The original Battlefield game released on PC was a modern classic that took
the online shooting experience to a higher plateau than imagined by some
gamers. The point of the game online was to pit players against each other on
two sides (axis or allies) in a gigantic game of king of the hill/capture the
flag. There were multiple flags or points on a map that each team would try to
take over from the other team. So the game was a never ending struggle that was
a huge success and most importantly a fun game that still has players playing
today.
A console version of the game was announced some time ago but finding out new
information about the game was limited. Thankfully at E3 2005 EA was showing
off a playable version of the game. At the Microsoft booth multiple units of
the game were available for the press to play. But the exciting part of the
game was the fact that the game was connected to the EA booth and to the EA
offices as well. So the playable demo allowed gamers the opportunity to play
the game just as the final release will be, online and connected to Xbox Live.
The previous Battlefield game on PC was based on events and locations in
World War II. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (B2MC) is based on modern events and
has up to date weapons and vehicles used by the military today. The game at E3
played great with tight controls when firing weapons and driving vehicles. I
was able to switch between weapons and fire off shots without any problems. I
even had five sniper shots in a row which is a personal best for me. The map we
played on had several vehicles available for solo drive or team play. One
person can drive a Hummer while another player controls the gun on the Hummer.
I did see a tank and a helicopter during the game while I was playing it. But
the guy in the helicopter wouldn’t wait for me! One cool moment that everyone
was playing around with was driving a Hummer over a broken bridge to create a
Dukes of Hazzard moment. Very cool.
The graphics for the game looked great even for the game being a demo. The
frame rate was steady and I never noticed any slow down even with a ton of
action happening on the screen at one time. There was a very cool heat effect
that would appear when someone would fire a heavy artillery weapon such as a
tank or drop a bomb from a helicopter. The effect would warp the appearance of
the location of the explosion to let you know to stay far away from that
location. The city locations were nicely detailed as well with large buildings
and other structures throughout the level.
The game is scheduled for release later this year and will support up to 24
players in a battle. There will be 30 vehicles and up to 50 different weapons
in the game. If you’ve ever played a Battlefield game before then you won’t be
disappointed with B2MC. It should be another online classic but this time for
PS2 and Xbox.
