Battlefield 2: Special Forces Expansion Pack
by Electronic Arts
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Our Price: $24.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $6.00 (click here) Category: Video Games See more product details |
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Video Game Reviews of Battlefield 2: Special Forces Expansion Pack
Customer Review: Don't waste your money
Summary: 1 Stars
Full of potential but what a letdown! The game has a hard time loading and I have the latest and "greatest" in speed etc of a machine. The frame rates stink, the patch for a "fix" has to be downloaded and takes a L_O_N_G time. There are bugs throughout the game. A real disappointment from EA Games. Unless you have 30 bucks to throw away, and lots of time to waste sitting at your pc trying to fix bugs don't bother.Customer Review: Fun twist, patches getting better
Summary: 4 Stars
Ok, first off I sympathize with everyone who has problems getting this game to run correctly. I had my own strange problem where I installed SF after I already had patch 1.3 installed and SF would not run. So, I had to guess at re-installing the 1.3 patch. EA's qualtity control is very poor, everyone knows it, so we'll leave it at that. Anyway, after re-installing the 1.3 patch I was able to play for about 4 or 5 hours without any problems. Hopefully thats a good sign that SF is getting more stable, but lets' face it, BF2 in general still gets lockup and crashes to desktop randomly, so I'm not holding my breath. One tip to help with crashes, disable EAX sound in your BF2 audio options, it seems to help.
I'd rather focus on the game experience itself in my review, which is pretty positive. SF definately has a different look and feel to it than BF2, which is good. The changed models, weapons, maps and vehicles are a well done, and battling indoors is a nice change from all the outdoor scenes in BF2. New attack helis are sweet, and 4-wheeler really zips around. There is alot of cover in the maps, so you can sneak around and hide and get close to flags and take out enemies more covertly. This makes for a different style of gameplay than normal BF2. I'll admit, it was not worth the original $30 price tag, but now that it's down to $15 it's a decent buy. Overall, I really like SF.
Customer Review: Sorry... EA Stinks on this one too.
Summary: 1 Stars
If you want to spend 30 bucks to get to the top of building, go for it.
Otherwise, it's just a way to make everything so dark and nasty that you don't want to play. It really is bad.
And, by the way, anytime you buy the online version you should just buy a club and beat yourself up too. EA does the worst online purchase of games possible. They really stink.
Customer Review: This game really stinks
Summary: 2 Stars
This game refuses to load! I sat at the optimizing shaders screen for over an hour with no results. Most of the time it stops loading at 62%, other times it even stops at 15%. EA won't reply to my emails at technical support.
It's too bad, cause I run some pretty nice machinery, too.
Furthermore, even if I could play it, I probably wouldn't want to, since the subject of the game is pretty stupid. Instead of all-out war, it's covert operations. Better to just buy the Rainbow Six franchise for that. At least they do a better job at game design.
Customer Review: Pass on Special Forces. Get "BF2 Euro Force" INSTEAD!!
Summary: 3 Stars
I read two public reviews on Amazon. To comment on those reviews, I don't know about bugs too much. My Special Forces Expansion Pack seems to work properly. But, I do not write to contest people who claim of program bugs. I still have yet to play this "expansion pack" on-line, so the reviews might be accurate for that. I played several games off-line, in one-player mode, and everything there worked okay.
After playing some rounds, I down-loaded the patches and installed them. At first, I installed only the most recent patch and then, when I tried to run the game after installing the patch, the game did not function properly. With a little reading of fine print, I realized I was supposed to install another patch previously released, and so I then down-loaded that other patch.
Apparently, certain patches must be installed in a specific order. If you down-load (DL) the patches in increments (called incremental patches), you don't have to DL the one humongous patch, if you've already DLed a previous incremental patch. In other words, you only need to DL the ones you didn't already install, but you need the big patch if you never installed any of those incrementals.
Back to my story, after DLing and installing the previous incremental, THEN I HAD TO RE-INSTALL THAT LATER PATCH, which, lucky for me, I did not erase from my computer. So, my game works fine in 1-player mode, although I did not try it on-line.
I read here that people are using "Special Forces" (BF2 SF) weapons in the regular "Battlefield 2" (BF2) on-line games, and this I witnessed, first-hand. The reviews I read on Amazon charged this negatively, and I sympathize; however, I don't REALLY feel offended by that fact as much as they do. I still support the competence of the reviews, and am grateful to the mention of this item, even if I don't necessarily find it as a fault.
What fault I do observe with BF2 SF is that this so-called "expansion pack" doesn't really feel like an expansion pack, but another totally separate game. If this game IS an expansion pack, why can I not access these maps in combination with other maps of the normal BF2 game? Did I make a mistake when I installed everything? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I don't know.
I already have a good time with the normal BF2 game. I don't need to pay more money for BF2 SF because it doesn't add that much of an attraction: I don't even play it on-line. To me, it's just a distraction.
HOWEVER, I would like to go on-record to support that extra $10 game, Battlefield 2 Euro Force (BF2 EF) with the three extra maps, including the very-difficult-but-fantastic "Great Wall", a map based on the Great Wall of China. The two maps and the "Great Wall" are all VERY well done. And, the great thing is I can play it in combination along with my regular BF2 maps.
I think people might dislike the "Great Wall" at first because of its difficulty. In my opinion, I think it's a great addition to the series that I cannot do without. The "Great Wall" is simply my favorite map. It's as kinetically charged as any of the city maps of BF2, but even moreso. I specifically like the armed battles that happen atop the 15-feet-wide wall. It reminds me of the little castle-and-knights toys I used to play with when I was a little boy.
Anyone who owns and plays on-line with the regular BF2, yet does not wish to blow their time and their $35 with BF2 Special Forces, should not miss the Euro Force edition. DL it, and install it. It's only $10. Great buy!!