The patch tomorrow should and is heralding more than just bug fixes (some of which just crashed King and I in tandem after a brief session). Apparently for the Xbox 360 you can get new outfits and camo for some guns, one for each class. Check out the post on the official Bad Company 2 blog:

Recruited strictly from other high-level Special Operations units such as Delta Force and Spetsnaz, the Special Activities groups – SPECACT – are the elite of the elite, used mainly for covert operations and other high-risk missions in areas where conventional troops cannot be used.

With the 4 kit specific unique uniforms and the camouflaged SPECACT personal M16A2, UMP-45, MG3 and M95 SNIPER you have a visual edge on the Battlefield, showing that you’re a force to be reckoned with. The pack also includes 12 new awards and 4 Achievements.

Out of all of those weapons the M16 is really the only one I care about. Of course, people love the M95, but the Magnum is where its at. All that rubbish aside, here’s the rub. For you Aussies and UK’ers out there, the pack will cost you, 160 MS points per kit and 440 MS points for the whole she-bang.

For everyone else, you have to drink Dr. Pepper. That’s right. Old school enough for you? It makes me want to buy Dr. Pepper, believe it or not. Good thing thats ONLY for the Xbox 360. Just hang on if you’re on the PC, it’ll probably just be free. Lets hope we get a new map soon too. Oh, and bug fixes. Oh, and M60 nerfz, plzkthxbai.

Oh man, how overdue is this? A massive patch for Bad Company 2 is coming on Wednesday, just in time for most people to have rage-uninstalled the game from straight-to-desktop crashes and getting insta-killed by the M60 from the next zip code. Check out the full list, as seen on the PC Gamer blog:

* MP – New Server browser
* MP – Added 15 second spawn timer for Conquest/Rush gamemodes at the start of round to prevent high end machines getting the upper hand before other machines load in.
* MP – Crash fixes relating to ALT+TAB at different times throughout the game
* MP – Hang fix when trying to connect to a full server multiple times
* MP – Deletion of soldiers now possible through the account pages in game
* MP – Removed screen flash during loading
* MP – Added support for colour blind players
* MP – Fixed crashes relating to faulty server banners
* MP – Servers closing during connection no longer cause the client to hang
* MP – Auto team swap reflects correctly in the scoreboard
* MP – Fixed scoreboards when switching teams before spawning
* MP – Rush scoreboards fixed
* MP – Veteran ranks no longer display as “12″
* MP – Isla Innocentes MCOM building fixed where knifing the fence would destroy the building
* MP – Logout/Login button correctly reflects the player status
* MP – Added minimum number of players needed to start a round (you can play and take objectives but you will get no score until 4 or more players join the server)
* MP – Isla Inocentes welcome message on the loading screen now fits the text box area
* MP – Reduced the brightness in Russian vehicles
* MP – Medic gadgets now display correctly if the defib is not unlocked
* MP – Server filter options are remembered
* MP – Punkbuster filter now works as intended
* MP – Scroll bar no longer overlays the Join Server button in the friends list panel
* MP – CANCEL server refresh is implemented
* MP – Zooming in on a friendly using the SAIGA no longer causes the crosshair to disappear
* MP – The chat no longer displays the incorrect player name when appearing
* MP – FoV switches to the default value of 55 when entering vehicles to prevent graphical glitches caused by wider FoV settings. The custom FoV returns when exiting vehicles.
* MP – FoV no longer causes the UAV station to rotate
* MP – Fix to correctly display the unlock progression at the end of round
* MP – Chat functionality will no longer freeze after writing a partial message at the end of round
* MP – One account can no longer connect to the same server multiple times
* MP – Squad Death Match is correctly named during loading
* MP – Server browser no longer gets a bad FPS when filtering Conquest
* MP – Server info banners correctly clear between displays
* MP – Setting display settings which the system hardware can not handle no longer makes the game unusable
* MP – Correct camera collision for vehicles’ heavy machine gun
* MP – Game no longer crashes if the player sends a message in the loading screen
* MP – Trying to join a full server no longer causes the game to hang on Please Wait message
* MP – Most server filter options are remembered it doesn’t remember the setting in dropdowns
* MP – Kit/gadget loadout saved between sessions
* SP – Fixed crashes when patching and trying to resume a campaign (there is now a message that you need to re-play the latest mission from the beginning)
* SP – Fixed a crash after the “Upriver” mission end cinematic
* SP – Supply create at “Resupply at Flynn’s create” objective now supplies weapon ammo
* SP – Hang fix when reaching the objective “Destroy Enemy Zu23″
* SP – Fixed hang after “Storm Cockpit” objective
* SP – Changed melee attack raycast to be detailed
* SP – Game no longer crashes when transitioning between SP_03B to SP_04A when installed in Polish
* SP – Game no longer crashes when killed by the first two enemies in the trenches on SP_01 when installed in Italian
* SP – Updating to R7 will invalidate your single player save game. If you update you will need to play your last mission from the start. If you do not update you will not be able to play multiplayer.

Server changelist

o Punkbuster is required ON for ranked servers
o Ranked servers cannot be started with a password
o Autobalance message goes to text-chat instead of in the middle of the screen
o Added weapon balance tweaks to a number of weapons – we are eagerly awaiting feedback!

All I have to say is hell yes.

