Battlefield: Bad Company
Bad Company? I can’t deny it. I thought I was done with the Battlefield series of video games. I delighted in the WWII exploits of 1942 and played some BF: Viet Nam and BF2. When the series went futuristic I bowed out but something – probably the happy faced grenade pin – lured me back. I opened my mail and found the 360 version. “Fine, I’ll trade it maybe and get the PC version.” Wait… there is no PC version?
I like the Xbox 360 fine and like Live, but I prefer my shootin’ with a mouse thanks. Oh well. I put it aside and started playing other games.
What is it about a happy face on a grenade? I found myself picking it up and looking at it. Playing Team Fortress 2 on the PC and thinking “Why aren’t there happy faced grenades?”
Is it the 70’s “Have a Nice Day” T-shirts I used to see – everywhere – as a child? Maybe the one with the bullet hole in Watchmen? The Viet Nam-esque “FUBAR” irony that saw happy faces painted on bombs? Something made me crack the shrink wrap and pop it in….
Well, it finally came out. I’m not done with it – I want to play Civilization Revlolutions for a while – but I have loved my time with Bad Company. The single player is decent for a change, but it’s the idea that the bushes that sniper is in can be razed to the ground. That a building is no longer safe from explosives and from plowing down a small forest of trees – and the infantry who were using them as cover – with a giant tank.
All this I have done my friends and I did it while the kids were far from the screen …
Bad Company is rated T-Teen and that feels about right. There’s lots of killing – the game plays like Paintball or LazerTag, only there are explosions and nobody falls down accidentally or catches a paintball in the eye. It’s like playing soldier or cowboys and indians only nobody can stand up and say they weren’t shot. There’s no blood. Rough teamwork always wins the day and anti-social behavior isn’t tolerated (or at least, another game is around the corner on Live).
I hope it comes to the PC too.
Am I playing Bad Company? I can’t deny it.
July 17th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
In Unreal Tournament 2k3 and 2k4 the Flak Cannon shells had happy faces on them. Made me laugh every time I saw one coming at my head…. 🙂
July 17th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I’ve only played the demo and I liked the campaign for the story but online was awful. Not because of any sort of gameplay bugs or issues. The servers were just awful. I’d shoot a tree and stop firing and then it would fall over literally 3 seconds later. Of course this problem isn’t in the actual game (well I’m assuming”. Also, the guns feel really ineffective because of the loose handling of the guns closeup. Fun to blow things up of course. Graphics are also really good in this game.
July 21st, 2008 at 1:03 pm
I have finished the game and enjoyed the single campaigns as well. I did love being able to plow down the trees and making my own doors into buildings. I really liked the audio setup and the way they handled it when you were inside buildings compared to shooting outside the building.
July 21st, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I wonder how the sales are going? The game earned some ill-will due to looking over-zealous with the money grab …
July 14th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
gonna try to get this game