Section 8 is set in a futuristic universe where players can customise their armour and weapon loadouts depending on their style of play. So you could have a Sniper Rifle with a Rocket Launcher as your secondary and change your armour settings so that you are invisible to Radar and carry your own Repair kit to keep you going between Sniper positions. I went with the Assault Rifle and Rocket Launcher combo and put my Armor points into shielding and armour so I could take a punishment and still win over my opponents. In addition as you play through a match you acquire exp points either through killing the other side or by taking Control Points and completing side objectives. Which you can use to deploy turrets/supply dispensers/additional sensors and to games two vehicles an anti-infantry mech that as Gatling guns and an impressive melee that will take out any poor soul who is front of the mech and the
games ultimate weapon the tank which seats four players who control a different gun expect the pilot who has the main gun and has to drive. The vehicles are brought into the game via some kind of dropship, which can be shot out of the sky before it drops off its payload, to the annoyance of the guy who spent all those points.

At the moment there are two gametypes; you have your standard Team Deathmatch and a capture points gametype that is very battlefield-esque. The game supports 32-players which is a little low for a PC game, I would have expected alot more, but it does not hamper the gameplay. As with the TDM gametype your player ‘burns in’ to the game from around 15,000 feet and plummets towards the earth, you could go straight down and land but you are then venerable for a few seconds as you gather yourself, the alternative is the ‘air brake’ which allows you some control of descent as you plummet but you can also be targeted easier by the AA guns, the best feeling is finding the right time to use the brake and swoop around the AA fire and land near or on top of the CP you want to capture. You can also land on people if you get it right and crush them as you start, which is fun when they do not notice you, before its too late.

The CP gametype has a default of 1000 points for the team to reach in order to win, you can obtain points by killing the other team, capturing/holding CP’s or completing one of the many side objectives that make this game interesting, sometimes the mission could be a simple one like ‘drive a supply truck to your base’ or it could be a lot harder such as activate a beacon (which deploys a mini base) and defend the area from attack for a certain amount of time. They are fun and add variety to a gametype that hasn’t changed much since BF:1942 in 2002.

The sounds and Graphics are great, again showing us like Valve, Epic Games knows how to make a brillant engine that can handle anything.

It is coming the UK around the end of august 2009 for the PC/Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and will have a full single-player campaign based around the missions of a character call Alex Corde, I will expand on this in a full review upon release.

Minimum system requirements:
Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista SP1
Pentium 4 3Ghz or higher
RAM: 1GB for XP, 2GB for Vista
6 GB free hard drive space
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 or ATI Radeon X1800 with 256 MB, DirectX 9c and Shader 3.0

Developer

It took me awhile to purchase this title as the previous Battlefield Console only game ‘Battlefield 2: Modern Combat’ was a poor game that didn’t really convey what Battlefield game play involves, Bad Company changes all that and improves ten-fold. The main game play mechanic in Bad Company is destruction, 92% of buildings can be blown apart and trees fences and walls do not stand a chance against a casually thrown grenade or tank round. This actually improves the pace of a game because you can no longer count on
hiding in a house or behind walls for cover, you have to keep moving as your cover could go at any moment.

The single player story is very light hearted from the way the squad takes to each other and the in-game cut scenes that are played throughout the game. The story revolves around hunting for gold that a merc group called ‘the legionnaires’ carry with them as payment for there services. The story is well thought out and introduces you to all the vehicles and weapons of the multi-player and is a definite improvement of bot matches from previous BF single
player outings. The maps are pretty huge and they give you a lot of freedom to accomplish your goals with added achievements for finding gold and new weapons throughout the level. The only downside is that there’s only one mission you get a helicopter as it finally easy to fly a helicopter in BF and very enjoyable.

The Multi-player is as always the reason for buying a Battlefield game and it is as addictive as previous games, the new game type ‘Gold Rush’ is a great improvement to ‘Conquest’ and is worth playing time and time again. There are five classes Assault, Demolition, Recon, Specialist and Support. They are all very balanced against each other and feel useful in a match. The game supports 24 players on PC-Dedicated servers so there is virtually no lag at all. As stated before ‘Gold Rush’ is the new game type and the setup of the game is an Attackers vs. Defenders scenario. The eight initial maps are Harvest Day,
Over and Out, End of the Line, Ascension, Valley Run, Deconstruction, Oasis, and Final Ignition, each with destructible environments, certain atmospheres, and vehicles. One team must defend two crates filled with gold while the other team attempts to destroy the crates. Once the crates are destroyed, more of the map is available to fight on with new crates appearing, along with added reinforcement numbers. The attacking team has a limited amount of respawns to achieve their goal of capturing the 3-5 gold stashes either by setting charges or simply destroying the 2 crates of gold at each base. The defending team has an unlimited amount of respawns available, but their goal is to exhaust the attacking teams respawns. To aid the teams are many Vehicles ranging from a main battle tank to a golf cart. As with previous BF games, players can earn ranks and awards as they play through the multi-player.

Age old battle of Tank vs Helicopter

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Is BattleField Bad Comapny worth buying?

Accessibility – 85%
It is easy to pick and play the learning curve is very gradual through most of the
single-player but with multi-player you will find it easier if you are a PC gamer playing on
a 360/PS3 but if you have never played any of the BF games on a PC you will find it
difficult at first.

Sound – 90%
The effects are brilliant from walking over different surfaces to your ears going partially deaf
as an explosion goes off near to your location. The music is well done with a nice remix of
the Battlefield theme in the main menu.

Graphics – 91%
Some of the animations on the buildings as you blow them up and the fact that a window
explodes when you melee it, Is the only downside to a very good looking game. Even when all
24 players are fighting with explosions going around there are no noticeable drops in the
frame rate. The Trees and Landscape are great to look at and the player models look great.

Reliability – 95%
with hidden gold bars to find in the single player and a great multiplayer this game will
keep you coming back for more and more.

Overall – 90%
Well worth the purchase if you own a 360 or PS3 and makes me want to buy Bad Company 2 for
the PC when it is released. It is a great alternative to other Modern Combat shooters such
as Call of Duty 4 among others.