At 7.5, Gamespot shows us their true PC-Fanboy side. Read a TRUE and honest review here.
Graphics: If you played it on Xbox, there's no way you'll play this one and not notice the upgrade. The guns look great, and the player models do as well. Artillery strikes are quite a site. Once, I was laying prone on top of an oil refinery looking down over the enemy base. As the artillery strike rained down on it, you could just see bodies and explosions everywhere and after the shells stopped falling, you'd see 50-gallon drums flying 200, 300 feet in the air and crashing down. It can't really be described in any other words than "freakin awesome." The environments are gorgeous. I've read alot of reviews about people not being overly impressed with the new version of this game, but everywhere I look, I see upgraded visuals galore. If you fire the shotgun, which sounds awesome by the way but I'll get to that later, you can actually see the smoke coming from the barrel a few seconds after you shoot it. A small effect, but impressive. Much like the bullet casings that you can see when you fire the mounted machine guns. Very nice looking fires in this game, with the "wavy-heat effect" for lack of a better description. Basically, if you're up close, you get to see that haze around the flames like you would see staring at the surface of a hot blacktop roadway. Very sweet. Oh, and the camo on the snipers - GRAW, THIS is what snipers are supposed to look like.
Sound: The sound effects in this game are probably the best they could possibly be. The guns sound awesome, especially the shotgun....it's deafening. The choppers sound great, as do explosions, etc. When you're in a building crouched down and there's a tank outside firing round after round at you, and you hear the helicopters whirring around overhead, it's an adrenaline-filled experience. Just like walking into town from a spawn point to hear the machine gun fire slowly getting louder as you get closer to the town or base where everyone is fighting.
Control: This one could be tricky for those who have played the Xbox version alot. The reason is, alot of the buttons do different functions this go. For instance, "Y" no longer reloads. That one took me the longest to get used to. And the fact that "Y" opens your parachute when you're falling lead me to a few deaths, but now it's second nature. For those that haven't played BF2 before, the control will be a breeze. Within minutes, you'll be switching weapons on the fly and jumping off of buildings to parachute to the ground below.
Entertainment: This is one of the very few games that I can play where I don't care whether I win or lose because I'm having so much fun. I truly believe that says alot right there. Of course, I always try to win, but if I don't (usually I don't), I still have a heck of a time running around shooting people or driving tanks, choppers, jeeps, etc. If you have Xbox Live Gold, then there's no reason for you not to have this game. Unless of course you don't like FPS games. Then it's understandable. But if you're like me, and you're sick of playing Halo 2 on your new 360 because you traded in your BF2 copy from the original Xbox towards a 360 game and haven't really had a good 360 Live game yet, then this is your lucky day. I have a hard time putting this game down. You'll be impressed with just how easy moving around and interacting with the realistic levels can be. And with the realism. You never know what building might have an enemy sniper, and if you're the sniper, you never know when you might be going toe to toe with a tank or helicopter, or even another sniper. One thing to mention also: If you didn't like sniping in Halo 2 because you hated having to get a headshot to get a one hit kill, this game is for you. All you have to do is hit the shot anywhere on the enemy and they're down and out. For more experienced users, the ratings system with this game will take you some time to master as some of the objectives for attaining certain medals can be incredibly hard.
All in all, if you're looking for a multiplayer game, this one is the one to get. The single player mode I haven't really covered because I feel this game, like the Star Wars: Battlefront series, is really focused on the multiplayer. If you're looking into this game for a single player experience, I really don't recommend it for that reason. The single player mode is hard and not very engaging, and is the SOLE reason I did not give this game a 10. But if you're looking for an Xbox Live frag fest, then look no further. If you rent this game to try the multiplayer, you're going to buy it after so I'd say save the money and get it outright. My official bottom line: I can definitly recommend this game as a rental. I can also definitly recommend it as a purchase if you have Xbox Live Gold. For the single player gamers out there, and that's the games I usually play, but, hold off on this one. It really won't give you very much for your money. I'd recommend Far Cry Instincts Predator very strongly as a single player FPS alternative to this one. Thanks for reading my review and, whatever games you do play, enjoy them. Remember, that's the whole point of everything.