Battlefield 2

Battlefield 2 is a computer game in which up to 64 players, over the internet, fight in a modern battlefield using contemporary firearms and vehicles. Although the game was made primarily for internet play, it also includes a singleplayer mode with three difficulty levels. It is a sequel in the Electronic Arts Battlefield franchise, and was released in late June of 2005 to both critical and popular success. With a mixture of strategy and FPS elements, it utilizes a new engine for gameplay, physics, and graphics, as well as other functions. The game received an aggregate score of 90% from reviewers and topped the PC game sales charts from June to August 2005. Battlefield 2 is often compared to the popular Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942. Both games take place in modern times and, after the acquisition of Desert Combat developer Trauma Studios by Digital Illusions CE (DICE), developers that worked on Desert Combat went to work on Battlefield 2.

Overview

The game portrays a hypothetical war in the near future between three powerful factions: the United States Marines Corps (USMC), China's People's Liberation Army, and the fictional Middle Eastern Coalition (MEC). The battles, however, only feature USMC versus MEC and USMC versus China. The armies use modern weaponry: The Marines use well-known American weaponry such as the M1 Abrams tank and the M4 Carbine assault rifle, the Chinese mostly use Chinese-made copies of Soviet weapons (such as the Chinese Type 56 Assault Rifle, though the game calls it an AK-47), and the Middle Eastern Coalition use mostly Russian weapons. The various forces still use the trademark feature of the Battlefield series - the large stable of vehicles that any player, regardless of faction, specialty or experience, can climb into and control.

Battlefield 2 was originally scheduled to be released on March 20, 2005, but was delayed until June 23, 2005 for North America, and June 25, 2005 for Europe and Australia.

A console version with a similar theme also exists, named Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, although the game is quite different in execution and gameplay than the PC version.

Official expansion packs

• Battlefield 2: Special Forces

Booster packs (minor expansion packs)

• Euro Force

• Armored Fury

Demo

A demo is available for download from major game sites featuring a single map ("Gulf of Oman") for both single-player and multi-player. The 16-person version of the map has a time limit of 10 minutes. the 32-person version has a time limit of 12 minutes. The 64-person version is unavailable in the demo, though up to 64 players can still play on the 32-person map. On most servers, the demo limits kits to the stock weapons. However, some servers allow users to use the unlockable weapons without achieving the standard requirements.

New features

• New gameplay engine, realistic physics and dynamic lighting, material penetration feature, destructible environments.

• Server admins can set maps to use 16, 32 or 64 player versions to provide the ideal vehicle-to-player ratio, custom maps can be made to scale to fit any number of players.

• Squads:
  • Squads can be locked so that people can only join if they have been invited.
  • Players may be invited to join a squad, if accepted, are then moved into that squad.
  • A max of 6 players can be in one squad (including the squad leader).
  • There can be as many as 9 squads per team.
  • Squad members, not leaders, have a minimal T key menu for requesting orders, artillery, and munitions.
  • All Squad members may use Voice-over IP (VoIP) to talk to each other.

• Squad Leader Position - Commander and manager of a squad
  • Squad Leaders have an extended T key menu that sends request directly to the Commander and will show up on the Commander screen.
  • Squad Leaders can manage squad by locking or unlocking the squad to new members.
  • Squad Leaders may invite players to join the squad.
  • Squad Leaders can set waypoints and orders.
  • Squad Leaders are mobile spawn points while friendly flags exist.
  • Squad Leaders can talk to the Team Commander.
  • Squad Leaders can kick squad members out of a squad.
  • Squad Leaders can issue commands (i.e. attack, repair, defend, etc.) to his/her squad members.

• Team Commander Position - strategic role of a battlefield commander directing his forces:
  • Players must "apply". The highest rank gets the position, ties go to a vote.
  • Team Commanders can be voted out by team.
  • The Team Commander is like any other soldier on the battlefield in that he chooses a kit, spawns in, can die, etc.
  • Available to the Team Commander are four assets: Artillery Strike, Satellite Scan, RQ-1 Predator UAV and Supply Drop.

