Well, it is finally out and is kicking ass and taking names, Duke Nukem style. Completely unsuprisingly to anyone that has ever played an online game before where one server might be better than another, all the ranked servers are chock-full of players while unranked sit there sad and lonely. Fortunately Australia seems to have pretty good coverage between GameArena, Internode and OGN (there were over 450 people playing online on GameArena alone yesterday - at 7.30 in the morning). Stats problems aside, the response so far has been... enthusiastic to say the least from the Australian gaming community.
There are two types of reviews I've seen so far - ones like the GameArena review, which laud the game and all it doth deliver. In a much smaller proportion there are these sort (the kind I would write because I love picking on games with technical problems, or the kind of whining anyone would write if the game doesn't work on their PC) which focus on the technical issues of the game that are plaguing a small percentage of users. Both are an interesting read and if you're still trying to decide about buying it (ie, you haven't played the demo, what's wrong with you) then I recommend reading both articles. You might also want to check out GameSpy's stats page, as BF2 is currently pushing 30,000 simultaneous players - which is basically the largest number I've seen on that page that doesn't fall into some sort of "Half-Life" category.
What a joke! It doesn't apply to my problem as I am local admin, but I can't believe they expect people to have admin rights! Most games won't even install without Admin rights.
Most games won't even install without Admin rights.
No s***. But to allow kiddies to have admin rights on a pc? Give me a break. It's recommended by Microsoft that typical users do not have admin rights. For a game to require admin rights is a massive security flaw.
Have you run pbweb?
Nope, I haven't used PB much so haven't heard of PBWEB - I'll check it out now. Thanks.
For a game to require admin rights is a massive security flaw. I know, I'm agreeing with you - its totally balls. I spent 2 weeks de-f***ing my PC after it was raped by the latest Splinter Cell game, another game that requires being run as administrator so it can screw your PC with low level copy protection crap. I had to reformat before my PC was usable again (after installing it my PC started hard-freezing every couple hours).
I think requiring admin access to install is WORSE than needing it to run - who knows what crap its installing on your system.
Yes, but from what I saw, bots are [by default] limited to 16 players. Meaning you can only play the smaller 16-player versions of the maps with bots.
Some people have gotten 32-player maps running with only 15 bots, and some others claimed to go the whole way with 32-player maps and 31 bots. I haven't investigated further, but I'm sure there's information around telling you how to increase the player number on the maps with config manipulation.
You can increase the player number on the maps, and with minor scripting changes you could load 32 player maps up with 32 bots, but they wont know how to properly navigate the maps. All their pathing info and strats are harcoded to the 16 player versions of the maps.
I have to agree with parabols picture. Demo was just awesome fun for the first weekend, then I got over it. I didnt play desert combat that much but it just seems that this game is like the Counter Strike Source of the Battlefield series.
But the graphics and gameplay are a million times better than CS. Some of the maps look f***ing gorgeous and once the mods start rolling in it'll be even more fun.
NavySeal, no mate you are not the only one, it drives me crazy as hell. Like why on earth couldnt they have put in a favourites tab or even have it only look for game servers in your country like BF:V did?
I'd also like to hear about others online experience as it seems to suffer from packet loss or soemthing cause it chugs on some servers very badly, and they are not necessarilly the 64 player ones. Does VOIP suck the bandwidth on the servers?
Trog: It is GameArena, Internode and OGN (who are hosted by iiNet at the moment). Oh. Woops. I == newb. I'd also like to hear about others online experience as it seems to suffer from packet loss or soemthing cause it chugs on some servers very badly, and they are not necessarilly the 64 player ones. Does VOIP suck the bandwidth on the servers? I've heard a lot of people say that about the ranked servers? Maybe its an artifact of the ranking/stats transmission?
I've been playing on internode's 64 player ranked server a lot, and after my initial performance problems have had no probs with the actual server. I get 40-50ms pings and have only been disconnected for TKing and once when my net went down.
The server connection screen annoys the complete and utter f*** out of me.
does ASE or The Arena work with bf2 yet (ie - can i load the game via those programs? or is it all still in-game?) Its not possible to join the game externally yet. That functionality has only existed for 10 years in other games so it is too new to be included, I guess.
well whatever it is i blame gamespy becuase their damn logo is in the server selection screen ... their game browsers were always s*** and their company stands for and is worth s*** to me
Its not possible to join the game externally yet. That functionality has only existed for 10 years in other games so it is too new to be included, I guess.I forgot where I read it now but somone from EA/Dice has stated that command line server connection functionality is to be added in the first patch.
