battlefield-bad-company-2 posts

2010 was a solid year if for PC gaming. A game that some have been waiting 12 years to play finally was released and some other titles surprised us from left field. All in all there was no shortage of titles that were worth your time paying for and playing.

But what games were the absolute best of the past 12 months? Ultimately there will always be lots of debate over which games were chosen and why. But after much deliberation among the Big Download staff, we our settled on our picks 2010 Best PC Game Awards. These are the games that impacted us throughout the year and will probably keep gamers going well into 2011.

So which categories do we have this year and which games are worthy of our humble attention? Check after the jump to find out:

Editor's Note - Steven Wong and James Murff contributed to this feature

With five days to go before the BIG DAY, the Steam PC game download holiday sales event has now gone live. This is the third annual event and it's usually the biggest sale of the year for Valve's download service as nearly all the game in its library have at least some kind of price cut from now until January 2. In addition there are publisher game bundles and indie game packs that save you even more money. Mac gamers are not excluded; over 125 Mac titles are on sale as well.

There are simply too many deals to go over in this one news post but we will mention the price cuts that are in place from now until 1 pm Eastern time on Tuesday. That includes the launch of the promised Oddboxx bundle of the four Oddworld games, including two that are new to the PC platform.

F1 2010 - $19.99
Super Meat Boy - $3.75
Titan Quest Gold Edition - $4.99
Battlefield Bad Company 2 - $6.79
The Oddboxx - $12.49
Deus Ex/Deus Ex Invisible War - $2.49
Peggle/Peggle Nights - $6.99
Lego Batman - $4.99
F.E.A.R/F.E.A.R. 2 - $9.99
Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition - $20.09
All Prince of Persia games - 75 percent off
Portal - $3.74 or $2.25 if you own Half-Life 2

After several weeks on top of Steam's list of weekly top 10 best selling PC Ggames, Call of Duty Black Ops is finally pushed off the number one spot. In its place is Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam, the just launched expansion pack to EA's hit shooter. In fact Call of Duty Black Ops went back down to the number four spot, with Left 4 Dead 2 and Civilization V taking the second and third spots, respectively (thanks in part to two day sales deals for both games).

The full list is as follows

1. Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam - DICE/EA
2. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
3. Civilization V - Firaxis Games
4. Call of Duty Black Ops - Treyarch/Activision
5. Just Cause 2 - Avalanche Studios/Square Enix
6. Metro 2033 - 4A Games/THQ
7. Killing Floor - Tripwire Interactive
8. Battlefield Bad Company 2 - DICE/EA
9. Killing Floor Bundle - Tripwire Interactive
10.Need For Speed Hot Pursuit - Criterion Games/EA

As promised, publisher Electronic Arts is taking an unusual move by releasing a major expansion pack on a Saturday. Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam is now available to download from EA's online store. Steam owners of the first person shooter can also purchase and download the expansion which changes the setting of the game from modern times to the Vietnam War with four new maps, new weapons and vehicles and a 1960's soundtrack.

Other PC game download sites, not to mention the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles, won't get access to download the expansion until Monday. That's also the day that the unlock challenge begins as players try to reach 69 million team actions to unlock a fifth map in the expansion.

Gallery: Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam Screenshots

One of the biggest games of 2011 could be one that we haven't heard a lot about yet. It's Battlefield 3, the next big game in the Battlefield shooter franchise from developer Digital Illusions and publisher Electronic Arts. In a new chat with IndustryGamers, EA CEO John Riccitiello gave a little color on the game's release date window.

In a chat about EA's efforts to take some of the market share away from Activision and its Call of Duty franchise, Riccitiello stated, " ... next year we'll make a lot more progress. We've got a couple of third-party games in the form of Crysis 2 and Bulletstorm, and then our big focus is Battlefield 3 in the second half of the year. I'd be shocked if we didn't take a notch out of [Activision]." He added that Battlefield 3 is "designed to be the one that is the big leap forward; the one that is going to help a lot" in terms of competing with the Call of Duty franchise.

Riccitiello also took some time to knock the efforts of Treyarch with its recently released Call of Duty Black Ops. He stated, "I think it's far from proven that the gaming consumer views a product from Treyarch in the same category as a product from what was (Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 developer) Infinity Ward."

As we enter the period of the year where there is only a trickle of new game releases before 2011 comes around, we are scheduled to get a couple of downloadable expansion packs for the next week. We are also scheduled to get a new Civilization V DLC pack which will add two new civs and a new scenario to the game this week.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam - Developer Digital Illusions takes a different approach to the typical expansion pack by changing the setting of the game from the modern day to the 1960s and the Vietnam War. Look for four new maps (with a fifth to be unlocked by players) along with Vietnam War era weapons, vehicles and even music.

It's pretty clear that Call of Duty Black Ops is going to be one of the best selling PC games of the year, at least if the Treyarch developed first person shooter position on Steam's top 10 weekly best selling game list is to be believed. The game remained at the top of the list for the past week and has not relinquished that spot since it was released last month.

In the number two spot is Valve's The Orange Box collection as a remnant of the Thanksgiving sale, followed by Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam, the upcoming expansion pack to the hit EA first person shooter, as it makes its debut in the number three spot. The full top 10 list is as follows:

1. Call of Duty Black Ops - Treyarch/Activision
2. The Orange Box - Valve
3. Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam - DICE/EA
4. Metro 2022 - 4A Games/THQ
5. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
6. Civilization V - Firaxis Games
7. Super Meat Boy - Team Meat
8. Dirt 2 - Codemasters
9. Aliens Vs Predator - Rebellion/Sega
10. Battlefield Bad Company 2 - DICE/EA

The upcoming expansion pack Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam was supposed to add four new maps to the first person shooter from Digital Illusions. However today word comes from publisher Electronic Arts that the downloadable expansion will now feature five maps. The fifth is called Operation Hastings and is based on a map featured in the PC title Battlefield Vietnam.

However, there's a small catch. The map will be unlocked after players in both the main game and the expansion pack collectively generate 69 million team actions (resupply, revive, heal, spot, and repair). The expansion pack is due for release on December 18 while the road to unlock the five map will start on December 21.

Download the Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam Operation Hastings trailer at Big Download
Check out all Battlefield Bad Company 2 downloads

This manual patch for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 updates the PC release to build R10 (v602574), and is for people who prefer not to use the auto-updater. The patch includes bug fixes and game enhancements, but more notably prepares the game for the VIP Map Pack 7 and the Vietnam DLC expansion. Steam customers should use the Steam auto-patcher. The VIP Map Pack 7 trailer can be seen after the jump along with a list of changes is shown after the jump.

Download Battlefield: Bad Company 2 R10 Update (2.43 GB)
Download HD Battlefield: Bad Company 2 VIP Map Pack 7 Trailer (116 MB)
Check out all Battlefield: Bad Company 2 downloads

Electronic Arts is experiencing huge growth in digital-based game revenues and part of that comes from full downloads of PC games. Gamesindustry.biz (free registration required) reports that EA chief financial officer Eric Brown stated during a speech at the Credit Suisse 2010 Technology Conference that $750 million of the publisher's revenue comes from digital sources, up from just $430 million two years ago.

Part of the reason for the growth, according to Brown, was the growing trend of PC gamers to purchase and download full games. He stated, "What we're starting to see, especially for first person shooter titles like Battlefield Bad Company 2 is a higher propensity for people to purchase the PC client digitally." EA also has big expectations for the launch of the upcoming MMO Star Wars The Old Republic. Brown states that the BioWare-developed game will be the " ... biggest add in our digital portfolio next year ..."