Let me preface my little spiel here by saying that I like Bad Company 2, and it is one of the first console shooters I’ve played online and enjoyed doing so for a long period of time. Heck, I’ve already got my 5 days of service award (and am only 1 achievement away from getting 100% completion). That all being said…I FUCKING HATE BAD COMPANY 2. The game makes me soooooo fucking angry some nights. The game is HORRIBLY unbalanced. I actually enjoy close matches, and all things being equal, you should have close matches fairly often. But no, in Bad Company 2 Online, generally you either whomp the shit out of the other team, or they whomp the shit out of you. The fact that you can steal enemy vehicles out of their base has to be one of the WORST conceived notions in ANY video game EVER. This is just conquest too. Don’t get me started on rush mode, that is an entire other bucket of fucking piss me off. So before I get into that, let me count some of the ways this game really pisses me the fuck off:
Atacama Desert
For those that don’t play the game, this is a BIG open desert map. The one map in conquest mode in which each team has a helicopter. Great fun you think… fuck no. The helicopters are nifty toys, but they get old fast. Why you ask? BECAUSE THEY ARE FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE TO FUCKING SHOOT DOWN.
“Jon,” you say “Aren’t there anti-aircraft guns strewn about the map?” Yes. Yes there are, but guess what? My fucking pistol does more damage!! Seriously, the Anti-Aircraft guns are next to fucking useless other than annoying the helicopter. When I’m flying, and I do that quite often… once I realize I’m being AA’d, I head towards it! Why? Because I take so little damage from it that I generally have time to make a pass or two at the AA gun, kill the gunner, and leave. FLAK CANNONS ARE SUPPOSED TO SHRED EVERYTHING IN THE AIR. THAT’S WHAT THEY WERE DESIGNED FOR! THAT’S THEIR FUCKING PURPOSE. Not to mention the fact that the AA guns on this map are straight out of World War Fucking 2. We’re in MODERN combat, flying AH-64 Apache Longbows. Give us fucking missiles! Oh, well, we’ve got TOW missiles also, but they aren’t radar lock on or anything REMOTELY useful like that.
The ability to steal vehicles
I mentioned it before, and I’m gonna talk about it again. The ability to take enemy vehicles is the most god damn fucking shit faced stupid bitch retarded idea I’VE EVER had the pleasure of running into. Seriously. You might think that this couldn’t be that big of a deal, and maybe it’s realistic. I’m not sure, do real tanks have keys? Probably not… but real tanks aren’t in video games. Almost every fucking time I play on Atacama Desert, someone steals the enemy helicopter. It doesn’t matter who does it; it is a douche bag thing to do. One enemy helicopter is hard enough to deal with, two is nearly fucking impossible. I’ve had matches where all I can do is sit in our base and wait for the fuckers to show up who are trying to steal our chopper. It isn’t REMOTELY fucking fun for me, other than the fact that I get to shout “FUCK YOU ASSHOLE. THAT’S WHAT YOU FUCKING GET FOR TRYING TO JACK OUR FUCKING HELICOPTER”, which, for the record, I shout almost every time someone comes to steal our helicopter. Even if the helicopter isn’t there, they come and they’ll wait. The spawn times on those helicopters are astronomically small. Tanks take like 30 seconds to 1 minute to respawn when destroyed (probably closer to 1 minute). Helicopters? 20 seconds… tops. There almost is never a time there isn’t a helicopter up in the air and it gets really fucking annoying as a ground pounder. You get a decent gunner in there (and my usual gunner is EXTREMELY good at his job) and all he needs to do is get a burst from the cannon NEAR you on the ground and you’re dead. About the only thing that is safe from the first strafe of a helicopter is the tank – and then they generally move too slow to escape.
