I'm a pretty big n00b all things considered. I've played BF2 a little over 16 hours now, and I've never played any of the previous BF games. I've never really got into multiplayer shooters before, mainly because they were all so unrealistic and exceedingly lame. I mean, I got a little into Halo, but those maps are pretty close quarters all things considered, and everyone's always using their rocket launchers, leaping into the air and firing off like they're fuckin' precision snipers. Plus the game's just rigged to favor fraggers more than strategists. Finding a good spot to snipe or laying down covering fire is all but useless in that game. You can just soak up so much damage that covering fire is pointless, and sniping spots don't really exist. The maps are so tight that everyone knows the three sniping spots in the game, and they weren't very good to begin with.
Then I got into America's Army, and, I'll admit it, I really like that game. That game makes my fingers shake and my heart pound. There's just so much adrenaline going on, and it's all about remaining hidden until your opponent gives himself away, at which point you assassinate him. Yet at the same time, the clock is ticking which means that you can't just sit around and wait for someone to expose themselves, and you've gotta creep around too. Using your ears is arguably more important than using your eyes. It's a good game, and free, which is a plus. But as suspenseful as the game is, it's not largely exciting. You're even more cramped in that game than you are in Halo, unless you're in one of the few maps that is decently large, and whenever you get into a firefight unless you're a very, very experienced player who really knows what he's doing (or has an AimBot) you know that the likelyhood of you coming out of the encounter alive is about 1 in 3, at best. Plus generally, it's very, very easy to die within the first minute of the game, and then you're sitting around for 7+. I swear I've spent more time watching others play than I've actually played myself. That's okay, because it really makes you think, and really makes your life feel like it's worth something in the game, but all in all, it makes your heart pound with anticipation, not excitement.
Well, sometime in August or September I picked up Battlefield 2. I had been planning on building myself a new computer (my current one is over three years old) and I had heard a lot of great things about Battlefield 2. From what I've heard, it was a lot like Star Wars BATTLEFRONT, which was a decent, if lackluster game. But I had heard nothing but good things about BF2, and I found it on sale for 40 bucks, so I snagged it along with Splinter Cell CHAOS THEORY and HALF LIFE 2. I ended up playing Splinter Cell, beating it in about a week and a half. Then I played Half Life, and despite the fact that that Steam application was spawned from Satan's sweaty asshole, HL was pretty good too. BF2 just sat around though. The minimum system requirements called for a 1.7 Ghz processor, and mine was a 1.6. I had heard that the game plays decently above 1.7 but otherwise is a real resource hog, and it takes a powerful machine to turn on all the features. So it just sat.
Then one day, mid October, I just shrugged and put it in my 3 year old computer. It installed fine, and there was no stupid ass Steam application that made it impossible to connect. I tried out the single player mode to get my bearings and see if my computer could handle it. Most of the graphics were turned down to their minimum levels, but I was able to tweak that a little bit and still be okay. For the most part the game seemed pretty boring, and reminded me a lot of Star Wars BATTLEFRONT. It just didn't have the Oomph that I desired, and just kind of seemed like another multiplayer games.
But then I tried the multiplayer. First I was really beaten down by the servers. 64 player servers were just so laggy for me that my computer more or less went down to a crawl, at which point I was either kicked or I logged off. I eventually found a really great server with extremely low ping and 32 players that played on 64 player maps, Mad Max Thunderdome or something like that.
Holy Shit, I'm in Love.
I have never played a more exciting game than this. Not in multiplayer. Not in single player. Not in Massive Multiplayer. Not in fucking real life. Paintball and Lasertag has nothing on this shit.
I haven't really played many of the classes so far. In general I find myself more attracted to stealth fighters in games than I do hardy warriors or pure-support roles. I'm a Ranger, not a Cleric or a Fighter, to put a really geeky spin on it. I don't really find the Support kit appealing, because I have a problem with accuracy in games as it is, and their low accuracy gun just doesn't appeal to me. Mechanic doesn't do much for me either, because I'm not real big on tanks or other vehicles. I've done a lot of practicing on single player with my flying skills, but it's going to take probably another 40 straight hours before I become proficient with that at all to risk taking it to the real battlefield. Medic seems relatively okay, but I'm just not into that whole healer class thing. I've toyed around with the Assault class, but I find them to be a bit too slow and brutish for me.