The first patch, given EA's track record will prbably come out really soon :P
Dont' ask me why I wanted to hate this game *maybe the CS'ness of it perhaps* but I reckon this deal is the ducks guts.
I'd love to see a hardcore mod made using this engine for uber realism, somewhat more so like FlashPoint... But that's just me.
I must say though, whilst 99% of online players are fine, its the 1% of team killers/spankers who I have a real low tollerence of. But then you're working well with a good squad and coordinating things well the game just becomes soooo much better.
How come no ones mentioned how perty this engine is?
yep, i've been loving BF2 since i installed it at 9:20 wednesday morning.
spec ops pwns. im half way through being a lance corporal, and unlocked the G36C. i dont like it better than the M4, but i like it better than the chong and arab spec ops weapons.
i was ranked 116th best spec ops in the world, now i've dropped to 170 something since the influx of new players. i wish you could filter the stats to aus only, or even clan only etc...
love this s***, and cant wait for a good clan war - go LT w0000t!
I still haven't played it - to be honest my enthusiasm for the game (which was pretty high - it has long been one of the few games I've been looking forward to for yonks) was destroyed with the demo 'hacking' debacle. Doesn't really make sense from a player point of view but I just can't get past it. I'll probably wait for the first patch and for things to settle down a bit.
I think the browser has been made so painful deliberately so you install gamespy arcade. The EA/Dice people probably thought 'hey, we don't need to make this work because everyone will be using gamespy to connect to servers!' Also, the teamkilling thing is pretty annoying. I was on one of the internode servers this morning and ended up with like -24 or something for my medic thing because people kept running over my mines...
Also, has anyone noticed alot of seppos in Australian servers?! Wtf is with that??
* Excessive and pervasive splash-screen intros ... check
* Slow and bloated user-interface ... check
* User-unfriendly server selection ... check
* Inability to do +connect ip ... check
* Gumby weapon feedback + sounds ... check
* Random crashes to desktop for many users ... check
* No real co-op support .. check
* Developer lashes out at community ... check
* Soul-selling partnerships with gumby companies ... check
* Paying full price for something marginally better than a free mod based on its prequel .. check
Yep, sounds like a typical EA-affiliated game to me. I think I'll skip purchasing this one and save up for a graphics card + ET:QW for 2006.
Couldn't connect to a server from browser, then game hung, then after killing the process I fired it up again an my profile was GONE!. I had to retrieve my account and go through the pain of re-binding my keys again..
That pissed me off BIG time
If anyone actually follows the trends of my posts, you'd realise that I'm very negative about modern games and developers. I wonder why!
Because you're a prat? Sure the game has so many little things about it that just bug me...but is it still fun even with the issues? HELL YES...so I play it, simple.
Doom 3 didn't really piss me off much, I was way too bored to bother being pissed off.
BF2 is a good game, it just feels like maybe they were being rushed near the end. Reading through some of the python scripts, theres stuff in there, commented out, for gametypes which dont even exist in the finished game (like co-op and some conquest variations), so obviously they had plans to do more but I'm assuming EA put the hard word on them to release by a certain date and they had to cut prioritise and cut features.
I'd also say its a bit more than a marginal improvement over Desert Combat. Brand spanking new graphics engine, new weapons, new vehicles, commander mode, new abilities for classes (like the medic), vehicles that can heal/repair/give ammo depending who's driving them, squads, brand new maps that can be scaled to cater for anything from 16 to 64 players, and thats just off the top of my head. That sure sounds like more than enough new features to justify a new game to me. How much more do you expect?
The more I play it, the more I love it. It realy does pay off to be 'team' orientated, running round by yourself really doesn't pay off. In DC it allowed people to be solo, whereas this game does really encourage teamwork. I just had some awesome games on node tonite flying as weapons guy in the bomber and my pilot was great..lined me up nicely and we raped the ground troops. VOIP was cool too as I could tell him when I had a lock, where baddies were and such. He would maintain heading and slow his speed just enough for me to make the kill. This would be a great game at a QGL lan.
I saw on Voodoo Extreme last night that the player stats for BF2 had exceeded CS...no mean feat considering its only been out a week or two.
I was playing that Dam map as US - we were owning. We all converged on one base - I was piloting an Apache, there were two other Apaches as well. All three of us were hovering around the base shooting the hell out of it... then our tanks arrived and about 10 infantry. Needless to say, we got the base! :)
Teamwork in this game rocks! I've never seen such a massive assault on one base. Would've been impossible without decent communication.
