Well, I broke down and picked up this game yesterday afternoon. (Actually, I traded (3) X360 games I don't play anymore for it)
Battlefield: Bad Company is actually pretty good, not as arcade like as I thought it would be. Actually, not really arcade at all; it's more like a comedy. Lol. The story is somewhat linear, but most of these style games are (R6 Vegas, GRAW, etc..) The 3 other guys you are with in your team are great. Two of them are always talking, cracking jokes, and doing odd things; like playing rock-paper-scissors while the SGT is talking on the radio.
Some of the firefights have been pretty intense, the game sounds are some of the best I have ever heard in a military FPS game; they are very clear and realistic sounding. You can pickup weapons from dead enemy soldiers, there are iron sights on all weapons, all of the terrain, buildings, vehicles, everything is destructible, and you can shoot through certain walls (Like plaster and wood).
The AI isn't too bad, they are pretty good shots on the Normal difficulty setting. You can take a few hits from small arms fire (You are wearing Kevlar armor protection), but get in the sights of a .50 cal MG and you will pay the price. As for healing, you carry an injector that you can use to heal yourself. It seems like it has unlimited uses (meh), but it does have a reuse timer (You can't just use it over and over). If you end up dying, your character will respawn at the last save point on the map. There's no real penalty for dying, except that you have to run back to where you died to continue.
You can drive just about every vehicle in the game. When you enter a vehicle, your team automatically jumps in with you. If the vehicle has a weapon on it and you are driving, the AI will gun for you. You can jump to the weapon if you choose, but the AI will not drive for you unfortunately. In one mission, there was a gunboat on a river; it had a MK19 grenade launcher on the front, a .50 cal MG in the rear, and dual outboard engines. It was a pretty bad ass platform.
The graphics are outstanding in 1080i HD. At times, I felt like I was watching a movie. With the dynamic lighting and destructible terrain, the game is jaw-dropping beautiful.
I don't think the "Battlefield" name was carried over from the previous Battlefield games, I really don't see a connection except for maybe the music. I am about two hours into the game, and I have enjoyed every minute. The map is pretty large, each mission uncovers more and more of the map as you complete them.
I haven't tried the MP yet, but I am really enjoying the SP storyline. Your team is a group of army bad boys (Basically guys that screwed up in the regular army) and placed in this B-Company (Bad Company so they call it). I will certainly be trying the MP mode very soon, I'm hoping there is a campaign co-op mode.
Great game so far, I give it my stamp of approval.
EDIT: Here is a video I found of one of the missions I've played, pretty cool.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/user ... 25336.html