Hitting the shelves for the Xbox 360 and PC on March 2nd of last ear, EA’s Battlefield Bad Company 2 has been received generally well by critics across the board selling over 5 million units since launch. While the game’s story line is certainly no laughing matter it’s the game’s online multiplayer that has us coming back for more. However, if you’re one who can’t go a day without getting their Bad Company 2 fix, you may want to sit down for this one.

EA has just notified us that they will be having some scheduled downtime for Bad Company 2 on the Xbox 360 starting today, February 7th.

Luckily, it doesn’t seem as if things are too serious and if everything goes according to plan you should be back online fragging before you know it

We’re now officially in 2011, which will no doubt bring many great games into gamers hands, and hopefully, we’ll see a few surprises as well. For the 2010 year in gaming, we saw lots of great games, here’s out Best of 2010 at DigitalBattle:

Best shooter: Battlefield Bad Company 2

The shooter category has been packed in 2010, with lots of games coming out, including yet another Call of Duty, a reboot of Medal of Honor, and Halo Reach. But for us, the best shooter was Bad Company 2, with an improved campaign over the previous Bad Company and by far the most fun multiplayer shooter of the bunch, even though Halo and CoD fanboys might disagree.

Best Indie game: Limbo

Limbo took many by surprise with its dark nature and creepy atmosphere. While there have been many indie games in 2010, and many good ones, Limbo stood out the most. Check out our Limbo review.

Best Xbox 360 game: Halo Reach

Xbox 360 saw a relatively quiet year compared to 2009, but it still had the last Halo game made by Bungie, and it lived up to all the expectation fans had. Read our Halo Reach review.

Best PS3 game: Heavy Rain

It was a close race between Heavy Rain and God of War 3, and we chose Heavy Rain because of its uniqueness and story. And for being a game that’s hard to find these days, a game with a sense of mystery. Read our Heavy Rain review.

Best Wii game: Super Mario Galaxy 2

Without a doubt, it’s the best Mario game ever made, and took the already awesome Super Mario Galaxy to new heights. It offers everything a platformer should have, and it’s a game all future Mario games will be judged against. Read our Super Mario Galaxy 2 review.

Best sports game: NBA 2K11

It’s widely considered the best NBA Basketball game of all time, including from our review. It helps that there was no competition from NBA Live/NBA Elite this year.

Best DLC: Bad Company 2 Vietnam

The $15 DLC added a whole new dimension to the hectic multiplayer of Bad Company 2, taking its talents to the Vietnam era, with new maps, vehicles and lots of guns. Read our BC2 Vietnam review.

Best racing game: Gran Turismo 5

It was years in development, costing close to $80 million, and yet, we kinda felt disappointed by GT5. Despite that, it’s still a good racing game, and there wasn’t much competition in the racing scene in 2010. However, GT5 was also…

Most overhyped game: Gran Turismo 5

While it’s still the best racing game of 2010, the years leading up to it made us expect the greatest racing game ever, which it unfortunately wasn’t. There were a lot of things that felt dated in GT5, like the AI. For more, read our Gran Turismo 5 review.

Biggest disappointment: APB

What’s there to say about APB? Much anticipated, it came out as a dud, and it seems developer Realtime World’s blew $50 million to create great customization for characters. And not much else. Read our full disappointment in our APB review.

Best game of 2010: Super Mario Galaxy 2

It takes an already great concept and perfects it to the bone. Best Wii game of all time, best Mario game of all time, and best game of 2010.

Runners up: Mass Effect 2, Heavy Rain, Red Dead Redemption, God of War 3, Bad Company 2, Halo Reach.

The new expansion for Bad Company 2, Vietnam, had a great community feature built into it: when players accumulated team actions of 69 million (like resupplying teammates etc.), a new map called Operation Hastings would be unlocked.

Now PC owners of Bad Company 2 Vietnam have become the first to reach the 69 million and unlock the new map. The Xbox 360 and PS3 users are barely half way through, which once again shows that PC is the king of the FPS games.

The first DLC for Bad Company which offers new entirely content — 4 maps, lots of guns and even more music tracks from the Vietnam campaign. It takes the familiar Bad Company 2 gameplay and brings in an all new setting, with new player models, new buildings and everything that needs to bring a realistic Vietnam FPS gameplay to the players.

