Battlefield 2 (PC)

Hi Everyone!
This is Urduar, a guest reviewer Kit dragged out from under a rock to review some PC games. My first review will be Battlefield 2, the latest iteration of the Battlefield series of online multiplayer FPS war games.
The first thing to keep in mind is that BF2 requires a powerful computer. A *VERY* powerful computer. In fact, many players of BF2 have been forced to upgrade their computers simply to play this game. The official requirements for the game are listed as a 1.7ghz P4/Athlon XP system, a GeForce FX 5700/Radeon 8500 video card, 512MB of RAM, and a broadband connection. However, if you pick up the game planning on having an amazing experience with your Radeon 8500 video card, you're in for a big disappointment.

My personal machine is an Athlon 3400+ with an AGP GeForce 6800GT video card and 1GB of RAM. With this machine I'm able to run on medium/high settings on the game; however, I'll still get occasional graphics lag, and setting Texture Detail to High causes load times to skyrocket. Perusing the forums it seems like the majority of users have machines matching or exceeding mine, with the occasional player using an older video card complaining about having to use the minimum settings to make the game playable. The game is extremely hard on your video card, and I'd say that the minimum reasonable video card would be a Radeon 9800 Pro or the equivalent for a decent gaming experience. Also, the game requires massive amounts of RAM or you will experience huge lag and loading times, 1GB seems to be about the minimum to keep the game running fairly smoothly.
With that out of the way, I can proceed with the actual review.

Graphics: While the price of admission is very high, BF2 is one of the few games that truly takes advantage of your shiny new x1800/7800gtx video card(s). The graphics on the game approach photorealism, with incredible detail that may tempt you to climb on top of a building and simply take in the view of lazy white clouds meandering across the skies over a sprawling mideast city or towering partially constructed dam. Well, at least take it in until a sniper on a crane nails you in the head with his M24. Everything in the game is rendered in superb detail, from the soldiers themselves, to tanks, to an aircraft carrier that the US uses for its base on some maps. 5/5

Story: Not much of a story here, basically just the US attacking the Middle East and China. This ain't an RPG. 1/5

Gameplay: Now THIS is what this game is about. Your squad (which are new to the Battlefield series) stealthily sneaks up around a break in the wall surrounding a villa housing an important flag. You communicate to each other over VOIP, a squadmate Spec Ops. sneaks closer and reports that there are three enemy troops and an APC guarding the building. He sneaks in closer, planting C4 on the back of the APC and rushing back behind a large plant to avoid detection. The driver of the APC notices him fleeing away and begins peppering the area with explosive cannon fire, causing the enemy troops to rush forward to see what's going on. As the squadmate detonates the C4, killing the driver and leaving the APC as a burning pile of twisted metal, the enemies open up, blasting their automatic weapons in your direction. Your squad rushes forward while two members return fire, running through the hail of bullets towards close-in covered positions. A squadmate shouts a warning as he pitches a grenade forward, bouncing towards the enemy troops before detonating and killing two of them. The last enemy takes one of your squadmates down before finally succumbing to the concentrated gunfire, leaving the flag to be taken. You rush forward and revive the squadmate, leaving your entire squad intact and the flag is yours!

At least until a Blackhawk comes and mows everyone down with miniguns just after the flag is neutralized.

This is the type of scenario that is possible if you play BF2 as a team, letting the teamwork aspects truly shine through. However, on public servers teamwork is somewhat rare, with most people generally attempting to gain as many points from killing enemies as possible with no regard for teamwork or cooperation. Still, as far as first person shooters go, BF2 is extremely enjoyable even when teamwork is out to lunch. The vehicles, from jeeps to jets, give the player many options for ways to play the game. Many players find a favorite vehicle to use, and someone that loves being the gunner in an attack helicopter might not enjoy driving a tank at all. All of the vehicles are simplified compared to other games which are dedicated simulators (flying a jet in BF2 is not even comparable to flying one in IL-2 Sturmovik), however no other game includes the range of controllable vehicles which BF2 offers. It makes for a unique and very enjoyable experience. 5/5

Audio: The sounds in BF2 are wonderful, from the deafening explosions of artillery to the shriek of jets flying overhead. They are incredibly immersive, and can be enhanced further with a Creative X-Fi card (note: ONLY the X-Fi Fatal1ty card can use the special "X-Fi" sound settings on BF2). However, even without the X-Fi, the sound effects in BF2 are great. Now if only the game had great music like in BF:Vietnam... 4/5

Replay: Since BF2 has no story and is basically just an endless set of matches on various maps, there's nothing limiting the replay (other than getting tired of of maps or other people). People have logged hundreds of hours on this game (in fact, the stats tracker has a Cents Per Hour number tracking how much it has cost you per hour of play, dividing 50 bucks by the number of hours of play) 5/5

Overall: BF2 isn't a perfect game, if you read forums about it you'll see plenty of people complaining about everything from bunnyhopping noob-tubers (people that hop around shooting a grenade launcher at you for an instant kill) to TKing chopper whores (people that insist on flying the helicopters, and will teamkill anyone else who tries to get in it) to autopunishers (people who will use the "Punish" option when accidentally killed by a teammate, causing them to lose more points and possibly be kicked from the server). Also, there are a few annoying bugs in the game such as the red nametag bug, which gives a teammate a red nametag (teammates are supposed to have blue nametags) causing you to teamkill them. However, in spite of all of that, those same people who are complaining continue playing this game, and there's a reason for that. It's an amazing game experience, and definately worth the money assuming you have a computer up to the task. Highly recommended. 4/5