infantry to fire their weapons through the rear of the tank. Just like the heavy tank the light tank is equipped with a smoke releaser.Infantry Transport Vehicle - CAV, HUMV, VODN, COBR
Aw, crap.
Helicopter - AH64, KA52, MI26
The helicopter is a heavily armed combat chopper which can hold two players first seen in the "Air Force One" singleplayer mission; it is the only air vehicle. One player controls the movement of the helicopter and the machine gun and missile launcher whilst the second pilot in the cockpit controls the laser guided missile launcher. On most multiplayer maps there is only one helicopter which spawns in the attacker's base but the defenders can still sneakily get control of it. The helicopter is extremely deadly in the hands of two experienced pilots.Boat
The only water based vehicle, this is a light armored transport vehicle to quickly get infantry across a river. It is armed with two grenade launchers and can hold four players. The first player steers the boat, the second two control the two grenade launchers and the last fires his own weapon. Boats are rarely used in multiplayer.Golf Cart
The golf cart is probably the most useless vehicle in the entire game. It is a light armored transport vehicle seen in the "Par for the Course" singleplayer mission and multiplayer map. It can hold four players. But hey, the US army will use anything to win a war...right? It's only use is to get from point A to point B quickly, but other than that it's just there for comic relief.Pay for Guns?
Bad Company was the subject of some online controversy, as a closed multiplayer beta revealed plans to sell additional weapons to players, potentially giving players who spend more money an edge in battle. After a loud online protest, including a boycott led by the game website sarcasticgamer.com, the developer altered its weapon plans letting people who bought the gold edition of the game have the weapons from rank 1, where people who bought the normal version of the game would have to rank up to 25. EA is also running a promotion called Find-All-Five that lets players unlock a different set of five guns for a variety of different tasks: Signing up for the Battlefield newsletter, registering another Battlefield game, checking your stats through the Bad Company website, reaching rank 5 in the demo, and pre-ordering the game.On the 13th of September 2008, EA released unlock codes for three of the weapons that can be entered into the unlock section of the main menu. The fourth code for the USAS12 was discovered shortly after.
- Recon Kit - QBU88 - your3mynextt4rget
- Spec Ops Kit - UZI - cov3r1ngthecorn3r
- Support Kit - M60 - try4ndrunf0rcov3r
- Demolition Kit - USAS12 - aw3somef1rep0wer
The USAS12 for the Demolition Kit can also be unlocked by checking your stats on the Bad company website. While the F2000 for the Assault Kit can only be unlocked by joining the EA Battlefield Veterans website.
Frostbite Engine
Click to see Frostbite in action
The Frostbite Engine abilities are:
- Long view distance with true horizon
- 32x32 km visible, 2x2 – 4x4 playable
- Ground destruction
- High detail up close
- Very high detail in a distance
- Low memory usage
- Multiple high-res height field textures
- Easy destruction of buildings
- Fixed grid LOD with vertex texture fetch
- Normals are calculated in the shader
- Semi-procedural surface shaders
- Allows dynamic compositing
Sequel Announced
EA has confirmed the creation of Bad Company 2, and it is being developed by DICE. It is due for release in early 2010Xbox 360 Game Installation
Battlefield: Bad Company requires 6.1GB of space to install on an Xbox 360 HDD. An advantage to loading from the HDD is that a player will often load and join the game first, this can give the player the ability to capture the first flag in Conquest Mode for an easy 30 Points.Games on Demand
Battlefield: Bad Company can be purchased through Games On Demand for $19.99 plus taxes.
| Game Name | Battlefield: Bad Company |
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| Original US Release |
June 23, 2008
need a fuzzy date? |
| Original US Release |
know the real date? |
| Aliases | bfbc |
| OFLC |
OFLC: M
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| CERO |
CERO: C
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| ESRB |
ESRB: T
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| PEGI |
PEGI: 16+
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| BBFC |
BBFC: 15
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Quick Reload and Weapon Juggling Guide
Information on how to skip loading animation and greatly increase your proficiency with your weapons and tools in multiplayer.
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Gold Bar Locations (Pictures Included)
The locations of all the gold bars
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| Battlefield: Bad Company Multiplayer Guide |
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Xbox 360 Games
a list of 52 items by Matt_
a list of 52 items by Matt_
PS3 Owned
a list of 37 items by Ujio
a list of 37 items by Ujio
360 Games I Willingly Purchased
a list of 92 items by Lockeyness
a list of 92 items by Lockeyness