It seems like Assault really packs a punch, and can take a reasonable amount of damage, but (and I could be wrong about this) they don't move as fast as the Sniper and Special Forces does. Also, I just find that there are times when a thrown grenade comes in more handy than a fired grenade, and I like being able to throw grenades in a pinch rather than needing to go through some huge ordeal to switch my weapon's setting and stuff. I'll probably work on my Assault class more, but for the most part I don't love it.
My two main classes are the Special Forces and Sniper kits, the former being my personal favorite (though I'm really starting to love sniper). With Sniper, it seems like I don't get nearly as many kills or points, but I die a lot less, and there's just something about being secluded from the rest of the game, finding a great perch and just firing off a couple of shots here and there from over two hundred meters away. I'm not an excellent sniper yet, but I'm getting much better. To my knowledge I haven't been knifed more than once or twice, and even though I do pick some relatively cliche hiding spots (like on top of cranes) I tend to do okay up there, and nobody really sees me until they've got a bullet or two in them.
Also, I prefer being a US soldier. I prefer it to the point that if I get put on the other two sides I rarely stick it out, usually moving to a new server. I've tried it a bit, but I really just hate the foreign chatter over the radio and I just love my US weapons.
But Special Forces is my best. I've come to find that in a straight fight with another Special Forces guy, I've got about a 50/50 chance of winning, while if I'm going up against the Assault class it's more like a 1 in 3 or 1 in 5 thing. But what I love about Special Forces is that you're really able to be sneaky and devious in the game. Generally if someone starts attacking me and I'm outgunned, I'll just run around a corner, toss some C4 on the corner itself, and then take off running as fast as I can, with my finger on the switch. Should the bastard come around the corner, I blow him away before he can get off a shot.
I also find that I've got some pretty decent aim with the M4. When I first started playing the game, I found that I'd empty an entire clip at an opponent and he'd still be moving. Sometimes it took me as much as a clip and a half to really take someone out, and I'd rarely live that long. But now, I've gotten to the point where I generally only need to use about 10-25 rounds, usually in the 12-16 range (though I've killed a few people with as few as 3 before), which while not impressive, is a pretty significant improvement.
I also get a huge rush when I take on tanks with my puny little SF self. Trying to peg it with not one, but TWO charges is a pain in the ass, and sometimes I find that I'm chasing after it (which I know is a retarded thing to do, but I can't help it). A lot of times I usually get killed before I get to it, sometimes by the gunner on top of the tank, but usually by other forces. Surprisingly enough, I don't get killed by the tank itself too often when I'm hunting them.
I've also taken out my fair share of snipers with my trusty knife as a special forces guy.
This game is simply intensely exciting. I'm just in awe at how often something really crazy will happen and I'll just find myself blown away at the sheer coolness of this game.
Like this one time I was on top of a building in some middle eastern-looking town, I was a special forces guy sniping people not far from me with my M4, really being a nuisance to the enemy. Then, out of no where the rooftop I'm perched on starts lighting up in flames, exploding all around me. I get to my feet, and start running for the ladder. But I'm not going to make it, because it almost feels like I'm being trailed by bombshells from the artillary fire, and there's simply no way I'm going to make it to the ladder, and start climbing down it without getting a fireball blown up my ass. So I LEAP off the building into the middle of the street where the firefight is taking place, taking a moderate amount of damage but still in the game. Bullets are wheezing past me left and right, as I'm literally right in the middle of my team and the enemy, firing away. That's when my the artillary fire that threatened to kill me becomes my best friend, lord and savior. Because the bombshells are going off, EVERYONE around me is taking cover, they're all just laying down covering fire to make sure the enemy doesn't use the opportunity to advance. So I turn around and head back for the alley of the building that's exploding above me, and I just barely mangage to get in there. Someone else had been trailing me with bullets, and I could see the concrete exploding off the walls as I leaped in there.