• Online profiles:
  • Rankings from Private all the way to Second Lieutenant, one's online profile can track kills, weapon usage, medic stats, engineering stats, etc.
  • One can unlock medals, special weapon functions, decals, etc.
  • There is a special access to forums/download servers.
  • Ranking is only available on "official" (EA and EA leased) BF2 servers.
  • Ranking/unlockables can be on all servers, but only EA servers record and send back stats.
  • EA plans to offer more servers worldwide sponsored by ISP's, etc, provided they meet certain requirements.

• Battlefield Recorder - will allow the ability to record ingame videos:
  • Files are around 1MB in size and are played within the Battlefield 2 engine.
  • Camera angles can be changed, as well as the speed.
  • Files can be exported to AVI format.

• Radio commands are now displayed on an ingame menu brought up using the Q key:
  • In this mode, the crosshair is replaced with gray circle with radio commands around the circle.
  • If menu is activated while aiming at at an object such as a tank and "Spotted" is clicked, it recognizes the tank and sends out an "enemy armor spotted" radio command. Q key spotted units are displayed on teammates' mini-maps for several seconds.

• Voice-over IP (VoIP) is supported, which allows players to communicate via audio ingame without the need for third-party programs.
  • Squadmembers can talk to fellow squad members and squad leaders.
  • Squad Leaders can talk to Team Commander or fellow squad members.
  • Team Commander can talk to Squad Leaders.
  • VoIP is not available between maps, but is available during map start delay.
  • VoIP is available while critically wounded, and even when dead.

• The minimap now shows a white triangle simulating the players' field of view.

• Custom shortcuts can load up a server with parameters set in the players' profile.

Maps

BF2 originally shipped with 12 maps, with Wake Island 2007 being added from the 1.03 patch onwards. Depending on the number of people the server is configured to accommodate, the scope and objectives of maps change. For example, when "Gulf of Oman" is played with only 16 people, it is an infantry and armor combat scenario with 4 objectives to capture. With more players, 2 new bases open up, spawning fighter aircraft and helicopters.

Single-player mode only allows access to the former, to the extent that purchasers who are unable or unwilling to play online have no built-in access to many of the game's vehicles, therefore the true value of the game is to play it online. Also, several maps are not available for single-player, such as the "Kubra Dam" map.

China versus USMC

• Dalian Plant
• Daqing Oilfield
• Dragon Valley
• Songhua Stalemate
• FuShe Pass
• Wake Island 2007

MEC versus USMC

• Gulf of Oman
• Kubra Dam
• Mashtuur City
• Operation Clean Sweep
• Sharqi Peninsula
• Strike at Karkand
• Zatar Wetlands

Infantry classes

Battlefield 2 players can pick from seven basic classes:

• Assault troops carry an assault rifle with an attached grenade launcher, and can throw smoke grenades to cover friendly forces. Assault soldiers perform well in most situations.
• Snipers pick enemies off from long range with a sniper rifle, and can plant Claymore anti-personnel mines.
• Spec Ops can destroy structures and vehicles with 5 C-4 explosive charges, and also carry a Carbine.
• Engineers have the wrench, which allows them to repair vehicles (including transports they are riding on), can deploy anti-vehicle mines, and defend themselves with a shotgun.
• Medics are armed with a standard assault rifle, but also have the ability to heal teammates with medpacks and revive them with a defibrillator, which works like the reviving syringe in Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. The defibrillator can also be used to zap enemy soldiers, although the knife is more effective because it does not need to charge up after attacks.
• Support troops wield a light machine gun that can provide heavy covering fire, and replenish allies' supplies with ammunition packs.
• Anti-tank soldiers have both a submachine gun and short-range anti-tank rockets, which destroy lighter vehicles in one hit and can damage even heavily armored tanks and APCs with careful targeting.

All classes carry a basic pistol and combat knife, and Spec Ops, Engineer, Support, Medic, and Assault (with unlocked weapon) classes spawn with hand grenades. After many points are earned, players can unlock alternate weapons for each class. For instance, snipers may choose the more powerful M95 sniper rifle (firing .50 BMG ammunition), and Spec Ops can use a H&K G36C carbine instead of the M4 Carbine.

On ranked servers, the players must earn points and become promoted to a higher rank in order to unlock a weapon of their choice (one per kit) if they wish to use them. Once unlocked, non-ranked servers can allow or disallow (server side) players from using the weapons they have unlocked on ranked servers.

Different classes are also able to sprint for different lengths of time than others, and have different amounts of body armour. Support and Assault classes can sprint for 8 seconds. The Anti-Tank class can sprint for 9 seconds. All other classes can sprint for 10 seconds.

