Battelfield 2 Gets a 9.3 from gamespot [Archive]

StrifeSnake13*

06-20-2005, 05:57 PM

gamespot.com reviewed battlefield 2 for the pc and gave it a overall score of 9.3

Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 10
Sound: 9
Value: 10
Tilt: 9
The best thing that we can say about Battlefield 2 is that even when it's at its worst, it can still be as much fun as its illustrious predecessors. However, when you experience Battlefield 2 like it's meant to be played, with everyone working together and using real-time voice chat, the game quickly becomes unlike anything else that you've played before. When it's at its best, Battlefield 2 elevates online gaming to whole new heights. Put simply, this is a thrilling and revolutionary game that just has to be played to be believed.
review (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/battlefield2/review.html?q=1&tag=gs_hp_flashtop_read)
video review (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/battlefield2/media.html)

Goronmon

06-20-2005, 06:39 PM

Anyone else really surprised by this? Gamespot is usually the site with the lowest score out of the sites with the early reviews. Especially when you consider IGN gave it a 8.9

Bushido

06-20-2005, 06:44 PM

I used to respect gamespot....BF2 is good but its not great, the clunky menu long loag times are too much to bear sometimes.

Kelegacy

06-20-2005, 06:45 PM

Ocampo was jerking off to BF2 for the past couple weeks. I watched some On The Spot with him playing the demo. But maybe it IS this good? I probably wont play it anyway, so it doesnt matter to me.

Mr_Snuffle

06-20-2005, 06:45 PM

Graphics got a 10?

Hmm... I mean, it doesn't look bad, heck, it looks good, but it's no great feat

mister_slim

06-20-2005, 07:01 PM

What's a Battelfield, anyway?

Worldcrafter

06-20-2005, 07:02 PM

this is a thrilling and revolutionary game

Hmm, I think not. BF1942 was a revolutionary game. This is a nice evolution from 1942 (in some respects).

B_Money

06-20-2005, 07:11 PM

What's a Battelfield, anyway?

Ohio. Don't you remember the run up to the election?

Orphiuchus

06-20-2005, 07:13 PM

Nono, he said "whats that rattlefield."

Orphiuchus

06-20-2005, 07:14 PM

I've had a cold sir.

MasterEvilAce

06-20-2005, 07:30 PM

Man.. I don't know. The menus are VERY clunky. The server browser is buggy beyond belief, and lacks a lot of common features. Such as you can't refresh just a single server.. and if you refresh, it disables filters, wtf? And a lot of servers just appear as 0 ping. Why? If you sort by ping you have to scroll past all of them. Such crap. Just leave it blank or set them to 999 like some of the servers seem to be set to.

Random crashes.. or should i say exits, because it never actually shows an error. Random freeze-ups. Guns don't seem balanced all that well.. Friendly fire is whack. Claymores go off on teammates.. It's stupid to put them out because people are IDIOTS. Even with friendlyfire off, claymores go off on teammates. The landmines are FF on, too. People don't know how to avoid them, and they end up punishing the persn who laid them out. They need to fix that. Or kill every idiot who can't drive.

The game doesn't support a lot of videocards, which is sad :(.. I have a hard time controlling the air vehicles.. they seem laggy and not too responsive. Guns arn't balanced too well.. a whole clip of autoshotty to the face and sometimes people don't die. Nobody knows how to bring up the damn binoculars.. and if they do, they won't tell me.

People use voice-comm? I've only heard ONE person ever use voice...

I'm sure me and my friend have more complaints, but I just can't remember any of the others, at this point.

Don't get me wrong, though. I do enjoy playing the game.. but sometimes I just want to cause harm to certain individuals while playing (or using the menus/server browser)

Orphiuchus

06-20-2005, 07:43 PM

Its so much work to like this game that it almost makes me dislike it. When you are in a game and its actually working it can be very fun, but thats unfortunatly rare.

Although, all I've played is the demo, and the timelimit pretty much means you cant enjoy a decent round of play. The modded servers I played on were better, but usually empty thanks to EA.

Klade

06-20-2005, 07:58 PM

I've had one of those really good games on a blacklisted server and I agree with this score and also what penny-arcade has to say. Just so long as you are rating a game based on the gameplay and sticking you head in the sand on the UI then its great. Since I don't spend much time with the UI (as little as possible) its alright.

