Battlefield Bad Company 2 for Absolute Beginners

A quick tutorial for those new to Bad Company 2 multiplayer. This game is really hard when you’re starting off. I should know. I’ve done it twice. Once on Xbox 360 and again on the Playstation 3

  1. When you start off as a raw recruit all you’ll have is your main and secondary weapon, a grenade and a knife. That’s all. You have to unlock ammo and health packs, repair tools and other gadgets.
  2. There are 4 classes of soldier in the game: assault, engineer, medic and recon. Each class must be upgraded individually. As you play as a class you’ll earn class specific points. There are also a number of all-classes upgrades.
  3. If you’re totally new to the game I’d advise you to try the medic first. The LMG has plenty of ammo even if it’s apparently not that accurate. I still manage a few hits with it so it can’t be too bad.
  4. As a medic you’ll unlock the health pack before you reach rank 1 at 1410 points. You’ll unlock the defibrillator to revive fallen comrades at 5800 points. Use the D-PAD left and right to drop the health pack or activate your defibrillator. Make sure to drop health packs around objectives or where you notice your team gather to attack or defend. When your packs heal your team the points will start rolling in and your team will thank you!
  5. If possible “check your corners” before rushing out to revive a team mate. There’s nothing worse than reviving someone only to be killed yourself or have the revived team mate die in a hail of gunfire.
  6. Make sure to spot the enemy. This puts an orange triangle above their heads and the rest of your team will see that triangle too. There’s also an audible warning that’s broadcast to everyone. You’ll get a spotting bonus if they’re killed. On the other hand, if an enemy has seen you lining up to shoot them they may have “spotted” you so watch out for incoming fire! On PS3 hit the select button, on Xbox 360 hit the back button.
  7. Use your mic! This is a squad based game so please don’t be shy. You can talk to your squad to plan tactics or decide where to attack or routes to take, or even give warnings about advancing enemy soldiers.
  8. You have a mini map. Your squad mates show up green. They’re the most important people on your team as you can speak to them and hear them. You also get more points for helping your squad than your team. As a medic if a team mate is killed you’ll see a tiny lightning symbol where they fell. Get to them within about 5 seconds you can revive them. When you see your team mates in front of you they’ll have a small health meter below their name. Toss them a health pack if they’re in need of it and shout at them to stop for it if they’re in a hurry somewhere!
  9. The defibrillator can kill. Oh yes!
  10. I blogged guides to all the classes by Games in a nutshell not so long ago.
  11. Sasbenjr has some great videos on Youtube with lots of advice for playing the game well. Definitely worth watching.

More to come, but in the meantime this guide to medic unlockables is a good read. As a rank 8 medic on the Xbox I prefer the health pack upgrades to gun enhancements but I do like the M60 LMG. You might also like to read David’s first impressions of the game. It is true you’re equipped with “the equivalent of a damp towel” starting out. Especially when playing with rank 20-30+ players I saw yesterday evening.

A tutorial video by Pixelenemy is well worth watching for those new to the game:

A few links courtesy of field operative:

  1. [STRATEGY] Battlefield Bad Company 2 General Tips
  2. [STRATEGY] Battlefield Bad Company 2 Sniper tips
  3. And a good recon class guide though much of the advice applies to other classes too!

David published part 1 of a guide to surviving Bad Company 2 multiplayer. Looking forward to part 2!
Part 2 is now on his site. Love the description of the medic:

“Medic!” – we’ve all seen it in the films. The enemy opens fire, someone gets hit and the call goes up. The heroic medic runs through a hail of fire to scoop up their comrade’s brains, stuff them back into his skull and make it all better. Oh yes, the medic is where the action is. And they get all the women too!

Part 3 of surviving BfBC2 multiplayer by David just went online and concerns the localized language option. If it’s on, your team mates will shout in Russian. I really should uncheck that..
Part 4 of David’s guide covers mic comms. A desperately important part of any Bad Company 2 game which is sorely lacking in most games I’ve played with strangers.
Part 5 is now available where David talks about leveling up.

