I would have rather seen Gazala, Guadalcanal, or Coral Sea from 1942 but Wake is almost a tradition at this point. It has been in almost every true Battlefield game since 1942. Sharqi from BF2 is one of my favs but I think others, especially from the expansions would have have been better choices than Karkand.

I know karkand was their most popular map but it was not one of the best. No denying it is a great meat-grinder but IMO it was so popular because it was the best map to grind points and get a massive score in a game where points and score mattered more than ever. While many of the others maps were great, some took too long to get to the action or spread things out too much which slowed things down and gave less points. Zatar was an awesome map but spread just a little too much and so it got very little playtime and was one of the lowest scoring maps in BF2. I know DICE has access to statistics we can not see but I guarantee you average player score is tied to map popularity.

Since then DICE has gotten a much better handle on their scoring which is why IMO no one map in Bad Co 2 sticks out as the best since all maps provide a relatively similar score. Even 2142 did a better job distributing points than BF2 but still had room for improvement. Bad Co 2 really does the best job IMO with their map design and point system. BF3 will only expand on that. I am excited however to see how these maps are handled in BF3 and am still interested in why they show that mosque when it was not in any of the maps they have mentioned... unless there is a 5th map...