The study, "Playing By the Rules" was undertaken by Pro Juventute, a Swiss children's rights group, and Track Impunity Always (TRIAL), which is concerned with international criminal justice. Their report provides a legal analysis of the conduct enabled by the games.

Rather than play the games themselves, the two groups sent expert observers to watch serious gamers play through and then note the egregious acts they saw. Here's what they had to say about Battlefield: Bad Company.

In the scenes, there seems to be no assessment of proportionality in the attacks realized in civilian areas and we do not know, whether precautionary measures were taken to minimize civilian casualties and damage to civilian objects. However, in a real life situation, one is often confronted with similar circumstances: regular armed forces and irregular armed groups are very unlikely to give any information about the planning of the preparation of military operations to international organisations or human rights bodies. Without such information, it is difficult to establish that a military operation was not proportional, in particular whether the attacker took all the precautionary measures necessary to avoid, and in any event to minimize incidental loss or civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects."

In addition to the extensive destruction, some of the scenes portray the members of "Bad Company" taking gold and "treasures" found in the civilian houses they have just destroyed. Upon obtaining them, the players get points. These actions amount to pillage, which is strictly prohibited under IHL and thus have also been labeled as "strong". This illegal action is confirmed in one of the scenes where you can hear a member saying that "Pillaging is an old war tradition." Pillage is considered as a war crime both in international and non- international armed conflicts.

I'm thinking that asking the goons of Bad Company to take precautionary measures for anything would be a little like talking to a cardboard box. It's also amusing to me that a basic, nonviolent scavenging mechanic rates a "strong" violation of international law (which it would be, if it occurred in real life) and is called out as a war crime.

Anyway, the study had a number of recommendations. Among them is a call for clearly defined rules of engagement.

It would be very useful if developers would incorporate more specific rules on how to conduct an operation in their games, in terms of the weapons allowed, the behaviour allowed, the military targets sought, the degree of collateral damage permitted, etc. The message of the scenes should never be that everything is allowed, or that it is up to the player to decide what is right and what is wrong. In real life, this is not the way it works.

If you want to dive into more killjoy gasbaggery about Modern Warfare, World at War and - Jesus, True Crime Streets of L.A. is in here? Who did they find to play that? Anyway, you can grab your copy of the report here [pdf.]

Fighting Fair: International Humanitarian Law As Applied to Games [Game Politics]

The scramble started when GameStop published a 24-hour promising deal promising access to the PS3 beta beginning Nov. 19. EA DICE's Twitter shot down the story and the deal was later unpublished.

Then, to Blend Games, EA said: "As for the beta, we'll have more details later this week." So, there you go. While those beta invite emails were bogus, it looks like the beta isn't, and might be coming sooner than we thought.

EA Confirms Bad Company 2 Beta, Details Coming This Week [Blend Games via Blue's News]

Xbox LIVE Marketplace has the game's manual available for downloading, and, as of time of posting, Xbox LIVE has the game's PS3 manual available for download. Doh!

Those who have purchased the game on demand, we hope you can work out what the corresponding Triangle, Square, Circle and X buttons.

Xbox LIVE Marketplace | BF: Bad Company [Xbox.com Thanks, John!]

Army of Two, Battlefield: Bad Company, Devil May Cry 4, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction all get the price drop and new packaging effective June 16.

"Games deemed ‘Greatest Hits' have reached a significant sales threshold. This latest selection features several critically acclaimed titles, including Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and Metal Gear Solid 4, which represent the high caliber of quality software that is available on the PS3 system," said Scott A. Steinberg, vice president, product marketing, SCEA. "We're looking forward to making this group of best sellers even more accessible to consumers, while we continue to deliver more value to the overall PS3 platform."

Sadly for fans of the core series, it's not one of those games. Instead, it's a sequel to last year's Battlefield: Bad Company, is being developed by DICE, will be out on the same engine (so don't expect any drastic changes) and is scheduled to appear in early 2010.

The maps are converted singleplayer levels from the game’s campaign mode, tuned up for conquest mode, Gordon says.

The rest of the zunecast "blogcast" deals with the GTA IV Live Weekend (about to expire) and about 30 minutes of major Zune pimpage, including a not-so-arch remark about how well it works with the 360 and how "other devices" don't because they "changed their protocol." Who knows, maybe all this cross-marketing is Microsoft tipping its hand toward bringing Zune Marketplace to Xbox Live. Remember, both services are down at the same time, beginning at 12:01 a.m. PDT tomorrow.

Show #294 [Major Nelson, thanks Nathaniel V.]

