Boomtown X

Following last week's tinkering with the PlayStation 3 version of Battlefield Bad Company 2, DICE says that the Xbox 360 game will have some attention this week.

There will be some downtime for multiplayer servers tomorrow 7am-2pm UK time.

This is the second phase of the stats database rebuild – this phase is done separately for BFBC2 Xbox 360. We are measuring performance both before and after this operation. We expect that there will be some minor stats issues right after the downtime when all the players are getting back online at the same time; this effect will diminish over the following 2 hours.

23:00 PM PST Monday – 06:00 AM PST
07:00 AM GMT Tuesday – 14:00 GMT AM
08:00 AM CET Tuesday – 15:00 PM CET

Source: Battlefield Official Blog

DICE says that the PlayStation 3 servers for Battlefield Bad Company 2 will be down at various times tomorrow - February 3rd - tomorrow.

10:00 pm PDT - 3:00 am PDT
0:01 am EST - 5:00 am EST
06:00 GMT - 11:00 GMT
7:00 am CET - 12:00 am CET

This is the second phase of the stats database rebuild – this phase is done separately for BFBC2 PS3. We are measuring performance both before and after this operation. We expect that there will be some minor stats issues right after the downtime when all the players are getting back online at the same time; this effect will diminish over the following 2 hours. The downtimes will be announced on Facebook, Twitter and the official EA UK Forums.

Source: DICE

All versions of Battlefield Bad Company 2 will see some server downtime tomorrow as EA/DICE carry out some maintenance.

The downtimes are as follows:

2:00 am PDT - 5:00 am PDT
5:00 am EST - 8:00 am EST
10:00 GMT - 13:00 GMT
11:00 CET - 14:00 CET

The maintenance aims to "reduce/eliminate stats outages".

DICE has two major patches incoming for Battlefield Bad Company 2 on PC and Xbox 360 to prepare the way for the release of the Vietnam expansion.

The developer warns that users may experience some lag or server outages today and tomorrow as the update is released and servers are updated.

Check out the patch lists for both formats after the jump:

After the jump, your first chance to see the flamethrower in action in the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam expansion.

EA has released this new trailer for the Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam expansion.

The video also reveals the pricing of the DLC - 1200 MS points via Xbox Live or $14.99 for PSN/PC.

Check out the video after the jump:

Electronic Arts has released the first gameplay shots from the Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam expansion.

All three shots focus on the Phu Bai Valley map and you can see them after the jump:

After the jump, the Tokyo Game Show trailer for Battlefield Bad Company 2's Vietnam multiplayer expansion.

The expansion will be available for PC, PS3 and X360 in Q4 2010.

Hopefully the follow-up will be a shrimp boat sim.

DICE has just tweeted that it will be showing the Battlefield Bad Company 2 expansion Vietnam at the Tokyo Game Show, this is the first proper reveal for the content.

"This is it! I am going to Tokyo Game Show to showcase Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam for the first time -- and to spend some quality time with the Japanese Battlefield Community. As you may already know, Vietnam is an expansion pack to Battlefield: Bad Company 2 with 4 brand new maps built in Frostbite, as well as Vietnam specific weapons, vehicles, persistence, unlocks, and achievements/trophies."

Source: Battlefield Blog

Electronic Arts is updating the PlayStation 3 version of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 with a major patch.

The patch is due around now, so you are going to be prompted for the update next time you fire up the game.

The patch features the following changes:

• Kit images added in spawn menu
• Fixed the “required rank” field on the unlock items specified on the W&G page
• Added M14, NS 2000 and G3 in-game unlock pop-up when the requirements for unlocking them are reached
• Added a server side check of the veteran status of the players
• Award bugfix for “Win all 4 game modes” (it had marksman headshot as a dependency)
• Garand did not track anything, Thompson tracked Garand.
• Increased the penalty points for TeamKill and TeamDamage
• Increased the reward points for Objective Actions (Flag Cap/Assist, Arm/Disarm/Destroy/Damage/TeamDestroy/TeamDamage)
• Fixed veteran rank number not showing up in ingame scoreboard
• The southpaw setting now works for the anti-air gun and the Stationary AT
  Collectible weapon messages fixed

Electronic Arts and DICE show off the new co-operative Onslaught Mode coming soon to Battlefield Bad Company 2.

Recently I've been thinking I don't like shooters anymore, certainly not shooters on consoles. But having spent the last week playing Bad Company 2 I realise that I love shooters - I was just very fed up of playing mediocre releases.

This latest game from DICE shows how a console shooter should work. It features a hugely entertaining single player game and backs it up with an equally well thought out slice of multiplayer action. There will be people who play both - or people who play just one of these two components - but unlike many similar games each component is worth the asking price.