TGWTG User Blogs

I've been going on a gaming rampage as of late of PRGs and vehicular manslaughter playing (almost) non-stop Mass Effect, The Witcher, and Grand Theft Auto IV. After horribly failing a quest in The Witcher yesterday I thought to myself, "Man, I'm getting a little tired of Signs, biotics, and cop-killing. I just want to play an extremely violent game where I can go around killing people for absolutely no reason at all, and laugh as my enemies' intestines bounce around the arena!" Well, only one game came to mind: Unreal Tournament III. (Or any other game in the series.) But seeing hows I don't have any Unreal games (yet), I settled for a game I do, which would let me do the same thing. Just without the violence. Or the laughing at intestines... Ahem! So! I pulled out Battlefield 2.I got Bf2 sometime back in late '07 in a package called Complete Battlefield 2 Collection back when said package was brand new. I played it for maybe a week or so. Then it went back in its box to make room in my disk drive for other games. Well, I played it non-stop yesterday and will most likely keep on playing it for a few days more.

Here's the box. Mainly so it's not confused with the console game Battlefield 2: Modern Combat.

I popped the game in and waited for it to load up. When it did, I immeaditly clicked on the multiplayer tab. I then realized that I haden't played this game in a very long time. So I dicided to start with the singleplayer mode. I set the bots difficulity level to medium (or Veteran, as the game calls it) and prepared for battle. (How the game works is there are two teams on the map. Each team starts out with one or more command posts. Then there are other command post throughout the battlefield. Each team tries to take as many command post as possible. When one team has the majority of command posts the other team's tickets start depleting. Tickets can also be used up by a player dying and respawning. If you've played the Star Wars: Battlefront games, or any other Battlefield then you know what I'm talking about.) I wiped my opponents out! It was a clear victory for me! So I decided I was ready for the multiplayer mode.

My first multiplayer match. I was PUMPED! The battle finally started. I hopped into a jeep and drove off with one of my teammates manning the turret. I was speeding by my fellow soldiers while my gunner was shooting specks off in the distance. I felt powerful. We finally reached the first command post. There were no enemies that we could see, but we stayed in that jeep just in case. We had almost taken the command post when someone with a rocket launcher came around a building and blew us up. It just went downhill from there. The cycle was respawn die, respawn die, kill, die, rewspawn die reapeat. But after a few matches I got the hang of it and was capturing command posts for my team and mindlessly killing people.

Once the player gets the hang of Bf:2 the game really starts to get fun. The game is filled with moments so cool that you call your friends and tell them about it, only to realize you have dialed the wrong number because your fingers were shaking from excitment. Okay, now on to the boring review stuff.

The game is very well balanced. There are five (maybe six, but I think five) classes each with their own equipment and weapons. The classes are designed so one player will have trouble ruling the battlefield. And it takes a long time for one person to capture a command post, which makes it important to work as a team.

The graphics are absolutely beautiful with realistic looking landscapes, character models, and pretty water. The sound effects are also well done from the sound of gunfire to the deafining sounds of artillary raining down and smashing nito the ground.

The gameplay never gets dull, especially with the addition of squads, a new feature for Bf:2. Any player can create a squad and any player can join that squad. There is a limit of six men per squad, but multiple squads can be formed. The squad leader can give his squad orders. The player also gets a persistant character, which allows him to rise in rank and unlock new weapons for battle.

The game does have some problems: for one, the server browser is not very good. Clumbsy is how GameSpot discribes it and I think that's an accurate discription. And you will run across a rouge player now and again who just likes to shoot his teammates in the back. The game also comes with voice support right out of the box. That's a good thing, right? Well, yes. Then why is it in the bad pile? Because there are some people who speak who are as bad as the player on X-Box Live. I thought that a PC game would attract a more mature audience than Halo 3. The kind of mature audience who can take the game seriousely, but not too seriously. But no. Just today, I ran across a twelve-year-old who was screaming things such as, "Fuck!", "You motherfucking idiot!", and, "Fuck you!". But, when there are no players like that, and everything is just right, the game is brilliant. It is one of the best multiplayer first person shooters on the market, even when it has some annoying players.