In addition to that change, the official Bad Company site writes that further tweaks are coming, including technical performance fixes and the availability of bonus weapons, previously only available to those who had pre-ordered or opted in to the newsletter. Boosh! Wait... that's not right.

September 9th News Update [B Company News]

Coming from a background in film I can tell you being a Foley artist or a sound designer can be two of the most stressful, but creative jobs in the business. This new developer diary from Battlefield Bad Company shows that even in games, these positions still require a ton of work. It's really fascinating to see what kinds of audio aspects they take into account when creating the game.

Earlier this morning Fahey filled us in on Bad Company's upcoming conquest mode which you can download later this week. In this video EA Dice Producer Gordon Van Dyke illustrates what you can expect. It marks a return to very a familiar style of gameplay for those who are veterans of the Battlefield series. Best of all it's coming to you free of charge!

Look for the update this Thursday for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game.

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?

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.

Loved

Story Time: The single-player story mode isn't just a humorous chance to collect weapons and escape inept multiplayer teammates. It's effectively the best Battlefield tutorial ever, familiarizing you with the weapons and mechanics of the game before you even fire a single online shot.

Real Characters: Your single-player teammates might not be the most helpful rag-tag band of misfits, but at least they're entertaining. Monster truck-loving Haggard and Steve Buscemi-channeling Sweetwater are definitely two guys I'd love to hang with.

Go Your Own Way: The sandbox nature of the game's single-player levels make for a wide variety of ways to get from point A to point B. Want to sneak through the forest on foot? Go for it. Prefer to follow the main road in a heavily armed and armored tank? Knock yourself out. Even levels that see you piloting a tricked-out gold helicopter could theoretically be tackled by landing the copter early on and hoofing it. This makes for tons of replay value.

Ultimate Destruction: Nearly everything in Bad Company blows up real good. Buildings, sandbags, crates, etc. are only cover until hit with the right amount of firepower. Blowing away a wall with a rocket launcher to reveal the delicious candy center (and shoot them) never gets old.

Massive Multiplayer: Battlefield multiplayer has never been quite so entertaining. Splitting up large teams into four-man squads was a brilliant idea, and when your teammates are really communicating and coordinating the gameplay really shines.

Unlockable Arsenal: I really enjoyed the fact that leveling up in multiplayer gives the players unlock points, allowing them to choose which items and weapons they want to add to their arsenal as they grow. Do I want to start off with the devastating ability to call in air strikes, or should I go for the simple survivability added by the health injector? A variety of player builds leads to variety on the battlefield, which is good.

Hated

Implausible Healing: The military has a syringe you plunge into your chest that constantly brings you up to full health? Why haven't we taken over the world yet? The healing mechanic is a bit ridiculous, and coupled with the fact that you respawn exactly where you die in story mode makes the single-player game far too easy.

Real Dumb Characters: Your AI teammates in single-player are relatively useless. This isn't a squad-based game by any means, but I would have liked to think they had my back. Instead it felt like I was completely carrying them the whole way. They should have allowed me to shoot them all and take the gold for myself at the end of the game. After all, I'm the one who earned it.

My only other real qualm with Battlefield: Bad Company is the lack of any kind of co-op mode for single-player. With B Company comprised of four guys I would have liked to get my friends in on the action, but I can't really hold this against DICE. They've only just gotten the hang of the single-player experience. Maybe next time. Otherwise I found the game to be one of the more enjoyable FPS experiences I've had in quite awhile, both online and off.

Battlefield: Bad Company takes the established multiplayer excitement of the Battlefield series and adds a compelling single-player experience to create one of the most enjoyable installments of the franchise since the original.

Battlefield: Bad Company was developed by EA DICE, published by EA. Released on June 23rd on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Played single player campaign to completion at normal difficulty, rose five ranks in multiplayer.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

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.

Eurogamer
...that famed Battlefield freedom has finally been translated into a coherent single player campaign, where your choice of route can have a distinct bearing on your chances of success. Governed by a linear succession of objectives, the route you take to get there can often be genuinely up to you. Be it stealthily on foot, sniping everything from afar or storming the gates in a tank, you simply use whatever hardware's at your disposal and set about taking down everyone in your way, in whichever way you can. With gunships and motorboats occasionally upping the ante further still, the moments when Bad Company is firing on all cylinders are thrillingly epic.

GameTrailers
Bad Company has a slightly different feel than other shooters, and not just because of the much higher things-blown-up to things-not-blown-up ratio. Weapons feel powerful—especially considering how destructible most of the world is—but accuracy isn’t as unnaturally precise as it is in some other shooters and this can make weapons feel less lethal. On the other hand, fans of shotguns will be very happy at the effectiveness of their weapon.