For the specific kits assigned to forces on each side, see Battlefield 2 Infantry Classes.

Weapons

USMC Weapons

• M4 Carbine
• M16A2
• M203
• M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon)
• SRAW Predator Anti-tank Missile
• Remington 11-87 shotgun
• MP5 SMG
• M24 Sniper Rifle
• M9 Beretta
• Combat knife
• C-4 explosives
• Smoke and Frag grenades
• Defibrillators
• Claymore mines

Chinese Weapons

• QBZ-97
• Type 88 rifle
• AK-47
• MG Type 95
• ERYX Anti-tank Missile
• Norinco 98 shotgun
• Type 85 SMG
• QSZ-92 Pistol
• Combat knife
• C-4 explosives
• Smoke and Frag grenades
• Defibrillators
• Claymore mines

MEC Weapons

• AKSU-74 Carbine
• AK-101
• GP-30
• RPK-74 MG
• ERYX Anti-tank Missile
• Saiga-12 shotgun
• PP-19 Bizon SMG
• Dragunov SVD Sniper
• Baghira Pistol
• Combat knife
• C-4 explosives
• Smoke and Frag grenades
• Defibrillators
• Claymore mines

Unlockable Weapons

• Assault: H&K G3A3: The Assault unlock is an automatic battle rifle. It only uses a 20 round magazine and does not include the grenade launcher which is attached to the other assault-class weapons.
• Medic: L85A1: The Medic unlock is a variant of the SA-80. It is one of the standard weapons for the British army. While highly accurate, it has high recoil. This rifle is equipped with a scope.
• Support: PKM: The Support class unlock is an automatic development of the Kalashnikov automatic rifle design. It carries up to 100 rounds of ammunition. The relatively low rate of fire for this weapon is compensated by its power and accuracy.
• Sniper: Barrett M95: A .50 caliber bolt-action sniper rifle, extremely powerful and capable of piercing armored glass. Has maximum of 5 rounds in its magazine.
• Anti-Tank: DAO-12: The Anti-Tank unlock is a semi-automatic 12-round shotgun. It must be reloaded one round at a time into a drum magazine, similar to a Colt Peacemaker. Drum capacity is 12 rounds.
• Spec-Ops: H&K G36C: The compact variant of the G36 is the unlock for the Special Forces class. When the buttstock is folded, it is just under 500mm long.
• Engineer: MK3A1 Jackhammer: The Engineer Unlock is one of the few automatic combat shotguns available in the world. The gun is fed by a 7 round capacity center-rotating drum using conventional 12 Gauge cartridges.

Special Forces Unlockable Weapons

To unlock these weapons, the player must have the Special Forces expansion pack.

• Assault: FN F2000
• Engineer: H&K MP7
• Medic: H&K G36E
• Spec Ops: FN SCAR-L
• Support: H&K MG36
• Sniper: L96A1* Not available until after 1.2 patch.
• Anti-Tank: FN P90 * Not available until after 1.2 patch.

Vehicles

Ranks

Awards

Secrets and glitches

System requirements

• Windows XP (32 bit)
• 1.7 GHz Intel Celeron D / Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP/ Sempron or greater
• 512 MB of RAM or more
• 2.3 GB free hard drive space or more
• DirectX 9.0c compatible
• Video card must have 128 MB or more memory and one of the following chipsets:
  • NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 or greater
  • ATI Radeon 8500, 9600 or greater.
• Multiplayer requires 1 set of discs per PC and a broadband (Cable, DSL, or a faster) connection. Internet or Network (2-64 players).

Patches

There have been a number of patches made available since the release of Battlefield 2.

The latest patch version is 1.12, and is required to play multiplayer games on most online servers. Patch 1.12 was released alongside Battlefield 2: Special Forces. This is a compatibility patch which mainly allows current Battlefield 2 players to retain their ranks while playing Special Forces, and also to allow the use of weapons unlocked from the original Battlefield 2 in Special Forces.

Patch 1.2 is currently in private beta testing, administered through DICE's relationships with some of the larger pay-to-play leagues.

Mods

Mods that are known to be in development for Battlefield 2 include:

Total Conversion Mods (not Mini-Mods) for Battlefield 2 that have been released include: