$20 Game of the Week: Battlefield – Bad Company (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

For years, the Battlefield series was a multiplayer-only affair. While certain games may have contained single player modes, they were there simply to train offline gamers, as they were fought with bots instead of live opponents. That changed with Bad Company. For the first time in the series, the single player component would take center stage. You step in the shoes of Private Preston Marlowe, a soldier reassigned to the Army’s “Bad Company”, a platoon filled with the worst of the worst. Their job is mainly cannon fodder as they are caught in a war between the U.S, Russia, and a Middle Eastern Coalition along with a group of mercenaries gets involved in the chaos. The environments are destructible, creating strategies for players in both the single and multiplayer modes. Speaking of multiplayer, the game includes the Gold Rush mode, in which attackers attempt to destroy crates of gold as defenders try to protect them. Conquest mode was added sometime later. Like other Battlefield games, Bad Company’s multiplayer is class-based and features ranks and awards. There is a selection of vehicles to drive, from tanks to helicopters. Bad Company isn’t perfect, as the controls are a bit sluggish and the AI is lacking, but the game’s destructible environments and hilarious chatter more than make up for it. Bad Company was so successful that a sequel was released this past year, so check them out if you love shooters.