GameSpot
Be sure to crank the volume up to 11—Bad Company has some of the finest sound design out there. A sniper shot echoes perfectly through the mountains, while indoor firefights are so loud you may want earplugs. Visually the game does not fare as well. While it's by no means ugly, there is a strange graininess on each texture. Even looking into the clear blue sky in the first scene of the game, you'll be amazed at how fuzzy it looks. Of course, the destructible environments and exciting explosions make up for any graphical shortcomings.

TeamXbox
Battlefield: Bad Company knows what it wants to do and does it. The gameplay is simple and easy to wrap your mind around, but opens up to a lot of different strategies. The explosions are visceral and fun, and the game looks great too. Yeah, I bitched about the color palette, but there are moments when you realize they’re going for that smoky, hazy look that a battle-ravaged landscape would have and it’s O.K. It may not be a magnum opus like GTA IV, but Battlefield: Bad Company is a great piece of mindless fun to waste away some hours with this summer.

Not nearly as bad a company as I was expecting.

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?

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.

Despite all that has gone on with this game in the past, I kinda do want to see what this one is all about. It gets really enervating playing tactical shooters that faithful adhere to painstaking rules of engagement, when all you want to do is huck a grenade and wade into the firefight. Whether indulging that release is enough to sustain an entire game, I dunno, but I at least wanna see it.

"This is supposed to be a stealth mission!"
"Why?"

You have no idea how many times I have had that same conversation with a game.

Battlefield: Bad Company Trailers Parody Gears of War, Rainbow Six [Joystiq, and thanks to Mike for the YouTube links yesterday.]

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]

Gold Fever Hits an All Time High With the Upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company Single-Player and Multi-Player Demo

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—You've been drafted to 'B' Company! DICE, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced that a demo for its highly anticipated summer release, Battlefield: Bad Company™ will be available on Xbox LIVE™ Marketplace1 and PLAYSTATION® Store1 on June 5. Players will land on the battlefield as part of the 'B' or Bad Company, a wayward band of soldiers more interested in the pursuit of gold and personal financial gain than following the rules. Gamers will get a sneak peek at how tactical destruction changes the way shooters are played, both offline and online in the single player and multiplayer demo.

Players can also gain early access to the demo by pre-ordering the game through participating retailers in North America and Europe. More details on this special pre-order campaign can be found at http://www.battlefield.com/badcompany.

Players who missed their opportunity to participate in the closed beta get a second chance to experience the intense multiplayer Gold Rush mode on the Oasis map while the single player portion starts gamers at the beginning of their 'B' company career. The single player portion of the demo sets the stage for players as they're introduced to the humorous and sometimes irreverent set of characters that make up the 'B' company. As gamers embark on their quest for gold, they'll experience the same classic Battlefield gameplay including access to numerous vehicles, weapons and open maps as well as the new tactical destruction that only Battlefield: Bad Company can deliver.

In stores on June 25 in North America and June 27 in Europe, Battlefield: Bad Company is developed by Sweden-based developer DICE (Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment, www.dice.se). The game will be available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and is rated "T" by the ESRB and "16+" by PEGI.

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.

The Blockbuster Entertainment Experience of the Summer Isn't at the Movies... Battlefield: Bad Company Ships on June 23

Special Gold Edition Offers Fans Exclusive Content at Launch

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Prepare for the gold rush! This summer, the blockbuster action event of the season will not be in theatres. EA DICE, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced that Battlefield: Bad Company™ will ship to retail outlets on June 23. Action fans and gamers worldwide will get their chance to join the 'B' company on exciting, sometimes irreverent, missions that take them through deserts, cities and mountain terrain to capture the spoils of war. Players will experience the tactical, destructive power in the deep single player campaign or go online for intense multiplayer action that only the Battlefield team can deliver.

For a limited time only, gamers will be able to purchase the Gold Edition of Battlefield: Bad Company. 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.

"Players can forget about using walls as cover as we've fundamentally changed the way to play shooters offline and online through the use of tactical destruction," says Karl-Magnus Troedsson, Senior Producer for Battlefield: Bad Company. "Players will get the chance to reap the spoils of war this summer as they annihilate the enemy and search for gold in the dark, character-driven, single player storyline while returning Battlefield fans will love the intense and vehicle-heavy multiplayer."

Developed by Sweden-based developer EA DICE (Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment, www.dice.se), Battlefield: Bad Company will be available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. The game is rated "T" by the ESRB and "16+" by PEGI.