Editorial | 1/22/2011 at 3:21 PM

Battlefield Report: January 22, 1964

  Dearest Mary Louise,

  I know that I’m overdue for this letter. I’ve been in the infirmary for two days now, and I’ve finally come around to asking for a pencil and paper. I don’t have much to say...just looking at your picture and sipping from a glass of room temperature water is all I have the energy for.
  You wouldn’t believe how I got here - our chopper was shot down by a sniper. One charlie in the grass took a whirlybird and six men right out of the sky. I wasn’t injured in the crash, but some scrapes and cuts were exposed to Hepatitus. So I’ve been hooked up to these IV machines for some 48 hours, in and out of consciousness.
  By the way - your brother is due for some kind of medal, I hear. While we were evacuating the wounded chopper crew a NVA tank got the drop on us. He roasted that thing with a flame thrower! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Can’t wait to share that story at Christmas!

  With love, Billy

Most of my time spent in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has been as a sniper. Although I generally loathe people who strike from afar with high-powered rifles, the learning curve for sniping in bad Company and its sequel were enough to entice me. On-the-run headshots can be very difficult but very satisfying. Helicopter pilot headshots...that’s another story altogether, and I can brag that I have at least a dozen to my name.

Once I inserted into the war zone of battlefield Bad Company 2: Vietnam, however, I found out quickly that my rather skillful helo-killing powers were no match for the increased speed of the Hueys. Furthermore, Hueys are equipped with rocket launchers; perfect for those devastating strafing runs that Lt Col Bill Kilgore so loved. The final insult: there’s no way to lock onto them, so RPGs are nigh unusable.


This guy is about to lay a smack-down on those helos. Watch and learn.


C: / My_Music / Van_Halen / Fire_in_the_Hole.mp3

Then I stumbled onto something I hadn’t considered: sniper rifles are very effective against Hueys. Two snipers can destroy a Huey quite easily. One sniper can empty their rifle’s clip and then finish off the kill with a few good shots from their sidearm.

So now that you’ve cleared the airspace, the enemy team has gone low. Tank treads sound, and suddenly you’re eating 10mm shells instead of airborne rockets. RPGs and dynamite charges are at your call, but if you need something a little...messier...the M2 flamethrower is surprisingly effective against tanks.

It doesn’t pack much of a punch when compared to other hard-hitters - like, say, the RPG - but its residual damage keeps the engineers at bay. And if you play Battlefield, you know that just about every tank has an engineer or two on board for the quick hop-out-and-repair operation. A flamethrower not only slows down their repair efforts; it’s also great for causing damage to the engineers themselves. Yessir, just hop right out into my lake of fire there! Moron.


"Hey, Chad? I can't help but think there might be a flamethrower out there somewhere. Let's turn around."

Multiplayer purists can appreciate this small amount of extra diversity that sets Vietnam apart by just a tad bit. As for me...well, I just want to blow everything up. Thanks, DICE!