Battlefield 2: Special Forces Expansion

[0dyguru]

Not sure how many of you have seen this already and I didn't see anyone post it but take a look at this....EA has already announced a Add-On for BF2

EA and Digital Illusions Announce Development of Battlefield 2: Special Forces Expansion Pack Award-Winning Battlefield 2 for the PC Expands to Include Covert Ops REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--July 14, 2005--Get ready for all out war with special forces ... Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS - News) and Digital Illusions today announced that development is underway on the expansion pack for the award-winning Battlefield 2(TM) PC game. Powered by the Battlefield 2 game engine, Battlefield 2: Special Forces(TM) brings the intensity and excitement of its predecessors into the realm of covert ops with the latest, most technologically advanced vehicles and weapons systems available to man. In Battlefield 2: Special Forces, players will choose to fight as one of 6 different Special Forces soldiers -- Navy SEALs, British SAS, Russian Spetznas, MEC Special Forces, Rebel groups and insurgents. Armed with the latest Special Forces weaponry, players can take control of any of the game's 10 new vehicles to engage in major conflicts with up to 64 players. Additionally, persistent character growth allows players to continue to rise through the ranks. Battlefield 2: Special Forces takes the intensity and quality of Battlefield 2 behind the scenes of news headlines, showcasing the most elite and deadly forces in the modern military world. Using accurate Special Forces weapons, gadgets, and vehicles, these covert armies battle to control key military and strategic locations. Developed by Digital Illusions Canada, Battlefield 2: Special Forces will be available fall 2005 for the PC. Battlefield 2: Special Forces requires Battlefield 2 in order to play. For more information about Battlefield 2: Special Forces or any other title in the Battlefield franchise, please visit http://battlefield.ea.com.

http://www.eagames.com/official/battlefield/battlefield2/us/editorial.jsp?src=expansion_071405

~0dyguru

[terracomm7]

Woopy, an expansion for a dull mediocre FPS game.

[Moe]

I really hope that the expansion uses a different (read: working) server browser.

[09smithJ]

For crying out loud!!!

Fix up the current game first!!!

[0dyguru]

You’re right Moe.

The game is great but the server browser is da fail.

~0dyguru

[NovaBurn]

the whole game sucks with the amount of bugs, gameplay issues and such, no way am I blowing $50 for a piece of shit game again. I want my $50 for BF2 so i can build my computer.

[Reignfire]

If everyone can be special forces, then they really aren't "special" anymore.

[M37]

Yah thier announcing an add on to a game that was relsed what 3 weeks ago? I know they may have been working on it at the same time but comming so soon after Battlefield 2 was realsed I dub this Battlefield 2.5 the search for more money. :screwy:

[hybris]

It's not the same people working on the products.

Dice: Sweden made Battlefield 2 and are working on the patches for that game.
Dice: Canada are working on this, Special Forces expansion.

So no, this won't effect the workload on the patching for the basic game.

I really hope that the expansion uses a different (read: working) server browser.
If you noticed the patches 1.01 and 1.02, the server browser were fixed in those patches. No more browser lag. Even the infamous memory leak were fixed in patch 1.02

[Mnementh]

The expansion includes many great features that the original lacks, like a playable game!

Now EA want you to pay for patches :/

[Langy]

They said in an interview that they are *not* going to be changing the game browser or fix any bugs in the expansion. Those are going to be left to the actual patches.

[Mnementh]

They also stated in an interview that the retail server browser would not suffer the same problems as the demo server browser did.

I get the feeling they dont tell the whole truth in interviews, do you?

And for some people, the patch has made the server browser EVEN WORSE.

[Atreides]

I have had no problems after installing 1.02. I have heard ppl gripe about the wrong colour over temmates still, but have not seen it myself.

Expansion? Yeah I'll wait until that drops in price before grabbing it I think.

[General Blaze]

That was quick. O.o To announce an expansion this quickly.

[Noir]

Well it IS from EA after all.

If you don't like it, you could always play Ogame (http://ogame.org/) or fap to something.

[LynX]

Patch the bloody main game first EA.