The shotgun with slugs sniper rifle
In real life, the effective range of a shotgun with slugs is roughly 120 to 150 m. It’s a long range, don’t get me wrong, but in a game where you’ve got flags that are less than 150m apart, it is total and complete bullshit. What’s even more bullshit is when you can put the slugs in a shotgun with “magnum ammo” which just makes NO FUCKING sense what so ever. I mean… seriously, “magnum” means BIGGER. You cannot put magnum rounds into a non-magnum weapon. And this magnum shotgun stuff is bullshit. I played a match this last night where one of the enemy players was sniping with a shotgun. I’ve done it, but this person was way better; they were fucking good. Not only that, we were playing on hardcore. So apparently this shogun can kill you A) Across the map, B) in one shot no matter what, C) was semi-automatic and D) Magazine fed. Total. And. Complete. Bullshit. My sniper rifle is less powerful, and slower. I’VE GOT A GODDAMN 50 CALIBER ANTI-MATERIAL RIFLE. I SHOULD BE RIPPING YOU IN HALF…. But no. Your shotgun trumps my 50 cal. In what fucking world does that make sense? Certainly not the real one.
Light machine guns Full automatic sniper rifles
What. The. Fuck. were they thinking when they put the M60 into the game. They made this machine gun so fucking accurate that you can honestly and truly snipe from halfway across the map with it. The gun, in short bursts is so fucking accurate that I can’t beat it with a real sniper rifle. Why? Because the first shot is always dead on target so it fucks up your enemies aim. Oh, and it’s fully fucking automatic so you can just keep “burst” firing until their dead or have to beat a hasty retreat. Forget the fact that you can hardly fucking see the target – you don’t need to. Spray and pray snipe for the win!
Base invasion Getting butt fucked and Enjoying it!!!
Bad Company 2 is HORRIBLY unbalanced. Fine, I can accept that the developers can’t figure out how to balance shit… seems no one can… but when you’re playing on something like Conquest and you lose all your flags… what do you do? You sit in your base as the entire enemy team fucking spawn camps you. Take a look at either side on Laguna Alta – it is fucking choked off so there is only one exit. Fucking genius – makes it REALLY fucking easy for the enemy to lock you in there. This should NEVER EVER be fucking possible to do. If you get locked out of the flags, you should have SOME way to have a fighting chance. But no, if you get pushed back to your base, your team generally loses it’s momentum and cohesion and gets pushed back even farther. Then you’re locked in your base dieing over and over again until you say “Fuck this shit” and quit. It really isn’t fun for either fucking side, but being on the losing side really sucks. I’ve quit more than my share of games because of shit like this. Or… my other favorite… helicopter spawn camping on Atacama Desert.
Shit on the ground aka “Help, there is a twig and I can’t get past it”
One of the real strengths of Bad Company 2 is how much worth they put into the terrain. By this I mean the ground cover, the trees, and the cover in general. All very cool. But as a trained soldier, WHY CAN’T I WALK OVER A FUCKING ROCK?! Everything in the game is an impediment to your momentum. Forward, back, side to side…. it doesn’t matter what direction you’re going – you will run into something that blocks your way. If the ground isn’t perfectly fucking level, you’re getting caught. I’m sorry, in real life I don’t LUNGE over small rocks, I simply walk over them. In real life I don’t come to a dead stop because of a small twig, I push through it. In Bad Company 2 – you’re at a dead stop. So half the fucking match is back to the good old days of Counter Strike where I’m bunny hopping the fuck all around so I can keep fucking moving. The “trained soldier” on screen sucks going up hills more than the very real, computer nerd, me. What. The. Fuck.
Here’s some other random fun bugs I’ve run across
- People can eject from vehicles that are in the process of exploding and survive. I mean, fuck the fact that you’re ENGULFED in a GIANT FUCKING fireball. That means NOTHING! For I am wearing fireproof… everything! Fireproof face! Not to mention being immune to the concussive forces.
- I shoot you, you shoot me, we’re both dead. Also known as the “tie”. I’ve tied died so many times I can’t even count. It doesn’t make any freaking sense. Bullets don’t take but a few milliseconds to leave the barrel of the gun and get to the other guy. Sure when I’m sniping and the other guy is sniping – our bullets could take a half second or two to get to each other…. but at close range? Fuck no.
- The FUCKING HORN. When you get down to 15 “tickets” it sounds a little horn to let you know that the end is near for you. Ignoring the fact of all the other visual and auditory cues you get. The HORN KEEPS FUCKING GOING UNTIL THE FUCKING MATCH IS FUCKING OVER. For GOD SAKES. TURN THE FUCKER OFF. The continued bleating drives me up a fucking wall; it makes me want to reach through the TV, and set the fucking game developers on fire. Especially that sound guy. FUCK YOU SOUND GUY.
