DICE Goes for the Gold
You’ve gone and done it again Preston – gone and got yourself transferred into B Company - or BAD Company as the army likes to refer to it – that hellhole where they spirit away all the ‘left-overs’, the renegades, the misfits – and as a consequence they are often the first ones to get shipped out on the ‘suicide missions.’ Your teammates, Sweetwater, Haggert and Sarge, love to break the rules – the rules of engagement that is. But then, you knew they weren’t labeled B Company for nothing.
“When we started building this game – we actually started with the Frostbite game engine in mind. Bad Company will be the first game we ship on that engine or rather, platform. We felt that [for a game to be] Next-Gen it should not be defined only by high-res textures and the like – but by dynamic environments. This was a key idea behind the Frostbite engine and Bad Company – new tech and destruction”, explains Karl-Magnus Troedsson, Executive Producer – DICE.
But the team knew they couldn’t just build a game based on new tech…
“With Bad Company being a console game – we knew we needed to create a [compelling] single-player experience as well. We knew right away we didn’t want to do something ordinary or cliché like - storming the beaches of Omaha. [laughs] We wanted to do a story that is more connected, more ‘modern’, so to say – and has a bit of black humor as well.”
It’s evident from the opening cut-scene narrative – and the inter-mission banter between your teammates – the aforementioned Sweetwater, Haggert and Sarge - the DICE team was pretty heavily influenced by David O. Russel’s Three Kings. Blend that concept with a heavy dose of Guy Ritchie-esque whitty dialogue and you’ve got a feel for the storyline within Bad Company.
So what is the plot, exactly?
“[the guys] out on a mission, begin to hear rumors of this Mercenary army who is always being paid in gold – and much like Three Kings…"
They decide to ‘Go for the Gold?’
“Yep, it’s all about leaving the army behind – ‘going for the gold’ - fighting the Russians, the Middle-East Coalition and ultimately the Mercenary army as well.” 
The A-Team
“He’s the intelligent kind of guy, a communications guy who can help you to translate some Russian, some Persian if need be – he can help negotiate different things. He’s smart, but he’s not the most action-oriented guy – he’d [prefer] to fall back and flank a lot.”
Haggert’s your go to man – a bit of a ‘redneck’ - he’s ready to jump into action without getting mired down in too much contemplation. Just our type.
Finally we’ve got Sarge – he’s a lifer – a long time military guy who’ll be there to give you some guidance and pick up the pieces when the mission goes fubar – and that’s going to be plenty often.
I’m Going In
“Battlefield was a huge sandbox – it was basically an area we put a lot of toys in – vehicles weapons – let people have fun – the singleplayer is just as simple. The general rule is - anything you see on the battlefield – any vehicle, weapon, jeeps, tanks, helicopters – if you see it - you can use it."
Continuing on this theme is the game’s wide-open approach to letting the player decide how, and when to approach and defuse the various objectives presented them.
“Right now, for example, we have our objective on the minimap which is where we need to go – but we don’t tell the player anymore than that. If you want to run out there and swim, you can do that – if you want to head over the hill and find a helicopter, go for it!”
Bad Company’s environments are ginormous – almost 60km by 60km square which immediately brings to mind Codemaster’s FPS title IGI (I’m Going In) which utilized a flight-sim engine as its foundation and also promoted a freestyle approach to problem solving. Not only are each of the games environments massive in scale, you’ll need to explore every inch of them if you want to find all the gold. We envision some long nights ahead for those looking to max out their XBL Gamerscores.
