By Jim Rossignol on September 1st, 2009 at 5:52 pm.
The Battlefield series is a bit patchy (HA! DO YOU SEE!) Heroes is a little too “lite” for my tastes, and the rather more realistic-looking 1943 has been delayed into after Christmas. We’re due Bad Company too, but I wonder if the focus on environmental destruction will dilute the multiplayer manshoot. Personally Battlefield 2 was always my favourite, but I must admit I’ve not picked it up in a while. Nevertheless I suppose there must still be some kind of community playing, because DICE have just released a patch for it. A patch first promised in June last year. The words from Battlefield blog:
As part of Update 1.50 we are glad to announce that not only is Highway Tampa now a required install included in the update but Euro Forces (Great Wall, Taraba Quarry and Operation Smoke Screen) and Armored Fury (Midnight Sun, Operation Harvest and Operation Road Rage) is now FREE for all Battlefield 2 players. Including the brand new map, Operation Blue Pearl this brings EIGHT new maps that everyone can play and will be added to ranked Battlefield 2 servers world wide. The Booster Pack content is included in the update and has made the file just over 2Gb in size.
2Gb. Oof. Here’s a list of mirrors.
This includes some seriously good fixes that, sadly, are so long overdue its not even funny. Still nice they added them, might make me play again sometime.
(mainly AA that works, diving prone messing your aim up for a moment or two and the ability to crawl past claymores without setting them off).
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Prone deviation was the only thing BF2 needed to make it worth playing over 2142. Do want.
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Personally I liked 1942 the best, but that’s probably my nostalgia filter kicking in now.
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Lets wait, but 1943 could be also “lite”. 4 maps and much less than 64 playes is what I call “smallish”.
Re: “As part of Update 1.50 we are glad to announce that not only is Highway Tampa now a required install included in the update but Euro Forces (Great Wall, Taraba Quarry and Operation Smoke Screen) and Armored Fury (Midnight Sun, Operation Harvest and Operation Road Rage) is now FREE for all Battlefield 2 players. ”
Is me, or this is very good news, and a step in the direction of “community building” decisions?
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Forgive me for mentioning a machine other than our beloved beige box but I’ve played BF43 on the 360 and it doesn’t feel ‘lite’ in the sense that Heroes does. It is certainly streamlined though, 3 specialised classes, infinite ammo for main weapon and rechargeable ammo for specials, short respawn times and squad spawning make for a faster more constant pace than 42 with little time wasted running to the front lines or hunting for weapons cabinets. This streamlining also goes a long way to helping you forget there are only 24 players, there are always plenty of allies and enemies about and lots going on because everyone can get back to the fight so quickly.
Maybe it won’t be for everyone but that’s what demos are for, eh? I recommend any fans of the BF formula give it a try at least.
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Woop, I loved BF2 when it originally came out, hopefully this will fix alot of the annoying problems it had.
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2GB? Ouch…torrent please.
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“Prone deviation was the only thing BF2 needed to make it worth playing over 2142.”
We never expected.. the patch!
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WOOOOOOOOOOO! BF2 above all other Battlefields!
Torrent here: http://www.fz.se/filer/torrent.php?file_id=9102
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Wow, free content is always a delight. BF2 was/is my favourite Battlefield, the expansion was a giggle too with its introduction of grapple hooks and zipwires.
Think maybe I read PC version of 1943 will have boosted player caps over our console cousins. Maybe I dreamt that.
One thing I didnt dream is me meeting Low Quality Beard’s (as others have said, surely an oxymoron?) avatar picture bloke:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=105200&l=97a8413a31&id=500072019 (I’m on the right)
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I am quite suprised and pretty happy that this has happend. BF2 was and is one of my favourite games and easily the one I have had most fun with, great to see its still going! Gonna have to start that day long install I think!
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@Dreamhacker
You’re my hero.
Also, I’m so glad I didn’t spend the $10 on the Euro Forces and Armored Fury “booster packs”.
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Finally! Feels like 1.50 has been in Beta for ages. Oh and yes there are many servers still active.
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I have played this game more than any other in my whole life. So this is a big deal to me, i kinda wish they had thrown in a drm free thing, but i guess bf2 still sells by the bucket load.
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There were lots of good times, but it lost me to TF2 a long time ago. And now that has lost me to classic PS2 games like Colossus!
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Get that shit on Steam, bro.
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You know, they could have also made Special Forces free to play seeing as there is nobody playing it now, and I lost the disc years ago =P I mean, sure, the booster packs are fine, but isn’t this supposed to be the penultimate patch? Unlock EVERYTHING damn it!
Man do those patch fixes look tantalizing. I do believe I’ll dust off the cobwebs.
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Actually, penultimate means next-to-last. It sounds cooler, but ultimate remains “last”.
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So…what’s free now?
I was thinking of getting the complete edition for a tenner, but you get most of it with just the original now?
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Yes, I realized that a while ago. I should have said “ultimate”.
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“Get that shit on Steam, bro.” – YA RLY, then I would play it(and rebuy it), i’m not going scrounging for my dvd and cdkey….
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I’m installing Battlefield 2 Complete right now (though I’ll skip on installing the boosterpacks) AND downloading the patch through a torrent.
Looks like the download is going faster than installing the damn thing…
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Wait what? Battlefield 2 isn’t offered through Steam.
So…watchutalkinbout?
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This is because Dice/EA are hoping that the BF2 community will grow a little before Bad Company hits. Theory being that they will then migrate over to Bad Company. Nice that they are giving away those expansions as a free incentive. Unlike the Mass Effect DLC. Are you paying attention Bioware/Ea?