Bad Company 2 is already one of the finest multiplayer shooters out there, just short of Battlefield 2 on scale and sheer fun. A a year prior to BF2, DICE released Battlefield Vietnam, and it’s clear that they’ve drawn heavy inspiration from that title into Bad Company 2 Vietnam. From the Vietnam era feel, to the atmopshere and music, the Vietnam DLC adds everything to Bad Company 2 to make it feel different, expanding the universe for those who have grown tired of the regular, modern Bad Company 2 maps. But don’t expect Vietnam to be just a few new maps and weapons — it’s a fully fledged multiplayer expansion, with new sounds, voice overs, weapons, player models, and pretty much everything else sans the game engine and the wonderful destruction it provides. All the maps showcase various aspects of Vietnam, mostly jungles, military bases, tunnels, hills and rice fields. Even if you’re a BC2 veteran, You’ll start at the bottom with no unlocks and will fight your way up, as usual. The new weapons are very realistic and period specific, including an awesome flamethrower which sets everything ablaze around you.

The gameplay and game modes remain the same as in BC2, meaning it’s very effective, fun and engaging. However, we wished there was a few more “new” additions besides the visual stuff like player models. Perhaps a Vietnam specific game mode or something similar, as for $15, the DLC is kinda pushing it with just 4 maps, and might be considered too steep for some. Especially since much of the regular BC2 content has been free and relatively cheap. Overall, Vietnam is a great addition to the avid BC2 fans looking for more, and offers a great new world of Vietnam.

The Good:
Same fun Bad Company 2 style
All new maps, models, weapons etc.
New maps and weapons are fun and engaging

The Bad:
Could use a new, Vietnam-specific game mode
A tad over priced
Some would lack missing single-player

Overall score: 8/10

In Battlefield 1943, players were given a free map if they reached 43 million kills. Now they’re doing the same with the Vietnam DLC in Bad Company 2: if players reach 69 million kills, they’ll get a free map called “Operation Hastings”. It will be the fifth Vietnam map.

Considering that it took players only a few weeks to reach 43 million kills in 1943, and that Bad Company 2 has a lot more players, expect the free map to be released fairly quickly. Via Bad Company 2 Blog.

DICE have released a new patch for the PS3 version of Bad Company 2, fixing a bunch of issues and tweaking some others. Bad Company 2 Blog has the full list of changes here, but we’ve summed a few of the important issues here:

• Increased the AT4’s splash damage so it competes with other AT weapons vs infantry. The AT4 still has the least splash damage of all AT weapons.
• Reduced the splash damage of the Carl Gustav to bring it in line with other explosive weapons. The Carl Gustav still has the most splash damage of all AT weapons.
• Increased the 1 shot kill range of the M95 body shot to counter its lower rate of fire.
• Fixed a bug with the SVU that gave it better close range damage than other semi auto weapons.
• Reduced all weapon damage to the MCOM by 50%.
• Fixed a C4 vs MCOM exploit on Atacama Desert.
• Fixed a bug with FOV when aiming the M1911.

The update is only for the PS3, the Xbox 360 will receive the update later this week, while PC gamers already have the patch. Via BadCompany2Blog.

BadCompany2Blog reports that the upcoming Map Pack 7 for Bad Company 2 will include the popular Bad Company 1 maps Harvest Day and Oasis, remade with destruction 2.0 other other tech from BC2. The map pack will be released later this month and will be free for those with VIP access, which otherwise costs $15. Via BadCompany2Blog.com

EA has released the “Ultimate Edition” version of Bad Company 2, which includes all the DLC released so far, plus a copy of Battlefield 1943, the downloadable online WW2 shooter. The Ultimate Edition is only available on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Via Bad Company 2 Blog.

DICe has released a new trailer of the newly released Map Pack 6 for Bad Company 2, which is actually comprised of existing maps with new modes. Via Bad Company 2 Blog.

Sure, it wasn’t EA which officially revealed the new Battlefield Bad Company 2 Ultimate Edition, it was the retailers (such as Amazon), which have begun stocking the new units. The Ultimate Edition includes Battlefield 1943 and all of the DLC so far released. It’ll carry the same $60 price tag — so it’s quite the deal.