Aliennation: WOW, the game looks amazing, hard to describe the feeling, but I can say the game is a massive change to all other war games. Adger: It was already up and running when I got in close contact for the first time. It was a feeling of curiosity, something like "So. What do we have here?" but in the same sense you close in on the most unexpected gift on christmass. I was really excited, thrilled.

Aliennation: I got to play against AI characters (bots) so it was quite hard, but I must say AI on the characters have been improved amazingly, they are like real players. Call for a pickup they’ll pick you up, under fire they return with running for cover, and enemy AI is the most realistic I have seen in a game. The classes you can see have been taken from the mod desert combat with the old fashioned way of special forces engineers etc. A lot of improvements have been made to the weapon system. The weapons also jam too. Adger: The imperative of teamplay was that boldly obvious throughout the game that you have to be either blind or a complete moron to not be aware about it. Sure, you could do your "lone wolf thingy" if you insisted on it. But as soon as you tried to fly something or once you depleted your ammo or ran low on health the world turned out to be a very lonely place outside a team. So I think everybody quickly had an instinct for the necessity of teamplay. If we failed to accomodate for a working team this was rather due to being new to the new game itself (hey, c'mon, try learning to fly the heli sucessfully yourself in under 5 minutes) and thus our own fault. There is so awfully much new to discover that it will keep you busy a few days only to figure out what *else* is new, let alone to figure out how to make use of it.

Aliennation: The first person on this is set to medium gameplay meaning not has hardcore as cs, but also not extremely easy. BF 2 merges cs this with big maps and also being able to interact with vehicles etc, bf2 is trying to get some smaller maps with a cs feel. I only played one map and its name was disclosed. All I can say it was something like el alamein from bf1942 but better gameplay and the level was much larger. Adger: The game is definitely not a tetris variant and it certainly differs from HL2. As far as I understand BF2 you can make the game your game to an extent that you have barely anywhere else. You want to go lifetime medic? No problem. Go out and make a career healing the injured, never ever firing a single shot. You want to be the Ubersniper? Have fun. You want to be a Jack-of-all-trades? Way you go. You want to lead your wild bunch guns ablaze across the battlefield? Go ahead. It's your skill to lead a war from the tactical point of view? Try the commander. See, it's a matter of what you want the game to be. You can treat it like a strategy game, you can play it as a team-based tactical shooter or you can live it as your FPS of choice. I'm sure there are still more ways to play the game. It's all up to you and what you make of it. BF2 certainly is not a simulation like MSFlight or GTR and it's certainly no substitute for C&C or the like. If you are expecting a tactical shooter that is as realistic as it can get BF2 is possibly not for you. BF2 is a hybrid of many games. But it does not try to replicate the real world. It tries the best in can to be fun to play. In that way it is identical to BF1942 and BF-V. It recieved a serious brush up, though, and is a lot faster to play then i.e. BF1942 and in that way it recieved a bit of Counter-Strike and Q3, but it still is Battlefield and not another CS or Q3 or a DC under disguise.

Aliennation: Didn’t get to use it personally, but the developers were happy to show it off to a whole crowd at the e3 awards. It looks like you can create your own movies without using program like fraps its so much easier as well. You can literally zoom around the match completely free then record a segment then pause, so movie making should be a breeze. Adger: I did not use it myself, but parts of our matches got recorded without us knowing. But we got confronted with our lame n00bplay afterwards We got a decent impression of what the Battlerecorder was able to do and everybody with eyes and a brain will agree that it is a tremendous addition to Battlefield.

Aliennation: I think the teams are balanced very well from what I had played so far in development, as the US get the m4 and the MEC get ak 47, but vehicles like tanks etc are balanced and each sides have there own unique thing. Much tweaking is still required until the final release. Adger: The balance was not finished in that version we got to play. It was pointed out more than once that the whole damage and balancing issue was currently being worked on. The basic balancing concept of BF2 was basically done, though, and it works great. Ok, it might not be cool to have an SMG take 20 or more hits to bring your enemy down where it barely takes 3 hits from an M16, but hey, thats fine-tuning, not a biggy - as long as it is taken care for in the final version.

Aliennation: When zooming in you still do a small jog, rather than a slow walk in bfv. Its half way between 1942 and Vietnam. Adger: Heh, it would have been great if I would have hit anything while running for cover. You won't hit a barn from 10 feet while running and going full auto won't help much either. Besides this, you can't shoot at all while in sprint mode.

Aliennation: The experience is mind blowing. I got to team up with 3 people and against some other people. The game integrates team work amazingly, being able to voice communicate is fantastic and hopefully clans can benefit from it. There is no use for 3rd party mic programs, as many would know it uses voip for primary communications. Adger: Clans will basically have to reconsider everything. The commander, the squad leader, the new classes and vehicles... There is so much new to the game that it will certainly impact the way clans are playing. I'll refrain from guessing how BF2 will impact the way clans play it though. That's a matter only time can tell. But it will for sure be very interesting to see what they'll make from it. I think BF2 might result in larger teams meeting for a match, perhaps growing up to 9 or 12 players becoming the regular team size instead of today’s 8. BF2 offers options for many variants, like i.e. with or without commander, that will probably have an impact. BF2 will for sure have an impact on how clans behave as an "organism" since there are so many aspects in the game promoting teamplay.

Aliennation: Oh yes, the game is amazing, battlefield warfare is one of the best games to get going, this game has it all. The new us army technology is in the game as well as the old fashioned scud and of course what would a bit of fun be without the old fragging. The stats board now has 3 pages like halo 2, you can now find out how many shots your fired, how many kills you got, how many vehicles you have destroyed etc. The biggest and most greatest thing I think that makes this game special is the commanders view. I didn’t get to use it but being shown it was a great pleasure. If your one of those age of empires or c&c generals fans, the commander mode would attract your attention. BF2 integrates a birds eye view, commanding your squads takes great decision making, the only thing is that you have to be very experienced to become a commander. Adger: BF2 is a fully fledged offspring from BF1942 an BF-V. It embraces elements known from Desert Combat, too, but the same is true for many other games. It is a demanding game, one that will take serious dedication to master to it's full potential. It will be a real big thing for everybody who loves this gaming genre. HL2 might have given you the looks, Halo might have given you the action, but BF2 will give you both of that, and much more. I can't imagine what on earth short of total exodus amongst gamedevelopers would prevent BF2 to become the next big thing.

Aliennation: Well meeting the devs was some great fun. Hopefully 2005 e3 should be a blast. Rumours of a battlefield 3 in the works, could this be the next us training program? Overall the game is one of the best, actually it is the best, of what I have played. The surroundings are great, tropical deserts, exploding buildings and all overall a great battlefield scenario. Adger: Two things come up. First: Don't compare BF2 with Desert Combat. DC is nowhere even close to BF2, no matter how you put it. Second: Don't think you have an idea about the GFX, the visuals or the (so called) "immersion" by looking at the videos or screenshots. That's not "the real thing" by any means. It's not even close to it. My personal favourite is the missile tracking camera in the combat helicopter. My greatest disappointment is not to have had more time to dig deeper into the game. My biggest surprise is the Tunguska. My most valuable feature is the squadleader with voip. My coolest visual is the new way to show flags (controlpoints) turning sides. My overall biggest jawdropper was the graphics done by the renderengine.