Battlefield 2


You'll want those points too, thanks to the ranking system, which keeps track of everything from which weapons you use most to your number of kills. You eventually earn medals for your performance, and it's intriguing to watch yourself move up in rank, lending a sort of RPG sense to the entire experience. The rub to the whole proceeding is joining ranked servers, all of which are maintained by Electronic Arts. During our testing, we have had few stable experiences on those servers, and most of the time, either unbearable lag or unwarranted disconnections have made those servers essentially pointless. While part of the issue is that these servers maintain a high population at any given time, undue lag is normally no problem on crowded non-ranked servers. Because EA maintains control over those servers, we are at their mercy, and anyone who wants the additional benefit of meaningful ranks suffers as a result.

Other bugs have also reared their ugly heads, and between them and the obvious human element required to make all of these features work soundly, there are moments that hamper an otherwise great playing experience. For all these additions, the changes are not enough to make this a significantly different experience from the previous Battlefield titles, and we wish that DICE had spent more time ironing out the wrinkles. It's easy to both team kill and be team killed, thanks to a total lack of spawn protection and a weird sensitivity players have to vehicles, making getting too close to a moving team vehicle a hazardous affair. Moreover, we experienced issued in which teammates were identified with red names, indicating they were opposition—and mowing them down credited us with a team kill as a result. The server browser itself is inexcusably slow and bugged, making just scrolling through the list a chore, and indicating server populations that bear no resemblance to reality. Getting into a game is simply a huge hassle, and nothing is more frustrating than waiting two full minutes for the map to load, only to have your connection to a low-ping server time out for unknown reasons. We're also not sure what the auto-ready button is for; we assume it's supposed to log you directly into the game after the map loads, but that never happens: we still have to click “ready� to enter.

If you were disappointed by BF 1942's graphics in its day, you will have no such worries with the newest iteration: in most ways, it looks absolutely stunning. The environments are detailed and rife with vegetation, tank tracks, and rubble, and in motion, the lighting and shadows work together flawlessly. Vehicles and weapons are painstakingly realized, from realistic tire tread to whirring helicopter blades. Smooth, rippling water and the fearsome dusty aftermath of an explosion round out excellent visuals, although up close, building textures are muddy, and the swaying foliage isn't up to the standards of games like Half-Life 2. The visuals are also tough on your system: that long draw distance will make even those that ran Doom 3 at high settings turn off the bells and whistles in Battlefield 2, so most of us will not be able to enjoy the full extent of this beauty and still play at acceptable frame rates.

BF2's sound is near-perfect, from the earth-shattering explosions of C4's to the whiz of a jet flying above your head. Aside from the menu tunes and the bit of music that plays after the match has ended, there is no soundtrack, but it's of no consequence, since gameplay music would be a distraction. Audio cues like the creaking of your tank or the rattling of your helicopter warn you of impending mechanical failure, and even the simple voiceovers are excellent.

Battlefield 2 is an excellent step in the evolution of the series, featuring strong improvements to communication in action games while retaining the hectic nature of the combat so familiar to fans. A few more gameplay types could have helped elevate the status of this evolution to a revolution, but it won't keep gamers from drawing dozens upon dozens of hours of enjoyment from it. In spite of its bugs and difficulties, we highly recommend Battlefield 2 both to longtime fans, as well as to those who found the original too clunky for their tastes. Or, if you prefer a simpler direction, we'll take a cue from the game and just say: "Go, go, go!

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