BETA Details:

Beta Begins/Ends     Jan 28th/Feb 25th
Map Name     Port Valdez
Players     32
Game Mode     Rush
Environment     Snow
Theme     Vehicle and Infantry
Back Story     The battle for Port Valdez is fought alongside the waterline towards a great oil industrial landscape in the Alaskan mountains. Using basically everything they've got the Russian forces are launching an airborne assault to knock out the oil industries in the area. In their arsenal there are Main Battle Tanks as well as fast-moving Quad Bikes and mobile armored AA. It's a vehicle focused battle, but with plenty of infantry combat.


Source: http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/battlefield_bad_company/archive/2010/01/07/bfbc2-pc-beta-update-fr-229-n-dice.aspx

True, but they do mention:  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. :-)" So who knows if that means it'd take part during the closed beta, but I doubt it.

one of my big concerns is that they say they are not gonna distribute the dedicated server files publicly. 

Hey that would be nice.

I just cancelled my gamestop pre-order. They are selling the limited edition for the same price as the normal edition, but I saw that all the bonus stuff you get with the LE, you can get just by unlocking it normally. So I'll wait for the steam pre-order to come online.

http://www.ebgames.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=74539

Yup, I have my pre-order in already. Just waiting to get my beta key, I'll take some Fraps vids once I get in it.

Oh hey look! Another kickass trailer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sIQQYxTayU