First of all, Battlefield: Bad Company doesn't escape the common expectations gamers have for any game the developers expect them to pay $60 for; which entails to offer at least, a decent single player experience, and a stellar if not substantially entertaining multiplayer experience, with constantly replayable maps, as well as a widely diverse variation in outcomes of each round.
Now I say Battlefield: Bad Company in particular because I feel the developers invested little to no effort in creating a tactically-based combat experience; as it all boils down to is mindless killing by any means possible- exploitations and all. The only aspect that makes Battlefield: Bad Company outstanding is simply by the destructible environments. Battlefield: Bad Company also potentially could provide strong and quality level design, just as its PC predecessor, Battlefield 2 did, but instead substituted it for what they, or DICE thinks is dynamic destructibility. Yes, in fact, this destructibility is an enormous aspect that will potentially revolutionize the video game battlefield, but that doesn't necessarily make it any better.
There have been multiple attempts by lesser developers at making destructibility a core component of first person games. DICE has tried, and for the most part, achieved what they set out to do on that front. But there is one problem: it's not paired up with good gameplay!
Here I express my truest dislike for my experience with Battlefield: Bad Company; the gameplay is garbage.
If you have ever played Battlefield 2, I am sure you are an expert at knowing when to go automatic, and when to go burst. That understanding, rule, fact, law, mentality and perfectly fine feature a game had to offer was destroyed to bring to life a terrible new baby- Battlefield: Bad Company's overly severe deviance. In Battlefield 2, for example, the deviated rounds were handled in a way that didn't even show them going to the intended target- but rather, as if they were a dud- (Which would only happen with Sniper Rifles). But in Battlefield: Bad Company- You're better off hiding in a hole, putting C4 encompassing your soon to be corpse and waiting, because the gunplay is utterly unbearable. For example, in BF:BC, when you're looking down your iron sight, and you can see your intended target only a few meters away, you can see the incredible amount of deviating rounds, as if fleeing from the intended target- it's inconceivable people put this crap in a game, and people still play it to this day.
I gave Battlefield: Bad Company a fair chance -- in fact, I reached the Major rank and had an overall slightly less than decent experience with it doing so. It can be fun- but can be EASILY enraging by the fact that though you were firing what appeared to be that man's head off, resulted you with a red-blood screen, displaying your killer and the particular tool he used to end your life.
Additionally, the health system will never achieve what DICE had intended it to achieve- a health system such as that on a console is bound to fail. You simply don't need so much to worry about- and especially not to mention the likelihood of winding up losing your life because of a previous firefight- the experience can be incredibly unrewarding, unsatisfying, unentertaining, unappealing; and thus seemingly intended to be played calmly, and casually.
Battlefield: Bad Company’s Y-Axis look speed is also too slow; as is the transition between running, stopping running, and aiming down the sights of your rifle to fire at a nearby enemy -- both of which can easily get you killed, and may very well repulse you from ever playing the game again. Not to mention the absolutely broken sniping system that has you outrageously trying to lead your target, only to miss invariably for reasons unknown. It is as if there are a number of factors that play into the overall broken sniping mechanic; they are unapparent, and insensibly difficult to coicidentally please, which are ultimately unlikely to ever reward you with a satisfying kill.
On the other, very much better hand, sits Call of Duty 4- a rational, not so torturous type of fun that makes sense when you see your target, and you understandably kill your intended target. If you don’t think there isn’t a tactical experience within the excellence that is Call of Duty 4, look again. The controls are spot-on, show absolutely no defects, and represent your own fault if you die- not the game’s. The customizability of the classes and weapons is definitely an up that exceeds all of Battlefield’s classes. If you crouch as you move- you are silent; yes this may seems a minute and worthless feature that does nothing, but try playing Search and Destroy, where your single life is as vital as your beating heart. You can also lie down, which strangely was impossible in Battlefield: Bad Company, though the Battlefield series is the father to most of these features and conventions, but apparently not on consoles.
The improvements Call of Duty 4 has made on the clean slate of multiplayer first-person shooters I think of as Battlefield 2 are infinite, intrinsic, and inexpressibly improve the overall gameplay of even the original greatness of Battlefield 2. I promise you, you will never by any circumstance find a better, more entertaining, more enthralling, more exhilarating shooter experience on a console, whether you're considering the accuracy of hit-detection, or plainly the fun you'll get out of such an experience, I think I can definitively claim Call of Duty 4 as timeless, and the only improvements shooters will ever see are based off of the excellence provided by Call of Duty 4, not Battlefield: Bad Company.
Like what you may, I just don’t Battlefield: Bad Company.
And if you’re simply too obstinate to try Call of Duty 4 because of all the fags playing it now, I suppose I’m a fag too.
-Michael Lenoch