Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Developers
	DICE
	Coldwood Interactive
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	Frostbite 1.5
Release dates
Windows	March 2, 2010
Reception
Metacritic	87
IGDB	90
Taxonomy
Monetization	DLC
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, FPS
Vehicles	Automobile, Helicopter, Motorcycle, Naval/watercraft, Tank, Transport, Truck
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Contemporary, Eastern Europe, North America, South America
Series	Battlefield

Key points

Modding is possible, albeit rather difficult.

Co-operative "Onslaught" mode DLC not available for PC version.

General information

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the Battlefield Wiki

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 hub on Planet Battlefield

The Battlefield series on Battlelog - PC section.

EA Answers HQ

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Either disc check or online activation with SecuROM DRM, unknown machine limit. A De-Authorization Tool is available. Can be converted into DRM-free using the latest patch.
Gamesplanet
Origin		Included with EA Play. Digital Deluxe Edition also available.
Steam		No SecuROM DRM.
Amazon.com (unavailable)		Includes DLC.
Humble Store (unavailable)		Ultimate Digital Collection.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
SPECACT Kit Upgrade
Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch R11 updates the retail release to the latest version. Not required for digital editions.

Skip intro videos

Delete the Intro video[citation needed]
Go to <path-to-game>\Output\win32\movies\ Delete or rename ea_logo_hd.res and dolbydigital.res

Delete the Intro video[citation needed]
Go to <path-to-game>\Output\win32\movies\introtransitions Copy the file fallbackbackgroundmovie.res and paste it twice to <path-to-game>\Output\win32\movies\ Then rename it to ea_logo_hd.res and dolbydigital.res, removing the original files.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\BFBC2\settings.ini
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/24960/pfx/

BF:BC2 Configurator

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\BFBC2\GameSettings.bin
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/24960/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Origin		Does not sync campaign progress, graphics settings or keybindings
Steam Cloud

Video settings

In-game options menu.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Menus are always 16:9 and rendered at 720p
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		Toggle with Alt+↵ Enter.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)		CSAA and MSAA. Builtin AA only works on DX10+. Enhanceable with TrSSAA on Nvidia systems. Can also force AA in DX9 on Nvidia with flags 0x004030C1(MSAA) and 0x004412C1(SGSSAA).
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Frame rate cap to 200 FPS. No refresh rate cap.
Color blind mode		Under Options, Settings, Gameplay.

Field of view (FOV)

This game uses vertical FOV. See FOV Calculator for help.

3rd party fixes[citation needed]
Use Widescreen Fixer or BC2 Cinematic Tools. May apply to single-player only. Widescreen Fixer only works in the Steam version of the game, and adjusting FOV will also break ADS and scope zooming in the campaign.

Edit configuration file[citation needed]
Open %USERPROFILE%\Documents\BFBC2\settings.ini Change Fov=55 to the FOV you want and save your changes. Notes Applies to multiplayer only. On some systems, you might need to force DirectX 9 compatibility in order for the FOV to change.

Input settings

In-game key map settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Enabled by default. Can be disabled with BC2 configurator
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Only support 4 axes and 12 buttons
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Up to 5.1
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

To switch between localizations change Locale string under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Electronic Arts\Battlefield Bad Company 2 to the relative code

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				en
French				fr
German				de
Hungarian				Fan translation.
Italian				it
Japanese				jp
Polish				pl
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation, download.
Russian				ru
Spanish				es
Turkish				☪ AVAILABLE - VAR ☪ DOWNLOAD

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		Planned for a future version of Project Rome.
Online play		32

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting		Use Project Rome.
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	80, 13505, 18390, 18395
UDP	10000, 18395

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes	Native	GG3D	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision			Use Helix Mod for better 3D support.
TriDef 3D
iZ3D
Devices	Native	Notes
3RD Space Gaming Vest

Issues unresolved

"Some AA alternatives might not come up for some users"

CSAA and some MSAA alternatives might be hidden for some users.

"Loadouts Lost, Switching between Bad Company 2 (BC2) & Vietnam Multiplayer (MP)."

BC2 MP and Vietnam MP read the same parameters for class loadouts. The ensuring disparity of weapons results in loadout reset.

Workaround[citation needed]
SPECACT DLC adds four classes (SPECACT Assault, Engineer, Medic & Recon) to BC2 MP, absent from Vietnam. Use SPECACT classes exclusively for BC2 MP. By leaving the default classes alone in BC2 MP, the Vietnam MP loadouts are preserved.

Issues fixed

TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for fixing issues in this game. It can be found here.

Unable to redeem serial key

STEAM ONLY: Redeem your serial key on EA's site and then launch the game, logging into your EA account on the main menu

"A connection error occurred. If this happen during account creation press cancel and then login with your new account"

Remove special punctuation characters from password, such as <

"Unable to log in. Please try again."

Remove special symbols from password, such as +

Unable to update

Manually update[citation needed]

Hard crashing

Force DirectX 9[citation needed]

Blinking black screen

Set HSAO to false[citation needed]
Open %USERPROFILE%\Documents\BFBC2\settings.ini Find the HSAO line in the file and change it to HSAO=false

No Servers

If you're not seeing any multiplayer servers deselect all filters except for PunkBuster and click search.

Communication Failure: PnkBstrA

Reinstall PunkBuster Services

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9, 10, 11	Automatically set to the highest version the GPU can support. For details on how to manually set the DirectX version used, see Force DirectX Level.
Shader Model support	3, 4, 5

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok
Input	DirectInput
Cutscenes	Bink Video	1.9p
Anti-cheat	PunkBuster

Mods

Although Frostbite is a relatively modding-unfriendly engine, a nascent modding community has formed and was able to extend the map border, create new in-game items and tweak weapons and vehicles. They have even released modding tools.

Emulator Nexus

Critical // Edge

Force DirectX Level

Modify the settings.ini file[citation needed]
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open settings.ini. Change DxVersion= to the preferred DirectX version (9, 10, 11).

Greatly increase performance for low-end machines

Tweak configuration files[citation needed]

These options are not available in the in-game options menu. Open %USERPROFILE%\Documents\BFBC2\settings.ini Change DxVersion=auto to either 9 or 10. Reduce RenderAheadLimit=2 to either 1 or 0. Reduce any other settings if necessary and save the changes. For these changes to persist, make the settings.ini file 'Read Only', otherwise these settings will be changed back to default, when using the in-game UI to change other settings. To do this: Rightlick the settings.ini file in windows explorer -> Properties -> Set the Checkbox 'Read Only' -> Apply -> Ok

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP	7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz	Intel Core 2 Quad
System memory (RAM)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	15 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon X1900 Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT 256 MB of VRAM	ATI Radeon 4870 Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 512 MB of VRAM