Special Forces has features that should have been in the first game.

[Moe]

If you noticed the patches 1.01 and 1.02, the server browser were fixed in those patches. No more browser lag. Even the infamous memory leak were fixed in patch 1.02

I beg to differ. Take a look at the BF2 forums. The server browser still lags when you click on servers. The filters still don't work properly.

1.01 added a bloody huge memory leak to the game (gg QA department) which 1.02 hotfixed. I don't know if 1.02 removed that "friends show up as enemies" bug, but the TK system is still fucked up.
I flew a blackhawk, got hit in midair by an enemy jet. I got five teamkills (for my passengers) and was autokickbanned from the server for excessive teamkilling.

Oh, and can someone tell me why the game doesn't run in 1028x1024, which is the native resolution for most TFTs?

[ÜberJumper]

I love battlefield 2. It is possibly the most fun I've had playing online with my friends. A LAN game in a bottle. Perhaps the best money I've ever spent.

I hate battlefield 2 so much that I will not be purchasing the expansion. It is so buggy outside of the actual gameplay and strange design issues that I can't believe I spent money on it.

I have a love/hate relationship with Battlefield 2.

[Noir]

I don't know if 1.02 removed that "friends show up as enemies" bug, but the TK system is still fucked up.

It doesn't.I don't think it fixed the "Enemies show up as friends" bug either.

[SquidDNA]

I'm kind of with Nuri. Punish EA for releasing such a buggy game. Don't buy their expansion until they fix the original.

No, I don't care which team is working on what. The publisher is responsible for the product. That's what a publisher does.

[ÜberJumper]

Oh, and this comment:


Woopy, an expansion for a dull mediocre FPS game.


Specifically the bit about a dull, mediocre FPS game, is so completely way off base/accurate it's not even funny.

The gameplay is brilliant/I fucking hate everything outside of the gameplay!

[SquidDNA]

I have to concur. Once you're actually playing with some friends it's one of the most brilliant things ever. Joining a server at random and expecting it to be stellar is suboptimal-- just like any game, a game focused on teamwork is only as good as the people playing.

[The Preacher]

I love battlefield 2.

I hate battlefield 2

I made the same comment to a friend of mine the other day. I've played buggy games before and BF2 is by far the most annoying. It isn't annoying because the bugs are worse than other games, it's annoying because the gameplay is so freakin' awesome that it's worth putting up with the bugs to play. Most of the time I'd just ditch a game that had bugs like this and warn my friends not to purchase it. With BF2 I can't do that. It's almost like discovering that shards of glass have been mixed in with your dinner, but because it's the best tasting food you've ever had you keep eating.

[Moe]

Yeah, but the problem is getting in there.
I was trying to play with Dan and Nova yesterday. First I couldn't join, even though the server wasn't full.
Then it crashed my PC on loading.
When I finally joined, Nova had crashed out, and Dan had huge lag issues.
Not that much fun.

On the other hand, I've had some good gaming times with Nova and me blowing shit up in the helo and chasing snipers ("Oh, look at the scary hidden sniper with his big rifle running! RUN MOFO RUN!")

[ÜberJumper]

The server we were on last night was pretty good. Once it was down to the CoH folks and a couple of hangers on on, we were winning our matches.

[hybris]

Frankly, I've never experienced any of the problems you describe, except the server browser lag and the memory leak, but those disappeared totally with patch 1.02

The server browser now works excellent for me without any lag what so ever.
I also never had any problems with graphics/lag ingame. I've got every settings on max and 1280x1024 (set manually in the ini-file), but no lag whatsoever.

Then again I've got 24Mbit, 2GB RAM, GeForce 6800 Ultra, AMD64 3500+, but it's strange if a browser lag is dependant on the hardware.

[ÜberJumper]

The game server browser is crap. If you can't see how bad it is just by trying to use it, well, not much I can do to convince you it's crap. Until recently, I had to exit the game and re-start it to refresh the server browser after attempting to filter by server names. That problem started with 1.01.

The IFF bug is undoubtedly there. I've seen it happen on at least a dozen servers.

