Once on the ground, your Recon guy drops a mortar strike on the objective and, through this generous application of explosive force, your team finds ample enough cover to assault the objective. Your Assault guy drops some ammo and you all run into the fray, ready to detonate the box. It's a scenario that sounds fantastic ... and it happens all the time in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
Bad Company 2 is an experience that you can't get in any other military shooter on the market today. The game's impressive Frostbite engine allows for some highly destructive environments, which at first glance is the game's defining characteristic. You can blow stuff up and, well, who wouldn't want to do that?
But as you delve deeper, you find far less cosmetic riches and learn about the wonders of teamwork. One only needs a squad of trustworthy allies in order to discover there's more than shooting dudes and blowing up stuff in Bad Company 2. Each class can take a passive route to partaking in the conflict -- spending time healing or providing ammo to allies or repairing friendly vehicles is a great way to progress in the game and gives shooters of, ahem, poor aim a chance to really make an impact. A collective targeting system, which allows players to "tag" enemies in sight for the entire team lets you swap out instances of, "He shot me from behind the water cooler in the western-most room of the ground floor of building A!" for useful data to be interpreted by the entire team.
And thanks to EA's steady stream of DLC for the game throughout the year, there have been new maps and two more significant offerings in Onslaught mode and the recently released (and surprisingly different) Vietnam expansion. This support has ensured that the game hasn't grown stagnant and given ample reason to keep coming back throughout the year.
Joystiq is revealing its 10 favorite games of 2010 throughout the week! Stay tuned for more must-play picks, and take heed as each staffer stands atop a soapbox to defend those games that didn't quite make the cut. Sorry, Power Gig.