And it absolutely does deserve a 10 in the graphics dept. With only playing at 1024x768 res with most things turned to low or medium the graphics involved with the jet planes and helicopters has lead to more then a few jaw dropping moments.

Kelegacy

06-20-2005, 08:09 PM

What's a Battelfield, anyway?

It's love.

Shifteh

06-20-2005, 08:10 PM

"And it absolutely does deserve a 10 in the graphics dept. With only playing at 1024x768 res with most things turned to low or medium the graphics involved with the jet planes and helicopters has lead to more then a few jaw dropping moments."

In no way does it deserve a 10. A 10 means it can't be better. There are hundreds of times when I look at this game and go: "Half-Life 2 looks better, plays better, and takes half the requirements of this."

"The voice system in Battlefield 2 is simple to set up and use, and you no longer have to fiddle around with conflicting third-party solutions."

I have to disagree with this heavily. When I installed the demo, I configured my voice and it worked fine. When I got INTO the game, however, it said it was no longer working. Awesome.

Then again, this game has the single worst UI ever, so there is that...

Ernst_Jager

06-20-2005, 08:31 PM

Needs more weapons.

TrackZero

06-20-2005, 08:32 PM

Graphics got a 10?

Hmm... I mean, it doesn't look bad, heck, it looks good, but it's no great feat

Agreed. I usually respect Gamespot's opinion, but I really think they dropped the ball on this review. Whether they just went ga-ga in their office over it or some $$$ exchanged hands doesn't really matter, the review isn't reflective of the game.

TrackZero

06-20-2005, 08:33 PM

It's love.

Heh. It's quotes like the above that keep me checking the comments for every article, for the nuggets of humour like this.

if76

06-20-2005, 08:34 PM

The commander interface is really lame.
Maybe newbies are to blame.
Half the peeps dont' join a squad.
Makes me wish for a Natural Selection mod.

I wish I could give orders to non-squad leaders
Or be able to vote off tkers and cheaters.

Deadend

06-20-2005, 08:43 PM

why do they still have the same ugly font in the game?

The UI sucks... even ingame it sucks, American flag on left, MEC flag on right... but your blue flags go left to right, and your always blue, but sometimes your flag is on right side... why not make it on left side?

I wish I could draw on the map like in Guild Wars... so badly..

Again.. the UI and Menus suck.. they need to go kidnap some user interface guru from somewhere... maybe ask Main Body of EA to do menus, or better yet... just use the menus of a game that has good menus!

No matter how good the gameplay is... the things wrapped around it are pisspoor, though kinda slick looking.

Joining a squad is not at all obvious in the game, nor are many other things... again due to a bad UI, they should have just made the UI like Valve does, as it is a nice one.. oh and you can read the font ingame!

Nesta

06-20-2005, 09:11 PM

No matter how good the gameplay is... the things wrapped around it are pisspoor, though kinda slick looking.

I have to disagree. I don't play the whole game, or even a lot of it, in the menus. Maybe if I played Commander more it would bother me. But the gameplay just does it. It's fun as hell! Would I want a quicker, more responsive menu with better detailed options? Of course. But I'm not going to skip a very entertaining game just because of poor interface design.

b.t.w. I noticed today when landing in a chopper that the trees kinda bend and the branches blow out with the wind from the propeller. That's fucking awesome!

Pumped'Up

06-20-2005, 09:28 PM

as much as i hate EA, i may have to buy this damn game....freakn damn bastards. nah, i'll wait until there's a price drop of the BF2 CE version which would include 3 add-ons and the Prima strategy guide.

bait

06-20-2005, 09:29 PM

EA Games = stay far away.

Shifteh

06-20-2005, 09:39 PM

I just noticed this in the review:

"The sniper kit, usually the most overpowering weapon in these kinds of games, no longer features a one-shot, one-kill capability. However, this relegates snipers to their proper (and accurate) role of supporting the infantry and reporting the location of enemy units and vehicles."

See, that's called a scout. A scout, get this, scouts positions. A sniper, on the other hand, has the sole purpose of being a one-shot, one kill person. They track a target, take their shot, and end one persons life. They arent, as in this game, equipped with garbage weapons. In fact, the only sniper kit worth using is the American one - it takes at LEAST three shots from the MEC one to kill someone. Or, OR, get this, I could use an AK. Wow.

I just had to rant at that. I hate when people are wrong, and call down people who are right.