More links on the beginner theme: here, here and here.

Strategy guides: part 1 and part 2.

Lots of great strategy guides at gamereplays.

Now get playing!

Operation: Rescue Playstation 3

Operation: Rescue Playstation 3.
Summary: Playstation 3 used as media player for children’s movies is sorely underused and must be rescued.

My Playstation 3 needs rescuing. It’s currently sitting under the television in the living room and acting as a media player. Playing 3 or 4 children’s movies are the main use for it, so it’s definitely not used to it’s full potential. It’s definitely a waste of electricity running the powerful Cell processor to do video decoding!

To that end a media player and flash memory are winging their way from Amazon and they’ll arrive next week! My PS3 will be rescued! I traded in a few games today and bought the Playstation 3 version of Battlefield Bad Company 2. Well, it was either that or Modern Warfare 2 and some friends on PSN have or are getting Bad Company 2!

I played the first few minutes of the single player game and the controller was fine, but I expect it’ll be an uphill battle. And it is. I played a few rounds of Rush on Isla. Once defending and then attacking. I didn’t do well at all but enjoyed myself despite:

  1. The PS3 networking is type 3, or “strict” in Xbox 360 parlance. I didn’t have a mic and I don’t think it would have worked anyway. Hopefully I can fix that once I get it wired to the network.
  2. They were my first games as a lowly rank 0 but I took down a helicopter as an engineer, defended and blew up bombs and helped my team as much as I could. Even if I didn’t yet have a health pack or defibrillator.
  3. I’m still getting used to the controller. I can’t get used to R1/R2 and L1/L2. Do you put your first finger in the R1/L1 buttons and second finger on R2/L2? My hands are two big to do that. Same with melee and grenades. Totally confused me.

I did verify that the following trick does work on the PS3. A quick easy way to destroy a bomb site on Isla!

If you’ve read this far, here’s my Bad Company 2 stats. Yes I suck, but I’ll suck less with time. 🙂

Problems with Battlefield Bad Company 2 …

Problems with Battlefield Bad Company 2 servers? I was booted twice.

The first time it reported a network error but I had a laptop next to me and the network was fine here. Second time my Xbox 360 froze after only 40 minutes play. I had to switch it off and on again.

I’m seeing a definite trend on Nelson Bay. The first house containing the bomb at Bravo has been demolished by snipers using mortar rounds in two of my games. I suspect defence gameplay is going to evolve as people learn to counter that threat. Otherwise the house is fairly easy to defend.

Defibrillators can kill in Battlefield B…

Defibrillators can kill in Battlefield Bad Company 2 and here’s the proof:

As a medic I was crouched in the bushes on a rock looking for a team mate (I think) and had the defibrillator equipped when I turned around and there was an enemy player crouched down and ready to snipe on my team! I didn’t have a gun in my hands so I used the paddles, hit the trigger and got my kill! Shocking stuff!

Update! Want to know how well your favourite (or not) player on Youtube is doing? Just type their username into the box. Here’s UnLimited-UAV or Wings of Redemption as he’s more famously known as. The guy plays a lot (unsurprisingly), but hasn’t yet got a defibrillator kill! Sasbenjr has however.

Want to show off your Bad Company 2 stat…

Want to show off your Bad Company 2 stats? Check out the BfBC2 Stats-o-Matic page where you can enter your gamertag or username. Here’s mine. You can even compare two players.

bfbc2 stats (via)

Want to improve that score? Remember those class guides I blogged a few days ago? TheStonedSheep has followed those guides up with a land vehicles guide and aircraft guide. Great reads.

I’m dividing my time between Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2, once I get back to MW2 I must try out the Tar 21. Haven’t ever used it, opinion is divided about it. Here’s a good overview of the gun.