This post is going to be done in two parts.  Those of you socialist liberals who can't stand me ranting about guns can read just the first half, while the freedom loving patriots can take in the full value of this rant.

I recently got to play Battlefield: Bad Company 2.  In many ways it's an amazing game; the visuals are outstanding, the sound design is solid, the voice acting is excellent, and the destruction system is also very satisfying despite seeming much more scripted than some other engines.  However, despite these steps forward it seems that we're still living in a world of perpetual console ports, and even developers that promise the moon only give you a meteorite.

The game is outstanding the half hour at a time I can play it before I get a screaming headache from the horrible FOV.  Like many co-developed or ported shooters these days, BC2 caters to the lowest common denominator and locks the FOV at 60, despite the insistence from the developers that options would be present to cater this to your display and preference.  A field of view option has been promised in either the final retail copy or the first patch post-launch...but really, how damned difficult is it to just put it in from the get-go?

I'd also like to address some of the tired mainstays of shooters: grenades made of rubber, not having any ability to change the rate of fire of a weapon (single or auto, burst when applicable) and making the guns take up half of your screen whenever possible.  These really need to stop, because they're annoying, annoying and obtrusive respectively.  Planting a grenade at someone's feet is nigh impossible, since the Super Ball material the grenades are made of is more likely to cause the grenade to bounce in some random direction and do no damage whatsoever to your target.  No fire mode switch is a minor gripe but it's pretty handy and all the other Battlefield games until Bad Company had it.  But the HUGE LIKE XBOX weapons are just plain in the way, when the FOV is already causing problems.  Sort out those first person models, PLEASE.

One core gameplay issue that really bothers me is that it seems like every assault rifle in the game has a grenade launcher glued to it.  That means you get half a dozen or more grenades for that, a handful of regular old hand grenades, and you can still pick up a rocket launcher to boot.  Explosions look great and do a number on the scenery, but they get old rather fast when you've got permanent tinnitus from the constant booming.

Oh, parting shot.  It seems Valve is the only one on the planet capable of letting you bind up and down on the mousewheel to separate functions.  I like to keep my weapon slots bound to wheelup, wheeldown and middle click for quick switching.

Now that we've taken care of that...FLAME ON.

[GUN RANT]

Let's clear one thing up before I even get rolling.  The XM8 is NOT COOL.  It never was, it never will be, and it wasn't adopted for anyone's military for a reason.  Stop using it in games just because it looks like a fish, er I mean it looks "futuristic".  Read this if you don't know what I'm referring to.

Why are half of the guns mirrored left to right (ejection port on the left) and some aren't?  If you're going to screw up the gun models and flip them at least be consistent.  Better yet, stop mirroring them in the first place.  I had more than enough of that garbage in STALKER, Counter-Strike and Far Cry 2, thanks.

The iron sight designs on some of the made-up weapons make absolutely no sense and are weird to aim with.  It's a good thing most weapons are available with some Kobra-knockoff Russian red dot or an ACOG, because using irons isn't very enjoyable at all.  Also there's way too much zoom on the iron sights, that always bugs me.

Why are there still live rounds on the belt when you reload the PKM clone or other belt-fed guns?  That one is kind of funny really.  Also, we stopped using the M60 decades ago, the M240B totally replaced it before most people playing this game were even born.  It was replaced for many of the same reasons the XM8 sucks.  The few in service would definitely NOT be in the hands of an elite special forces team who could easily pick from anything on the planet.  I mean, they have FISHGUNS after all.

I don't need a big, bold-lettered reminder under my crosshair that I should RELOAD all the time.  It gets in the way, it's distracting, and I already know how much ammo is in my gun because there's a handy ammo count a matter of inches south-east of the crosshair.

That's about it for the moment.

[/GUN RANT]