The bitching about having to manually set the resolution is a valid one. LCDs are all the rage lately for gaming desktops, and non-standard resolutions (IE: not 4x3) are more and more standard. It's great that you can enable it via command line or in INI files, but the problem remains that (and I've not seen this) that the resolution at 1280x1024 is stretched to that resolution, and not actually increasing the viewable area. (similar to the same bug being reported for Dawn of War 1.3).

[hybris]

The game server browser is crap. If you can't see how bad it is just by trying to use it, well, not much I can do to convince you it's crap. Until recently, I had to exit the game and re-start it to refresh the server browser after attempting to filter by server names. That problem started with 1.01.
Ow... I noticed that myself now, after you explained it to me.
I never actually touched the filter settings after patching before, since I always run it on Ranked, all maps, same version, punkbuster, no password, so I really hadn't had a reason to tempere with it until you explained the bug ;)

[Sgt Bob]

The 1.02 patch didnt fix much within the server browser thing, and I generally have to restart at leat twice before it will actually show any servers, but i have to because as Uber has pointed out, the gameplay is frikkin amazin once you're on.

[Moe]

Über, if you get the refresh bug, try removing the "ranked", "not full" and "populated" filters, and hit update servers again - for some reason that works for me.

[ÜberJumper]

Yeah moe, that worked for me as well.

[Nurizeko]

I need not state my stance on this point, but merely draw your attention to my signature which will do the talking for me.

[Atreides]

wOOt!

Top 3% in the airplane category!

I also have 2 gigs of RAM, I wonder if that might be a contributing reason.

[SquidDNA]

Nice, Atreides! :)

[Atreides]

I need to try to catch up with you guys in the next few days, I have been stuck playing on random ranked servers, got banned twice for owning the marines in choppers and spending an entire round without getting shot down once.

Not having friends around to talk to REALLY makes a difference in the game as Uber said, the voice comms and coordination turns an OK game into pure brilliance, and I did not even want to try the demo at first, thanks for convincing me otherwise Nova.

http://hosting.hwcommunity.com/050718140055-Pilot%20sig.JPG

[The Preacher]

I suddenly feel better about the results of our dogfight Atreides. ;)

[In4ser]

The whole idea sounds lame, it doesn't seem to even fit with the current BF2 game.
It's probably something to milk money out of customers.

At least EA did release a patch unlike with VUGames with Tribes: V, though I'd bet EA wouldn't do it either if the sales 4 BF2 are horrendous. PC Game industry these days....all dominated by 3 (VUGAmes, Microsoft, EA) all care about money and not quality and suppressing smaller studios (who usually come out most innovative ideas)

[hybris]

At least EA did release a patch unlike with VUGames with Tribes: V, though I'd bet EA wouldn't do it either if the sales 4 BF2 are horrendous. PC Game industry these days....all dominated by 3 (VUGAmes, Microsoft, EA) all care about money and not quality and suppressing smaller studios (who usually come out most innovative ideas)
I have to remind you though, that it aint EA that produced BF2 nor produced the patches, in the same way that Sierra didn't create Homeworld.

It's Dice:Sweden that releases the patches, and since Dice:Sweden weren't even involved in Tribes:V I can't hardly see why they would release any patches for it.

To clarify things; Dice:Sweden created the following games;
Pinball Dreams & Pinball Fantasies (If anyone of you remember those games back on the Amiga), Rallisport Challenge, Battlefield 1942 and now Battlefield 2.

The expansion will be created by Dice:Canada, the same company that brought us Battlefield: Vietnam and Battlefield: Secret Weapons, so they actually follow the same path of milking the games created by Dice:Sweden with additional patches. No pun...

[DoltIncognito]

i want a BF without vehicles omg :[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[

wtf sissy boys i will own you if you get out of that goddammed tank omg ;\

/me just died repeatedly

[Noir]

Than it's not a BF game anymore :p

[SquidDNA]

hybris, are you saying that EA doesn't decide "Okay, time to pay people to make an expansion," rather than "Hey, we should pay people to fix bugs."

What exactly is it that a producer does? Explain please. I'm assuming that in this case DICE:Canada and Sweden are wholly owned subsidiaries of EA, but I may be wrong.