- Clipping. COME THE FUCK ON, YOUR GUN STICKS OUT – TAKE THAT INTO ACCOUNT. People can, and do on a regular basis, stand behind walls, stick their guns out through them and shoot you to death with them. What can you do about it? Fucking nothing. Why… because their body is shielded. Seriously Mr. Developer, did you not see one person clip through a wall even partially during development? Bullshit you didn’t, you pulled a fucking Intel Floating Point on this and we know it. It is not hard to add the length of the gun you are holding to onto your character model and make sure it doesn’t clip.
Closing thoughts
To the developers I ask this: Have you ever shot a real gun before? EVER? Do you even know what a real gun looks like? Besides the pictures you found on Wikipedia? Ok, seriously… go the fuck outside and shoot some of the guns you’re putting into the video games. After that, you must decide. Are you making a balanced shooting game, or an ultra realistic war simulation. If you’re making a balanced shooter, throw everything the fuck out that you learned from shooting those guns and make a fucking BALANCED shooter. If you’re making an ultra-realistic war simulation… let me know because no one has done so yet.
I’m sorry, but you cannot call a game “well balanced” when shotguns can compete with sniper rifles, and almost every class of weapon can compete with or outmatch the sniper rifles. The game developers can, and did, make up arbitrary values for everything and every weapon. Plus… why did you give the class with the MACHINE GUN the ability to heal themselves. Seriously, as if the LMG wasn’t overpowered enough as is? Sigh… being angry about this shit is exhausting.
Thank you.
I feel much better after reading this although I’m not sure I can play this piece of shit game ever again.
In bad company 3 I’m sure there will be fully destructable twigs so no more bunny hopping.
Ya. Some of the problems they have fixed in the intervening updates. Some… probably will never get fixed. Sad… but true.
I still play the game, a lot. I’m ranked somewhere in the top 6,000 now, on the Xbox leader boards. Still drives me nuts a lot, but best option I have for now.
Though I’m looking forward to Onslaught (tomorrow) and Medal of Honor. The multi-player video for MOH looks uber promising.
about stealing vehicals
does it matter that its a douche thing to do!
in real war you have to try to win and survive so you need to stop getting mad that your getting jacked and guard your shit!!!!
I was searching for a post like this for ages. Thank you, from all the sea of praises this game gets i’m happy to see that you stand out. I just purchased BC2 two days ago and i’m slowly starting to feel disappointed that i payed for it. I played the beta for a few days and except “the hill” full of gillie wookies (aka l33t 5n1p3rz) enjoyed it to a great extent and promised myself i’d put it on the buy list. First off, the assault riffles: they shoot down people across the map with ease. 4-5 bursts and you got yourself a kill <<< no bullet drop. LMG's are basically automatic sniper rifles (ALMOST NO RECOIL AT ALL even with sights on that is bollocks) and Unbelievably LMG's have less recoil than AR's. How is that possible only DICE/EA knows. Once i got killed by an engineer with an UZI pretty far away. So basically my X8 AR has less stopping power than that little UZI? yeah right. Choppers are over powered in this game. I don't get how i get shot down within seconds when i'm flying (no missiles just AA GUN) yet when i use the AA and rape the **** out of another pilot nothing happens. There are plenty more like poor hit detection. (Tanks firing at each other in close range and the shells don't even register a hit, grenade launcher shot at 10m in front of enemy soldier just dissapears in the ground and i get shot, Recon class pistol stronger than an assault riffle and so on). This is a seriously flawed game, i really liked the concept but i'm starting to hate it. It's like it revolves around blowing up stuff and not the basic things like balanced accuracy,damage and firing ranges. Sorry for long comment, just wanted to share my thoughts. Ps: i think i might sell this game :(.
Many games are good, even great, BC2 is no exception. That doesn’t mean the game is perfect. As you fully pointed out… the weapon balancing is hilarious broken. I mean, I use the M60 w/ a 4x scope to essentially snipe. If you want something else just as broken, use the MG36 – it has a built in red dot. Choppers are freaking OP like nobodies business, and getting both of them on Atacama Desert (Which everyone seems to like to try to do), is just crap.
