Battlefield 2 (PC, 2005)

I used to furrow my brow at the site of each new model of S-Class Mercedes, usually redone every 5 years or so. I can remember my father telling me that Mercedes designs cars to look good tomorrow, not today. He was right. With every model, like clockwork, after a year or so they'd start looking good, then great. My bet is Battlefield will be much like that. As truly fun as it is to play today, it'll be much better in a year or so.

Few quick reasons to love this game:

1. When you run it on a great machine the graphics/game physics are mindblowing.

2. The game encourages teamplay. I know, it's hard to imagine quake trained gamers playing medics, but over the past months since its release, the game is conditioning its players to team up. It's working, and it's really really fun to work with a good squad.

3. The game/network is very intelligent. Scarily intelligent. Everything you do on a ranked server is tracked forever. Everything. Gaining rank gets you new weapons and status you can leverage into a Commander position.

4. This game not only supports VOIP, but encourages it. Commanders can talk to squad leaders, squad leaders talk to their members, very good order.

5. Online play will frequently (i'm talking multiple times an hour) give you "one of those gaming moments". You know, when your pulse quickens, and you feel like you're really in the game. My girlfriend can hear me screaming from my downstairs (things that would make a pornstar blush). I'm not even cognizant of it.

6. Helicopters with TV guided rockets. Nuf said.

7. Command and control. If a side plays without a commander, odds are they'll lose. If one plays with few (if any) experienced squad leaders, they'll lose. Very cool and unique feature.

Reasons you might not want this game:

1. This is the most insane system-hog of a game I've ever encountered...very frustrating for even relatively good systems.

I've had high hopes for games of all genres over the past 2-3 years, I've reviewed many of them, some favorably, but I think BF2 is the best action First Person Shooter on the market (and probably will be for a few years). One reason for that belief is the extraordinary hardware requirements it demands to truly perform. I started playing it on a 3.3MHZ w/ best Geforce card, and 1Meg of RAM. It lumbered, and the graphics were subpar compared to other FPS's. I now have a freakin super-computer (dual cards, 4Megs RAM) and it runs like a different game. When hardware catches up, the underlying value of this game will get more appreciation vs. present-day frustration.

I've logged at least 70 hours on this game, and I learn something new every night. So many layers to uncover, then combine. I think this game still has allot to show people. And, like each redesigned model of Mercedes, will prove its true beauty over time.

First off, I want you to know that this is an online game. If you don't have good Internet connection, don't buy this game. The offline single player it offers is not worth it. Not worth it at all. In fact, single player can be just dumb because on expert mode, A.I knows exactly where you are even you take cover which means if they have a tank, you're screwed.

Ok, so what's good about this game?

Well, to be frank, I think this is just about the best Battlefield game out, even better than the expansion Battlefield 2: Spec Ops. The graphics are mind blowing and it's modern warfare brought to your home squarely on your computer screen. The option of being medic or spec ops or whatever is really exciting since each different role has its own advantages and disadvantages. The amount of vehicles you can pilot makes this game really great as well, from tube boats to SAs to APCs to tanks to fighter jets. This game can really be addicting, if you ignore the major flaws that is...

One thing that really ticked me most about this game is the sniper kill glitch. To kill someone you have to land two to three headshots with a freakin .50 caliber sniper rifle! One shot to anywhere alone should almost kill them but two headshots!!! And since most sniper rifles in the game are bolt action, this glitch causes major headaches.

The weapon specs are really off. This might be because the game makers tried to make every country's weapons similar so that no country would have an advantage over others but seriously... after playing it for a while, you will get extremely frustrated at how inacurate the M-249 SAW is or at how weak M-16 is. And the AK-47's not any better either. Oh, and pistols... if you planned to make them so horrible in the first place, why even include them in the game?

I don't even want to go over vehicle glitches and whatnot. To do so would require me to become a superhuman.

Then there is the roll-prone glitch people online use to get cheap kills. They fixed this in the expansion but as long as you have this version, it's enough to drive you insane.

Other than major glitches I was also turned off by dull, boring maps. What's cool is that they were based off realistic places but did they really have to pick such boring places, where the only interesting thing is oil storages?

