Battlefield 2 Deluxe Edition
by Electronic Arts
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Video Game Reviews of Battlefield 2 Deluxe Edition
Customer Review: Program Sucks
Summary: 1 Stars
I've never been able to get the program to run. Try to run it and the screen goes blank. Sent EA an email to cust. support and never got a reply. I will not buy anything else from EA.Customer Review: Great Game
Summary: 4 Stars
Well, I have had this game for almost a year now, and I can say that it is one of the most fun and addicting games ever.
I don't want to recap all of the previous person's points, since they are all mostly true, but here is what I love about it.
Pros
Weapons. Amazingly varied, you can absolutely beast with stock equips, but unlocks give you an edge over many players out there, not a full-blown advantage, and since there are so many hard core BF2 players, unlocks will definitely give you a better chance of winning.
Vehicles. Also, these are almost perfectly balanced and kind of sort of realistic, ranging from the jets that can rule the game unless someone gets some AA running, to the slow but powerful transport copters, to the cheap looking MEC van-and-random-gun, to the tanks and APCs that are my favorites.
Maps. Maps are, once again, varied, and the gameplay changes drastically from map to map. You have infantry and armor only maps like Strike at Karkland (my personal favorite), to Wake Island, a map that absolutely depends on the jet and chopper pilots.
Squad Play. Well, of all the memorable titles that have attempted to create a feeling of strategy within each team beyond, "Let's go kill that guy, watch out for the tank thingy," this game has probably done the best job. You have the basic squad composed of up to 6 members, reasonable in a 64 player game, with a squad leader, who can communicate with the commander, requesting vehicle drops, artillery, UAVs, etc. Commanders and Squad Leaders don't always do a good job of strategizing (is that a word?), but you just have to remember that this is a game with real people, not bots... There is a large percentage of jerks in the world lol, and that applies here too. Fortunately, you can join and leave squads as much as you would like, though doing so can be detrimental, even costing you the game sometimes, for reasons that you will learn in the game.
Graphics. Not much to say, other than that full settings require a high end (+ $200) card, but when you have it, it looks pretty good, especially considering its age. I love the scenes in Karkland where you get the tanks and APCs concentrated, support gunners laying down suppressing fire, medics madly dashing to use their shock paddles, special forces laying C4 all over the place, grenades flying like my mom's pancakes, oh yeah... Then of course the artillery comes down, and everything and everybody blows sky high,... then the near silence, except for the distant chatter of machine guns. Oh, *sigh*, it is good, the most immersive game ever.
Cons
As mentioned before, load times are a bit exessive. I really don't have the problem that those guys do though, since I have a RAID 0 setup, an OCed Opty, and 2GB of RAM, but still, they are the longest of any game I have ever seen.
Also, keeping in tradition of EA gaming, the game came out pretty much in beta form, with so many bugs, not just having to do with gameplay, but also installation and other junk like that. But, BUT, the good news is that after more than a year of patching, the game is in pretty good condition, so you won't have problems with that much at all.
Finally, the whole serial number issue. I'm going to SAVE a couple of you some MONEY, so PLEASE READ. When you get your game, the serial number is on the back of the manual... I know, horrible place to put it, as manuals are easily lost. Before you do anything, write it down, put it someplace safe. Now, when you install, DO NOT IMMEDIATELY PATCH. Before you patch, you can register and retrieve your key in the case that you lose it. But after just a single patch, you cannot register or view the key in the registry, so EA cannot look up your key, and if you lose your manual... like me... you have to shell out another $** for it.
Basically, this game is one of the best games ever, I really don't think that it will be surpassed by BF2142, which is coming out later this year (2006). So, hope that this helped :)
Customer Review: Has its issues, but better than most
Summary: 4 Stars
I read S.Hogan's 'irritatinginferior' review and felt compelled to add my two cents.
I think he didn't give the game enough time or just isn't very good at it because i'm having a lot more fun with it than he is. Vehicle transport is a big part of the game and sure its annoying if a bunch of guys on your team leave without you, but you can request a vehicle drop from your commander or wait for a new vehicle to spawn, or... move on foot.
Problems he had with identifying enemy units in-game are no longer an issue, anyone within a reasonable distance from you in the game.. say 40 feet or so, has their name and color to indicate friend or foe, at all times, you no longer have to aim at someone to find out. Not to mention the uniforms and skin color are usually different.
Some games are dominated by those who get to the planes and helicopters first, but Ive found thats only the case if your playing on a smaller map (and if the pilots are good). With enough players on the map there will be too many ground targets for air vehicles to keep up with and they will ultimately be shot down. There are some very skilled pilots that play this game and they take it very seriously. If you enjoy flight simulators this would probably be worth a go. Ive seen some really impressive videos of pilots in this game, there are several different types of jets and helicopters, if you can't fly very well but want to fight from above I would suggest getting a joystick or just playing as a second gunner.
The game can be a bit choppy at times, mostly dependent on your system. Check the system requirements before purchasing the game, this will not run very well on older systems, but does take full advantage of some of the newest video cards available. I recommend at least 1GB ram to play, 2GB would of course be better but not necessary.
camping or 'baseraping' is a problem as stated, but thats due to the nature of the game. If the enemy is taking over a base you might not want to spawn there because of it, but if you think youve got a shot at stopping them then you might try to spawn there at your own risk. No one likes to die right after they spawn but you can play smart and minimize this.
Gulf of Oman is a fun map, but not my favorite. Seemingly everyones favorite is 'Strike at Karkand'. Its played more than the others anyways. Overall there is a good variety of maps, with all the expansions (special forces expansion comes with the deluxe edition, there are two other expansions downloadable from EA online, Armored Fury and Euro Force) there are plenty of maps to choose from and most offer a variety of gameplay options, meaning it wont always be the same fight, same choke points etc. most of the maps are pretty good, there are some custom maps available as well.
The sniper does seem pretty weak compared to some other games but I think its balanced pretty well. If you enjoy playing as a sniper it wont be the strength of the gun that annoys you but the lack of a extra-zoom feature. there is only one standard zoom length for the sniper rifle. This of course varies between each sniper rifle and there are 2 unlockable ones available as well.
Speaking of unlockable weapons, there are a total of 14 unlockable weapons, 2 for each 'kit' wether it be for the assault kit, sniper kit, anti-tank kit etc. The unlock weapons do seem to be better than the original but they all have different specifications so some people prefer the stock weapons, I am not one of those people.
S.Hogan said the only difference with special forces was zip lines and jetskis, but this is not true. With special forces comes the addition of some new armies including British SAS, Russian Spetsnaz and Insurgent forces. They each have their own set of weapons, some weapons overlap but the difference in stock weapons for various army types (including the USMC, MEC, and Chinese of the original game) is pretty good. Not only is there a fairly realistic variation of weapons per army but vehicles as well. As a British SAS soldier you would be more likely to drive a Desert Raider buggy around, whereas if you were an insurgent force you would drive a pickup truck with a turret gun.
Special forces also introduces Grapple hooks and Zip lines. Night Vision on a select few maps, as well as tear gas as a standard weapon with the support kit. (The gas mask becomes critical in those situations.) There are also new maps with special forces, and new vehicles etc.
"Incredibly slow loading times between games" This is absolutely right. Some servers will play a map 2 times then load a new map, the load times occurs between switching maps, so it is wise to play servers that will stick with a few maps with lots of rounds between load times. Some servers play just one map all the time, so there is a very minimal load time. On average it seems to take about 4-5 minutes to load up a game, the games last anywhere between 5 - 40 minutes depending on various factors.
"So, I payed $40 for 2 days worth of pointless gameplay. " This guy obviously didnt put enough time into the game. With a little practice and getting to know the maps/kits/weapons/vehicles, squad/commander tactics im sure he would have found it at least a litte more enjoyable, personally I can't get enough.
Customer Review: Irritating, inferior "run - die - respawn" game
Summary: 2 Stars
Coming from years of playing games like Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, TFC, the Dark Forces series etc., I was compelled to give this game a try because of the vehicles and squad tactics aspects of the game.
The game is hard to classify as a "game" because it seems about 80% or better of your time is spent running or driving only to be killed by an unseen artillery or air attack. Some of the problems with this game are part mechanics, part gameplay, and part are the behavior of most people who play it. Some problems are:
It takes forever to ID someone as friendly or an enemy. I've had times where I've trained my cursor on someone for 3-4 seconds without getting a red or blue indicator of side...only to be shot from behind while I'm impatiently figuring out if I can shoot without getting a teamkill.
The game is often dominated by those who get to the planes and helicopters first. The rest of the players are all just target practice on the ground, making it a "run, die, respawn" cycle for everyone else. And there are people who will hop in a tank, jeep, chopper, etc. and take off with no one on board, leaving everyone else to either go on foot or wait for the vehicles that left to get destroyed and respawn.
Game is (somewhat) choppy, expecially compared to similar hi-res, fast action games. I have a fairly new & beefy Alienware computer that eats up Doom 3 and Source games like nobody's business.
Camping or "baseraping". The enemy sits on your spawn point and continually bombards or shoots you the split second you spawn. I've seen this in other games of course, but here it seems to be much, much more common. The ability to wipe out entires waves of spawners with airstrikes or artillery makes it more seductive for people, I suppose.
The only fun map I played was Gulf of Oman which, not coincidentally, is the map you play when you download the BF2 demo. If I could have contented myself with that, I would have saved myself some money.
The sniper is weak. It's good that they nerfed it to avoid the one-shot cheapness of other games, like the AWP in Counter-Strike for instance, but it is SO weak it takes more shots to kill someone with a .50 than it does with a sidearm.
Incredibly slow loading times between games.
Nit-picky point here, but you can't use mousewheel to scroll through servers.
As far as the Special Forces add-in which makes this the "Deluxe Addition", you get hooks and jetskis. Whoopee!
So, I payed $40 for 2 days worth of pointless gameplay. Doesn't look like I can get much for it on eBay so this baby is headed straight for the garbage chute. My advice: download the demo and play it for free, because in that case the price is right.
Customer Review: So good you may go MIA.
Summary: 5 Stars
It's not that often I find a game that has as much continuous gameplay as BF2. I have found myself absorbed in the realism of the game and the wonderfully rendered 3d world environment. This version is very nice as the game is updated to almost current patches. Do yourself a favor and download the armor fury booster and forget the European Union booster and get in the game! Pick up a saitek x52 for flying the jets and you will be a pro in no time.
If you want to play with your friends or just want a better listing of servers, download xfire, it's a small messenger like program that will work in game and let you join friends in the games they are already playing in.