Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Bad Company 2, is that possibly a sequel to Battlefield: Bad Company?

Correct! The awesome Swedes at Digital Illusions return to B-Company to continue its successful Battlefield franchise. The popular concept is used again, we choose to play as different types of soldiers, this time four of them (assault, engineer, medic, or recon) and run around the various maps, where the war rages. You choose among various weapon kits and drive around in tanks, quads and stationary machine guns. It's essential to learn the map and use the ancient art we call team work.

It's online war by the barrel, then?

At least that's where the focus is, and Digital Illusions have themselves called campaign mode a "longer tutorial", designed to get the player used to multiplayer. It has dedicated servers for PC players, something Dice have been nudge-nudging Infinity Ward and Modern Warfare 2 for. If you've tried the multiplayer demo that has been out for download for some time, you know roughly how it will work. In the demo the game mode is called Squad Rush, where two teams of four compete against each other and either defend or attack keypoints on the map. Either you sit and camp with the sniper rifle on those who try plant explosive devices in communications buildings, or you're one of those who try to reach them yourselves. Squad Deathmatch is a variation on this where we mostly just throw ourselves at each other with murderous eyes, and the classic Conquest Mode is also here.

My house mouse chewed through my network cable last Thursday. How's the single player mode?

Lousy rodent. As a consolation, you will see Sweetwater, Haggard, Sarge and Marlowe of the infamous B-Company again. This time, the quartet are freezing their asses off on guard duty in a snot-cold Alaska, where they encounter signs that the Russians have a huge weapon, which could pose a formidable attack on the United States. In pursuit of this weapon B-Company travels over various locations in America and fight among both icy snow environments and tropical heat.

Can we expect the same buddy-movie atmosphere as in the first game?

That mood has been toned down. In Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Digital Illusions are obviously trying to do something new, and have asked themselves the question of how the guys would react to more serious situations. In the first game the gang mainly fought for gold and personal gain, but this time the scenario of threatened homeland is more serious. We'll see if we're going to miss the buddy-movie aspects when the game is released.

I am an angry individual who often wish to blow up the entire world.

How appropriate! Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has improved the impressive destruction from the first game and Dice hope that this "Destruction 2.0" should make us think about virtual battlefields in a different way. If a silly sniper camps in a dusty attic somewhere is a visit not the only option, you might as well try to make a pile of rubble of the whole building, with a well-aimed tank shell. Of course buildings will collapse in single player mode aswell.

So is this worth getting?

Absolutely. Digital Illusions know what they are doing and from the courses we've played this is great action. Dice has also listened carefully to fan suggestions and polished a lot of things, from the fact that the enemies are artificially intelligent enough to use large areas better, to that the weapons do just the right amount of damage in online matches. But most of all, we get to experience the chaos on the battlefield, the intense fighting when a match slowly shifts to a sweet victory by a brave fighting force. Nothing raises the pulse as much as winning a Squad Rush by slowly fend off the enemy further and further away...