I do love the concept, I love the size. I’m hoping that MOH (Which looks to be about the same map size) will take what BC2 started, and really make it shine.
I bought onslaught DLC and it was amusing, but not great. I think it took maybe a day or two tops to get all the achievements (IE beat all 4 maps on hardcore) and it only took that long to get some of my friends up to Onslaught so we could play together. Since then though, my play has started to taper off, I maxed out at approximately 5000 in the XBL online leaderboard. Yea, I played it a lot to get that high…but… eh. It is starting to lose it for me. Plus there are other games now.
Awesome article, I fucking hate this game and I fucking hate the people who play it. Fuck it all, burn in hell EA.
Yeah, sorry pal, but i can shoot down choppers very easily.
You’re just…. not good.
Go and play MW2 you’ll feel better.
u r right ….i can easily destroy..important thing is stop being a hero and stay naked in front of the heli
wow this is dead on accurate and i highly doubt this guy sucks since im sure hes not the only one that gets frustrated. Like the twig thing or getting stuck between a rock and tree when u got all kinds of free space around you. good rant. not only funny but very true. Oh and to the last guy, i dont usually shoot down the copter, i usually snipe the pilot lol and im average at this game so quit being a hoooommmooo.
God, I hate that fucking assholes with choppers camping around our base at Atacama, this makes me really angry, sometimes I’m like throwing my controller against the TV. It’s really fucking annoying plus you can’t get in those fucking ZU-23 and IF you are able to, the helis won’t let you shoot ‘em, they are faster and they have rockets; maybe you could shoot ‘em if they are focused on another target, but once you hit ‘em with the ZU-23, normally is like: ”Hey! Hellooo I’m here! kill me!” except if they are far from you or if they are damaged. But that’s not all!, the rest of the enemy team is also there! They steal your tanks or just stay there with their tanks until you appear and then you’re dead :D This happens normally when your team is losing, and there’s no other option than appear on your team base, or when 2 enemy choppers are fucking you… I’m good beating ‘em with a tank, but hell, the maximun angle of the tank cannon is not enough to hit a heli when it is too close. 2 options: 1)Don’t let the enemy enter your base or 2)Let the enemy team capture your base (cause I prefer lose at that point than later after being killed hundreds of times without being able to defend myself)
maaaate
Its called cover
And moving
Besides, all games are unbalanced, at least this one supports team play (reviving etc), unlike the selfishness of the COD games at times. Just saying, its more of a lax game than many
Yeh I have been playing this game and I always play a ranged/sniper class in every game I play. Not only can you not prone in this game anymore but the snipers are shit.
Why snipe with a gun affected by bullet drop that needs a “targetting shot” when EVERY OTHER GUN can shoot you from way far away. Even pistols are fairly good at medium range. Most maps are small with a lot of stuff blocking vision so there are few spots where the snipers range is useful. Going on rooftops might have been viable if you could fucking prone.
They need to bring back prone, make the stances affect accuracy, and not make retards be able to shoot down a sniper from a year away.
Also team stacking is such bullshit… ugh… this game could be so good. Back to sc2 I guess.
there’s also a huge advantage to noobs who have played long hours and are leveled up,
any good player on level 1 to 10 will suck dick just because of the level.
you don’t get nearly the amount of firepower on foot, tank, or helicopter.
Example: you have the most awesome player on level 1 in a tank, he rolls up BEHIND an enemy tank and starts blowing the fuck outta it. 3 hits, 4 hits… the level 50 noob turns around and hits him once and wins. Why? cuz he’s level fucking 50
So, all new players to this game have an automatic “fuck you” by the developers telling you “fuck you, play 8 hours everday! then we will make things even”
by the way when you reach even levels with your enemies the game is still horribly unbalanced for other reasons listed above.
this game is a step backwards in gaming
its a GRAPHIC WHORES dream, but contains no enjoyment value
I agree completely with everything said here. (except for the one or two morons bashing this article) I like this game it can be really fun, but sometimes I just feel sickened to have ever bought it. I mean why oh why must I die EVERY. FUCKING. TIME when some genius on the other team decides to camp at our only spawn with an LMG? Oh and to make things better, their whole fucking squad keeps on spawning on them, so not only do I have sircheapsalot looking at one spot and spraying, but I have some random sniper who morters the living shit out of the area, then the engineer who cant resist throwing heaps of mines right at the spawn, oh and lets not forget the noob-tubing assualt guy with his unlimited supply of ammo! Fuck, and dont even get me started on those damn heli’s. >____>
Oh and stop bringing up CoD ppl, its a Battlefield article. They’re both good games anyway, idk what ppl’s problam is.