Ok guys, get ready for a rant. This just might have to turn into a bona fide section of the website. First, before I hit the rant switch, I’ll offer a tip I found after looking for the solution to one of my problems while playing Battlefield Bad Company 2. After the latest patch, if you hit resume, your game dies and crashes to the desktop. Apparently the only way to get into the single player right now is going to “My campaign” and clicking on your chapter and restarting that chapter. Actually, this is a great way to get into my rant, which is sprinkled with game design tool tips

I’ve been on a sort of single player kick the last couple of days, playing through the first two episodes of Half Life 2. So I wanted to finish off the Bad Company 2 single player, since its kind of a thing of mine to want to “get it done” so to speak. So I’m like, cool, I’ll just play a little of the single player campaign, whatever. I was already dreading it before getting into the game, however, since I had just gotten past the damn mortar sequence where you die on a whim. Really.

So yeah, I click on single player, resume, and you may be able to guess what happened…

So in case you missed the last post about all the issues Battlefield Bad Company 2 has been dealing with, check it out here. For this post the Pixel Well team stumbled upon this forum posting to solve some connection issues you may be experiencing. This one in particular deals with being disconnected from games randomly. Follow the step by step guide and you should be good to go. Otherwise if that does not work try heading over to PortForward.com for an in depth guide on how to properly forward the right ports for Battlefield Bad Company 2. You will need to know the model number of the router you use along with MAC address and IP address.

So with the release of Bad Company 2 there have been some serious issues with the game as far as servers, random crashes, and freezes go. The latter of which has plagued my personal gaming experience. After doing a Google search I found some very good fixes to many of the problems. Having just put together a new computer I knew that it could be any of the problems that came up in the search results. The freezing problem that I tried first and worked, thankfully, were due to my soundcard. Apparently there may be some issues with the latest version of DirectX, which is installed automatically with BBC2.

Freezing Issues With BBC2

If the game freezes on you, about an hour or so into play, try the following: Look at your playback devices and see if their is a particular one set as the default. For me I have an on board soundcard on my motherboard as well as a Creative Audigy one. I had to disable one of them in order for the freezing to stop. So if you have multiple playback devices, disable one of them and it may stop the freezing.

Another solution is to unplug any recording devices you may have. Again this may be caused with the latest DirectX version released with the game. This solution has also worked for several gamers.

A third solution is to try the following: Turn “Hardware Acceleration” for sound from “Full” to “Basic”. This option is available by selecting “Start” and then “Run” – type in “dxdiag” and press Enter; select the “Sound” tab and then just move the slider to the appropriate setting.

Server Problems

This apparently is something that EA and Dice are currently working on. If you can’t connect to the EA servers you may just have to be patient and wait. However, if you don’t like waiting forever for the server browser to show online games there is a small trick to get quicker results. When you click to begin searching, wait a few seconds and then click cancel. After another few seconds a list of servers will show up. This has worked quite nicely for myself.

PunkBuster Issues

There have also been many issues dealing with PunkBuster. This was also a problem for myself and I found that reinstalling it was the best option. Go to your control panel and uninstall PunkBuster. Since the game is through Steam you will have to install the service again. Go to their site here and click on the link in the middle of the first paragraph. Run the install service and you should be good to go.

I hope that some of these options work for you and if you find any other problems or other fixes, please feel free to post them here or in our forums. In the meantime I hope you can continue playing this amazing game and kick these issues to the curb.

Alright so its been a really long time since I’ve posted on here so its time to change that. Having a full time job, being married, attending grad school, and helping coach a high school hockey team have been keeping me extremely busy this past winter. Now that Spring is here and hockey is over I’ll have some spare time to contribute to the site. Battlefield Bad Company 2 after the break…

Sorry for the two month void in posts guys. Pixel Well took a back seat to finals and then the last couple weeks I’ve just been settling… Or something. Suffice to say, I’m back and hoping to crank the engines up around here. I’ll start tonight with a little discourse about Bad Company 2.

I got into the beta for Bad Company 2 when I preordered it. Now I know, Mass Effect 2 came out at like the same time. I just felt like Bad Company 2 jived with my aesthetic needs at the moment more. Of course I’ll get Mass Effect 2, but I’m loving Bad Company 2 thus far.

The problem is that I’m already at that, “How the hell did I die right there?” phase. I guess that usually doesn’t set in for awhile, but already there are ninjas flying around with the prototype whatever gunning me down more effectively than any sniper. Learn 2 play, right. But its not that. Which brings me to the prime gripe I have with BBC2 right now: the lag. Or the lack of synchronization. I fire a rocket and it takes two, maybe three seconds to jump out of the barrel. This is with graphics on low, when I get pretty good frames on high everything. If this was in a forum I’d have BETA spammed for twenty posts after my own, but hey, that’s what I’m feeling right now. If that was fixed/tuned/whatever needs to be done, I don’t know if I could put the game down. I mean, I already barely can.

On the flip side, Syndic and Abyssus are both going to town on Mass Effect 2, saying its great. I’ve read that the RPG elements have been stripped a bit, so I’m a little concerned. We’ll see though. I’m still really interested in getting it. In the next couple of days I’ll be talking about some things that I’ve been thinking about with video games lately and some information about recent media. And maybe a post or two about my opinions on things from Dragon Age Origins to downloadable content. Stay tuned guys.