The Magical Disappearing Battlefield: Bad Company Stats

Battlefield: Bad Company players around the world just about had a heart attack last night as they logged onto the game to discover their ranks, unlocks, and medals had all been completely reset. Purchasers of the Gold Edition of the game even found that their five very special guns they got for paying an extra $10 had disappeared. Oh no! What are we to do when our stats are erased!?

In the words of the greatest literary mind of our time, don't panic.

My stats were down last night as well, and when I logged into the game just a half hour ago, everything was back to normal. This was an issue that occured on a regular basis with Battlefield 2, and we can probably assume that it will happen on and off with Bad Company as well. The servers go down, and when they come back up it takes time for all of the stats to return. You didn't really think EA DICE would screw up that big, did you?

I've always been of two minds regarding EA DICE's Battlefield series. While I've enjoyed countless hours finding creative ways to destroy my fellow players in gigantic military conflicts, overall the games lacked a certain charisma. The sort of personality and immersion that can only come from having experienced a compelling backstory to the conflict you're involved in. Just like the Metal Gear Online experience is enhanced by playing through MGS4, Battlefield needed a story mode to add a little life to the party.

Battlefield: Bad Company addresses just that issue, adding a full single-player experience to the Battlefield series, complete with colorful characters and questionable moral choices on top of the usual multiplayer mayhem. It's uncharted waters for EA DICE – lets see if they sink or swim.

EA DICE's Battlefield series has been providing PC gamers (and eventually console owners) with solid, entertaining online multiplayer battles for a good six years now. Now that they've proven they can deliver the multiplayer goods they've taken on the single player experience with Battlefield: Bad Company, seeking to provide an offline story mode that is every bit as compelling to the solo-player as the massive multiplayer battles are to the more competitive gamer.

Has EA DICE managed to provide a combination of solo and multiplayer experiences worthy of your gaming dollar, or has the mixed focus resulted in mix review scores? The critics arm themselves after the jump.

Can Too Much Hype For Good Games Kill The Buzz?

I got a call from an Electronic Arts representative yesterday asking me about my coverage plans for Battlefield: Bad Company. I'm busy, and, right now I don't have any.

Honestly, it's possible that seeing so much of the game at so many press events played a part in that.

I try to be curious about everything, but seeing a game — even a good one — so many times can kill the buzz for me.

I've heard other reporters say the same thing about the long-hyped Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway. To be fair, I'd grown weary of the many Spore demos, but I've re-warmed to the game after recent showings (two private demos in the last month — I'm not bragging, just making a point about how it gets around to the press.)

On the other hand, I was asked by a Microsoft representative yesterday what I was most interested in seeing at E3. I said, from a reporter's standpoint: Nintendo's line-up. Because I don't know anything about it.

Nintendo's been shortening its hype cycle. Some developers have called for a shortened cycle too. We gaming reporters certainly need to ask ourselves if long hype cycles are affecting our coverage. My question is if it's affecting gamers as well.

Would you rather know about a game for a shorter period of time?

Bad Company Now Spoofs Gears, Rainbow Six

Fresh off a sendup of Metal Gear come two more amusing trailers flacking Battlefield: Bad Company. One (above) cracks on Gears of War's haunting "Mad World" campaign. The second (below, after the jump) goes after Rainbow Six.

Battlefield: Bad Company Mocks Metal Gear

The promised demo of Battlefield : Bad Company is now live on Xbox Live, alongside a demo of Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution, giving gamers a lovely choice between creating and destroying. The Bad Company demo comes in both single and multiplayer flavors, with the single player giving you a taste of story-driven sandbox gameplay, while the multiplayer portion lets the more competitive among us battle it out in the objective based Gold Rush mode of the game.

The Civilization Revolution demo also contains both multiplayer and single player gameplay, and while I am no expert I am going to go out on a limb and say there is some civilization building going on.

Both demos weigh in on the hefty side, with Battlefield at 1.5 GB and Civ at a slightly more modest 1.25 GB. Enjoy!

Demo: Battlefield: Bad Company [Xbox Live's Major Nelson]
Demo Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution [Same Guy]

Bad Company Gets More Free DLC

Battlefield: Bad Company Official Ship Date

The Gold Edition pack features exclusive content with behind-the-scenes action and strategy videos giving Battlefield: Bad Company players tricks and tips on how to own the battlefield. The Gold Edition also gives gamers early access to five unique weapons that players can take into battle. These weapons can also be unlocked after the launch of the game by ranking up to the highest level in multiplayer mode.

