BETA Details:

How to Download: Check back to the Battlefield Bad Company 2 for a new Beta Page closer to beta launch date for download instructions.

How To Get Access: Reserve Battlefield Bad Company 2 is the most sure fire way, but we are still working with some other Retailers & e-Tailers that wish to participate. If you’re eager to ensure you get in the two confirmed distributors to Pre-Order are the EA Store, Amazon.de and at GameStop.com.  We’ll have another Blog at a later date with an update on the retailers & e-Tailers that have teamed up with us as well as alternate channels to obtain a Closed Beta Key.

*NOTE: This promotion is with participating retailers only. Please check with your local retailers if PC Beta Code is available through their stores.

Misc. Details

Steam Beta: Yes there was a leaked image of a Package file we propped on Steam.  People with illegal accounts can see games in this environment, but this is not a Beta in the term of Public Test Beta, but a real development Beta installer client for the Steam version of the full game.  We are however working with Steam to have the Public PC Beta available on Steam, but can’t confirm this quite yet so cross your fingers Steam users.

Anti Cheat: We’re going with PunkBuster supporting the same options BF2 and BF2142 had to run unranked without PunkBuster.

Mod Tools: There will not be mod tools for BFBC2.  However a majority of the the games logic is controlled by the server and there will be Serverside control options for the dedicated servers.

Public Server Files: We will not distribute these publicly.  There are many factors for why we have decided this with the biggest factor being security & integrity of our game & Dedicated Servers.

Here is a direct link

Thanks to George Romero all those years ago the zombie sub-genre is something almost everyone has experienced at one point or another. Valve knew this and, after having watched user-made zombie mods for CounterStrike for years, decided to jump into the action beyond the simplistic work of the headcrab zombies in Half-Life. Thus Left 4 Dead was born and though it was released a little over eight months ago it stunned the world when Valve announced a sequel at this year’s E3.

If there was one thing Valve fans were anticipating at E3 just two months ago it was the reveal of Half-Life 2 Episode Three. The previous episode was released two years ago in 2007′s Orange Box. So, imagine the community’s surprise when, during the Microsoft press conference, a trailer was shown for Left 4 Dead 2. Now, sequels born twelve to eighteen months after the first game are not uncommon in video games but to have this product coming from Valve is an astonishing feat. Valve, as the world knows, isn’t exactly well known at getting a product done by a certain due date. Hell, Left 4 Dead was announced in 2006 for a release in late 2007 or early 2008. Valve however was ambitious and unrelenting in their push for Left 4 Dead 2 during E3 announcing a fixed release date exactly a year to the day of the release of the first game.

Can Valve bring a sequel-worthy experience to gamers so soon after the release of their latest masterpiece?

Read the full article here