While playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam on my Xbox 360 this weekend, I was surprised to see a new map pop up in the rotation: 'Operation Hastings.'  This final multiplayer map was set to be unlocked once 360 players performed 69 million team actions (healing, resupply, repairing, etc.).  As of last Thursday, Xbox players were only halfway there, with 36 million actions performed.  So how did the map get unlocked so suddenly?  Call it a gift.

As a New Year’s present, DICE and EA decided to release the Operation Hastings map to 360 and PS3 players despite the fact that neither community actually reached the milestone.  As we reported last week, PC players did hit the 69-million mark, earning the map before console players.

Part of me is disappointed that my console brethren didn’t reach the target (though we certainly would have, given time), but mostly, I’m just ecstatic about having access to one of the best Battlefield maps ever created.  Seriously, it’s awesome.