Battlefield Bad Company 2 - First Impressions

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I have a headache this morning. That headache is left over from last night.

That headache is from too much BFBC2. Now let me say I've played through the first couple missions of the single player mode, so this will focus mainly on the multi-player mode.

And really, the online play is what drove me to buy this game. First let me say the demo and the game are different beasts. The medic doesn't start with a defibrillator or medpack. The engineer can't repair anything. The infantry can't restock anyone. At least not until you unlock those items for each class. This is not like the demo at all.

Also, it seems the point values are too low. 34,000 points to get the ultimate sniper rifle? In just a couple of hours I had 7,000 points. Within a few days it should be possible to unlock the sniper completely. A far cry from the determination that games like Warhawk demand to make general.

That said, the game controls are tight and it is a lot of fun. I played on my own some, then with an online friend, and meant to quit. I didn't and played for a while longer on my own again. I have the 15 sets of dog tags to prove it too.

I love the dog tags, great to know who fell into your knife range. To my victims, well enjoy the respawn screen.

The game play was enjoyable, but in looking at the leader board, more than a few game shops must have broken the embargo. As of 10 PM PST last night one of the top players had 36 hours in game. To do that, there has to be at least enough players to start a game so WTF? I would expect the game developers to reset the stats just at release time. How does one spend 36 hours online playing with multiple other people when the game was released less than 24 hours before?

Oh and, there's this note inside the box that early adopters (before April 1st, 2010) who buy the game will get two free maps on the first day and free access to maps later on. At first I thought this meant I had to go to the online "store" in the game to get these updates. Turns out I didn't have to download a thing, they are already included.

On my wish list, I would put a training or play alone mode to get used to things like the helicopters and such. I haven't figured out a way to do this yet. Also, if there were more specialty items (such as the repair wrench) per class, that would be awesome.

So bottom line, is the game worth the money? Yes, if you don't let the leader board thing bother you.

As for single player mode, I've still got to play that. The online game is just too much fun.