Battlefield: Bad Company 2

"Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is one of the best shooter of this generation. The game has steel-solid mechanics, top gen graphics and an incredible multiplayer.  EveryEye.it
"a remarkably improved single-player campaign that openly mocks its rival while cribbing from them at the same time.  Game Informer.com
"With new destructable environments and new game modes Bad Company 2 is the best Battlefield game so far.  GameStar.com

IGN.com 9 of 10
It's only been a couple of months and 2010 is already shaping up to be one of the best ever for gamers. If your wallet hasn't already been emptied, Electronic Arts and development studio DICE have tossed yet another videogame on the pile that can't be missed. Battlefiled: Bad Company 2 ups the intensity and visual prowess of its predecessor, while still delivering one of the most compelling multiplayer games around...If you were to buy Bad Company 2 solely for the single-player campaign, you might come away a bit disappointed. That's not to say it's particularly bad in any way, but it doesn't feel impressive enough to stand on its own as a great experience. Once again, the multiplayer game is the star of the Battlefield show...The single player campaign follows the story of a rag-tag bunch of soldiers as they traipse around the world on the hunt for a mythical weapon of mass destruction which absolutely must not fall into the hands of the Russians. It's a typical story of unlikely heroes as they attempt to save the world, and it will take you across a great variety of locations that range from frozen mountains to densely packed jungles...What struck me as most impressive with Bad Company 2 is how flexible the multiplayer game is. The class system allows you to choose what your approach to battle will be. It's the maps and modes included in this package that allow you to choose exactly what kind of game you want to play. There is a huge difference between the giant and extended team Rush games -- an attack and defend mode which plays out across expansive maps and features vehicles heavily -- and the tighter Squad Deathmatch games which can feel just like your standard frantic and close-quarters shooter. If you care for something in between, you can just hop into a Conquest game to try your hand at the classic Battlefield fight over specific areas controlled by raising and lowering flags. Regardless of your mood, it feels like Bad Company 2 has something for you...Those looking at Bad Company 2 as only a single-player game might come away disappointed. It's an action packed, gorgeous, and explosive game but it doesn't quite come together into a campaign for the ages. It more feels like an added bonus to the multiplayer game and for those in search of that, this is a great choice. Bad Company 2 as an online shooter is flexible and engaging, offering several features that the competition can only dream of. If you're looking for a more strategic and team-based change of pace, look no further. This is the game for you. - Erik Brudvig

DarkZero.com 10 of 10
We at DZ Towers really liked the first Battlefield: Bad Company. It wasn't quite as tight as Call of Duty 4, sure, but its multiplayer modes had a much heavier emphasis on teamwork, and the campaign mode -- while plagued with its own troubles -- had a genuine sense of humour -- something that's sorely lacking in videogames, especially within the often po-faced FPS genre. Since then, we've had another excellent Call of Duty title (and a relatively lacklustre one, but shh) -- and now Bad Company 2 is with us. So, how does DICE's latest effort compare?...The campaign mode in the first Bad Company managed to upset quite a few people, not least because it demonstrated pretty clearly that DICE hadn't really made a single-player FPS before. Battlefield: Modern Combat had an ostensibly single-player mode, but most people agreed that simply taking the various multiplayer modes and populating them with AI-controlled soldiers instead of other players didn't really constitute a proper campaign. So, Bad Company's campaign was a brave step forward for DICE, who saw fit to include such quirks as your character simply respawning somewhere else every time he got killed -- which is fine if you're just playing as a succession of faceless soldiers, but the game put you in the boots of Private Preston Marlowe, dumped in a squad of outcasts -- the titular Bad Company -- for going joy-riding in a helicopter. So, you'd find yourself charging into battles, not worrying too much about death, whilst also wondering why this one character is able to keep fighting no matter how many times he gets blown up. At least BioShock's vita-chambers had the decency to try and make sense within the game's narrative...Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is as complete a package as you could ever ask for. An exciting and charming campaign mode -- a little on the short side, but no more so than Modern Warfare 2's, and with extra objectives for you to hunt down should you feel the need -- and slick, incredibly rewarding multiplayer modes that actually bring people together instead of making them all swear at each other via the internet, and provide enough scope for you to come away from each session with your own unique war stories. Multiplayer-heavy titles can be a fickle beast, but we're pretty sure we'll be playing this one for quite some time to come. - Sean Bell