Kill generation

by ERIK LEIJON

PC gamers are used to getting the shaft, but the release of Battlefield: Bad Company (X360, PS3/EA, Digital Illusions) is an especially sharp knife thrust directly into the tender heart of PC fans. Even if publishers have determined rampant piracy has made developing games exclusively for PC a losing proposition, first-person shooters and real-time strategy titles are so tailor-made for a keyboard/mouse combo that emigration to consoles has been slower.

In recent weeks, two venerable franchises joined the dark side: Battlefield and Civilization (in the form of Civ Revolution). It’s difficult to say if Bad Company is the best of the series, but there’s no doubt its console introduction is breaking down walls both literally and figuratively.

DESTROY ANYTHING STANDING: Battlefield: Bad Comany

Battlefield: Bad Company is a first-person shooter starring a team of petty criminals sent as the first wave in a nameless war between Americans and Russians, with only the promise of solid gold and cushy retirement as reason to risk life and limb. What separates Battlefield from your typical FPS war game is the ability to destroy every square inch of the maps. Buildings, fences, trees, bridges and anything standing, are all fair game in each orgiastic firefight—which have specific missions and strategies but usually descend into madness once the first shots are fired.

This is a good thing, especially in multiplayer since players tend to ignore each other anyway, so it’s still an acceptable strategy to get in the cockpit of the nearest tank and charge into battle with little modesty. Bad Company is possibly the loudest, wildest, most anarchic game you’ll play all year.

Once the thick smoke emanating from a nearby collapsed building dissipated, a few nagging issues emerged—likely created from the PC-to-console transition. Every button comes into play frequently, and though not too complicated, constantly switching from gun to secondary weapon to health injection proved difficult since reloading one’s gun is an ungodly slow action.

It’s also far too easy to snipe enemies from afar, and the same rings true for them. Even standard guns can be used to pick off soldiers, so it gives the defending team an advantage in multiplayer. There’s only one multiplayer mode, pitting an attacking team against a defending team assigned to protect gold-carrying crates.

Single-player is a weird cross between multiplayer-style re-spawning and hard-assed mission completion, and pales in comparison to the multiplayer battles. Oddly enough, mission mode had frequent graphical glitches and AI problems (such as the enemy not noticing me standing right next to him), whereas 24-player multiplayer was fast and fluid, containing all the environment smashing fun of solo mode. Bad Company looks and sounds incredible, which is sure to make ardent PC gamers jealous.

Punch up

Don King Presents Prizefighter (X360/2k Sports, Venom) looks and plays a lot like EA’s Fight Night Round 3. From the slow-mo spit launching knockdowns to the character models, it tries to emulate Fight Night’s best aspects, while allowing for more in-ring movement. Prizefighter hits the canvas because there’s very little strategy involved, despite the numerous punch types. Punches tend to pass through blocks, so just keep wailing away on your foe and you should score a win.

There’s a career mode, complete with real and fictional interviews for biographical colour, but it’s all moot since the gameplay isn’t representative enough of actual boxing to keep players focused on winning the belt.

I presume Prizefighter is a sim, since there are no unrealistic punch attacks or ridiculous personalities beyond King himself. If Prizefighter puts more time in at the gym, it could eventually be a winner.