Bad Company Drops Weapon Charges

All guns are available to everyone. However, we want to give some exclusivity to those who buy the Gold Edition. They will get the five Gold Edition weapons from Day One when they put the disc in. People that don't buy the Gold Edition can get the five additional weapons by getting to the final rank in the game.

I'd been playing around with the Bad Company beta for a few days when McWhertor asked me what I thought of it.

"It's OK," I said. "Hey, is this the one that's free, or that other one?"

McWhertor tells me I'm confusing it with Battlefield Heroes.

"How much are they charging for it?"

"$60"

"WTF! That's insane, it's fun, but $60?"

But ten minutes later I'm back on the game and I can't seem to stop playing it. I even sneak in a piddly five minutes of playing between the time I put the Lemon Chicken in the stove and I need to come back up to check on it.

It's an addiction!

Battlefield Bad Company Beta Leaked?

Remember how you could download the Guitar Hero III beta and play it on your 360? Well the same demo participation may be working with the Battlefield Bad Company beta...in a less than official manner. Reports are coming in that the beta software has been uploaded to the web—a version that is DVD-R burnable and will play on a modded 360.

It's a bit too much work/questionable legality for our tastes, but let us know if you've a friend's cousin's roommate has had any success with stealing the otherwise free product. Oh, and if you're really interested in Bad Company, be sure to check out our impressions. We used the more traditional game art for that post.

Battlefield Bad Company beta leaked, playable? [Xbox360Fanboy]

EA Responds to Bad Company Weapons Charge

Remember the brouhaha last week about the discovery that Electronic Arts may sell additional weapons in their upcoming shooter Battlefield: Bad Company?

Electronic Arts today got back to us with their take on the whole situation. In a nutshell, yes, they will be selling some weapons through microtransactions when the game comes out. But EA says that you can get those weapons for free if you buy the Gold Edition. They also say they will have plenty of other weapons they're giving away during promotions leading up to the launch.

Here's their official take:

EA Charging For Bad Company Weapons?

Word from the Battlefield: Bad Company beta test is that several weapons in the game's arsenal are locked, with "Available for purchase on Xbox Live Marketplace" notations next to them. In total 10 weapons are listed as for sale, with five of them also available in the Gold Edition of the game. What this basically means is that people willing to drop a little extra cash, be it in the store or on Xbox Live, will have more weapons to choose from than someone who scrapes together just enough to pick up the game itself. This is not the way microtransactions should be used. Cosmetic additions and extra maps are all well and good, but allowing players to pay in order to get a leg up on the competition is just slimy. Multiplayer games suffer from enough balance issues without this sort of thing going on. Where will this lead? Perhaps eventually they'll allow you to purchase a much better surrogate player to represent you in matches, taking the term "professional gaming" to an all new level. Maybe we can pay for ammo next! "Everybody down! He bought extra clips!" *sigh*

EA charging for weapons in Bad Company Beta [Xbox 360 Fanboy]

New Battlefield Bad Company Screens, Vid, Beta

EA Dice is launching a beta for IGN readers allowing them to check out Battlefield: Bad Company on the Xbox 360. IGN and EA says they will be giving keys away to IGN Founders' Club and IGN Insider members and the public in North America and the UK.

Keys for the test, which start on March 25, will go out through FilePlanet, IGN, GameSpy, TeamXbox, Planet Battlefield and Voodoo Extreme. GameStop will also offer 5,000 keys on a first come, first serve basis for the Xbox Live beta.

The multiplayer beta test will let gamers check out two maps, access infantry kits and vehicles and blow shit up in the game. The beta will also have an unlimited upgrade tree and rewards.

Hit the jump for all of the details.

At last week's GDC, I had the difficult assignment of attending EA's DICE studio event. There, hanging out at some hipster nightclub, I was forced to drink free cocktails while grabbing whatever bite-sized gourmet morsels that were passing by on silver trays. While you'll hear more about the night as embargoes lift (Battlefield: Heroes and Mirror's Edge), I first want to tell you about some time I spent playing Battlefield: Bad Company multiplayer on the Xbox 360. You know, it's that Battlefield game coming for consoles that features the oft-fabled destructible environments.

How was it? Fun, but not revolutionary.