That and that review seems awfully paid off. They didn't focus quite as much on the "Want to rebind keys? TOO FUCKING BAD!" aspect of the game as I thought they would.

KarmaGhost

06-20-2005, 09:53 PM

Holy fucking shit, Shifteh, don't even get me started about rebinding keys; you've got it right. When I want to rebind keys, I want to do it fast and easy, like Half-Life(2). "Double-click" + "new key" = done. None of this "that key is bound to something else, too bad asshole" bullshit. Let me worry about conflicting/empty functions. Don't ask me why, but while everyone uses the WASD keyboard config, I've always used "ESDF," which is the same, but shifted over to the right. For BF1942: DESERT COMBAT MOD, AKA Battlefield 2, I just settle with the default layout.

This whole game has a sluggish, laggy feel to it; the UI, text, vehicles, etc. 9.3 it is not.

Phades

06-20-2005, 11:03 PM

Started shipping today. Can't wait to get my copy tomorrow. This game is absolutely awesome. Complain all you want to about the interface, I'll agree it's poor but I'd rather be playing anyway so I'll get over it. Performance for me is great and I don't have that great of a PC so I don't get all the complaints. If you're a PC gamer, I'd think you'd have at least a decent system. I only spent $700 on mine a year ago and haven't had any issues. I run it at 1024x768 at high detail but no AA. No slowdown, and have very rarely noticed any lag.

Oh, and a 10 doesn't have to mean "doesn't get any better." That's just stupid. Graphics can always get better. So does no game deserve a 10? That's also stupid. What's the point of having a rating scale if you automatically have to chop off part of it? So is a 9.5 now the top rating something can get? Well now you've basically replaced the 10 with a 9.5 and that has become perfection. Better chop that off too......

Hope to see you all in game!!

Pnikosis

06-20-2005, 11:20 PM

I used to respect gamespot....BF2 is good but its not great, the clunky menu long loag times are too much to bear sometimes.
Yeah, you're right... because of the menu the games is crap, no matter the gameplay.

why do they still have the same ugly font in the game?
Yes, that's what makes a game awful.

I think I've only read 2 or 3 posts talking about the gameplay, the rest are esthetic complains. Is the same people who said that the only thing they expect from the next gen consoles are good games no matter the graphics?

Mr_Snuffle

06-20-2005, 11:45 PM

Just got a call from EB. I can go pick up BF2 in about 16 hours, a good few hours before you US losers :P

Eat +10 GMT!

KDups

06-20-2005, 11:57 PM

Is the same people who said that the only thing they expect from the next gen consoles are good games no matter the graphics?

This isn't directly aimed at BF2, but there's a huge difference between a good, functional UI and graphics. Sure a clunky UI won't completely turn someone away, but it's certainly worth noting in a review and certainly can justify a slighly lower score (which actually seems to be the case in some of these reviews). It's called usability and flow; the best games out there craft an experience that's good from start to finish, menus and functionality included.

Vandenh

06-21-2005, 12:18 AM

this is a thrilling and revolutionary game
Strange... most players seem to think it is more of a mod for the existing BF. I played it and thought it was ok... but I was expecting more. 8 would be about right IMHO.

Fyd

06-21-2005, 12:38 AM

I really hate the load times of the menu and the all map, the gameplay is fun, better than the cstrike source shit :)

outontheporch

06-21-2005, 01:00 AM

does anyone have the problem where they try launching the demo, but it doesn't load? like, it goes black, like it's about to start, then just goes back to the desktop?

KarmaGhost

06-21-2005, 01:29 AM

I think I've only read 2 or 3 posts talking about the gameplay, the rest are esthetic complains. Is the same people who said that the only thing they expect from the next gen consoles are good games no matter the graphics?WHAT?!?!? Speak English!

Anyway, here's another post about gameplay; everything's the fucking same, with the exception of the commander, who often doesn't do shit. If you loved BF1942, then you'll love BF2, because it's the same fucking game!!!

Borys

06-21-2005, 01:30 AM

This thread = what a bunch of pussies.

Menu is slow? Waaaaaaaaaaah.
My GFX card from 1997 doesn't work? Waaaaaaaaaaah.
I suck and constantly get killed? Waaaaaaaaaaaaah.

BF2 is the best online shooter ever made. I cannot think of one game that will top it before BF3.

