Vehicles
One thing that has always made the Battlefield series stand out are the player controlled vehicles that spawn at various points on the map. These include helicopters, UAVs, tanks, boats, Humvees, ATVs, and even Jet Skis. Most of these are easy to operate with mouse and keyboard, although the helicopters are still quite tricky to fly without a joystick, and you'll often see them spinning out of control. While some of the smaller vehicles don't really offer enough protection to be very useful, the heavy armor has always made Battlefield games a unique experience.
Gameplay Types
While Conquest mode has been a mainstay of Battlefield games over the years, BC2 includes a new match type called Rush, which is essentially an attack/defence scenario. The attackers are tasked with destroying several objectives, either with weapons fire or by setting an explosive charge, while defenders attempt to stop them. These maps often play out in several stages, and they offer concentrated action that most people seem to prefer to the older Conquest mode. Squad Rush scales the Rush mode down to tight 4 on 4 infantry battles. Squad Deathmatch pits 4 squads of 4 against each other in a contest to see who can score the most kills.
EA Games
Another interesting addition is that all the game types can be played in either Hardcore or normal mode. Hardcore mode removes certain elements of the interface, dispenses with health regeneration, and increases bullet damage, among other things. It changes the game quite a bit, but tends to encourage sniping, with or without a sniper rifle. Still many players prefer it, and it's a nice option to have.
The PC version has about 10 maps right now, but some of them are specific to certain game modes.
Bad Company 2 vs. Modern Warfare 2
Given the huge success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and the similarities between that game and BC2, it's no surprise that the two are frequently compared. For multiplayer purposes, BC2 offers dedicated servers while MW2 has a peer-to-peer matchmaking system much like consoles. MW2's system works better than you would expect, and as long as the host system doesn't drop too often, it's quite smooth. Still, the dedicated servers are more consistent once you're in a game, they support bigger matches (32 as opposed to 18), and you can often play for hours without needing to switch servers.
BC2 has a couple of other things going for it, notably the vehicles and the destructible environments. If those things are important to you, the choice is clear. MW2 has a more arena-like feel to it, with matches that are all infantry and maps that are relatively compact. I can't speak to the single-player campaigns as I haven't finished them both, but I prefer BC2 over MW2 for multiplayer.
Technical Concerns
As much as I appreciate the dedicated servers, BC2's server browser is in a truly sorry state. There's no way to do a quick refresh, or refresh just one server; it's a full refresh every time. The history list does nothing as far as I can tell, and when I try to add a server to my favorites I get a "retrieving data" message that never ends. Some of the filters appear to be broken, and it doesn't save them between games. On top of that, it's crashed to the desktop on me far more times than the game itself, which I only recall crashing once so far. After growing accustomed to Steam it's downright painful. Fortunately, you can use a third-party server browser like Xfire.
EA Games
In another departure from past BF games, Dice has not offered any support for mods or user-made maps. It's a shame to see these aspects of PC gaming fading away, as they resulted in a lot of great game content in the past. With more multi-platform games making the better-selling console versions the priority, this could be something PC gamers have to get used to.
The Bottom Line
A few small balance and technical issues aside, there's an APC load of explosive fun to be had in Bad Company 2. While I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy the single-player campaign, the multiplayer is still the main attraction, and it still full of hard-hitting vehicular mayhem. The destructible environments really take the action up a notch, and BC2 does a great job of catering to different play styles with the class system and gameplay modes. It encourages teamwork more than most shooters, and it stays pretty close to the proven Battlefield formula. Although I miss the 64-player matches and mods of the PC exclusive Battlefield titles, Bad Company 2 is an easy game to recommend.
