E3 2010: Bad Company, Battlefield Vietnam Announcement

One of the best things I've heard at the conferences we attended today was the upcoming arrival of the next Bad Company 2 expansion.  Taking place in Vietnam it looks to possibly be a redo of what I consider to be one of the best, and one of the most underrated Battlefield games.

We were given almost no other information about this expansion other than the location which was revealed to "Fortunate Son", an icon anti-war song writen by Creedance Clearwater Revival in 1969.  This was also one of the song available for in-game play in the original Battlefield Vietnam. If you were there at E3, and you played the original game, you would recognize it.

We have almost no other information about the expansion so instead of making things up as I go along and thowing guesses into the dark, hoping they stick, I'm going to tell you how good Battlefield Vietnam was...and why this expansion, if its really a redo of that game, is fantastic news.

Battlefield Vietnam came and went as the second Battlefield in the series, and ended up being nothing more than a blip in the Battlefield series.  The ideas behind the game were well anticipated, especially the in-game music.  Each vehicle, whether it be a car or aircarft was fitted with a radio with a collection of iconic vietnam era music to blare as you mowed down, or ran down the enemy.  The "Ride of the Valkaries" scene in Apocalypse Now?  Yeah...like that.  It did everything to actually put the player into the era of the time.  Especially for those who didn't actually live through it and only have the music of the era to make any sort of connection to that part of American history.

Not to even mention that the Vietnam war is woefully underrepresented in general when it comes to gaming.  (We won't even get into the Korean War which might as well as never existed in the minds of developers).  You would think that jungle settings would be well utilized since stealth action has been such a big part of gaming for so long.  A fully organic and natural cover system...one that won't feel forced or situationally convenient. (The cover placement in Mass Effect 2 comes to mind.)

But Battlefield Vietnam was not a stealth game, it was a shooter. A visceral multiplayer shooter with a kick-ass soundtrack to serve as a background.  The also allowed the player to form teams to play against armies of bots for some free-form defense scenarios.  Sure, the AI became dumber and dumber the more and more enemy bots you would choose to spawn...but even that proved to be a source for some hilarious gameyness in an otherwise blood-strewn experience.

The Frostbite engine in the Vietnam setting makes my pants balloon with excitement.  And I really hope that they add the in-game music feature to the expansion.  Mostly, however, I think Dice knew they had an underrapreciated gem and are considering this a re-do.  A chance to recreate those attack helicopter beach assualt scenarios with full environmental destruction? I'de buy that for a dollar.