After a break for lunch (where we entertained an entire pizzeria with tales of Pope warfare and nuclear snot) we were all given a chance to check the multiplayer out on a brand new map called Harvest Day. True to the name it’s set on a farm, with plenty of land, farmhouses and silos around. It’s fun maneuvering tanks and jeeps around the place, as it’s very hilly, and allows for lots of big jumps and exciting moments as tanks come smashing through fences and over the many bridges (which if the defense is smart it’ll take out…)

It’s also possibly bigger than Oasis (a map currently being played in the online Beta), which is a massive map in itself. You’ve got lots of grass and trees to snipe from, and machine gun turrets and rocket launchers to help repel the attackers. The attackers get one of those awesome artillery guns to lay down fire with, and tanks, humvees and other vehicles to go after the bases.

There were 13 players here from various websites, and some in attendance were old school Battlefield vets. I had some real competition there. The guys at DICE offered up various prizes for the game for getting various medals in the game before anyone else, or coming on top in points. And it figures that the only match I dominated in was the first, which was the warm-up and didn’t count. The prizes turned out to be Swedish food products and delicacies, some really good (and strange) stuff. The biggest prize was a jar of lobster balls, which they were quick to point out were just lobster meat packed into balls, and not an anatomical reference. All I got was a pack of delicious jelly rats, though. At the end no one picked up the
lobster balls, mostly because airport security would’ve taken it away
and we didn’t want to have to eat an entire jar of lobster. There were also 3 Gamestop gift cards handed out for the top three players, which sucked for me since I ended up 3 points away from third place. If only I hadn’t killed that one teammate….

While we all had a blast playing against each other, one letdown was the news that there would only be this one multiplayer mode- Gold Rush. The game is phenomenally fun, sure, but a little variety never hurt anyone. There probably will be something in the future to check out via downloadable content, but still… (UPDATE! Dice just announced today that everyone’s favorite Battlefield mode Conquest will be available as a free download in an upcoming update. Awesome!)

For anyone who doesn’t know how it works, Gold Rush is a team game. The attackers are going after crates of gold, and have to destroy them with heavy weapons fire or a planted charge. There are only two available at a time, and if the attackers manage to get them both the defense gets pushed back to the next holding point. It’s here when you realize just how big some of these maps are, as there’s tons of defense points. The defender’s only job is to keep the attackers away from the crates, and keep killing them off. They have a finite number of respawns, so once you take out enough of them out the defenders will win. It’s one of my favorite multiplayer modes yet, as it encourages team play and wanton destuction. It’s very fast paced.

Bad Company seems to take a lot from Call of Duty 4 in that regard. Controls have been almost synched up with that game (same left trigger style aiming, same running by clicking in the left thumbstick, etc.), and instead of dealing with the long respawn times in the old Battlefields you’re in there much quicker… and even given the choice of coming back at your base or directly behind a comrade. It keeps things fast and frenzied, and much more exciting. Gold Rush really is the perfect mode for this game.

There will be 8 maps included in the final game, although we weren’t allowed to check any of the others yet. Judging from the amount of play we got out of the two in the beta, this should be plenty for now. I can see Harvest Day being a fan favorite, as well. It’s just got something for everyone.

A bit of a bummer is the 24 player cap that may turn off a lot of Battlefield vets, but the fact is that this game wouldn’t work with 64 people. It just wouldn’t. It’s already absolute chaos, with explosions, smoke, mortar strikes, and bullets flying everywhere. There’s just so much going on and the maps are already huge as it is… they’d have to be absolutely enormous to fit everyone.

It’s hard out there for First Person Shooters (and pimps) these days, as most everyone is already online playing one of the best ever made (Call of Duty 4), but I have no doubt that this one will suck many people away. It’s hard to go back to another shooter after playing it- it just doesn’t feel right when you’re shooting an RPG at an enemy who’s hiding behind a wall. That sucker should go down, damn it. If the rest of the maps are just as good as the three we’ve seen so far (and I’ve no doubt they will be) and the single player offers us enough variety, this could easily be the FPS to beat this summer.

