It was a pleasure to read your fair and well explained grips/praises for the games.
I will argue that the maps aren't too big, because you have plenty of vehicles (disposable ATVs or Humvees).
The things I love about the game:
1) Re-playability. There's simply so many combination and strategies you can do. Get the explosives pouch and demolition man specialization, put 6 or more C4s on a UAVx3 squad members, and take out crates in one blow. I love the patches for the most part (hate the Marksman headshot patch, as I don't want to snipe for 100 kills), and the Bronze star patch makes you play with all the guns and realize how different and balanced they are.
The destructible environments and open maps also allow you to go through a map in so many ways, and gives so many unique situations. No longer are there famous places to camps, or things everyone has to repeat over and over.
2) Emphasis on teamwork. You can't be a one man army, and every class has huge strengths as well as huge weaknesses. Getting a good squad with a medic, assault, recon, and maybe Engineer (depending on if the map is vehicle heavy or not) can allow you wreck absolute havoc (Recon throwing sensors, Assault resupplying, Medic reviving, Engineer destroying tanks, etc).
