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Now here is a surpice. I expected a full blown Vietnam game, but it seems the Bad Company 2 team made it DLC and with that it should be very affordable (if you have Bad Company 2 that is). Here is the news as posted at Kotaku:

Through the grass, I see a North Vietnamese troop before me. I dart ahead and, poof, he’s gone.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam is a downloaded expansion pack for Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The game keeps the same classes and gameplay as Battlefield: Bad Company 2. If you are familiar with that title, there are no surprises. (You’ll need to be familiar with it as this DLC title requires the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 game disc.)

The Vietnam expansion pack is the U.S. Marines versus the North Vietnamese army. It includes 4 new maps and brings 15 new Vietnam-era weapons like the M79, 6 new vehicles like the UH-1 Huey, forty-nine different 1960s-era tunes (Fortunate Son!) and new Achievements and Trophies.

The map that EA was demoing for the Tokyo Game Show was called “Phu Bai Valley”. In Conquest Mode, it is familiar territory for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 players. But the new Vietnam vide really offers a new experience. It feels far more than simply a fresh coat of paint. It feels fresh.

Phu Bai Valley is another well-designed multiplayer map from EA Dice, the developer behind the series. The map is quite large and expansive, but still feels intimate. I never felt like I was going to hit a wall, and I never felt like I was playing alone. There are multi-player games that can handle many more players, but EA Dice does an excellent job of not only balancing out the map, but making it flow in a logical progression and opening up the sky for intense combat.

Growing up watching Vietnam film after Vietnam film during the 1980s, I always noticed how everything feels muddy and damp. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam’s Phu Bai Valley feels muddy and damp. That is a good thing.

A multiplatform release of Bad Company 2 Vietnam is slated for later this year.