[n0z3k1ll3r]

To clarify things; Dice:Sweden created the following games;
Pinball Dreams & Pinball Fantasies (If anyone of you remember those games back on the Amiga), Rallisport Challenge, Battlefield 1942 and now Battlefield 2.

The expansion will be created by Dice:Canada, the same company that brought us Battlefield: Vietnam and Battlefield: Secret Weapons, so they actually follow the same path of milking the games created by Dice:Sweden with additional patches. No pun...Which one made Codename Eagle, out of interest? It's arguably the first battlefield game...

[boolybooly]

Ambivalent is the word.

There is an expansion boycott being organised to force them to fix the main game.

[IcecreamLtDan]

It's a fun game without a doubt. Especially playing with your friends but, it sure does have some bugs. I haven't had too many problems but, the ones I have had have been severe enough to prevent me from even playing without a forced reboot. My ISP sucks which doesn't help but, there are other things that can't be explained by my ISP. I'm hoping this expansion pack will have some sort of demo as i'm not sure if i'd be willing to get it.

Oh, and Fagburn, I am so gonna shoot you in the back.

[ÜberJumper]

Squiddy:

Maybe that's an ESL/Translation thing. Hybris might not realize that producer is not equal to producing or produces.

Hybris:

DICE receives it's authorization for patching and payment for work from EA. Like any good business, they won't do work for free, and can't release patches for an EA product without EA's permission. DICE is indeed responsible for producing the executable and code, but they're not responsible for Producing Battlefield2.

[The Preacher]

Remind me not to complain next time THQ holds up one of Relic's patches for additional QA...

[The Collector]

I'm sure the DOW newbies will continue to complain anyways...

[Atreides]

Just as many of us (myself included) did with HW2 not too long ago. Uber spent a large amount of time trying to calm ppl down.

[motiv-8]

"i want a BF without vehicles omg :[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[["

You mean Counter-Strike?
Out the door to the left. ;)

[Freshmendave]

I missed the initial BF2 thread and I was wondering if the game is a worthy single player experience? I really dont play online at all so is it worth it and how good are the bots anyhow?

[Atreides]

Single player is NOT worth buying the game for $50, just get the demo if you won't be playing online.

[Moe]

Agreed, the single player portion of the game is a joke.

[Nurizeko]

What singleplayer.

[General Blaze]

Oh you mean the pathetic 16 player singleplayer matches? :p

For gods sake, it's one thing to have really weird bugs in the game, it's another to make the skirmish game pathetic that even DOW 1.3 AI skirmishes are preferable.

[[bulletproof]]

Battlefield 2: Nightvision Mode

Im tired of the EA one game + profit expansions formula. The Road to Rome expansion was a horrible waste of seventeen dollars in my opinion. I haven't played the sims but from what I gather the situation is the same. Fantastic first game (even I liked battlefield 1942 for a while), marketing shallow expansions later.

One innovative game > One game + further content.

[Druidika]

There'll be a 1.03 patch near the end of august, which will have over 140 fixes and improvements in the patch. Here are some of them:




Server and Client performance improvements.
Improved Server Browser – added Favorites and History Lists.
Point-farming prevention - game will stop Support/Medic/Engineer point farming exploits.
Squads - locked squad leader will get a message if someone wants to join.
Many HUD improvements - see the names of others in your vehicle, zoom level changing depending on vehicle, map zoom depending on map setup (16, 32 or 64 player map) etc.
Teamkilling changes – the logic of how teamkills are tracked will be changed.
Gameplay tweaks - the way transport helicopters work will be tweaked.
Additional scoring changes - players who destroy an enemy commander's assets will be given points.
http://www.eagames.com/official/battlefield/battlefield2/us/editorial.jsp?src=communityupdate_072205_06

[Atreides]

The whole TK thing on missiles is the worst for me, I hate trying to shoot a Cobra off the back of our transport chopper only to have one missile go off the mark and hit OUR chopper and then get punished for 4 TKs which usually winds up booting me from about half the servers. :hmm: