We really like Battlefield: Bad Company 2. In our review, we gave it a solid 9.5/10. It’s really surprising to see, then, that DICE’s executive producer Patrick Bach says he is ‘ashamed’ of the game and cannot even get himself to boot it up.

“I don’t know why, but I always feel ashamed about the games I’m involved in making,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “I can’t even bring myself to start up Battlefield Bad Company 2, our last game, because I feel so ashamed. I know it is a great product but still I only see the things we could have done better.”

He then went on to say that the studio is currently working on removing any unpolished elements in Battlefield 3 in time for its October end release.

“We are focusing on cutting the bad stuff rather than adding and changing things. Instead of adding ideas, we are removing problems, and that is what our testers are helping us with.

“We have deleted portions of maps, we have skipped passages in the single player campaign. Everything that doesn’t meet our standards we chop out. A lot of games fail at that, they seem to think more is better and often, that isn’t the case.

“Everyone in the team has been sucked into the idea that this will be the ultimate game. And when you feel that you have to ship a tiny detail which isn’t perfect you feel extremely disappointed. But to be honest, when you look at the game it is pretty cool. You just have to step away from it.”

We recently posted a hands-on preview for Battlefield 3’s multiplayer beta, and we thought that despite some issues, rough edges and bugs, it was still shaping up to be solid. Read the preview here.

Battlefield 3 releases in October end for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

The new add-on will have four players playing as a team, facing endless hordes of enemies who just want to put a bullet in your head, have lunch, take a quick nap in the living room and kick some ass again.

It sounds hard, but we have got some advice from the executive producer Patrick Bach on how to play this mode properly:

“Keep your squad tight and make sure to experiment with a mix of different kits. It’s all about finding the right weapon for the job. You wouldn’t try and blow up a tank with a sniper rifle – even though you CAN headshot people with the repair tool, actually.”

The Onslaught DLC was recently released on XBLA as well.

Included are bug fixes, glitch fixes, crash fixes and weapon tweaks. Check out the full list below.

Client R7 changelist.

• MP – New Server browser
• MP – Added 15 second spawn timer for Conquest/Rush gamemodes at the start of round to prevent high end machines getting the upper hand before other machines load in.
• MP – Crash fixes relating to ALT+TAB at different times throughout the game
• MP – Hang fix when trying to connect to a full server multiple times
• MP – Deletion of soldiers now possible through the account pages in game
• MP – Removed screen flash during loading
• MP – Added support for colour blind players
• MP – Fixed crashes relating to faulty server banners
• MP – Servers closing during connection no longer cause the client to hang
• MP – Auto team swap reflects correctly in the scoreboard
• MP – Fixed scoreboards when switching teams before spawning
• MP – Rush scoreboards fixed
• MP – Veteran ranks no longer display as “12”
• MP – Isla Innocentes MCOM building fixed where knifing the fence would destroy the building
• MP – Logout/Login button correctly reflects the player status
• MP – Added minimum number of players needed to start a round (you can still start playing and take objectives but you won’t get any score until 4 or more players join the server)
• MP – Isla Inocentes welcome message on the loading screen now fits the text box area
• MP – Reduced the brightness in Russian vehicles
• MP – Medic gadgets now display correctly if the defib is not unlocked
• MP – Server filter options are remembered
• MP – Punkbuster filter now works as intended
• MP – Scroll bar no longer overlays the Join Server button in the friends list panel
• MP – CANCEL server refresh is implemented
• MP – Zooming in on a friendly using the SAIGA no longer causes the crosshair to disappear
• MP – The chat no longer displays the incorrect player name when appearing
• MP – FoV switches to the default value of 55 when entering vehicles to prevent graphical glitches caused by wider FoV settings. The custom FoV returns when exiting vehicles.
• MP – FoV no longer causes the UAV station to rotate
• MP – Fix to correctly display the unlock progression at the end of round
• MP – Chat functionality will no longer freeze after writing a partial message at the end of round
• MP – One account can no longer connect to the same server multiple times
• MP – Squad Death Match is correctly named during loading
• MP – Server browser no longer gets a bad FPS when filtering Conquest
• MP – Server info banners correctly clear between displays
• MP – Setting display settings which the system hardware can not handle no longer makes the game unusable
• MP – Correct camera collision for vehicles’ heavy machine gun
• MP – Game no longer crashes if the player sends a message in the loading screen
• MP – Trying to join a full server no longer causes the game to hang on Please Wait message
• MP – Most server filter options are remembered it doesn’t remember the setting in dropdowns
• MP – Kit/gadget loadout saved between sessions
• MP – Window on static guns is now transparent on DirectX 9 systems
• SP – Fixed crashes when patching and trying to resume a campaign (there is now a message that you need to re-play the latest mission from the beginning)
• SP – Fixed a crash after the “Upriver” mission end cinematic
• SP – Supply create at “Resupply at Flynns create” objective now supplies weapon ammo
• SP – Hang fix when reaching the objective “Destroy Enemy Zu23”
• SP – Fixed hang after “Storm Cockpit” objective
• SP – Changed melee attack raycast to be detailed
• SP – Game no longer crashes when transitioning between SP_03B to SP_04A when installed in Polish
• SP – Game no longer crashes when killed by the first two enemies in the trenches on SP_01 when installed in Italian
• SP – Updating to R7 will invalidate your single player save game. If you update you will need to play your last mission from the start. If you do not update you will not be able to play multiplayer.

Server R10 changelist

• Punkbuster is required ON for ranked servers
• Ranked servers cannot be started with a password
• Autobalance message goes to text-chat instead of in the middle of the screen
• Added weapon balance tweaks to a number of weapons- we are eagerly awaiting feedback!

We aren’t going to tell you what weapon balance tweaks we have done, we want your unbiased views on the changes before we detail what has changed.

These are the kind of moments that happen all the time in Bad Company 2, and that’s what makes it such a thrilling and engaging game to play.

The single player in Bad Company 2 has taken a massive overhaul since the last game. It’s much more linear this time around, so you don’t have the freedom to choose how you carry out each objective. This works to the game’s credit though, as it is made up by the cinematic and engaging gameplay. You play as a grunt in a misfit group of soldiers on a hunt for a secret Japanese weapon that the Russians are tracking down for their own diabolical uses- it’s a heavily clichéd story, but a functioning one. You travel from snowy mountains to rich jungles, and there is a healthy mix of on-rails vehicle action and straight up tactical shooting.

The AI has taken a step up too; no longer can they see you from massive distances. You can now sneak up on them, and once in a fight they will take cover, throw grenades and advance on your position. The difficulty settings are a little bit under developed though- higher difficulty settings just seem to make them do more damage per bullet, rather than actually making them smarter.

Of course, one of the big draws of the game is the new Destruction 2.0 system. Whereas in the previous game, you could only destroy walls and bits of roof, now you can level entire buildings with a (few) well placed mortar strikes. This creates a whole new dynamic to the gameplay, as destroying a building the enemy is holed up in will kill all and any inhabitants. Taking cover behind a flimsy sheet of steel or wood is also risky, as a heavy MG will make short work of it.

The multiplayer is what Battlefield is all about though, and it delivers the goods and then some. There are 4 modes (that might seem a little paltry to Modern Warfare 2’s 10 modes, but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality), and each one offers a unique experience. Rush is very similar to the last game’s Gold Rush, in that there is an attacking and defending team. The attackers attempt to destroy two small MCOM stations, and when they are destroyed another section of the map opens up, and the defenders are forced to retreat. There’s also a Conquest mode which is a simple base capture.

The last two game modes offer up some unique experiences though; Squad Deathmatch and Squad Rush. These modes have several squads of four players running around trying to complete their own objectives. The cool thing here though, is that you are effectively fighting 4vs12. This means that you could stumple across a skirmish between two teams, wait until they have softened each other up a bit, then move in to mop up.

The controls and general feel to the game is nicely done. All the weapons have a bit of weight to them, and they all carry much more recoil than you may be used to, which means less sparying n’ praying and more controller bursts. The fact that multiplayer opponents will easily absorb half a clip to the torso without going down also means that there is an emphasis on headshots. The spotting button is nicely placed on the PC (‘Q’), but console users may have a little difficulty hitting the Select or Back buttons.

Graphics in Bad Company 2, particularly on the PC, are stunning. Anyone priveliged enough to be able to take advantage of 3D vision or Dx11 is in for a treat, with HBAO looking particularly good. Even on a fairly modest quad core and 4850, I achieved solid 60FPS averages, and have not once hit a lag spike related to graphical hitches.

Bad Company 2 is simply a game you have to get if you like FPS’s. It has taken some really unique aspects of gameplay, given them a Battlefield twist and done a spit shine all over- this is a definitive shooter experience.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

[EDIT] All videos are now posted below.

You can check the videos below:

In the video walkthrough we are shown a bunch of features, both visual and gameplay-affecting that are exclusive to the PC version such as; Dx11 soft shadows, Horizon-Based-Ambient-Occlusion (HBAO), an unlocked frame rate, larger battles and more.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 releases on March 2nd in North America and March 4th in Europe.

For more details about downloading the beta, and to find out about the map participants you will be riddling with bullets, check out the Battlefield blog post.