Also, piloting helicopter or fighters requires a huge learning curve. And there's no tutorial or anything so newbies online usually end up waiting for the person flying to die to be able to fly the spawning jet. And when a person has a joystick, that person will end up with most kills because he/she will never die as long as he/she has that helicopter. It makes the gaming experience frustrating and dull.

This was a good game overall, an amazing fps in fact, but after a while, it becomes extremely frustrating and boring and even the expansion doeesn't help to ameliorate this.

Most online FPS (first person shooters) games will lose their novelty once the player becomes accustommed to the graphics and tactics, but Battlefield 2 (PC) adds new and interesting facets to online gameplay. Military ranks , medals of honor, and awards for merit are awarded for a players actions on online ranked servers. Ranks will allow the player to unlock new weapons to give him/her an added advantage on the battlefield, and medals and awards will be proudly displayed in game or on the unofficial statistics server (http://www.bf2s.com). So continual gaming will reward each person and provide a new reason to do your best online. But doing your best doesn't just mean shooting enemy soldiers and vehicles, or taking control of strategic locations. Being a brilliant commander or squad leader/member gives you points and aides in the war. And also, now medics, resupply, and engineers become some of the most powerful soldier classes. In fact, I've found medics to be the _most_ lucrative class, as you revive and heal friendlies in the heat of battle and turn the tide for your troops. But the medic gains more points with more ease than the normal assualt troops. You'll see what I mean when you start playing. My username on the ranked servers is AireWolve (http://bf2s.com/player/443746​33/).

I have played really every pc shooter game out there. Battlefield 2 is the best there is. The graphics are excellent and unlike most online games, lag is almost non existent when you play online. Some of the things that you never get tired of are the vehicles.

Unlike call of duty 4 where you look at the vehicles ONLY in bf2 you can actually look, touch and drive them. You can fly jets and choppers.

There is a commander mode which is awesome. You can be a commander where you control the entire map just like in real war. You can send down airstrikes on the enemy and save your mens rear ends from being over taken.

You can send needed supplies with parachute drops, to your men fighting in the trenches.

You can launch UAV radar that flys over the enemy and exposes their position to your men.

Likewise your men can talk to you LIVE on the headsets and they'll ask you things like "Commander I keep getting shot at, theres a sniper around here somewhere but we can't find him where is he?" As commander you can zoom in using satellite and see the sniper and point them out to the men even using your headset mic.

There is a Ranking system also so as you fight and kill enemy you get awards. If you are injured (too often) on field of battle for example you get the purple heart.

This ranking system is great as you can buddy up, during the game, with a higher ranking player and follow them around and fight next to them to pick up tips and find out how they got so good and high ranked?

There is a demo of this game and I suggest you download it. If the demo runs on your system then the full retail game surely will.

This will be a game that you will never stop playing ever. The maps are extremely huge and vast. One of the things I didn't like about call of duty 4 is that the maps were so tiny teeny. You could run across the map in less than 60 seconds.

In Bf2 you couldn't run across the entire map as it's too huge it would take you a long time.

You will not be disappointed if you purchase this game. It is the best investment of fun I have ever bought for my pc!

Battlefield 2 is currently my favorite online war game to play. Battlefield has amazing game play! You are able to use so many different weapons including Snipers, heat seeking missiles, guided missiles, pistols, hand grenades, really any weapon you have seen in any other war game, it is in this one. Battlefield 2 also has many vehicles to drive in, depending on what team you are on. You can always steal your opponents vehicle anyway. You can fly different varieties of helicopters, Jets, Tanks, APC's, Anti-Air, Anti-Ground, Hummers, buggies, jeeps.. So many. The graphics in this game are exceptional and rarely lags for me. The only negative thing about this game is that the game often crashes. It is a known problem for this game and EA is trying to come up with patches to prevent it from happening. So don't have that problem prevent you from getting this amazing game. I highly recommends that you buy it if you like online shooters.

Requirements are not too demanding but is obviously more fun when you don't lag.
OS:Windows XP
CPU:1.7 GHz Intel Celeron D/Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP/Sempron or greater
RAM:512MB or more
Disc Drive:8x or faster CD/DVD drive
Hard Drive:2.3GB or more free space
Video:DirectX 9.0c
Sound:DirectX 9.0c