I’d like to thank Andrew Green and all the other guys at EA and DICE for setting this up and showing me a good time once again. For more info on the game check out the official website.
This last weekend I once again took a trip out to EA’s studio in San Francisco for one of their infamous community days. The trip went pretty much the same as the one for Burnout Paradise (link), which was amusing for me since I felt like an old pro walking around EA’s campus (till I almost got kicked out at the end by an overzealous security guard, but that’s a story for another day…)

Battlefield: Bad Company is an interesting game for me. I’ve tried it out before at a press event in NY last February, and extensively played the multiplayer Beta over the last month. No other time have I been able to get a glimpse into the tweaks that go on as a game that gets closer to release. And tweaked it they have… it’s apparent at first glance that they’ve been working the last few months on improving everything that people requested. Anyone who’s played the Beta- you haven’t seen nothing yet. Contrary to popular belief, developer DICE does indeed take advice from people on their forums, and has been changing minor things to make the game even better than expected.

After getting the tour of EA’s campus we were brought into a room set up for us, chock full of HDTVs and Xbox 360s. We met DICE producer Jamie Keen and got a little introduction to the game, and then were instructed to pop on the systems.

Our first experience with it was a try at the second level of the single player game. This was the same level I had tried in NY, but greatly expanded and improved.

The game shows a lot of variety in this one (lengthy!) level. You’ll take a trip with the B-Company (Bad Company, natch) and take out bad guys who are camped down in a whole bunch of bases. In some of them you’ve got to take out gun encampments, in some destroy their fuel tanks. At the end, you’ll be manning a tank turret and trying to save your convoy. It’s pretty hard, and even though I bailed out of one tank right before it got destroyed for another (I don’t go down with the ship, I watch out for my own ass!) I still ended up getting killed. This was the last mission in the level, and unfortunately since it’s a work in progress the game restarted automatically. To show you how fun it was, though, I jumped right back into it and started it again, checking out different ways of tackling each section and finding a few more hidden gold caches in the process.

Besides the obvious graphics upgrade from the last versions (the thing just plays so smooth), they’ve definitely been adding a lot more to keep your interest in the game high. There’s new optional sidequests, such as finding hidden
caches of gold, and by picking up new weapons (which adds them to your
collection, a great incentive to try new things). It’s a nice way to encourage exploration from the player, a good thing since there’s so much land to cover.

The one thing I’m still not sold about in the game is how your companions just do their own thing with no input from you. This works well in a game like Call of Duty 4 which basically leads you by the hand, but in a game like Battlefield with a massive map to explore, you’ll find yourself exploring all of the place, sometimes without the help of your teammates (or at least until they catch up) Co-op would’ve been great here….

But the scale of the game is truly great. It feels exciting to be able to take your own path to the next target. In one case, you can hijack a boat and run straight up to the enemy’s next base, drive around in a vehicle (to crash the main gate and run into lots more enemies), or simply swim up stealthily. It allows for any number of ways to win each mission, which is perfect for a run and gun psycho like me. Also great is how much variety in vehicles is shown simply in this one level… we’ve got tanks, gunboats, jeeps, and many more. Never mind the fact that the destruction is glorious.

For those who don’t know, one of the biggest selling points of this game is the fact that almost anything is destructible. See someone hiding behind a wall? Blow it up. Those pesky trees in your way? Run them over in your tank or shoot them in half. Enemies coming over a bridge? Lay down an artillery strike on it and take it out. It adds a completely new feel to the game, and to the Battlefield series. Hell, even the ground will end up pock-marked with craters, which you can use for cover.

As producer Jamie Keen stated, they really wanted to focus on the humor of this game now that they’re going after a console experience. Your teammates are very funny, and the humor is laid out both in the cutscenes and the in-game dialogue. It’s hard not to chuckle when you pick up a SCAR and your buddy says “You really want that? That’s a girl’s gun!”

But as good as the single player experience was (and trust me, it shows a lot of promise) the multiplayer absolutely kills it. Dead and to the ground.

(Continued on the second page!)