SIONG'S LIFE: May 2010

By: [MBT[UltimaWeapon

The sound of explosions, of rifles ejecting bullets, of your teammates shouting away from a distance, people running from one corner to the other, of cannons blasting away with echoes of sniper rifles being shot in the background and of buildings crumbling, those were the objects of fascination and usually associated with heroism, excitement, action, leadership, teamwork and maybe fear for some. It was, one of the things that most people have often tried to imagine themselves to be in. In the midst of a battlefield, the feel of covering for your squad, planning ahead the path to thread and threats to eliminate next, has made a great deal of excitement in a lot of people. It was a wonder, how would it feel like to be in the situation of a war? With immersive sounds supported by Dolby Surround, and believable graphics, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 makes explosions right next to you. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was developed by DICE, a Swedish company well-known for its Battlefield series, and published by Electronic Arts. DICE was the company which revolutionized the multiplayer component of gaming, where 32 players can play in the same field where previously, it was limited up to 8 players only on other games. In this game, although the single-player component is not the main selling point, but the game play was very well worth the money paid.

Battlefield:Bad Company 2 single player campaign focuses on a squad known as Bad Comapany, consisting of Sarge, Marlowe, Sweetwater, and Haggard which were characters from the original Battlefield:Bad Company 1. First mission starts off during WWII which serves as a background to the story and tells of a weapon of mass destruction developed by the Japanese during WWII. The weapon was then acquired again in the modern day and threatens to unnerve worldwide safety. With your squad of four, and armed with modern day variety of weapons and rifles such as the M16A4 assault rifle, AKS-74u, M95-Barrett sniper rifle, M60 Light Machinegun and UMP-45 sub-machinegun, your mission is to prevent the destruction of the world and recover this weapon. The excellent sound design further enforces your sense of place. Though there are some blurry textures, occasional screen tearing, and awkward moments caused by the pervasive environmental destructibility, these are mere blemishes on the ambitious look and immersive sound of Bad Company 2. Environments range from lush and dense forest with even mosquitoes buzzing to snowy locales which the howling winds could literally chill your ears.

With the new Destruction 2.0, every building, every nook and corner can be used to your advantage or disadvantage, working like a double edge-sword. Almost every building and structure can be leveled to the ground and many a time, this has been used to achieve objectives, either by killing enemies or crushing your objective. Any object you find in the environment can either be your worst enemy or your best ally depending on situation. Often, you would find yourselves running for a new cover when your previous cover was blown to bits, maybe from a cannon shell or making new cover for yourselves by blowing up the walls of a nearby building. This adds to the unpredictability and often you would find that you will never stay in the same place even in different rounds of the same map. Never are two games the same, even the way objectives are achieved or places which you used for cover, which promotes for creative thinking such as hiding a tank in a building or even using a C4-rigged UAV to blow up buildings. When the building starts creaking, it’s either run or risk being crushed.

Multiplayer wise, depending on your preference, there are four kits available which are: Assault, Medic, Engineer and Recon. Main tasks of the assault would be the main attack force in the front, pushing enemy lines back with a number of rifles, while the medic provides first-aid healing and reviving fallen teammates armed with his light machineguns. Destroying objects are the specialty of the engineer and his arsenal of rocket launchers and mine. Lastly the recon scouts and spot enemies for his teammates while providing the quick elimination of sniper rifles. The sensation of getting a sniper headshot after a careful target lining up while compensating for bullet drop is very satisfying is also part of the war-stories told after having played the game. Balance is not a question as even snipers requires two shots to kill unless it’s a headshot, which is an instant death for the target. With ACOG and RDS as unlockable options, accuracy is no longer an excuse for missing targets.

With over 51 weapons and 16 vehicles such as Abrams, Bradley, Bakhcha, Hind and Apache, there are almost countless ways to do what you wish in the game, and achieving the objectives of the 4 available games mode including: Rush, Conquest, Squad Deathmatch and Squad Rush. Each game modes play distinctively from each other, being Rush having to either defend or destroy stations situated across the maps and conquest to capture and defend flags for points. In terms of multiplayer experience, the main concern was of lag issues. Lag or latency is the way how a game compares the timing difference between you and other people. This is important to determine the hit rate and whether does your firing actually hit a moving target which either results in your target surviving or meeting his fate. Even for countries far apart, such as between the United States and Malaysia, the lag was very much playable due to the dedicated servers available for the game with a large number of locations for each region. This ensures that there are no arguments on who has the latency advantage as everyone is tuned to the player with the highest latency.

In Malaysia particularly, the Battlefield community was spearheaded by the Malaysian Battlefield Team (MBT, www.mbtcentral.net). MBT was established in 15th September 2006 by four gaming enthusiast with the sole intention of creating a dedicated, well managed and reputable organization of gamers. MBT focuses on First Person Shooter genre game the Battlefield series from Electronic Arts and other titles which emphasize teamwork play. Since then, with limited means of advert MBT has grown steadily over the months and the number of members has increased from a mere 8 to currently a total of 51 and still counting. Anyone from Malaysia is free to apply for membership which is only given after a week of trial playing with current MBT administrative personnel. Members are then divided into divisions according to their preference, such as the Alpha ( α ) division for frontal assault and Borneo Head-Hunters ( B[H]2 ) division for reconnaissance and sniping. Although each player is free to switch between kits, each division they belong are expected to perform tasks provided over the VOIP system, Teamspeak 3 which promotes teamwork and tactics. For best gaming experience, MBT has started their own dedicated servers based in Singapore which guarantees a much lower latency for players in the region. To play in MBT servers, search for MBTCENTRAL.NET and you’re in for a blast!

Having being said, the Battlefield Bad Company 2 game is indeed a well-worth for money game to get. There are no further doubts about this and could easily be one of the better FPS games out at the moment. With the unpredictable single-player and action oriented multiplayer, coupled with the dedicated servers, especially the MBT servers in Malaysia, it’s time to blow things up. Excuse me while I see an enemy in my 12x scope, I have a bullet here with his name on it.

Pros: - Destruction 2.0, Balanced Weapons, Vehicles, Large maps

Cons: - Not much variety in game modes, Very addictive

Thanks to Gest, Guardian77, Mobster, Wallydragon, Apam_Savior

No Thanks to Schizodroid