Played some Bad Company 2 again...

And I remember why I preferred the gameplay in Battlefield 3.

To be fair, there aren't many people playing Bad Company 2 anymore and I've been playing alone - which is never wise in any Battlefield game. The main thing I feel when playing is that I want to play Battlefield 3 again. I miss having a more realistic approach to gun selection, without it being a simulation. Bad Company 2 squeezes you into a very limited selection of weapons for each class and none of them really take my fancy - I end up running around with an 870 shotgun or a G3 and wishing for my LA85A2 (british army's standard assault rifle), which I adored in Battlefield 3. Also, the gameplay is just a little less refined than I remembered.

I looked back through my blog at some of my past comments on these games and I have consistently said Bad Company 2 was better overall. I think this is a feeling of how it felt at the time. Battlefield 3 had some really frustrating aspects that were easily managed by Bad Company 2, most notably playing in a squad with friends. Battlefield 3 had the annoying habit of chucking everyone you'd gathered into your in-game "squad" into random squads in a match and even on different teams. Also, Battlefield 3 brought in player run servers, which were almost all terrible - trying to get onto an official server without any bullshit or worrying about being kicked, was nearly impossible.

Bad Company 2 just worked, all official servers, easy squad creation, easy connections to games. If they'd had all these aspects in Battlefield 3 it would have been better in every way than Bad Company 2. They may seem like small things as they don't actually relate to gameplay, but they're so important for providing good gameplay.

So yes, overall Bad Company 2 was more fun, but, frustratingly, it hasn't aged well. I hope to play with my mate, who was my main battle partner through Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3, and then we'll see how it weighs up. But, like Battlefield 2142, it's probably better to live with the memories and play something more up to date.