Is the control setup as bad as the first game? ie. telling you there's a conflict and leaving you to wade through pages of key bindings to find where it is before it'll let you save?
I agree i upgraded my video card just for this game now motherboard to cope with the graphics.. It's a sweet looking game but has many bugs that need to be fixed.. Most are graphic and to do with the server screen.. Compared to BF1 and DC it's shocking.. apart from that .. and the crashing.. it's a sweet looking game with lots of new ideas..
You do know that nvidia is a profitable company and would use marketing strategys such as releasing a new video card when a sponsored game comes out yeah?
Its hardly amusing. You know KFC had a batman meal when the batman movie came out right? tricky huh.
Target had a special on star wars toys when starwars 3 came out...
Trog the low ping GA server is pretty good, I dont get any warping on it at all. Just fags who havent got a clue about teamwork, now if you could sort that out...:P
Was funny today on Internode, I'm playing away flying my jet and this voice, honestly it was a kid of about 8-10yrs I reckon with this broad yank accent. Hilariously he's issuing orders to the team left right and centre, requesting 'air cover' and s*** and didnt realise it was just me he was screaming at. :)
*sigh* getting a good team together is so f***in hard....
I'm almost tempted to open up my Teamspeak Server to some of you just so as I can find where you are so that I can get online an play with some people who at least *want* to cooperate an work as a team....
I find it so annoying to play a support class on public servers ...
As an engineer I will mine the main entrance to a base (there is always a second entrance) and team mates will always drive out the main entrance despite the mine warning, despite them being able to see them... then give me team kills ... f*** me morons
Yeah we should start up some TS or something... I'm getting pretty frustrated trying to find a decent squad all the time. Let me know if any1 gets this going/we have enough interest.
Got this in the email today...
To advance to PFC: 500 total (+500)
To advance to Lance Corporal: 1000 total (+500)
To advance to Corporal: 11,000 total (+10,000)
To advance to Sergeant: 21,000 total (+10,000)
To advance to Staff Sergeant: 221,000 total (+200,000)
To advance to Gunnery Sergeant: 421,000 total (+200,000)
To advance to Master/First Sergeant: 4,421,000 total (+4,000,000)
To advance to Sergeant Major: 8,421,000 total (+4,000,000)
To advance to Master Gunnery Sergeant: 88,421,000 total (+80,000,000)
To advance to Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps: 168,421,000 total (+80,000,000)
Ok, so, if the best person in the entire world gets 12,000 points per week, it would take him 14,035 weeks to advance to Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. That's 270 YEARS!!
Have you just left it on the server screen for a while? The server screen is horribly coded and regularly locks up when you scroll it or while its pinging servers, or sometimes for no real reason at all, but it usually comes back.
Just also like to have a rant about team damage. It's not bad enough that people punish you when they walk in front of your tripwires, etc, but the computer deducting points off you for team damage as well really s***s me.
Yeah the team damage thing sucks ass. I hardly bother using claymores for my sniper, mines for engineer, then when your team does do retarded s*** they still punish you. Assoooooooooles
Anyone having problems connecting to any server? I can't get into any game.. double click on the server or press join server and it dumps me back to the list..
There's no update patches been released since yesterday and I haven't tried to apply any kind of mod or anything..
Hrm can't work it out.. There appears to be players on the servers.. All ports open for game. Tried everything bar reinstall the game.. Was working fine the other day.
Anyone having problems connecting to any server? I can't get into any game.. double click on the server or press join server and it dumps me back to the list.. That happened to me as well...
Did you lose your profile at any stage?
Either way, only way I managed to fix that was by re-installing (hope you bought the DVD version)
Nah I didn't know that.. how would you do that? just copy all 3 cds into 1 folder then re-burn it on a dvd?
I re-instaled the game and it appears to be working way better now..
I think I have a tip.. If you installed Bf2 with an older video card which may not have been supported (say ti4200 in my case) then upgraded to a new video card and are having graphic glitches, a re-install does wonders.. I think it may have been seeing the old video card config or something and using that.. Seems to go so much better now.. actually playable now.. lol..
I think it may have been seeing the old video card config or something and using that.. Seems to go so much better now.. actually playable now.. lol..
It probably just needed to re-optimise your shaders, you can force that by deleting the cache from from the battlefield 2/mods/bf2/cache folder in your My Documents folder.
No, sometimes just changing your video settings wont make it re-optimise the shaders. It's happened to me many times, and with others. That's why you sometimes need to force it.
sharkull got the same mother of a problem...and its s***ting me to tears...just wont to play but cant..
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
gunna return this f***er
