bdood0895 said:
I am a try-hard Call of Duty player, and have really enjoyed Call of Duty 4, and Modern Warfare 2. But, I was thinking about looking into Battlefield 3 when it comes out, but i am a noob to the franchise. So I have recently decided to look into buying Battlefield Bad Company 2 to see how much i like it. I know that Call of Duty and Battlefield are two different types of shooting games; with Battlefield being more of a team based, or team oriented shooter, and Call of Duty being... well, you know, Call of Duty. My question is this; How team based is Battlefield Bad Company 2? Is it team based to the point where if I have no friends to play with I will lose, or is it more of the, "Teamwork is recommended" type of game? I am open minded to a team based shooter, and not going to be the, "Medic-who-never-heals-anyone-because-he-saw-a-dude-over-there-in-the-bush-kind-of-guy," but have no real experience with one... unless you count Borderlands.
Also, I am playing it on Xbox, and would like to know how many people still play it.
Thanks in advance
First off, if you need any friends to play with BFBC2 with you, send me a friend request on the 360 (My GT is on my profile page). I play it actively and am (with all modesty) pretty goddamn good. And I have a few friends who play with me who are also pretty good, so I can get you a few people to play with (not a clan or anything. Just guys who play the same game.)
That out of the way:
BFBC2 is definitely a team game. But, thanks to the way it's structured, you can still play it as a team game, even without a mic while you play with strangers. You see, at the end of the game, even though there's a leaderboard, the only K/D you can see is your own. How is the leaderboard structured then? Score. And how do you earn score? Helping your team.
Capturing/destroying objectives earns you 200 points (to put that in perspective, most people consider getting 2000 points in one match pretty good). Getting a kill nets you 50, which is useful, but not the best way to get points. Dropping an ammo box for some allies will get you 10 points each resupply (you'll normally get several off of each person to use it), and 20 for each if a squadmate to uses it. Medics get the same points breakdown for "heal"s, but also get a bonus of 50 for each revive and
80 for reviving a squadmate. You can also get "spot" assists by tapping the back button while looking at an enemy, making an orange triangle appear on both them and their location on the minimap for your allies (you don't show up on the radar when shooting in BC2, so "fanning" the back button while searching for enemies is a crucial tactic to get down), and a "spot" assist actually gives out more points than a normal "kill" assist. And there are a lot more of these that encourage teamwork as well. (For a
complete points breakdown, check out this link [http://battlefield.wikia.com/wiki/Score].)
The game also tries to encourage more teamwork by restricting game chat to your squad only (squads consist of four man groups, each team has twelve people, so optimally there are three squads per team. But sometimes people play in private squads, which can screw it up a bit). When you're talking with only three other people, it's a lot easier to talk tactics than when you're talking to eleven other people. Plus, when people only have an audience of three, the GIFT [http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/215499488_8pSZr-L-2.jpg] tends to be diluted.
The game does allow you a stream of communication to the rest of your team, though it's sort of hit or miss: Pressing the "back" button over an ally can give any of about a dozen context sensitive calls out. For example, if you press it while looking at a vehicle with an empty seat, your guy will shout out "I need a ride!" (or some variant) and an arrow will appear over his head on the minimap to encourage your ally to pick you up. If you're an engineer, though, and the vehicle is damaged, he may instead shout out "Hey, I can fix that!", and a wrench will appear on the minimap for the vehicle driver, telling him that you want to help. Medics can also be hailed for health, and assault classes can be called over for ammo (What's cool is that medics can see ally health bars (other classes can only see squadmate health bars), and call them over for a medkit. Assault classes have something similar.).
Of course, sometimes the game sends out a command you didn't mean (for example, asking a driver to let you hop in when you meant to say you wanted to repair him (two requests that get prioritized differently when driving a vehicle)). And since the minimap icon that shows up fades relatively quickly, someone playing with a low TV volume may not notice you called out to him. And even if he hears you, you can trigger the command to shout out even when someone is farther out than the minimap's range, so they won't know where you are. It's still nice as a way of letting people without mics communicate though. (And even if you don't know exactly where someone is, hearing "let me repair you" when you're in a tank at least lets you know to stop because someone nearby wants to repair you, even if you don't know where to go).
TL;DR: GET THE GODDAMN GAME, IT'S AWESOME.
HerbertTheHamster said:
Every vehicle (all 5 of them) is useless except the tank due to the rpg+tracer being imba.
Now, I'd like to give you the benefit of the doubt and
assume you appended that with a silent BOCTAOE. But I can't see how that statement leaves an opportunity for one, so:
No. Just no. Nonononono.
I'm trying not to be "that guy" and say outright that you suck at the game, but I can't think of a way around it...
I'll be nice at least say this: You might be good as an infantry unit. I dunno.
But clearly you suck in vehicles. I went on a 12 kill spree in one of the buggies on Heavy Metal as the driver. As in, I got 12 road kills in one life. My main gunner got at least 6, and I know the guy riding passenger got one or two of his own. In a buggy on Heavy Metal. The second lightest vehicle in the game (just above the ATV, and I'm pretty sure they technically have the same armor, just the buggy has better weapons) on a map that is vehicle-centric (I don't think there's a single part of that map where there are less than two tanks that will spawn, correct me if I'm wrong).
I'll admit that wasn't exactly a
usual game, but it wasn't that unusual either. I very frequently use light and medium vehicles in the game, and I very frequently do well in them. Tracer dart + RPG isn't imbalanced, it's exactly what it should be. A way to take vehicles out quickly and efficiently while working in a team. If you're in a vehicle and allow the same engineer to put a tracer dart on you
and lock onto you with an RPG? And then you die?
Your own damn fault for letting him kill you before you killed him.
And if two or more people work in tandem to kill you? Then they deserve the goddamn kill, because they're operating as a unit to quickly take out enemies. Do the same back at them, and get your buddies ("buddies" herein meaning "teammates") to help cover your tank from enemy fire. That's what I do.
The only two vehicles in BC2 that aren't useful for combat are the ATV and Jet Ski. (And the Tuk Tuk if you count BC2 Vietnam). And those are meant for quick and dirty insertion into enemy lines, not for combat. So no shit they're no good for fighting. (And that isn't to say I haven't gotten one or two combat efficiency pins while dicking around with buddies on them, either. Just that they aren't
meant for doing that.)
The only complaint about a lack of balance in BC2 that I find legitimate is one regarding scoring for medics. Even then, their class is at least more-or-less balanced combat wise (the slow movement speed and reload time tend to cancel out the LMG's power and clip), only becoming annoying when there's an entire squad of them reviving each other. And frankly, no one should care that much about score. (Even though it is nice to use as a point of comparison for friendly comparison)
