Bad Company 2 Beta

Sorry for lack of contributions, been very busy with uni and the like. Anyway, there is a Bad Company 2 MP beta up on XBL. It's only one level but it's massive and fun. It's Attack and Defend. Defenders must stop attackers from detonating charges, attackers have to detonate to win. What's interesting is that the map evolves as the game progresses. If attackers succeed in detonating the two charges then the map opens up to show two more and this happens around 3 times but only if the attackers manage to push forward. Sometimes they hardly manage to fetonate the first two and the game stays in one area. The destruction really adds to the whole war experience and is very refreshing and the sound is stunning.

The classes are pre-set: Assault, Medic, Engineer, Recon but as you level you will unlock more gadgets and weaponry.

This certainly is a change from MW2 and to be honest I welcome it. EA/Dice have really worked on this game and it shows.The first BC was a bit dull and they have realised their mistakes. I'm not expecting this to dethrone MW but I hope it succeeds. MW2 has been riddled with hacks and glitches since release and joinging a game (on PC) couldnt be anymore fustrating, it's as if the patch has made it worse. The game is still fun but connecting has become a chore. Certainly a step down from the smoothness of COD4 which i may go back to.

But seriously try out the beta...it's free.

Unfortunately, MW2 has definitely pissed me off so much, I just won't be playing it any more. Which means IW is losing out on quite a fair amount of my money (I will not be buying MW2's map packs, nor will I be purchasing Infinity Ward's next game).

Battlefield BC2 certainly looks like fun, but unfortunately I can't download the beta because I used my real birth year (which is interesting -- last I checked M games were rated 17 and older... in which case, it's bullshit that I can't download M-rated content...)

much of IW's misfortune comes from the poor timing of new hacking programs released around the same time as MW2. i never got into the BF series until 1943, but if my friends are persistent enough i may pick this up. i was already planning to at least try the demo.

I beg to differ. Much of IW's misfortune comes down to flaws with the core of the MP system.

- the spawning system is clearly flawed (you can get your face popped off, you can get stabbed in the back, you can get hit by a javelin, etc. the second you spawn in)

- the care package marker + knife glitch could have easily been fixed if IW had tested the game (which they admitted they didn't test multiplayer)

- the game rewards idiots*

- akimbo weapons are (mostly) unrealistic (bad for a game that clearly tries to be realistic)

*they won't have exceptional kill-death ratios, but the game still rewards stupidity. Marathon, lightweight, commando pro, and... tac-knife. Who ever thought that was a good combination. Or, given IW's ego -- which leads to their inability to test games -- perhaps a better question would be: why didn't anyone think that the combination would be a disaster?

So yes, maybe the XP glitch is a result of hacking programs. But you cannot deny that things like the Javelin Glitch, the Care Package/Knife Glitch, and the Unlimited Care Package Glitch are things that could have been fixed in beta testing.

Then, there are the weapon balancing issues:
- the M1887 is still overpowered (doesn't feel any different than before the patch, they've just changed the graphics a bit)

- Bling M1887's (that is, akimbo + FMJ) are worse than they were before the patch

- the M203 "noob-toob" is ridiculous (I understand the fact that it's a grenade... but it needs to be harder to aim/use and it needs to slow you down -- it's nearly 10 additional lbs of weight added to your weapon).

- SEMTEX has too big a blast radius, making them too easy to get a kill with whilst...

- ...regular grenades are too difficult to avoid because of their unrealistic effective-radius (which extends way past the actual blast radius of the grenade)

Finally, the Game Winning KILLCAM gives away the biggest problem of all... in the (modified) lyrics of Jon Lajoie:
Guns don't kill people. Lag kills people... with guns.

The fact that 99% of all bullets fired DO NOT HIT YOU, yet you still die. The best example is where you get hit, and you move behind a SOLID BRICK WALL, thinking you're safe, and then suddenly you die.

Way to go, Infinity Ward. You pulled a GTAIV -- awesome single player, but an inherently flawed, shitty multiplayer. (At least Treyarch's "World at War" multiplayer felt balanced and didn't piss me off...).

IN CONCLUSION:
- if Battlefield BC2 sells well, maybe Infinity Ward could actually learn something about making multiplayer games
- if Battlefield BC2 sells well, maybe Infinity Ward's ego will be affected: maybe they won't be so stuck up and arrogant about their next Call of Duty game

So in that regard, I really hope Bad Company 2's multiplayer knocks people off of Modern Warfare 2. Maybe that'll make Infinity Ward rethink their game a little?

- the spawns have always been iffy. the description of the tac insertion even makes fun of this point.

- as with any game that has this volume of players, these things are going to be discovered sooner rather than later. there was no beta for this game either, which probably would have caught a few of these.

- i wouldn't say reward, but it does make an effort to help them out. considering the massive audience, it wouldn't be smart to alienate more casual players, so we have things like deathstreaks. at least it helps prevent one sided slaughters, in some cases. ever played on the terrorist side of Bog on CoD4? it's not fun.

- it doesn't go for sci-fi, if that's what you mean. realism stops with the weapons themselves. besides, akimbo is just another option, and a poor one at that. no one uses them seriously, so it doesn't hurt.

- bling 1887's are identical to prepatch version, not worse. they're still going to be patched again, but the first time was enough to eliminate the sheer number of users to negligible levels. those that still do use them can't scour the map with lightweight/marathon anymore, either. the regular version is a poor choice compared to the other shotguns now.

- the noob tube is a viable option with Danger Close in this game, and though it may still seem cheap, those who use it rarely enjoy killstreaks. it's a tradeoff, really.

- semtex are interesting, but nothing worth complaining about. they're tough to avoid if thrown accurately over a long distance, but so are well-cooked grenades. speaking of which, regular nades are only deceiving because they roll just enough to be problematic. still not a problem to avoid.

- killcams suffer from lag the same way anything else does. slo-mo magnifies this. what looks like a miss on the cam was actually contact on the killer's screen. i've been accused of this enough to know the difference.
of course, i'm constantly killed in the manner you mentioned, but this is an inherent part of most online gaming, unfortunately. i simply try to avoid those situations to begin with.

It also doesnt help that theres a hate-base for this game thats as rabid as the fan-base. as soon as IW patch something, new cheat is thrown in. IW's ego has certainly flawed them this time round. At first the MP didn't seem all that bad but it's getting worse as each update is released, its hard to find games, hard to connect to those found, how does COD4 manage to still run all silky smooth yet MW2 has so much lag? The beauty of COD4 was the simplicity and efficiency which has been thrown out the window. However the SP was and still is quite stunning, too bad the MP flopped in the end.

The BC2 demo is still going strong and I havent encountered any faults yet. I've only spawned in front of enemies once which was annoying but bound to happen when playing an A+D game at somepoint.