Battlefield 1942. Yep, we're all familiar with that game, the World War II battle epic with a tacked on, bit of a half-arsed single-player effort that was in effect little more than a boot camp operation for what turned out to be one of the most refreshing and addictive multiplayer experiences in yonks. Popularity inevitably spawned 1942 expansion packs, and then a shift forward in time to the Vietnam War and full game Battlefield Vietnam. Now the developer with the magic touch Digital Illusions is gearing up to wow us with a full-blown sequel that looks, quite frankly, bloody amazing.
Battlefield 2 takes us a further leap forward in time to the 21st century and modern warfare, the Middle-East and Asia setting the stage for furious hi-tech combat. The series' core, Hollywood blockbuster-style feel remains, as does the winning gameplay formula of the marriage of foot soldier and vehicle combat; but of course the developer is packing in plenty of hot new features.
Battlefield 2's engine is dropping jaws, realistic physics and dynamic lighting causing eyes to pop. Drool drips at the thought of games supporting 100-plus players online, battle boffins gleefully anticipating the opportunity to grapple with U.S., Chinese, or Middle East Coalition forces, and General wannabes are grinning from ear to ear at the thought of going Commander Mode and directing combatants.
And then there's 30-plus 21st century vehicles, unique arsenals for forces, material penetration, heat seeking missiles and laser designated bombs, rank increases and reward unlocks for players during the action... And on, and on, and on. How can Battlefield 2 possibly fail?
In short, it can't. Phew. Right, we need to catch our breath so we'll hand you over to Battlefield 2 producer Lars Gustavsson. who recently presented the game to us in all its combat-filled glory.
Something old, something new
"This sequel, the true sequel Battlefield 2, is made by the same team as Battlefield 1942. When we finished Battlefield 1942, we stepped back and thought about where we could go from there. What we looked at is... We wanted to keep the gameplay, we wanted to keep the feeling of 'you can do anything anywhere', and it's all about fun.
Secondly, we felt that we needed to boost it, we needed to give a new game with new graphics and new physics and new sound.
We're bringing it into modern warfare, with everything that comes with it. You can do it two ways. Either you make modern warfare and just have a new costume on it or, what we wanted to do was, try to make real modern warfare. Modern warfare takes a lot of co-ordination, and teamplay comes into play. We set out to bring this into Battlefield 2."
Gentlemen, start your engines
"So, the new Battlefield engine. The world in Battlefield was pretty empty. It had a few buildings, a lot of repeated buildings. Battlefield 2 is a completely different world. It's hundreds of layers of different textures, it's a much higher density and more of a living and breathing world - we wanted to bring the battlefield to life, that you interact with the environment.
For example before, when you were hiding in a temple and somebody was standing outside shooting at you, you couldn't shoot through the temple. Now for example, we have material penetration. It's all about bringing the battlefield to life.
Moving down the street, here we see a lot of new environments. Here's the hi-tech M1 Abrams tank and you see shadows falling on it, you see kit parts - I mean, these vehicles are usually homes for people to live in for a long time so we want to give them a personalised feeling; and that differs from round to round."
Light, shadow, and the sounds of war
"In addition to that we spent a lot of time looking at the rendering and the sound engine. Here you see lighting off a soldier, coming in and out of the light, self-shadowing - our rendering programmers spent a lot of time looking into that.
The sound engine in Battlefield 1942 wasn't, to be honest, the best. Sound is definitely one of the big parts of this game. You can use sound for gameplay. You can hear where things are coming from, you can rely on that information to make your actions."
Depth of Battlefield
"We said very early that we didn't want to end up with a game that's like a sim. That's not Battlefield. Battlefield is all about easy access; but you can find more depth as you play.
What we see here is the helicopter has a heat source, it's engine, and we're trying to track it in the air. He's tracking it and... He's locked on and ready to fire. Imagine this when you're sitting in a fighter and trying to chase another one. It takes some skill to keep it locked for long enough to get the missile lock-on."
It's the small details that count
"We're introducing two new classes in the game. One of them is the support soldier, which is the heavy machinegunner. We've also added ammunition to soldiers, which if you look at is highly detailed - the backpack for example, the PKN ammo, you have claymore mines. If you look here on his arm you can see an arm patch. All along we've had the intention to bring the soldiers to life."
It's good to talk
"What we wanted everyone to have was the ability for everyone to communicate what they see, so we've introduced a new communication [system].
For, example if you want to relay information that... by pointing at it [an object], and you'll note that it's context-sensitive... He [the player's character in the game] thought he saw something so you get a little question mark instead of the red tag as a warning for his team mates."
"Squad, left flank!"
"We have added two layers to the game. Everyone in the group or the team can start a squad. A squad can consist of up to six players. The Squad Leader can then order the other members around to achieve goals together. In addition to that, we have the Commander that can order them around to achieve [objectives].
"If you don't see the target you want to attack, you can bring up this map and [through that] you can give orders [to take an objective that might be] two blocks away. This gives the Commander and Squad Leader greater ability to [show] players what they're supposed to do."