The audio in BF2142 is actually pretty damn good. There isn't much music in the game so we can skip on that (they do a good job of working the traditional Battlefield themes into the opening credit sequence though). Most of the guns have a nice meaty sound to them and you'll soon learn which weapons are which by the distinctive sound they make. You'll also quickly learn to love (or hate) the sound of the sentry gun as it winds up and opens fire. While the weapon sounds are fun teh best sound by far is the mechanized stomping of the walkers in the game.
Graphically the game is a small step up from Battlefield 2 which makes sense as the game is using an enhanced version of that game’s engine. The engine still holds up but it is starting to show a little age. Art direction is solid and most everything is somewhat believable which is important given DICE has created a game that isn’t based on any modern equipment.
The server browser has also been updated a bit and DICE has finally provided gamers with a buddy list so that they can quickly find their friends online without having to resort to third party software like Xfire. It’s not a great solution and it’s certainly not as versatile but it is a step in the right direction.
Performance seems to have been optimized a little bit with the new version as well. Map load times do seem to be a bit quicker than their Battlefield 2 counterparts which mean that you’re only going to be able to read about two pages in a novel instead of three. As with the last game the more RAM you have the better off you are going to be. With 3GB of RAM, a GeForce 6700 Pro, and a 3 gHz dual core processor I was able to play with most options turned up and still have a decent framerate. The game still does not support wide screen monitors natively which is also something of a major disappointment from me. There are ways around it but it’s time for the game to support them natively so I don’t have to edit command line switches and hack the config files of the game.
Any discussion of the Battlefield has to talk about the software defects i.e. undocumented features that ship with the game. It’s never a good thing when one of the promised features of a game is that it will be less buggy than previous games. I’d like to say that they’ve succeeded in creating a more bug free game but that doesn’t seem to be the truth. While I’ve only had a few major crashes a lot of the same bugs that I had in Battlefield 2 are still present in 2142. My biggest nit is that occasionally the spawn selection screen doesn’t seem to take that I’ve picked a spawn point. It some times takes two to three times for it to figure out where I want to re-spawn at. This wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that it’s frustrating as hell to try and spawn on a squad leader and not be able to and then he dies or trying to spawn on a contested spawn and not be able to do so before it’s taken over by an enemy.
The other final issue to deal with Battlefield 2142 is the whole spyware/advertising issue. Personally I haven’t seen any of the ads in the game yet but I see all of the billboards in the game where they should be. While I certainly understand the cost of developing a game has gone up by leaps and bounds over the years this kind of thing needs to cut both ways. If you’re going to show me ads in a game and gather some personal information (even if it’s in aggregate form) I need to see a cost reduction. It doesn’t have to be a lot but it has to be something. Compound this with digital distribution and you have to wonder why EA isn’t passing a little bit of that back to the consumer (OK, I know why they aren’t but a man can dream can’t he).
With all of that said I know that Battlefield 2142 is going to be the game that I’m going to be playing on and off for the next year or so (or whenever the next one in the series is coming out). DICE will eventually patch the game to the version it should have been released at first. I still love the new gameplay modes and I still love playing with friends and finding that odd group of good players who make it worth it. I just wish that the game had been bug tested a little more before release and I don’t think that’s too much to ask for.
More On:
Battlefield 2142 Companies:
EA C+
Despite the bugs and ads this is still a great game. In a way the Battlefield series is a lot like sex and pizza, even when they are bad they are still not all bad
Page 3 of 3
