The boys from Bad Company are back and are in even more trouble as they face off in the cold Russian winter. While the focus of the Battlefield Bad Company series is certainly on the singleplayer campaign mode, the E3 demonstration was of a gold rush-style multiplayer map.

Gold rush is essentially the same as it is from the first game, a team of attackers vs a team of defenders fighting over crates gold. While it is no longer called "gold rush" (the crates no longer contain gold) the objective is the same, secure and plant explosives on 8 crates (4 series of 2) or vice versa for the defenders.

The multiplayer classes have been trimmed from 5 classes to 4 (support is no longer in the game), and while I prefer more classes (my favorite game in the series, Battlefield 2, has 7 playable classes with the option to play as the commander), I understand that it makes the game more accessible to gamers new to the series.

The Assault class now includes the ammo replenishment perk that the support had in the first game. Engineers are still armed with RPG's and repair tools. Recon units are still the snipers of the game, and the Medics have the heal ability as well as the MG's that the support had in the first game.

Weapon customization is a welcome new feature and each gun can be fitted with seperate addons such as ACOG scopes and grenade launchers. While not every gun in the E3 demo has addons, DICE has stated that the weapon custimization feature is still well in the development phase and more tweaks are expected to come.

But enough about that, onto the demo!

We start off with 8 of us in the room, all on the same team, split into 2 squads of 4. We are the attacking team in a rush style map, with 8 crates to destroy. The defending team is a group of testers who have played the game more than any of us have, but we've played BFBC1 so we are fairly confident.

Right away we encounter the newest feature, parachuting, which oddly is a feature from the previous Battlefield games. As we parachute down we realize that we could be shot while parachuting down, as well as that the helicopter we came in on with an RPG or two.

As we land we survey the land and see that there are plenty of vehicles, a welcome change from the norm as we realize nobody will have to hoof it on foot. I come across a few ATV's and we decide to take them as they are quieter than a tank and smaller than a HMMWV (Humvee). The other squad takes the tank and the Hummer and go for crate A.

We take the ATV's around the long way to the unguarded crate B. We planted the explosives and waited for the defenders to come to attempt to diffuse. Knowing the powers of the Frostbite engine, I decided to make my own nest by launching a grenade into a wall, giving myself a hole in the wall from which to shoot from while providing myself cover from the enemies.

This can work two ways though, after I had picked off one of the enemies, the other saw me and launched an RPG right to where I was, blowing not only the wall, but me up as well. After getting fragged I decided to switch to engineer. I spawned on a squadmate who had found himself a tank, and immediately got to repairing his tank back to brand new with nothing but a power drill. Getting back in the tank I hopped into the gunner seat while my squadmate drove. We plowed through the enemies until we got hit with one too many RPG's.

The destruction that the tank doled out was the same as the first game as was most of the rest of the games. There were the frustrating moments when you didn't know whether a grenade or RPG will blow a hole in the wall providing an alternate entry, or whether it will be stopped in its tracks. While DICE said they were still working on it, I can't believe they can do much more than what they have, hopefully they will surprise me.

The rest of the session went relatively smoothly and we rolled over the competition (I don't know whether we were playing against people who were told to intentionally lose to us or not).

For a first impression I was impressed with the new additions to the already robust multiplayer mode and hopefully more light will be shed on the singleplayer mode shortly.

Look for Battlefield Bad Company 2 to be in stores Q1 2010 for the PS3, PC, and 360