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Oh Oh. Having just spend the last ten minutes searching my room for my copy of BF2, I just realized that it was under my computer, propping it up to prevent those weird vibration noises that were coming from it. I think it’s going to stay there. I don’t like vibration noises.
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Torrent link.
I bought some “BF2 Ultimate Pack” a few months ago because it was only £6 on Amazon, I’ve really struggled to into the game though what with all the patching and punkbuster kicking… So i’ve been looking forward to this for hopefully a chance to start playing it a bit more. Does anyone by any chance have any favourite servers/communities for BF2? I’d be interested to know, thanks.
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hmmm… i would so play this again if my internet wasn’t behind a stupid university firewall that blocked the ports needed for gameplaying. I used to be a crack heli pilot when used to play… heli vs heli battles were great.
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Finally they added widescreen support! Yes!
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I owe this game some of my most elated gaming moments. From popping a C4 on the support of a bridge to stopping a armoured column with a handful of mines. Sometimes you are just taking out a sniper looking the other way but each kill feels like you are helping push back the enemy. While dying feels like a fresh chance to engage with a new tactic.
I would buy this again on steam faster than i would buy any future battlefield title. Just to be disc free and not screwing around with cracks and mini isos.
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I’m fairly sure that this patch removes the disc-check too, so it looks like you get everything you wish for.
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This patch is generating a hell of a lot of interest in a 4 year old online game. This is good.
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On the subject of download mirrors, Big Download have it, and they have more bandwidth than god:
http://www.bigdownload.com/games/battlefield-2/pc/battlefield-2-v15-patch/
I’m pulling it down at just shy of 2MB/s. That’s fast.
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Anarki: Full Contact War ( http://fullcontactwar.com/ ) is run by good people with an emphasis on tactical play and teamwork. I have also had a decent time on Legion At War’s servers and a few more I cannot recall.
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BF2 still has nothing on BF1942: desert combat.
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Since I’ll just load up Project Reality anyway… nah, I think I’m good. Or I’ll go play Insurgency.
As for “penultimate”, it does indeed mean the last and final. Why? Precisely *because* it is a cooler-looking word and has soundly kicked ultimate’s ass, slept with its wife, and touched its canary in a slightly dirty way. Dictionaries be damned.
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I wish I could actually buy this in Australia, the EA store for this region only lists the Complete Collection at $80, and for that matter why can’t I buy 1942 any more damn it.
It would be like Valve not selling Half Life any more.
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@The Fanciest of Pants
I hear that… DC = the best. Shame it’s never had a proper sucessor. (Frontlines was a bit.. crap)
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Jeez, and just yesterday I thought about erasing it from my computer because I didn’t play it for one year straight.
BF2 is probably the game I spent the most time with, ever – 535 hours of online playing time registered (and it didn’t always register :p), without ever buying an expansion..
In other words – I’ll surely try it if I can convince my friends to do so, too!
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BF2: The game that defined the early 2000′s FPS?
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It’s nice to see the game still being supported like this; I never spent a huge amount of time in the game and never got very good, and mostly on one, non-aircraft map (Kandahar), but I did enjoy it.
Not sure I see the connection between this and Bad Company though; I’ve only played the originally Bad Company demo on XBox 360, and that struck me as very different; a sort of 3rd person, arcadey, well, _consoley_ affair that didn’t grab me at all. I can’t see that long-time BF2 fans would be the natural constitency for BC2 unless it’s different to the first.
P.
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Great news. BF2 plays like a dream on Win 7 64, now that Even Balance have been heavily leaned on by EA to make Punkbuster work with it. I dug out BF2 a couple of weeks ago and have since been getting back into the game.
Downloaded this patch overnight and had a little play this morning. It’s really good. Just the shot in the arm that BF2 needs, I think, and plenty to keep me playing until BF3 rolls up. It’s great to see so many servers still up and people playing, as well.
I don’t often say this, but well done EA.
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@Dreamhacker: just the mediocre ones.
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Aside from Valve’s games I can’t think of any other multiplayer game that has defined the early 2000 FPS.
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Have any of you tried Red Orchestra? I’m not going to ‘diss’ the BF series but I much prefer RO.
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Is Titan mode consigned to the scrapheap of history?
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good lord, that Bigdownload site linked above is rapid. 6.3 meg a second :D
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Bah! I only just bought quake wars – I don’t have any more room for online shooters.
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I been playing 1943 on XBLA. Its fun but it needs a patch badly. You start a game with mates to be in the same squad only to be put in opposite teams…. The weapons need more balancing as well. Plus other shit that I can’t think of now. Maybe we are the guinea pigs for the PC version.
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I take it they still haven’t stuck multiplayer vs bots then? 4 humans vs 16 bots in Vietnam or BF1942 was always awesome…
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BF2 had bots added maybe a year after release. Its by no means the best way to play however. Maybe the vietnam ai was better.
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RO is probably objectively better than BF2, but BF2 is just so boombastic with the fighter jets and helicopters. I consider Project Reality the best of both worlds. I can call in a laser guided bomb and still keep the brutality of war.
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Oh dear.
I’ve been playing BF2 since day one ( BF:V and Desert Combat mod for BF:1942 before ) and I guess I should have known btter from EA when they say they’re going to improve a game by patching it.
1.50 patch for BF2 pretty much screws up the game.
The hitboxes, ‘improved’ in the patch, are still wildly out making aiming an even more lottery than before.
The other stuff is great ( free Euro forces and Armoured Fury expansions, new map and inclusion of Highway IntelCPUadvertising, Widescreen fix, prone deviation to stop the proners, F35′s improved etc etc ), but the hitbox problem has ruined it for me.
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Widescreen support? Welcome to 2002!
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Glad to see the patch was not actually a lie but still…
I mean, I had to check I still had BF2 on my computer ~~
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