The Bad Company 2 beta on the PC has been one of the larger time sinks for shooter fans in recent years. While the code is slightly rough, the mechanics and gameplay are polished and tight if played with a good group of players. If you hide inside a building, mortar rounds can take it down. If you see an enemy creeping towards an objective, call him out to your squad mates and have your friends hunt him down.

The question on the lips of PC gamers: is this going to be better than Modern Warfare 2? What's the server situation? We tracked down Anders Gyllenberg, who is the the producer of the PC version of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, to get our questions answered.

The Modern Warfare question

We asked Gyllenberg if Bad Company 2 would be defined by its differences from Modern Warfare 2, and he seemed confident of the strength the Battlefield name has with gamers. "For us it wasn't any discussions regarding if one studio does this then we have to do that. What we offer with Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is the same base experience as we have offered all the way back since Battlefield 1942," he said. He sees the mix of sandbox design as well as land, air, and sea vehicles as the key to the franchise.

"Combined with the focus on squad play, we believe we have our recipe for our own success. The server structure, which I assume you are thinking of, is only one of the components in what we feel is needed to offer a good PC experience."

The server issue is key here, as Modern Warfare 2's closed match-making system rubbed many PC gamers the wrong way. Gyllenberg laid out the details. "All servers are dedicated, hosted by some of our partners. If you have a clan or if you are a bunch of friends who want a safe haven where you can meet up, our server partners offer the possibility of controlling your own server," he told Ars. "Reserved slots is one of the features. As an admin you will also have the option of enabling several features such as friendly fire ratio, Minimap on/off, 3D spotting on/off, etc. You can also password-protect your server if you want to do some serious practice prior to an important game." Almost all the options you have after renting a server will allow it to continue to be a ranked server, but password-protected servers will be unranked to cut down on cheating and padding stats.

Frostbite engine comes to the PC

The beta was important for a number of reasons, but chief among them was the fact that the first Bad Company title was limited to consoles; this is the first time the Frostbite engine was brought to the PC. "The code itself is from late December, which is why we see some oddities with the server browser and stabilities," Gyllenberg told Ars. "Only through this type of massive testing can we can find the more rare issues that the beauty of PC gaming can create." Gyllenberg points out that both the client and server have been patched multiple times since the beta's beginning, and they've learned a lot about what hardware players are using to play the game.

If you want the game in 3D, or you have multiple monitors, you'll really see something special. Bad Company 2 supports flagship technology from both ATI and NVIDIA. "In BC2 we support the NVIDIA 3D-vision technology. It is an awesome feeling to actually play the game in true 3D. We have had several incidents when someone who has tried it for the first time actually hits the screen when they want to point at something," Gyllenberg said. "We do also support the Eyefinity tech where you can experience the game on several monitors. Besides that, we also have a support for the new keyboards from Logitech where you will get all the multiplayer stats you need displayed on the small monitor on the actual keyboard."

The PC has some love coming its way

After playing the PC beta with a mouse and keyboard, it's hard to imagine playing this game on consoles... but that's just us. So far the game is slick and fun, and it's only getting better; the fact the beta code is already so out of date gives us a lot of hope for the final product.

It's good to see a game from a developer that's embracing what the PC has to offer, not running from it.