Modern Warfare 2 versus Bad Company 2

Clash of the Servers

Review by: Pugilist

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Tag: Pugilist
Steam Tag: Spewgilist

Developer/Publishers:

Call of Duty Modern Warefare 2 - IW/Activision
Battlefield Bad Company 2: DICE/EA

A little perspective.  I have played first person shooters (FPS) for as long as they have been around on the PC.  Wolfenstein and all of its flavors, Doom, Quake, Rise of the Tirades, Redneck Rampage, Unreal and all of its iterations, Team Fortress, Rainbow 6, Call of Duty 1-6 (I don't care what they call them), Medal of Honor, Crysis, Halo, Half-Life, Duke Nukem, Counter Strike, Left 4 Dead, Battlefield 1942, Vietnam, etc., etc., etc. and the FPS genre has always been roughly divided into two (2) main camps; fantasy and realistic. 

One of the demarcations between these two loosely defined genres has always been weapon load out.  In fantasy style games you can carry a storage container full of weapons and ammo and in the more realistic games you are limited to a primary and secondary.  This had been fairly constant depending on the game line and although I enjoy the hell out of InstaGib matches in UT, I have gravitated toward more realistic games in the last five (5) years and played the hell out of Call of Duty 2 and 4.

I have to admit, Call of Duty 4 was a culmination of the genre for me.  Realistic enough to be challenging but still fun and skill and tactics mattered more than raw firepower and aggression.  The Battlefield series was OK and I enjoyed it solo but never managed to catch the on-line bug with it and I have to admit, it is when I play a FPS on-line that I enjoy it most, even if I am getting my ass kicked and screaming at my monitor so loudly that my son can hear me over his music and headphones 20 feet away.

Call of Duty 5 came out and I bought it and got it for my sons because the Call of Duty folks had never let me down.  Hell, even the Wii version of COD 3 was enjoyable.  Well, COD 5 took us back to WWI and back to killing Nazis and brought in the frigging dogs which are more annoying than the helicopter in COD 4 could ever be.  I played it because I had it, was glad of some of the tweaks, never got used to the fact the Bouncing Betties are much more difficult to trigger safely than claymores, cursed the spawn system which had folks I killed spawning 10 feet in back of me and waited for COD 6 from Infinity Ward because they did COD 4 and they would do a much better job than Treyarch.

Yeah, right.  No dedicated servers, worse spawning system, bizarre wait times for games, constant Steam and IW crashes resulting in no on-line play available, and what can only be described as the most moronic fantization of a formally realistic FPS.  Sit-rep that allows you to spot explosives across the map?  Ninja Pro that allows you to leap from 3+ story buildings with no damage?  Commando Pro which allows you to teleport for a melee kill? Dual wielding pistols that have better range and firepower than a SMG?  Dual wielding shotguns?  One-Man Army pro that allows you infinite ammo without ever moving?  None of this is in the least bit realistic.  It is a fantasy game built on the shell of a realistic game and they looked at the PC market and said:

"Fuck you bitches!"

But I have friends who play it so I finally broke down and got it for myself for my 49th birthday.  I should have given the money to a stripper for a lap dance.  It would have been over quicker, would not be as humiliating, and I would only have to look back at 15 minutes of regret.

And then the trailers and buzz for Bad Company 2 started.  I ignored Bad Company mostly because I had COD 4 and thought their game descriptions and trailers looked moronic.  But Bad Company 2 had dedicated servers and my son got it and loved it.  Friends at work got it and loved it, and so I broke down and ordered it a few weeks after release and went through the single-player campaign.

I use all single player campaigns as a way to learn the mechanics of a FPS.  What mouse setting do I need, what weapon combinations are more effective, how I move, deal with obstacles, maneuver, etc.  There is still a steep learning curve when you hit the on-line world but at least you know what button does what.

And where the COD 6 single player campaign made me want to punch the IW developers in the nuts, I did not hate the DB2 single player campaign.  Oh I got annoyed at my squad-mates as they did stupid things but I could always solve an issue with movement and tactics, not some lame ass jump, right-button, push console bullshit ported to the PC (yes, I am talking about the idiotic ice wall climb).  So I finished the campaign, went back to fool around with a few things, and moved on to the on-line world.

In a direct comparison, I have to say; early game COD 6 is more forgiving of a low-level player against a high level player than BC2.  In COD 6 you rank early and often and after a few levels can design custom classes to allow you to tailor your game for a specific game type or environment.  But you only have (five) 5 of them and if you want more (up to 5 more) you need to enter prestige mode which requires you to play the game from level 1 - 70 (plus XP required to unlock prestige mode) 10 times.  This was a console option in COD 4, was incorporated into the PC version of COD 5, and kept for COD 6. 

