BF2 Revisited - for old time sake!

[BIG] Ranger · April 12, 2013, 10:49:46 AM

WHile cleaning out our attic I found one of my old gaming PCs which I put away as a 'just in case' backup and I thought I would spark it up - came across my BF2 installation and so thought I would give it a go for old time sake...

Well, I have to say as soon as I heard the music it sent shivers down my spine! I ended up spending a few hours playing the single player 'practice mode' just so I could visit all my old favourite maps, what a buzz.

It's amazing looking at this game again, just so much of it was so well thought out and designed - why we ended up with that hideous mess called BF3 I will never know.

Obviously this nostalgic return to look at the game has limited play value, but I was surprised to see that there are still a reasonable amount of servers out there and I had a quick dabble of multiplayer.

The sad thing is that more people will not be tempted to go back and have a go again with BF2 because it's problematic as to whether anyone on WIndows 7 can get it to work (I was one of the people who could not get it to work no matter what I tried). I was just lucky I had this old 32 bit XP machine in the loft.

One thing - I did notice that STEAM are selling the complete BF2 collection (with all the extras) for Â£14. This includes:

Battlefield 2 (v1.50)
Battlefield 2: Special Forces
Battlefield 2: Euro Forces
Battlefield 2: Armored Fury

...Karkand is still the best map ever! It was like travelling back to a place you used to live! LOL

ArithonUK · April 12, 2013, 02:03:53 PM

I had BF3 running on Win7 x64 no problem (Core i7 and Radeon 5870) - there's a lot of help out there on how to do it - the main issues were punkbuster which seems to be sorted.

I reinstalled BF2142 last week and although dated, it wasn't bad - but it was clear the EA slippery slope had begun even then - the release version was never as good as the first Beta.

Annoyingly, BF2 takes an age to install & patch because Origin won't acknowledge the CD key, although it has accepted ONE of the two expansions?! So there's no "legitimate" digital version, unless you buy from Steam. I live in hope Origin will release it for free as they did with BF1942. Optimist!

I know what you mean about "going home" to Karkand - I spent a fair chunk of my 350 hours there!

BrotherTobious · April 12, 2013, 02:10:21 PM

Quote from: ArithonUK;369958I had BF3 running on Win7 x64 no problem (Core i7 and Radeon 5870) - there's a lot of help out there on how to do it - the main issues were punkbuster which seems to be sorted.

I reinstalled BF2142 last week and although dated, it wasn't bad - but it was clear the EA slippery slope had begun even then - the release version was never as good as the first Beta.

Annoyingly, BF2 takes an age to install & patch because Origin won't acknowledge the CD key, although it has accepted ONE of the two expansions?! So there's no "legitimate" digital version, unless you buy from Steam. I live in hope Origin will release it for free as they did with BF1942. Optimist!

I know what you mean about "going home" to Karkand - I spent a fair chunk of my 350 hours there!

Dont worry Arithon they will give at BF2 as freebiee when the stuff the realease for BF4

Gone_Away · April 12, 2013, 03:08:50 PM

EA give things away four free?

BrotherTobious · April 12, 2013, 03:19:31 PM

ok ok persivede as free.

GhostMjr · April 15, 2013, 12:34:52 AM

EA do swap any old keys for new keys. I did this last week. It depends on the agent you get in live chat but I was able to swap the bf2, bf2142 and all the bf expansion keys for both the bf2 and bf2142 deluxe versions on origin meaning I could throw out all the old CDs after scanning into my computer the cd keys just in case.

[BIG] Ranger · April 15, 2013, 03:26:23 PM

A funny thing...

I was a bit miffed that all my add-on CDs seem to have gone missing. This was upsetting as I particularly wanted to have a go at the Special Forces expansion and as my BF2 install CD was very scratched I decided - in a fit of extravagance (brought on by several gin and tonics!) - I bought the STEAM collection...

Well, while I was on my Win7 machine - the same machine which has flatly refused to run BF2 from a CD installation in the past (no matter what I tried) - I thought 'what the neck!' and I downloaded and installed BF2 directly from STEAM onto it. Guess what? It worked!

I've even been online with no Punkbuster problems.

- SO - it seems that for people like me who have had problems installing BF2 on Win7 STEAM's pre-updated v1.50 BF2 apparently works! (Sorry if you guys already know all this.)

........A funny little postscript to this is that I wanted to access online play so wracked my brains for one of my old BF2 user IDs, when I got in I found the player set-up as it was when I last played...On 26th October 2009! Spooky, it was like a time captule!

TheDvEight · April 15, 2013, 11:45:24 PM

Interesting..I loved bf2 I think I've bought it 3 times for myself having lost discs!

[BIG] Ranger · April 16, 2013, 06:56:09 AM

Hi DD, I'm the same - I had to buy it twice myself in it's heyday. I remember a big hoo-ha at the time about the cost of the expansions on top of the basic game, things that are taken a lot more for-granted today. But I was over the moon with the Special Forces add-on in particular and we played it to death (the zip line was huge fun).

In a way this is exactly the sort of fun that was taken out of BF3.

A friend of mine did point out that BF2 Karkand looks like 'toy town' compared to BF3 Karkand, but the sheer enjoyment of the gameplay are miles apart, BF3 might as well be CoD.

Gone_Away · April 16, 2013, 10:02:59 AM

Special forces. Grappling hook rocked.

[BIG] Ranger · April 16, 2013, 10:24:08 AM

Quote from: Ninja_Freak;370040Special forces. Grappling hook rocked.

Hey Ninja!

Yeah, on maps like Warlord or Ghost Town you really could use the grappling hook and zip line to your advantage.

The other map - which I thought was fantastic but everyone else seemed to hate - was Devil's Perch, the infamous night map, where it was all up hill and on different levels so the grappling hook was useful.

While I am finding it harder to find servers with these maps I have downloaded a mod which allows me to play the 62 man 'big' maps in teh single player/co-op mode.

R

TheDvEight · April 18, 2013, 12:31:23 AM

Yeah, Enjoyed all the gadgets that came with the expansion packs enjoyed playing as the SAS as the voice commands for the char were great (Accent wise), made me feel a bit like James Bond.