With crazy shit like that happening to you ALL THE TIME, you can't help but feel like you're some badass in a big budget Hollywood movie.
Yeah, this game is spec-fucking-tacular.
Then I got into America's Army, and, I'll admit it, I really like that game. That game makes my fingers shake and my heart pound. There's just so much adrenaline going on, and it's all about remaining hidden until your opponent gives himself away, at which point you assassinate him. Yet at the same time, the clock is ticking which means that you can't just sit around and wait for someone to expose themselves, and you've gotta creep around too. Using your ears is arguably more important than using your eyes. It's a good game, and free, which is a plus. But as suspenseful as the game is, it's not largely exciting. You're even more cramped in that game than you are in Halo, unless you're in one of the few maps that is decently large, and whenever you get into a firefight unless you're a very, very experienced player who really knows what he's doing (or has an AimBot) you know that the likelyhood of you coming out of the encounter alive is about 1 in 3, at best. Plus generally, it's very, very easy to die within the first minute of the game, and then you're sitting around for 7+. I swear I've spent more time watching others play than I've actually played myself. That's okay, because it really makes you think, and really makes your life feel like it's worth something in the game, but all in all, it makes your heart pound with anticipation, not excitement.
Well, sometime in August or September I picked up Battlefield 2. I had been planning on building myself a new computer (my current one is over three years old) and I had heard a lot of great things about Battlefield 2. From what I've heard, it was a lot like Star Wars BATTLEFRONT, which was a decent, if lackluster game. But I had heard nothing but good things about BF2, and I found it on sale for 40 bucks, so I snagged it along with Splinter Cell CHAOS THEORY and HALF LIFE 2. I ended up playing Splinter Cell, beating it in about a week and a half. Then I played Half Life, and despite the fact that that Steam application was spawned from Satan's sweaty asshole, HL was pretty good too. BF2 just sat around though. The minimum system requirements called for a 1.7 Ghz processor, and mine was a 1.6. I had heard that the game plays decently above 1.7 but otherwise is a real resource hog, and it takes a powerful machine to turn on all the features. So it just sat.
Then one day, mid October, I just shrugged and put it in my 3 year old computer. It installed fine, and there was no stupid ass Steam application that made it impossible to connect. I tried out the single player mode to get my bearings and see if my computer could handle it. Most of the graphics were turned down to their minimum levels, but I was able to tweak that a little bit and still be okay. For the most part the game seemed pretty boring, and reminded me a lot of Star Wars BATTLEFRONT. It just didn't have the Oomph that I desired, and just kind of seemed like another multiplayer games.
But then I tried the multiplayer. First I was really beaten down by the servers. 64 player servers were just so laggy for me that my computer more or less went down to a crawl, at which point I was either kicked or I logged off. I eventually found a really great server with extremely low ping and 32 players that played on 64 player maps, Mad Max Thunderdome or something like that.
Holy Shit, I'm in Love.
I have never played a more exciting game than this. Not in multiplayer. Not in single player. Not in Massive Multiplayer. Not in fucking real life. Paintball and Lasertag has nothing on this shit.
I haven't really played many of the classes so far. In general I find myself more attracted to stealth fighters in games than I do hardy warriors or pure-support roles. I'm a Ranger, not a Cleric or a Fighter, to put a really geeky spin on it. I don't really find the Support kit appealing, because I have a problem with accuracy in games as it is, and their low accuracy gun just doesn't appeal to me. Mechanic doesn't do much for me either, because I'm not real big on tanks or other vehicles. I've done a lot of practicing on single player with my flying skills, but it's going to take probably another 40 straight hours before I become proficient with that at all to risk taking it to the real battlefield. Medic seems relatively okay, but I'm just not into that whole healer class thing. I've toyed around with the Assault class, but I find them to be a bit too slow and brutish for me.
