Battlefield 2 , after my pc got steams coming out from it..., i came to realize its a pretty good game....overall..
Battlefield 2 can't be described as just another war game. Even though it shares a common foundation to games like "Call of Duty" and the "Medal of Honor" series, this game has lots of innovations which will surely keep gamers plugged to their computers. This game is a follow up to the popular titles Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield: Vietnam. Instead of following a story line already established in various places, it's made up of battle situations with predefined briefs. Yet, the single player campaigns aren't appealing enough to go out and buy the game. The only component worth the splurge is the multiplayer mode. The developers themselves haven't focused much on single player, but instead were working with community feedback and concentrating on getting its multiplayer component up to the standard of enjoyment and getting people hooked on to it. You can blame Counter Strike for making more and more developers work exclusively on the multiplayer component.
The game comes on 3 CDs. This game is also available on a DVD - I am still wondering why we were sent a CD version. Anyway, I hate to say this, but nowadays I have started giving negative marks to game publishers who still ship latest games on CDs. Why not DVD? Every time I install, I need to swap CDs. I still remember the pain of installing UT 2004. Some people will go against my statement and articulate the fact that many gamers still use CD-ROM drives. Agreed, there are many. But for a game like Battlefield 2, which runs smoothly only on high end multimedia-enabled computers, is that still a fact?
The single player campaigns are more or less training fields for the multiplayer matches. They teach you the basics of the game, HUD control, various movements and actions. The game has three different types of armies to choose from - United States, Chinese and MEC. MEC is a newly formed army originating from Middle East countries. Doesn't this remind you of Command and Conquer: Generals? Just instead of MEC, we had the GLA (Global Liberation Army) which again originated from Middle East countries. Well, Battlefield 2 is pretty much Generals, but in first person mode. You can be a part of the infantry which varies from sniper, assaulter, medic and my personal favorite anti tank unit. The infantry can ride on different vehicles which has huge variety right from the Humvee to super fast MIG airplanes. You can also drive a water body and different types of choppers. The game has all the different experiences of a war, not just an assault soldier, which is the main character in other war based games. This variety of gameplay makes it stand apart from the normal games and that's why I say this isn't just another war game.
The game revolved around the original Battlefield 1942 multiplayer which has had a quite a success with the gamer community and even got a chance to become an official e-sport for the CPL (Cyberathlete Professional League) tournament. In case, you didn't know what CPL is, it is the highest level of competition for the e-sports. Gamers all over the world travel to Texas in order to participate and battle for virtual supremacy.
Battlefield 2 adds more and new features to the game, which makes the game even more complicated but still enjoyable. The game does require a minimum of 16 players to enjoy it to the fullest. Anything lower than that, and you will just be hopping around the map looking for people to frag. The game play is similar to the Onslaught mode of UT 2004. You have to capture various key positions in the map. The game is fast and furious unlike the slow and strategic game play of Counter Strike. Some people may appreciate it, some people won't. You have to play it to find out.
What caught my attention is the quality of graphics in the game. The engine was developed in-house and is comparable to the likes of Far Cry and Half Life 2. The water looks quite realistic and certain shader effects are just astonishing. But all this comes at a price. The minimum specification in order to run this game has been stated as a 1.7GHz CPU with 512 MB RAM and an ATI Radeon 8500 Class GPU and the recommended specification as 2.4 GHz CPU with 1 GB RAM and an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro. Do keep in mind; bare minimum requirements are just enough to run the game, but not enough to give the true experience while playing the game. Choppy frame rates and long load times will crush your hopes for this game. For a good experience, get nothing lower than a 3GHz Class of CPU with 1 GB RAM and an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro or a NVIDIA 6600GT class GPU. The game was tested on a high-end machine whose configuration is stated towards the end of the article, but had a long loading time. It even beat Far Cry and Doom 3 in that category. High system requirements and long loading periods was one of the few places where this game lost points.
Another new feature of this game worth mentioning is built-in VoIP. If you own a headset, you can communicate with your teammates and vice versa. This eliminates the use of third party software like Ventrillo. This feature is particularly useful in an online game, where teammates need not necessarily be together physically. Voice communication can make the game more tactical and hence more entertaining.
This game franchise just got bigger with Battlefield 2: Mordern Combat coming for different console platforms like Xbox and PlayStation 2. Besides those, it will also come for the new consoles like Xbox 360 and Sony's PSP.
The game is all about multiplayer. Even though there is AI support in multiplayer, you will soon tend to get bored of it. If you can manage to play this game in a total multiplayer environment, then it is good buy or else you can skip this one considering there's not much online gaming in India. I managed to join Malaysian servers, with a decent amount of latency and packet losses and was able to play.
All in all, this is a near perfect game. But that may not be true for everybody. So before buying this game, you can try out the massive 546 MB demo. After installing the game, it is recommended that you apply the latest patch for version 1.02 which will give you performance and bug fixes. There is also a standalone server released for those who are looking at hosting a dedicated server. All of these files can be found here:
http://www.ea.com/official/battlefield/battlefield2/us/downloads.jsp
Game Reviewed on
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (Socket 939)
nForce 3 Motherboard
512*2 MB Transcend DDR400
Palit Nvidia Geforce 6600GT 128MB
Creative Audigy 5.1 Platinium Ex
Segate Barracuda 160GB HDD