Battlefield Bad Company, however, hopes to transform war games with more than just plot. It offers freedom too. Beginning a mission, you can hop in a jeep and head straight to the objective marker, but you can also veer off the main road at any time and do some exploring. Drive along smaller dirt paths, plunge through thick forests or climb up and down rocky terrain. The level we played was 32 x 32 kilometers (400 square miles) and entirely unrestricted. By attempting to cover every inch, we even managed to discover a hidden radio station with optional enemies, weapons, gold and Achievements.
Still, the biggest way in which Bad Company plans to change the battlefield is by utterly obliterating it. That's right - destructible environments. But while so many games promise this feature, Battlefield Bad Company is one of the first we feel might truly deliver it. When we started our demo, we were gazing upon a heavily fortified town surrounded by concrete walls, dotted with guard towers and populated with strong brick buildings. By the end, we were standing in a smoldering skeleton of debris.
