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I'll be having a look at the first hour of actual gameplay from Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the PS3. I probably won't review the full hour, because frankly I don't really have the time, and plus my internet is so poor buffering 10 minutes let along an hour takes ages.

If you'd like to watch the video for yourself, check it out below.

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The footage starts with a very MW2-like war map loading screen, similar to those features in the Call of Duty 6 campaign. The mission is preceded by a solid cutscene, showing a military base in a snowy landscape, again very similar to the Air Base in the MW2 campaign. The cutscence graphics look great, but it's the witty dialogue between the like-able characters that stands out, just like in Bad Company 1.

Switching to First Person, you are told to take out a small enemy patrol with the rest of your team. Again, excluding the HUD which does look pretty sleek, it could easily be mistaken for one of MW2's winter missions. The details on the weapons are a bit disappointing, the guns look a bit Paintbally, and the scopes used are exactly the same as the ACOG's in Call of Duty 4, love them or hate them. The fire fights are solid, again very similar to the COD series, but really stands out for me is the sound. Gun shots echo round buildings and RPG's create an awesome shell shock noise, making for a very realistic experience for your ears. The health system is again, exactly the same as Call of Duty, but with less detail on the red-stuff-all-over-your-screen front. The fire fights seem more subdued with more deliberate fire, cover is essential, and enemies are quick to respond to your actions. Your fire seems more tactical, compared to some of the set pieces in MW2, where it seemed the whole of the Russian army was against you. As a break from you gun, you also get to use Binoculars to signal air support to take out enemy vehicles, again, similar to the laser used in the COD6 campaign. The air support set pieces are visually stunning, jets flying over your head, lighting up the screen, with buildings falling infront of you. You then hear the fighter pilots radio in, 'Merry Christmas fellas', another nice touch.

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Overall, after just a brief look at the opening mission to Battlefield: Bad Company 2, I must say I'm very impressed. Visually, it's on par, if not better than Call of Duty 6. Apart from the poor weapon design, the environments and scenery look great. Gameplay wise, it's a solid, more tactical shooter than COD, although the A.I can be a little slow, but that could be down to an easy difficulty, despite their good use of cover and movement. What I was most pleased with though was the level of detail in the character relationships and the solid dialogue. The story, even in just the first missions, was dramatic and engaging. So in conclusion, despite it's very obvious links to Modern Warfare 2, BF:BC2 looks like another quality shooter for PS3 and 360. It'll be interesting to see how the multiplayer experience compares to that of Call of Duty 6's 'somewhat flawed' online gameplay.