"Bit-Tech: So, Battlefield Heroes is kind of original in itself and is an unusual way to go with the Battlefield franchise especially. Why did you decide to make a free game anyway? It’s a very odd business model.

Ben Cousins: Yeah, well it is an odd model in the western world and we are the first people to do it properly over here, but if you go over to South Korea and visit a Seoul Internet café then you’ll find 50 or 60 very, very popular games that are all free to download, free to play, on PCs which are all funded by microtransactions for a small number of users.

So, it is actually a very popular idea and it’s the only model which really works in Korea and Korea is the world’s biggest gaming market right now. Some of the guys from DICE went over there a few years ago on a business trip and they came back with this idea that they wanted to experiment with and we decided we wanted to do that with the Battlefield franchise. "

"On Monday (28th) the Beta servers will be taken down to prepare for the launch of Battlefield: Bad Company. The feedback we have received from all of you have been invaluable and the team have made a huge push to make the game look a lot better. Thank You!

So take this last chance to try out the Beta, before preparing for the full game experience. If you can't wait to play Battlefield, we of course recommend you to keep your eyes open on the Battlefield Portal over at www.battlefield.com for upcoming news on our other titles."

"The special Gold Edition pack features exclusive content with behind-the-scenes action and strategy videos giving Battlefield: Bad Company players tricks and tips on how to own the battlefield. The Gold Edition also gives gamers early access to five unique weapons that players can take into battle. These weapons can also be unlocked after the launch of the game by ranking up to the highest level in multiplayer mode."

"Prepare for the gold rush! This summer, the blockbuster action event of the season will not be in theatres. EA DICE, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced that Battlefield: Bad Company™ will ship to retail outlets on June 23. Action fans and gamers worldwide will get their chance to join the ‘B’ company on exciting, sometimes irreverent, missions that take them through deserts, cities and mountain terrain to capture the spoils of war. Players will experience the tactical, destructive power in the deep single player campaign or go online for intense multiplayer action that only the Battlefield team can deliver.

For a limited time only, gamers will be able to purchase the Gold Edition of Battlefield: Bad Company. The Gold Edition pack features exclusive content with behind-the-scenes action and strategy videos giving Battlefield: Bad Company players tricks and tips on how to own the battlefield. The Gold Edition also gives gamers early access to five unique weapons that players can take into battle. These weapons can also be unlocked after the launch of the game by ranking up to the highest level in multiplayer mode.

“Players can forget about using walls as cover as we’ve fundamentally changed the way to play shooters offline and online through the use of tactical destruction,” says Karl-Magnus Troedsson, Senior Producer for Battlefield: Bad Company. “Players will get the chance to reap the spoils of war this summer as they annihilate the enemy and search for gold in the dark, character-driven, single player storyline while returning Battlefield fans will love the intense and vehicle-heavy multiplayer.”"

"So, why did we go and make a Character Customisation system? Well, as I was saying back in the blog ‘Character Classes, Cameras and Computers‘; we wanted you to own your own Hero. What better way to do that, than to make the game so you can decide exactly how your Hero looks?

Your decisions about how your Hero will appear start with the Create a Hero section on the website. You select a faction, a class, set some default characteristics (like skin tone, hair colour, hair style and facial hair) and finally, name your Hero. Once that’s complete you can start the game and get into deciding on your Hero’s weapons, abilities and clothing."

"At the end of March, EA invited a select number of gamers to participate in an online multiplayer beta for the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield: Bad Company. Shortly after the Xbox Live server opened, gamers discovered that while many weapons would be available out of the box, 10 firearms appeared to be available only as downloadable content or through the purchase of the collector's edition of the game.

A firestorm of controversy followed, with fan site Sarcastic Gamer organizing Battlefield fans into a boycott of sorts due to the downloadable content for the title. EA moved quickly to diffuse some of the complaints, saying that five of the 10 locked weapons will actually be given away as part of a promotional campaign, and as such were incorrectly flagged. However, the publisher also noted that the remaining five would indeed be premium content, available only in the Gold Edition of the game or as downloadable extras purchasable over Xbox Live. "

"We are launching with two maps, but we already have one other in development - we are playtesting it as we speak and it’s great. Should be ready in the months, if not weeks, directly after launch. We have a full-time level designer assigned in the game’s post-launch team to keep making new maps (if you want more that is, we can make vehicles or game modes if you want instead) and we will be polling the community to find out what type of content you want to play."

"We go through the all-new Gold Rush multiplayer game mode and explain why defenders seem to be winning more often as the attackers.

The new objective based multiplayer mode for Battlefield: Bad Company, Gold Rush, sees defenders fighting/holding off attacking forces in a fight over gold stashed in crates scattered across a variety of locations. From mountainous tundra to scorched deserts, pit your wits against wily opponents and line your pockets using a full array of state of the art vehicles and weapons."

"Tipsters are telling us that the Battlefield: Bad Company beta has not only leaked to online download sites but that it may also be playable via a burnt DVD-R, much like the demo for Guitar Hero III. The ability to clone the download of the beta and release it to other consoles also reminds us of the Call of Duty 4 beta glitch which allowed gamers to use the account recovery feature to circumvent the barriers in place of people who hadn't been selected to participate in the closed test."

"As soon as you know you are going ahead with launching a game, you start thinking about it’s name. Battlefield Heroes wasn’t always called that — DICE gives products codenames so that information can’t be leaked about them before announcement. James Salt codenamed Battlefield 2142 ‘Stella’ (after the sci-fi setting and the Belgian beer), Battlefield Bad Company was codenamed ‘Next’ (as in ‘Next-Gen’) and Battlefield Heroes was simply called ‘West’ for the majority of the project (as in a South Korean-style Play 4 Free game brought to the ‘western’ world)."

"Overall, Battlefield: Bad Company has a lot of potential. From my brief time with it I did enjoy it for what it was, and the game wasn’t short on fun. I’m sure the game will have a fare share of fans, just for the vehicle and destructible aspects alone. I just hope some of the complaints that I made were just a result of the game being in beta and don’t make it to the final version. Fingers crossed that EA and DICE are listening closely. But, we’ll have to wait until June to find out!"