In case you have not logged on to your favorite console yet to see, Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s 5^th (yes, 5^th) VIP Map Pack is now available for download.

If you were hoping that this, the 5^th (again, the 5^th) VIP Map Pack would finally be the one with new maps, consider your hopes mostly destroyed.  VIP Map Pack 5 (5) follows the same formula as VIP Map Pack 1, VIP Map Pack 2, VIP Map Pack 3 and VIP Map Pack 4 where old maps are combined with old game modes to create a… new-ish experience.

Also, as with the first four VIP Map Packs, this one is 100% free—as long as you have the VIP code that came with all new copies of the game.  If you bought the game second-hand, you’ll need to download the VIP code for $15, which will give you access to all of the VIP content.

The yummy bits this time consist of being able to play White Pass in Rush Mode and Nelson Bay in Conquest Mode.

Hey, at least EA and DiCE continue to release free content on a pretty regular basis!

Since I mostly play Conquest and Rush, I’m only a little excited about this.  But BF: BC2’s VIP Map Pack 3 will be available tomorrow.  VIP Map Pack 3 will unlock Squad Deathmatch for Nelson Bay and Squad Rush for Laguna Alta.

Although this is the 3^rd round of “Map Packs” without any new maps, it’s still pretty cool that EA continues to make new content available for a game that’s already so good out of the box.

Really, though, a true map pack would be greatly appreciated some day soon.  Some new unlocks would be nice, too—you know, for all of us that unlocked everything a week after release.

Oh well, at least all three of the map packs have been free for those of us who bought new copies of the game.

For those of you who saved $5 by buying a used copy at GameStop, you will need to purchase a VIP code for $15 from EA’s in-game store in order to access the new modes.  It’s a bummer, but at least at this point you are getting some worthy content.

If you’ve been playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 non-stop for the past month-or-so like I have, you’re probably addicted to the action but getting a little tired of being spawn-killed at Atacama Desert and generally playing the same handful of maps over and over again.  I mean, how many times do you need to see the opposing team come to your spawn and steal your chopper before you realize that it needs to either be heavily guarded or in the @$#% air at all times!?  But I digress; the action of Battlefield is hard to beat, so we deal with its little annoyances.

But with a new batch of maps for BF: BC2 way too far in the distance, there may come a time when you just need a break— either when frustration ensues or when you just thirst for a more casual experience.  When that time comes, I have suggestion for you that you might want to remember.

Battlefield Heroes is a third-person shooter that looks a lot like Team Fortress 2 but plays very similarly to Bad Company’s Conquest mode.  Much of BF: BC2’s signature gameplay is incorporated into this pick-up-and-play member of the Battlefield family—including land and air combat and specialized character classes.

Heroes won’t blow you away or anything, but it’s a familiar bit of casual fun that you can play for free on your PC.  And if you already own Bad Company 2, EA’s giving you 700 Valor Points (and 1350 more for every friend you refer  via Facebook) in the game to purchase items for your character—and you should take anything EA gives you for free.

So, if you haven’t signed up yet—and according to EA over 3,000,000 people have—you might as well give it a try next time you get frustrated with Bad Company 2 or are just looking for a fun game to play that costs no money.

Knife zoomed-in jerks that pay no attention to their surroundings now!:  http://www.battlefieldheroes.com/