Bad Company 2 obviously has a lot to live up to. The last breakout Battlefield game on the PC was the incredible Battlefield 2, and Bad Company is one of the best multiplayer offerings on the consoles. This is arguably the third game in the "main" Battlefield series, with 1942 and Battlefield 2 being the first two. Naturally, it's getting quite a bit of attention from the community, and that means people are getting worked up. Time to address some of the new and improved features that Bad Company 2 is aiming to leave on our doorstep.

The first, and most prominent, feature of Bad Company 2 is the Destruction 2.0 model. This model of terrain deformation and destruction is supposed to allow for buildings to collapse outright, as opposed to Bad Company. In Bad Company, you could only blow out the walls of a building, which was great for exposing defender positions or giving defenders a clear line of sight to what they have to defend. It left something to be desired, though, especially since Red Faction Guerrilla has since proven that complete structure demolition can be used to great effect in a multiplayer environment. We don't really think Destruction 2.0 will be the big improvement DICE is promising. At most, we expect it to be used to show buildings collapsing in a scripted way, rather than the dynamic structure destruction we expect. Who knows, though. Maybe we will be pleasantly surprised!

Another new feature of Bad Company 2 is the changing of the ranking structure. Rather than gaining weapons along a strictly linear path, characters will now gain experience according to their class and performance in battle. If you use the engineer a lot, you will upgrade your engineer weapons and abilities, while the other classes languish in obscurity. Assuming this is done right, it will be a great improvement to the system that was in place for previous games. We can't wait to see it in action to see if it lives up to its potential. Given DICE's experience with the pacing of unlocks in previous installments and their ability to craft addicting progression systems, this is one part of the game we think will turn out great.

Bad Company 2 is aiming to bring a single-player experience to the PC players of the Battlefield series. While this sounds good on paper, we can't help but feel a little apprehensive about it. There's been plenty of modern-day shooters on the PC in recent years, and they all recycle the same "ripped from tomorrow's headlines" derivative plot. It's not something we are looking forward to playing again. Deformation of the environment and minor plot variations can only distract from the same generic terrorist, Russian, or renegade country plot for so long until the discrepancies become blatantly apparent.

The end result of all of this is that Bad Company 2 is one of the few games we are reasonably excited for in the next few months. It's the first Battlefield game to have destructible environments to come to PC, and the overhaul to the ranking system is a drastically needed one. While the plot will undoubtedly be generic and snooze-worthy, Battlefield has always been a multiplayer franchise, and Bad Company 2 looks to keep the spirit of multiplayer gameplay alive while pushing it forward in interesting ways. Bad Company 2 is aiming for a March release date, with the beta currently going on right now.