[mr.miyagi]

This is a really good read if you wanna know how it plays:

http://www.totalbf2.com/news/cutlasspreview.php
Planet Combat Cutlass's Battlefield 2 Preview

Let me start by saying that BF2 was probably the best FPS I've ever played, and it will definitely be the FPS of the year, if not the game of the year. Battlefield 2 has a different feel than the previous franchise titles. Everything just flows much better; tanks drive smoother, transitioning from vehicle to ground is seamless, even jumping in the water and swimming is less cumbersome. The game feels more intense. From what I've read a lot of people have been skeptical of the commander mode with its directed artillery, but let me be the first to say it's unbelievable! Wait until you experience your first infantry on infantry battle in the midst of a deafening arty barrage. Shells scream in and produce resounding explosions, spraying rocks and debris high into the air. Artillery is also fortunately much more effective, and if you target your attack well you can really reduce the enemy force quite substantially.



The infantry fighting is just much more fun than any other FPS game I've ever played, and damn have I logged a lot of hours on shooters. As an infantryman, the fighting doesn't play like 1942, it plays like Black Hawk Down, the movie. Playing Mashtuur City with 64 players was really intense, and the ability to sprint from building to building and quickly go prone made the game feel much more lifelike. One of the features I haven't seen mentioned much is the switch in fire modes. Many guns can switch from single to full auto, and the M-16 can of course transition from 3-round burst to single shot. On single shot, your fire is dead accurate. I liked playing with it, because you can keep it accurate and still keep a reasonably high rate of fire. From prone or crouch the rifles will hit where you aim them, and you can really do some damage. One of the things I was worried about from watching videos was that infantry combat would be too slow and that it would take forever to kill someone. I can assure you that this is not true. For those of you who have seen the game play videos and thought the damage was way to low, don't worry, it's not.

There are a lot of factors in Battlefield 2 which will make it a much different game, but the one I feel has been most overlooked is what will be the single most influential feature for organized play: the squad system. Battlefield's synergistic squad system makes team play a lot easier and more fun. Based on max player counts, teams are allotted a certain number of squads. I'm not sure quite what the numbers are, but each squad can hold 5 or 6 players, and on the highest (64 player) I believe you can have ten squads, ensuring that everyone can get a space. In the squad system, squad leaders are mobile spawn points, and you can spawn in on their position. In my opinion, this will dramatically change the feel of the game, as you will be able to spawn anywhere much easier. Squad leaders will be extremely important, as if they are killed you'll need to spawn in at a control point. If your squad leader is in a vehicle, other players within the squad will be able to spawn on this vehicle up to its capacity. If your squad leader is in a two person jet, only one additional person can spawn in on him, but if he's in an APC or a Blackhawk, and entire squad can join in. The VOIP feature is integrated into the squad system, and I will discuss exactly how this works in a later interview. Teamspeak and Ventrillo diehards rest assured that BF 2 will work fine with both of these programs.



Commander mode will also be an extremely influential feature. I'll admit I was skeptical of commander mode when I read about it, but having messed with it, I can say it rocks, and it will make BF2 much more fun to play. With BF:V I felt that commanders had limited strategic options. For instance, on Landing Zone Albany left the US commanders bound in rope, covered in honey, and sitting on an anthill. Hmm… do I gun my jeep up the road into enemy RPG fire, or lead with my APC and sacrifice the squad (that was so lame, /rant). On all of the maps I played this wasn't an issue, and the strategic options open to a commander are nearly endless. The commander and squad leader positions will be extremely easy to play, but almost impossible to master.

Hitting enter brings you to the kit selection screen. To the right of kit selection tab is the squad screen. On the top of all of the squads is the commander option. At any time when there is no one in the slot you can click on the commander to request the spot. After 30 seconds or so it will either approve or reject you. If you're approved, you'll be able to accept or decline by pressing page up or page down. If you accept, you become commander. If two people request commander at the same time it goes to the higher-ranked player. On non-ranked servers I'm not quite sure what happens. If a commander is being a smacktard, other players can “mutiny” against him by clicking his name on the screen and voting against him. I'm not sure quite how this works because I never got to try it, but I'd guess that it broadcasts a vote to everyone on your team which they can accept with page up or decline with page down. Once you're accepted on commander mode nothing magical happens. You can just play the game as you would otherwise, or you can go into the commander screen by pressing caps-lock. On a big, 64 player battle, you're going to need to be on the commander screen the whole time, because otherwise your team is going to get worked. On smaller map sizes it will be interesting to see what clans do, since you will probably need to fulfill the role as commander and as a soldier.