It seems like Assault really packs a punch, and can take a reasonable amount of damage, but (and I could be wrong about this) they don't move as fast as the Sniper and Special Forces does. Also, I just find that there are times when a thrown grenade comes in more handy than a fired grenade, and I like being able to throw grenades in a pinch rather than needing to go through some huge ordeal to switch my weapon's setting and stuff. I'll probably work on my Assault class more, but for the most part I don't love it.
My two main classes are the Special Forces and Sniper kits, the former being my personal favorite (though I'm really starting to love sniper). With Sniper, it seems like I don't get nearly as many kills or points, but I die a lot less, and there's just something about being secluded from the rest of the game, finding a great perch and just firing off a couple of shots here and there from over two hundred meters away. I'm not an excellent sniper yet, but I'm getting much better. To my knowledge I haven't been knifed more than once or twice, and even though I do pick some relatively cliche hiding spots (like on top of cranes) I tend to do okay up there, and nobody really sees me until they've got a bullet or two in them.
Also, I prefer being a US soldier. I prefer it to the point that if I get put on the other two sides I rarely stick it out, usually moving to a new server. I've tried it a bit, but I really just hate the foreign chatter over the radio and I just love my US weapons.
But Special Forces is my best. I've come to find that in a straight fight with another Special Forces guy, I've got about a 50/50 chance of winning, while if I'm going up against the Assault class it's more like a 1 in 3 or 1 in 5 thing. But what I love about Special Forces is that you're really able to be sneaky and devious in the game. Generally if someone starts attacking me and I'm outgunned, I'll just run around a corner, toss some C4 on the corner itself, and then take off running as fast as I can, with my finger on the switch. Should the bastard come around the corner, I blow him away before he can get off a shot.
I also find that I've got some pretty decent aim with the M4. When I first started playing the game, I found that I'd empty an entire clip at an opponent and he'd still be moving. Sometimes it took me as much as a clip and a half to really take someone out, and I'd rarely live that long. But now, I've gotten to the point where I generally only need to use about 10-25 rounds, usually in the 12-16 range (though I've killed a few people with as few as 3 before), which while not impressive, is a pretty significant improvement.
I also get a huge rush when I take on tanks with my puny little SF self. Trying to peg it with not one, but TWO charges is a pain in the ass, and sometimes I find that I'm chasing after it (which I know is a retarded thing to do, but I can't help it). A lot of times I usually get killed before I get to it, sometimes by the gunner on top of the tank, but usually by other forces. Surprisingly enough, I don't get killed by the tank itself too often when I'm hunting them.
I've also taken out my fair share of snipers with my trusty knife as a special forces guy.
This game is simply intensely exciting. I'm just in awe at how often something really crazy will happen and I'll just find myself blown away at the sheer coolness of this game.
Like this one time I was on top of a building in some middle eastern-looking town, I was a special forces guy sniping people not far from me with my M4, really being a nuisance to the enemy. Then, out of no where the rooftop I'm perched on starts lighting up in flames, exploding all around me. I get to my feet, and start running for the ladder. But I'm not going to make it, because it almost feels like I'm being trailed by bombshells from the artillary fire, and there's simply no way I'm going to make it to the ladder, and start climbing down it without getting a fireball blown up my ass. So I LEAP off the building into the middle of the street where the firefight is taking place, taking a moderate amount of damage but still in the game. Bullets are wheezing past me left and right, as I'm literally right in the middle of my team and the enemy, firing away. That's when my the artillary fire that threatened to kill me becomes my best friend, lord and savior. Because the bombshells are going off, EVERYONE around me is taking cover, they're all just laying down covering fire to make sure the enemy doesn't use the opportunity to advance. So I turn around and head back for the alley of the building that's exploding above me, and I just barely mangage to get in there. Someone else had been trailing me with bullets, and I could see the concrete exploding off the walls as I leaped in there.
With crazy shit like that happening to you ALL THE TIME, you can't help but feel like you're some badass in a big budget Hollywood movie.
Yeah, this game is spec-fucking-tacular.