I ran through the prestige system in COD 5.  It becomes a grind, like the mid levels of an MMO and saps the fun from the game during that time when you have to give up all or your accomplishments and start over.  And the reward?  Another few slots to make static classes that you can only modify between games.

In BC2 they take a different approach.  You have four (4) basic classes (Assault, Recon, Engineer, Medic) to choose from and at lower levels, killing anyone more than 10 levels above you is a roll of the dice since the weapons you have available are not accurate enough or do enough damage or fire fast enough, or whatever.  It can be very frustrating being cannon fodder when you are level 2 playing against folks who are 30+.

Advance is slow compared to the COD model but when you hit level 8 you start to see something.  Each class you use unlocks both general and specific capabilities.  You have specialized weapons and enhancements and abilities and you quickly realise that, yes, I am progressing slower but I am never losing anything.  I can run-and-gun with my Assault class, I can destroy and fix vehicles with my Engineer class, I can heal and revive teammates with my Medic class, and I can snipe and get close with my Recon  class, all the while using unlocked weapons and abilities.

OK, so two different approaches that mostly even out.  COD 6 early game on-line is less frustrating but once you are past level 10ish in BC2 you should have used the various classes to unlock abilities and weapons and you come to realise something else.  You can dynamically modify your load out between spawns.  Not only can you do this but as it is a single screen point and click interface, you can do it in 10 seconds or less.

And when you respawn you can choose to respawn, in most games, alongside a squad-mate or a fixed point.  This does not sound like much until you do not have to run a mile to join the battle. 

Are you in a game where he enemy tactics or classes are kicking your ass?  Between death and respawn just tweak your classes to be more effective.  Did you spawn with an Assault class and find yourself getting owned by tanks and Bradleys and Humvees?  Drop into Engineer with its RPG or Recon with its C4 and introduce them to your little friends.  What you discover as you advance in levels with BC2 is that the range of options outstrips anything COD 6 has to offer. 

Oh, and remember in COD how you can look at a hidden enemy and their tag will pop up so you can kill them?  Not in BC2.  You get a tag indicator when they fire a weapon or you look at them in plain view.  So if you like to hide and snipe, have at it.  The other thing that sets BC2 apart is the vehicles.  ATVs, Humvees, Bradleys, tanks, helicopters and even a remotely piloted UAV equipped with steerable missiles and a machine gun (once you unlock that ability).  And except for the UAV they can all be damaged and repaired.  The UAV can be damamged and destroyed but not repaired. So while vehicles in COD 5 are way over powered, in BC2 you can take them out with available ammo depending on your load out, even at early levels.

Anyone who has endured the frustration of going through 3-4 spawns to take out a COD 5 tank knows what I mean.

But with all of this there is one main difference between the COD line and the BC line.  COD is less dependent on tactics and teamwork.  Those who have played Team Fortress know that you cannot win without teamwork.  With BC2 and its mix of vehicles and potential load outs, having a coordinated approach and a tactical plan will give you the edge every time. 

At this point, with me nearing my second run at prestige in COD 6 and level 10 in BC2 I have to say I am enjoying BC2 much more.  I still get my ass handed to me by folks 10+ levels above me but I am learning the weapon characteristics and range and targeting and I am beginning not to suck so much so often.

I do get annoyed that the splash zone for explosions is so small.  I am used to killing folks by hitting the wall behind them or the ceiling above them but since BC2 had a mostly destructible environment, I blow out a wall rather than kill people.  Of course, this means folks can't hide behind a fence or tree or door or in a corner too often since I or my teammates can blow it up easily.

Also since BC2 uses dedicated servers and Punkbuster, I have had an easier time finding games and have not been subjected to as many adolescent boys whose mommy's do not hug them enough.  And, since the folks I game with have decided to stand up our own server, we can kick the racists and idiots, control the server parameters, and even close the server to give us a little practice. 

When COD 7 hits the streets I'll consider it but not too seriously because while EA has many problems and BC2 is not a perfect game, at least they did not tell me to fuck off.

After all, if I want to hear that kind of abuse, I'll get married again.

Scorewise, let's see where they fall:

Game	Playability	Graphics	Complexity	Immersion	Single Player	Multi Player	Realism	Score
MW2	85%	95%	90%	80%	75%	80%	50%	79.3%
BC2	95%	95%	95%	95%	90%	95%	80%	92.1%

Obviously I consider BC2 to be the clear winner and if you disagree, tell me why.  Or you can come kick my ass at BFBC2.Addicted2Fragging.com which is the BC2 server friends and I sponsor.