B:BC 2 beta impressions

Well I finally got into a good match a few times today (although I often get randomly disconnected) and I must say it is quite fun.

It's very reminiscent of the first one and that's not a bad thing at all.

In terms of how it controls, I feel there have been some changes but not a lot. In fact it plays pretty much the same way as the first, the only way I could probably distinguish between the two in terms of how it plays would be if I had them side by side. This is not a bad thing at all, I felt right at home as soon as I first parachuted on to the battlefield and I'm sure newcomers would be able to get to grip with the controls rather quickly as well. One little niggle I do have with the controls is the switching through weapons  using the mouse scroll wheel. Instead of looping after switching past the last item in your inventory, as you'd expect it to, it requires  you to scroll back the other way. Yeah, a very nit picky, minor annoyance but still annoying.

As you descend to Port Valdez in your flimsy parachute you're greeted with AA gun fire and a beautiful panoramic view of the whole snowy map. It's quite stunning actually, but once you hit the ground it's time for action. I can't tell whether it's a step up from the first game but damn it looks good, character and vehicle models especially are very well crafted and animated. With the introduction of "destruction 2.0" to the Frostbite engine we get a lot smaller destruction, pieces of wood from a fence being chipped away, and we also get an overhaul on the large scale destruction, toppling a whole goddamn building. This really helps make every match fresh and fun, and also elevates tension as your enemies could come from anywhere at anytime. Particle effects such as fire, smoke, debris, and explosions to name a few are also really well done. It's really a sight when a tank bulldozers through a corner of a building and unloads an explosive round at the enemy. I have also yet to encounter any graphical bugs which is great, and the fps never wavers either, and no screen tearing whatsoever.

It all really ties together to give you a very addictive, hectic, sometimes strategic, and rewarding online experience.

Now back to the beta.