Totally agree. Sometimes this game is so fun. You get a great team working together, and it just comes together really really well. But other times, when you are stuck with a shit team, on say rush, it’s absolute bullocks. Even though i press select to ask people for ammo or health, usually they don’t. So e.g. with the engineer I have to pick the extra ammo perk, which is ridiculous because I could have had a better perk if someone gives me ammo often. I think in BF3 they should make it more obvious when someone wants ammo. Secondly, I agree with the helicopters. In Oasis, especially there are barely any AA guns, so if the other team gets a good heli pilot and gunner, you are basically fucked. Its so annoying when you see half your team shooting with assault rifles and RPG’s, ad the heli just waltzes past, blowing everyone to kingdom come, its ridiculously underpowered.
I also am beginning to really hate the snipers. What gets me is that even if I choose the most powerful sniper in the game, the M95, which has a FULL damage stat and then add magnum ammo for “man stopping” bullets, it STILL needs a headshot to get a kill. I mean WTF, in real life if you got shot in the body with this it would just blow a hole in your torso, but here, you might as well go for the GOL just because it too takes one shot to the head to kill but reloads faster. And unless you are shooting stationary players, esp. at long range, it is so difficult to get headshots from moving players. Not impossible, ofc, but so difficult. On the PS3 they also need to fix team balancing. I was just on a game with some crap players where we lost 6 or 7 times in a row. You would have thought there would be a simple algorithm just to swap some of the good players from their team to ours, but no we just keep on getting raped. It is a good game sometimes, but sometimes it annoys the hell out of me.
i work. i have a life. i can’t compete with teenagers who play 12 hours a day. sorry i haven’t mastered flying a chopper, i guess i should be punished for that. they should split ranks or something. let the rank 50 dorks play with themselves. got the game 8 months ago and am only level 18 or something.
Hi,
I got this game 4 weeks ago and have played for some hours every day since.
I love and hate this game.
Mainly for all the reasons mentioned above.
It is very sad as it is almost a masterpiece of a game but some bits make me want to pull my hair and eyes out such as:
1. Movement over terrain – I’m shooting and strafing left…no im stuck – why – that twig or small rock – so annoying!
2. If the other team has a very good heli pilot you are fucked…I have stopped playing on heavy metal due to this and now i only really play harvest
3. The real issue of all for me is this one: UNBALANCED TEAMS
So so so many times the team I am on has no flags or has them all – so so so few times do i go to a server and each team has half the flags – my fav scenario as you then have a challenging fight which is really good.
Owning the map by having all flags is almost as little fun as having no flags and being pinned in out home base. I do not want to annihilate my enemy or be annihilated but to have a fair and balanced game – this does not happen much.
I keep playing though for the rare times when it all comes together – when you are in a squad that works together – then the game can be very good.
I think DICE have almost made something great but not quite – I think if a major patch addressed some of the key issues about this game then it would be very good.
The worst part about unbalanced teams, is that they generally stay “broken”. In Modern Warfare 2, between each match the team was shuffled up. In Bad Company 2 there is none of that. So in BC2 if you’ve got a kick ass team, generally they will stay kick ass until enough the good players leave.
You forgot to mention the UAV thing. I know its mainly an eye in the sky, but it is pretty much useless without V ALT W on. What I don’t understand is why they put the UAV stations IN THE WIDE FUCKING OPEN. as soon as an enemy sees it in the air, they’re on their way to the station, and you get knifed. Makes no sense at all. Unless the other team is full of retards or beginners, might as well keep on moving.
Oh, and shlomo hit it right on the head. I can’t tell you how many times Ive gotten pinned at the atacama desert base cause some level 50 dork has nothing better to do than play games all day. Often the whole other team will have almost all 40+ ranks and my team has a bunch of level 10′s or something. Get your shit together EA!