So as of Nov 19th BFBC2 beta was launched in the US for the PS3. I was eager to get home and play it and to my avail I was lucky enough to have our internet in working order and actually be fast for once. Even still, I had read a little bit about the beta while at work and found out their was an issue right at launch and a patch had already been distributed. So before I signed on it asked me to download the patch but again, luckily it was only about 7mb in size and took around 1min to download.

After all I was said and done I got to playing. Right off the bat it asked me if I wanted to join a squad and so I figured sure considering how this game seems to be teamwork oriented. So it will randomly put squads together unless you have friends. Meaning, when you start up the game you can choose "Play Now" or "Play with friends". I didn't have any friends playing at the time so I chose "Play Now" and in a mere matter of seconds I was loading the map to begin playing. I didn't join a lobby or see who I was playing with. It was really fast loading though and the maps are huge.

Graphics:
Overall the game looks very sharp. The map available is Arica Harbor and it is kind of dull in colors due to it looking like the dessert but even still the aliasing is pretty high considering there aren't many jaggies unless you really look hard. Also, the weapon models are very well detailed and the character models are impressive. Even in the animations you see the characters reloading weapons in full. By that I mean if your friend has a rocket launcher you see the character pull another rocket out of his bag on his back and then put it in to the launcher. So it looks like DICE isn't cutting anything short and really are bringing some high quality graphics. Not to mention the physics are amazing but I will get to that later.

Gameplay:
Starting off new and having other people who didn't have work or just didn't go, I was definitely out of my league. I was getting shot left and right by people I had no idea where from. The kill cam shows a 3rd person view so it is true considering how large the environments are and how every rock has the exact same texture, it is hard to tell exactly where someone is. Also, the killcam isn't really a kill cam at all. It shows the person that killed you but it shows them in real time what they are doing. So if someone shoots you then runs to somewhere else you get to see for a brief moment them running to their next destination. I don't mind this because it makes it easy to guess where they might be next and I can get revenge. The guns feel good and shoot well. The sniper isn't as easy to shoot as I thought it would be, plus it takes usually 2 shots to kill someone with it. All the weapons sound and feel good. The nicest thing is that driving vehicles is as easy as pushing forward on the analog stick or pulling it back. The default controls are very intuitive and nice and make the game easy to pick up and play.

Game Modes:
Right now the only game mode that is available is bomb/defusal. Where basically you are either the attacking team who has to arm the bomb or the defending team who has to disarm the bomb. Fun but can be tedious considering to arm and disarm only takes a matter of maybe 3 seconds. Still it's fun.

Physics:
What can I say, the game reminds me of Red Faction but is even more fun because it's with realistic weapons and future ones. It's tons of fun to be able to shoot a wall and make a path to go through or just slightly shoot it and give yourself a vantage point. It makes for a very dynamic and exciting gameplay. Not to mention, there really is nowhere to hide when grenades blow up entire walls and planting C4 in well placed areas levels an entire house. It's a lot of fun, I will leave it at that, but it's also fun to just watch.

Overall:
The game is a lot of fun and has a lot of potential. Still need to be a few tweaks here and there but the game isn't set to release until March 2010 so I am not worried. I like it when companies have betas this early because it shows they care what we the consumers think and lets us voice our opinion on the game.

I would give this beta an 8.5/10 right now. It's very limited but has a LOT of potential. I can't wait to try this on PC in december.