14 DAY TRIAL // Regardless of its current competition, Battlefield: Bad Company 2's multiplayer demo is tearing up the Internet, making a bee line towards the impressive achievement of becoming the fastest downloaded demo in EA history. Over both the Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, the game's demo has been downloaded over two million times over its first five days of availability. The number is further increased by beta participants of the PC version, with DICE stating that these number in the “hundreds of thousands.”
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to hear that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is already in the hands of almost 2 [and a half ] million gamers, and it hasn’t even shipped yet,” the Senior Producer of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Patrick Bach, said. “This massive rush to experience the game early is proof positive that action gamers are looking for more. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 delivers on every front. This is intelligent, strategic warfare that our competitors simply cannot replicate.” And while “intelligent” may be a bit of a subjective observation, the game is indeed very strategic, requiring a lot more than just “aim and shoot” to win a round.
The PC beta's map of Port Valdez proved that full-frontal attacks would rarely be successful, especially against an organized defense, but that doesn't mean that everyone should just play as a recon and farm the life out of the overlooking hill in the attacker's base. An efficient team is a diverse team, with everyone fulfilling their role while remembering that they have to push towards the goal above anything else.
The game gets compared with and pitted against Modern Warfare 2 a lot, mostly because it's the biggest upcoming competitor right now for it, but also because DICE pretty much looked for this fight. The developer has often voiced its disapproval, and with little restrain, regarding Infinity Ward's approach to the PC version of the title, so it was only natural for gamers to start perceiving the two as rivals. But if there is a game out right now that can move people away from the MW2 multiplayer, that is definitely Bad Company 2, with its vast, open battlefields and team-based gameplay.