51|RandoM

06-21-2005, 01:44 AM

The game is a blast. When you're actually part of a team, it is even better. I know where I'll be spending the next 3+ months of online gaming, on the battlefield.

The mec sniper rifle, while being lower power, has one very big advantage: you don't unscope between shots. The usmc rifle, you unscope for each round. You can hold scope view after the shot on any of them, of course, but the base us rifle requires you to unscope while chambering the next round. You can blast through a whole clip in the mec rifle while scoped, no sweat. My problem with the mec rifle is the clunky crosshairs. They're too thick on all of the sniper rifles, but on the base mec rifle, they're WAY too thick and messy. I end up with my target's head completely obscured by one of the sitelines.

Shifteh

06-21-2005, 02:41 AM

I'm not saying it cannot be used in any shape or form, but:

"The mec sniper rifle, while being lower power, has one very big advantage: you don't unscope between shots. "

or I could use the AK. Seriously; it's a better gun. It kicks less between shots, it does the same damage, you get better secondary weapons, and you also get grenades. Claymores are fine, don't get me wrong, but the sniper class in this game seems woefully under-powered. The US variant, while it does unscope between shots, is at least more accurate, three times as powerful, and, as you said, doesn't have that godawful crosshair.. thing.

"My GFX card from 1997 doesn't work? Waaaaaaaaaaah."

My graphics card from 2003 barely works.

Shifteh

06-21-2005, 02:45 AM

I just wanted to make a comment on the "there are no gameplay complaints" comments:

Have you not seen the various "x (usually sniper) class is underpowered);" "The game is laggy as hell;" "the game isn't that pretty, but requires copious amounts of RAM and processor power;" "people are constantly dropped from games for no displayed reason;" "crashes occur and no reason is given" posts? Are you just not looking?

Borys

06-21-2005, 03:17 AM

I just wanted to make a comment on the "there are no gameplay complaints" comments:

"x (usually sniper) class is underpowered);"

Then change your class after a few deaths. Neither class is underpowered IMO. You may have your favourite class that gives you most kills/ points and that's clouding your judgement.

"The game is laggy as hell;"

Laggy meaning what? Network lag or fps lag? Neither did happened to me, my ping is usually ~30 but I play on *polish* servers. If I would join some China folks I'm sure my lag would be greater.
Even the readme states this game needs DSL-like speeds, 512Kb down is sufficient.

"the game isn't that pretty, but requires copious amounts of RAM and processor power;"

Yes it's damn pretty. Turn everything to max and enjoy the huge scenery, self-shadowing and lots of effects.
Yes I finished HL2, Doom 3 and SC: Chaos Theory.
BF2 isn't the best looking game out there but it sure stays in the top 3.
As for the CPU and RAM reqs - well after all you are playing with 31/63 other players. That's no small number.

"people are constantly dropped from games for no displayed reason;"
Never happened to me. Bugs and crashes are a random thing. I'm just lucky.

"crashes occur and no reason is given"

See above. I got one crash-to-menu (not to desktop) in around 30 games. I clicked join and after a while was dumped back in the main menu.

BF2 does everything a massive online military shooter should do.
And does it the best way possible untill some other game outdoes it.

MasterEvilAce

06-21-2005, 03:38 AM

VYPUR

06-21-2005, 03:47 AM

I love the game I have been playing it online NONSTOP. The menu is glitchy BUT it is a demo not the real game. Graphics LOOK GREAT if you can run it on MAX. Which I do at 1024. I cant wait for the game.

bapenguin

06-21-2005, 04:54 AM

The game has gotten so arcade like. They need to PENALIZE you for dieing. Every time you day, say add 5 seconds to your respawn time. Also...destructable buildings...for the love of god...at least make them partially destructable.

Not sure how the full version will be...but the demo was pretty damn buggy...and yes..the menus suck my nutsack.

Overall though, the game is fun...it's certainly not revolutionary. That's saved for Nintendo ;)

Nesta

06-21-2005, 07:00 AM

I wanted to note, for those of you saying the graphics aren't that hot...we've seen just ONE map in the demo. If you check out the screenies from the other maps or even check the detailed map preview on Gamespy, it becomes fairly apparent that there's much more to the graphics that the demo level. Several of the chinese maps have beautiful, flowing waterfalls. In the more city based Middle East maps, the sky is awash in ash and smoke.

Let's not sell the graphics short until the full game is experienced, OK?