Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Technically I ordered it today (expletive filled attemps previously notwithstanding) Swifty and the beta is downloading now.. I think if you order even after today that would be the case.

 

Lots of issues with lag and crashing atm, which they're apparently working to address...

edit:
got on a decent server and things seemed to calm down a bit..

I like their take on teh sniper..You're not drunk looking through the scope, just extreme tunnel vision..
Snipers just like old BF games, one shot one kill in the head.. Big maps though so it's hard to figure out where snipers are (mani will love that).. Though they have the kill cam feature so you can at least get an idea

Lots of terrain destruction and things to obscure lines of fire.. Biggest threat to your long distance shooting is some idiot on a tank shelling the crap out of position forward..
Explosions smoke and debris play havoc with sighting, which gives the grunts decent cover againts long range fire

 

If it stays stable long enough I'll do some fraps

 

I've been caught up in some car purchasing stuff, so I didn't get home until late, then spent some time with the kids. Downloading now. Probably won't post first impressions til late Friday/early Saturday morning.

 

Its the same that I got last night at around 11:30pm. I got into the game for about 5 or 6 minutes before CTD. I may have to upgrade my old 4850 to a 5850 before the end of February, but also it could be the buggy beta code thats in the game now. Looked beautiful, but at 1680x1050 / high settings it seemed very sluggish.

Seemed the need for Medics is pretty high though. As soon as I entered the game and wasn't attached to a squad, as soon as someone saw me as a medic, they quickly gave me a squad invite. But why would a medic want a spray n pray gun? I'd prefer something with a little more accuracy.

 

Last night my impressions started out kinda bad because of all the glitchy-ness of the experience before ever getting into the server.

To that end, Mani's right, there's a LOT of issues with the server browser and crashes to desktop.. The friend list not working is a big drawback atm as well because most servers are unstable or don't let you in, so when you find a good one and your friends can't see it, you have no way to play together.
Though it is beta, so meh.. Seems what they have to work out is their server interface and netcode more than anything.

With that out of the way..

Overall the gameplay (once on a nice stable server) was really smooth, and the rush gameplay type flows quickly, and can make for some nice epic battles.

The beta map is really well done, so that bodes well if they keep the quality up. Lots and lots of cover, places to hide, chokepoints, areas to really get entrenched. Lots of emplacement guns too, TOW missiles and machine guns for added defense, though admittedly you become a big target using one.
The structures (fences/walls/trees/buildings) range from being completely to partially destructable... So you can blow walls away to take a different course or clear a line of sight. The same goes for building walls..

I played as a sniper one round racking up a bunch of kills shooting out of a small bedroom window, surviving unscathed, perfect firing position. Another go at the same map, a tank shell tears the whole wall out and I'm left with no cover whatsoever, when I headed back to the position.
Also used C4 to blow a section of wall open so my squad could assault through the house and flank the enemy from another side.

The unlock system gives you weapons and gadgets that are tied to "classes" or unrelated and can be used by any. So you could have a recon with a sniper rifle or give him a shotgun, depending on what role you decide to play. Though some weapons are only available getting kills as a particular class. On the plus side though, you can still rack up points getting kills towards your class in a tank as long as you're wearing your recon/medic/engy/assault costume, so same old bug as regular BF2.

The assault class is pretty basic anti-infantry, "take that objective" class.
The Engineering class is light anti-infantry and anti-tank, repairs as usual.\
The Medic class strangely has a heavy machine gun, most likely because they've removed the heavy class from this game, but it's an odd choice. They do seem to be somewhat rare.
The recon class, well the maps are big so initially you'll see a lot of snipers, and they can be deadly but of limited use. At the moment, it's all sniper rifles, but they get quite a few interesting gadgets as they advance. Though if you have too many of them, you probablly wont be winning the map.

Gameplay (again, on a stable server) was really smooth, and almost entirely (except the first map I played on) lag free. Decently fast paced, and like other BF series games, it rewards teamplay. Too many solo people don't get the job done. To run around re-arming and reviving your teammates while taking objectives, you'd do quite well.

Only a few vehicles on that map, so not too overpowered, and with so much cover and line of sight issues infantry can definitely be a threat to them.

So far server browser and out of game interface aside, I like what I'm seeing with it.

 

Exactly Hamma. How many times on Broadside did you wish, "Hey, if I just had a shaped charge here, I could run and get that flag."
Now you can.

Daleon, how old is your card? Can't be much older than mine (about 2yrs).

I can't wait to get into it more on Saturday. While the Friends feature is disabled, we should still attempt to all play together on Saturday night. At least over TS we can get an impression of what everyone else is going through. And if you don't have the game yet or on the fence about getting it, people can 'tune in' and hear those of us that have it and our perspective.

Not to mention, if Mani plays and Asp is in game with him, think of the hijinks that can happen!

 

Which from Mani's perspective would be constant CTDs and much consternation.

I just unlocked a laser designated mortar strike, so quite a bit could happen

Sad part is, even if we got on the same server the team assignment is random, so you'd have to keep dropping (not a problem in beta) and relogging to try and end up on the right team

 

Hmmm, with that setup it shouldn't be giving you lots of problems. Perhaps some of the older generation Radeons aren't having the issues you're having. Got a 4850 in here now.

But the impressions I am getting out of this game is that you will definitely need the help of your squad mates to get anythign accomplished. And the squad has to be a squad; medic, assault, sniper, etc.

 

I had to lower my resolution to 1280x1024 just to get decent frame rates due to (I hope) buggy beta code. I'm sure they're doing checksums and data integrity tests during this beta, so it's not to be unexpected.

Played with TB and Asp last night. And we were all in agreement; a side of Dragonwolves could probably win these maps. I was a medic, TB I think was our engineer and Asp provided cover for us as recon. Just the three of us managed to (almost) turn the tide of battle in one game. While TB went for the caches to blow up, I was right behind him providing him support fire and revives. Asp was in the trees taking sniper shots at the enemy. And we systematically moved from objective to objective that way. It was a thing of beauty.

 

Get ready for shorter games coming up until they fix it with a patch... (though good that this came out during beta instead of release)

Someone had mentioned you can destroy the objectives in RUSH games with explosives, but I never really attempted it until last night. Wow..

I've got a new assault setup to join Mani now, my recon with a thompson SMG, and 2x C4. I destroyed 2 objectives during a match this way and racked up points massively... (kills/assists/objective dmg/objective destoryed/following squad orders) One match had over 8000 points.

Sounded all fine and good until you realize everyone is going to start abusing this.. Later on in the night i saw matches get blitzkrieg'd and end after only 5 minutes or so. Now all you need to win is a group to storm up to an objective in a tank, jump out and engage/kill the defenders while one engy/recon plants C4/mines at the objective, and detonates them; instantly destroying the objective.. It can take all of 5 seconds to accomplish and the defenders have no real way to stop it.

they really should make the objectives impervious to damage (or give them a LOT more in terms of health), and force people to arm it like a bomb.

Played a bit with Swifty last night, he seemed to catch on quick, was fragging all kinds of people..