The commander screen looks a lot like the beginning of the Zatar Wetlands chase video. There are three levels of zoom on the screen. The first will give you a general map view, the second will zoom in a bit closer, letting you see things more closely, and the third allows you to see individual infantry. The camera on the third screen is about 300 meters off the ground, which is a really tiny window. Commanders have four options on the screen, each of which will refresh. The first option is the “scan” which broadcasts a radar wave from left to right on the commander's map, showing him the locations of enemy troops. Other players, on both teams, can't see anything happening when a commander scans. It's generally good to lead with a scan before taking additional action, as it will let you see where enemy formations are. The next most simple option is the supply drop, which commanders can activate anywhere on the map. After selecting a drop location and clicking the button, a magical box will fall from the sky by parachute. This box heals players, repairs, and provides ammo. I'm not sure for how long the box sticks around, or how many you can have on the map at the same time. The third option available to the commander is the UAV, which will deploy an unmanned (and unseen) probe to a location the commander designates. This probe will essentially give every friendly unit in the range, which is probably around 200-300 meters, their very own radar system. This lasts about 30-40 seconds, and will show the locations of enemy units in real time. It's going to be extremely important for finding that last unit in a base, or for leading into an attack. The commander's final option is the dreaded artillery strike. After pushing the button, it takes about ten seconds until the shells start falling. The artillery randomly hits within about a 150-200 meter range (my estimates) and destroys everything it hits. Each barrage fires about five to six shells, and I'd estimate that anything within the radius has about a 1 in 2 chance of living (yes artillery can hit aircraft in flight. I happened to hit an F-16 by some miracle, which was really funny). The artillery has potent splash damage, and seeing it hit and kickup debris into the air is sweet. Each of the commander's options will refresh after a designated time. I'm not sure what these times are, but the scan is the shortest, and the arty is the longest. Commanders can also issue orders to squad leaders from the commander screen, which the squad leaders have discretion over accepting.

For the spec forces or lone wolf type, BF2 is the game you're been dreaming about. C4 works much better than it did in BF:V, and you don't have to sit there watch the guy twisting the wires. You can C4 the opposing commander's radar station and artillery pieces, which will make his job much harder.



The last feature I will talk about today is the helicopters and fighter jets. You can definitely tell that flying has been a major focus in the game so far. I'd say that they've done a pretty good job in making planes and helicopters easy to fly but difficult to master. Any noob can get into a jet and take off and shoot down a noob pilot, but flying well against experienced pilots will be much tougher. Pilots can easily switch between bombs and missiles (the default is the mouse wheel, but you will of course be able to bind it to joystick buttons) which will make flying much more fun. As I'm sure you've read by now, planes armed with missiles will be able to lock onto targets. It only takes a few seconds for your plane to acquire the target. If you're in the pilot seat of the unfortunate sucker who's getting locked onto, you'll hear a beep which will go to a steady tone once the lock is acquired. Planes and helicopters are equipped with countermeasures which will make a decisive kill more difficult. Your plane will also lock onto ambient heat sources, like the fires on top of oil wells, which will add an interesting dynamic to dogfights.

Helicopters are much more fun to fly than they were in BF:V. It doesn't take too long to get the hang of flying one, but it's going to take long hours to master the fine art. The gunner seat of attack helicopters is the coolest, and gunning well will probably be as difficult as flying. In addition to your regular gun (which is really powerful), gunners have a tow misssle which they can track and fly by wire. When you right click in a gunner seat it switches you to a black and white screen with a lot of static that looks just like the real thing. From here you can fire the missile, which you track using your joystick or mouse and keyboard. I took at least ten shots and didn't hit a damn thing, so it's probably going to take some time for gunners to get proficient at it.

I also got the opportunity to try out the BF2 Zboard which is going to be a must for clan members. It took me at least 5 rounds to get the hang of, but once I got used to it, the keyset really improved my game (which is in dire need of help). For those of you who have never heard of a Zboard check out http://www.zboard.com . Zboards are $50 for the base, and another $20 for the keyset (though you can get a coupon for a free keyset with the preorder box). The keyset is lightweight and top quality, and switching keysets is so easy even Mike Murphy can do it! The BF2 ZBoard places everything where you need it, and make it easier to play the game efficiently. Among clan members, I'm sure it's going to be a necessity, but even noobs to moderate players will benefit from using one. I'll write more about the Zboard in a later story, but if you don't already have on you should pick it up today.

This concludes my initial impressions. I'll try to post another article next week which will introduce AA and tanking. Feel free to comment. Oh by the way, tanks in this game aren't made of glass. I drove all of Zatar without my tank getting killed by the dreaded rocks (it only took about 1/15 damage).


Another preview is here:
http://bfnation.net/bf2/preview/ rock: rock: rock: rock: rock: