Battlefield Bad Company 2 online experience

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Duck and cover, "Modern Warfare 2." There\'s a new first-person shooter gunning for your crown.

Though its release is more than two months away, "Battlefield: Bad Company 2" from Electronic Arts is shaping up to give Activision\'s blockbuster a solid run for its money.

The "Bad Company 2" beta offers a glimpse of what promises to be a rich online multiplayer experience, putting the spotlight on its exciting "rush" mode. In "Arica Harbor," as many as 24 players battle for control of a dusty South American port town.

It\'s the attackers\' job to move sequentially through five points on the map, blowing up the defenders\' "m-com" stations as they go. They win if they destroy all 10 of the crates. But if the defenders can reduce the attackers\' 100 lives, or tickets, to nil, they prevail.

Players have four classes from which to choose. The assault class has access to rifles such as the M16 and possesses the ability to resupply teammates with ammunition. Engineers carry submachine guns, heavy explosives and a drill to repair vehicles. Medics are armed with light machine guns and can heal or revive teammates. Lastly, the recon class sports sniper rifles and enemy-detecting mines.

As players rack up points for completing objectives such as blowing up a crate or healing a teammate, they gain access to better
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weapons, gadgets and specializations for the classes, much like in "Modern Warfare 2."

Of course, it wouldn\'t be a "Battlefield" game without vehicles. Hummvees, heavy tanks and ATVs are featured on the Arica map, as is an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, which can be used to call in devastating missile strikes. As with the classes, vehicles can be upgraded to dole out or absorb more punishment.

"Bad Company 2" clearly favors gamers who work together. Headset-equipped players grouped into four-man, mixed-class squads — regardless of whether they were attackers or defenders — succeeded more often than not during my time with the beta.

Tactics are critical, even when playing as a lone wolf. The ebb and flow of battle on the Arica map changes as it shifts from the first point\'s exposed border control station to the second point\'s claustrophobia-inducing town. The third point has the attacking team pushing from the town to take a bridge held by the defenders. A mix of close-quarter and long-range firefights dominates the final two points of the map. The fifth point, in particular, is the scene of some of the map\'s fiercest conflicts, as the defenders make a last stand at a partially constructed building.

Unlike "Modern Warfare 2," cover is fleeting in "Bad Company 2." Shells fired from tanks, plastic explosives and even grenades can reduce a building to rubble in a matter of moments. The destructible environment forces players to stay on the move — and makes the game that much more engaging.

Is the beta perfect? No, but it\'s surprisingly close for an early build. Electronic Arts will be using feedback from players to fine-tune the game, something Activision did not do, ahead of its March 2010 release.

At first glance, "Modern Warfare 2" and "Bad Company 2" appear to inhabit the same universe. Both take place in the near future, feature a similar cache of weapons and thrust players into a confrontation between U.S. and Russian forces. But with much still unknown about the single-player campaign and other multiplayer modes of "Bad Company 2," it would be premature to call one game better than the other.

by Jason Green

[HempStCrew Don]

Nice read. MW2 is already dead to me in a sense. To much BS...private matches are a blast still. I played for 3 hours on rust the other day...crazy 5 man throwing knife battle. It was awesome.