Love is a Battlefield (2)
by
Xemu
on Wed 29 Jun 2005 10:29 AM EDT
I played a fair amount of the original Battlefield: 1942, and it still
ranks as one of my favorite WW2 action games. The basic game
dynamics of the multi-role players & vehicles, objective capturing,
and the WW2 setting made for a pretty exciting blend.
Unfortunately, the standard of gameplay on all the public servers was
so abysmal that I never was able to play the game like I really wanted
to (rampant teamkilling, no coordination at all, etc.). There
were some clans that did a good job at that sort of stuff but I
generally can only fit in the most casual of clans due to my work &
family commitments and that I rarely play one game exclusively.
So, I kind of gave a pass on Battlefield: Vietnam. But the recent
release of Battlefield 2 has totally pulled me back in. The core
gameplay isn't really all that different, but they've added enough of a
critical mass of teamwork-oriented features (squads, commanders,
integrated voice, etc.) that it enables a kind of team-oriented
gameplay that is a joy to behold.
Of course, you almost never see that kind of gameplay, even with the
new tools BF2 offers, on the public servers. Their scoring system
just invites people to exploit it and weighs heavily in favor of
individual achievements instead of teamwork.
Fortunately, someone at
QT3 turned me on to the
Tactical Gamer
website. They aren't a clan, but instead just a philosophy --
people gather there who are interested in teamwork and coordination and
not just random uncoordinated chaos.
The difference is astounding. Night and day. Playing on the
TG server there are squad leaders who really, well, lead squads.
Having a team of players moving in overwatch and coordinating on
defense completely transforms the game into something far more
interesting than it ever is on the public servers.
TG has exactly the right vibe for me -- there is a wide range of people
who are serious about the game vs. amateurs like myself. The vast
majority of folks I've interacted with are friendly and quite competent
when it comes to playing the game with teamwork in mind. There
are some people who form "mini clans" on the server, and in fact I
always play online there as "[QT3]Xemu" along with a handful of other
folks from QT3.
If you want to check it out, just filter for "tacticalgamer" in the BF2
server list. There's a public server that's always up though it
is very frequently full. If you like teamwork and coordinated
play the way I do, I guarantee you won't be disappointed. Please
note that this style of gameplay is NOT for everyone ... if you don't
like being told to hold a position, or following orders, or sticking
together with a squad then you will not have a good time there.
Just join the server, join a squad (which is mandatory) and check out
the best large-scale team oriented gameplay I've ever seen.
All of which is not to say BF2 is not without its flaws. It is
amazing to me how such great gameplay and visuals can come in such a
horribly flawed piece of software engineering. CTDs and random
hangs are frequent. Their server browser is, frankly, abysmal and
creates a huge barrier to entry for the game. It requires a quite
beefy machine. However, even with all those flaws I find BF2
stealing many hours of my time when I'm on the TacticalGamer server.
Still working my way through San Andreas on the PC. I've caught
up to where I had stopped before on the PS2 and completely loving
it. It's a little easy compared to the PS2 version (whether due
to interface improvements, tweaks, or my experience with it is
unclear). But that doesn't bug me, since what I love most is just
being a part of that world.
I'm still finding a little time to play Destroy All Humans (despite fierce competition). Well
worth checking out, though, IMO, it does not quite live up to the
amazing potential that the concept has. Nevertheless, another decent
product from Pandemic.
