Battlefield 2142 (PC, 2006)

First of all, this is designed around online gaming, so save your money if you don't plan to play online. It's a new game, so it requires some fairly powerful hardware. It runs great on Athlon 3200+ 2GB, Ati X1650Pro. Some of these other reviews have utter garbage for hardware and complain because it runs slow. Buy a good card for $125+ and it'll run fine if you have a fairly powerful CPU and a decent amount of RAM.

I own and play BF2 as well and while the graphics on BF2142 are better, they are not a significant step up. BF2142 is a better game though. The audio problems in BF2 are not there in BF2142.

As far as game play goes, I have just as much fun playing this as I do in BF2. There are 4 classes in BF2142: Recon, Assault, Support, Anti-Tank. The conquest mode in the city maps is quite intense and you end up getting good at killing (or being killed). The vehicles are fun too. There are various futuristic tanks, buggies, APCs, and flyers to use as well as a two legged walker which is a very powerful piece of armor.

In BF2142 they introduced Titan mode. Instead of just capturing flags in conquest mode, each team in Titan mode has a huge airborne military platform hovering over the battlefield. Teams capture missile silos which launch missiles at the other teams titan. When a titan's shields are down, the missiles continue to bombard the hull. The game ends when a team had finished off the enemy's titan either by missiles or by actually boarding the enemy titan and destroying it's reactor. It's a great addition to the classic capture-the-flag game play.

Surprisingly, EA has released patches at a decent rate for this game. EA doesn't have the best reputation for paying attention to the customers. EA won't release the API for the stats server (like they did with BF2) so the sites that provide the tracking info cannot provide BF2142 stats. This is pretty unfortunate and you should know not to expect anything like the excellent stats in BF2.

One of the last things I want to mention is the security in the game because it effected me and will probably effect half of us at some point. BF2142 has the regular DVD check that most games require. This is pretty stupid considering you cannot use the game (even in single player mode) without first logging on to their server. No need to check the DVD when they can check the registration code. Whatever, that's at least a traditional method that we expect.

On top of the DVD check EA also only allows one EA account per BF2142 registration code. So if you create an account using your email and password, that account and the code on your DVD are forever tied together. I went over this with EA when I installed mine. My copy of BF2142 was installed on my brother's computer first and my brother created an account. My computer wasn't available at the time and we wanted to play the game. Well now I am stuck with the username and password that my brother setup. No big deal on my end, fortunately we remembered what the account settings were.


*BEWARE* If you buy a used copy of BF2142 you *MUST* also get the account login and password (you can test the login at support.ea.com to ensure it is real, but there is no way to ensure that it is really the acct thatis tied to the reg number you may have. If you don't get the right acct info, the game is useless to you. I foresee a lot of people getting royally screwed by this. It seems like a tactic by EA to prevent fair re-selling of used software.

This is a pretty cool, FPS, futuristic combat game. The graphics are very well done, but the online play needs some help. There is intermittent lag and of course you have to deal with the complexities of Punkbuster (EA's preferred anti-cheat software tool). If you can wade through those issues, then it's pretty cool game. I'm having some technical trouble activating the included Northern Strike expansion pack and being on hold with EA for 30 minutes for each call is a bit ridiculous.

I bought this game when it first came out in 2006,I have been a huge fan of the BattleField seris since BattleField 1942,this game runs great even if you have a lower end PC which I have always had,I am at least 3 to 5 years behind on PC equipment :) Runs great on Vista 32 bit and Windows 7 64 bit...Also a note on all the PC based games that use Punkbuster (www.evenbalance.com),I used to have alot of problems even on old games with PB is to remove the whole PB folder in the game program and use the PB Client side installer you download from EvenBalance and keep PB updated and running that way....If you like team based gameplay,lotsa kewl vehicles and future style weapons this game is way fun .Also over the years I have noticed PC based games that are Muiltiplayer tend to attract older mature players and less cheaters....If you do not like 10 years old kids screaming in the MIC while you play,this game rocks :) ...I have since bought 3 copies to pass out to friends whom have never played this Classic:)

First of all, I didn't go into this game with high hopes, as I had read many reviews saying it lacked some things that Battlefield 2 had. I'll start with the pros, then the cons, then what my overall feeling was.
The game felt very well put together, I had just installed everything and hopped in a game, and got a basic feel right away without having to run through the boring single player tutorials. The visuals look fantastic; this includes the actual graphic quality on my computer and the art design in general. Each map was unique, and I didn't feel like they rehashed much. As with all the Battlefields, the sounds were amazing, and the more powerful guns sounded like they had that extra punch to them. The ability to upgrade your character in game (with items such as C4, a defib kit, etc) made you really want to try hard to get those points, to give you a leg up.
Some of the problems made me turn off the game after only a hour or two of playing. One is the balance. I started off with all the new equipment, and went into the game facing much more powerful weapons. I could start shooting someone in the back, but because of his armor and new weapon attachments, he still had time to turn around and kill me in one shot. This made the game more frustrating than fun to play in the beginning. The only other significant low to this was although all the vehicles are new, there is a lack in the variety. There are your basic scout, transport, giant mech, gunship, and tank, but there are not really very many types as compared to BF2.
Overall I would give this 4/5 stars. Battlefield 2 still holds more interest to me but BF2142 is a fun game to play in the meantime. Despite the balancing issues, the originality of the different gameplay types (Titan, Conquest, etc) kept me coming back for more.

BF2142 is by all means a fun and intriguing game. It throws in new ideas and used ideas but refines them all and you receive this game. Sadly though, that does not mean that it is an incredible game. I would rate this game average were I to have purchased it from the store at a higher price. BF2142 lacks player communication unless you want to use what they record onto a quick-talk menu. The vehicles are so much more different than in BF2 which is a good thing, but in the future wouldn't vehicles be simpler to maneuver? In 2142 everything in it except for the buggies are more difficult to drive; be it slightly or dramatically. Graphics are very similar to what you would see on previous battlefield games but always being improved on.

Ah...and my largest disappointment would be the patch that recently came out. EA could not get it right as I, and several other customers, were unable to play their game online as the new patch was 'bugged' or 'damaged' as they told me. I had to have installed the game a dozen or more times over a week before the game functioned properly. Not a big deal, it works now but it was terrible getting there.

Purchasing the game? On ebay of all places? It's cheap and my friends told me i needed to give it a shot. If i purchase things on ebay i can save anywhere from 5-100+ dollars...depending on how much their 'shipping costs' are.