Developed by Digital Illusions, Battlefield 2 is the sequel to the highly successful Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield: Vietnam. Whereas the Vietnam game was developed by DICE Canada, Battlefield 2 is the home-brewed product of the original Swedish team. Unlike Battlefield 1942, which became tremendously popular thanks to its combination of fast action and WWII vehicles, and Battlefield Vietnam which covered a controversial conflict in American history, Battlefield 2 takes place in a fictitious near-future conflict and features all-new weapons and all-new vehicles! In the game you can choose to fight for one of three military superpowers: the United States, the Chinese, or the newly formed Middle East Coalition. Regions of conflict span areas of China and the Middle East. Regarding advantages, each side have the particular technology and weaponry appropriate to their nationality.

Battlefield 2 features 12 maps (there are three versions of each - for 16, 32 and 64 players) upon release, which includes locations such as power plants, oil fields, mines, dams, harbors, farms, islands, cities, and more. The difference between 16 and 32-player fields is pretty huge. Maps set to 16 cut the size of the combat zone down considerably to allow players to find each other quickly and fight over a small number of total capture points. The differences between the 32 and 64 player maps can be less dramatic. Unlike the previous Battlefield titles, the maps can get quite complicated, so you'll need to spend some time learning the ins and outs and quirks of each location. But once you do get to learn the maps, there's a particular brilliance in the design.

The core game play of Battlefield 2 remains the same as the previous games. Two teams face off over a large map containing various bases / spawn points. Each side tries to capture and defend as many bases as possible. You spawn as infantry of several kinds of classes (assault, sniper, spec ops, engineer, medic, support, or anti-tank classes), and can continue as infantry or find a vehicle to use. Balance between classes is so good that no one class is totally at the mercy of another. Even a mediocre player has a good chance of taking out any opponent regardless of what class either plays.

There are over thirty new vehicles for Battlefield 2. You can jump into the seats of land, air, and sea vehicles including tanks, helicopters, jet aircraft and light overboard motor boats. Jets are fairly difficult to learn how to fly (you will probably need a joystick), especially if there's a little lag in the game. Helicopters, on the other hand, are a joy to fly, and are very fun. Like the past games vehicles are an important part of the game, but they do not dominate the game. Driving directly into an enemy base might seem like a good way to capture it but if you're alone you won't last long :)

Each side can have their team broken down into squads. Each squad consists of a squad leader and up to 5 squad members. The squad leader acts as a mobile spawn point and has the ability to set waypoints and request assistance from the Commander. I would say that the commander option is the most dramatic change in the game. Commanders must "apply" for the position in-game, and, when elected, these players do actively participate in the battle, and can be killed, however the commander has a base where he can avoid being killed. Commanders have four primary abilities: satellite scan, artillery strikes, Predator UAV recon, and supply drops, which can be eliminated if the opposition destroys certain installations, and communicating orders to squad leaders via VOIP. Another great part of Battlefield 2 is about the possibility of advancing the ranks. If you play the servers officially equipped with the ranking system you are able to watch your stats in the game menu tab "BFHQ". This allows you to build up a history with your player, unlock new weapons, and earn various rewards.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the singleplayer mode. Of course, Battlefield 2 also contains a singleplayer section that allows you to advance through the game’s many maps, alongside and against computer controlled players. The bots are a hundred times better than they were in Battlefield 1942, but you can only have a maximum of 8 on each team. The only reason to play singleplayer is to learn the maps before you play online. So, if you're looking to buy this game to play it away from an internet connection, forget it! This game was meant to be played online.

Probably my biggest complaint is the steep hardware requirements. You'll need a beefy video card: the minimum is a GeForce FX 5700 or a Radeon 8500. GeForce 4's are officially obsolete. And if you don't have a gig of RAM yet, you'll need to get on the stick. If you don't have a good amount of RAM and a decent video card, you'll really have to drop the detail to get the game to run smoothly.

Despite some serious issues with the internet play, some bugs and problems, and long loading times, Battlefield 2 is an awesome game that you should definitely buy if you have the right computer for it. And if you don't have the computer for it, upgrade your old one so you can play this game! :)

related links: demo, trailer, cheats, trainer +6, retail servers, TotalBF2 (fansite), BFNation.net (fansite), Battlefield 2 DVD, Battlefield 2 CDROM

System requirements:
Minimum: 1.7 GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, NVidia GeForce FX 5700, ATI Radeon 8500 or ATI Radeon 9500 with 128MB RAM (must support 1.4 shaders), DX9 sound card, 16 x DVD-ROM, 2.3GB HDD space
Recommended: 2.4GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, Video Card with at least 256 MB of RAM*, DX9 sound card, 16 x DVD-ROM, 2.3GB HDD space

* Battlefield 2 only supports the following video cards: Radeon X700 (PCIe), Radeon X600 (PCIe), GeForce 6600 (PCIe), GeForce PCX 5900 (PCIe), GeForce 5800 Series (AGP), ATI Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition, ATI Radeon X800 PRO, ATI Radeon 9800 Series, ATI Radeon 9600 Series, ATI Radeon 9550 (RV350LX), ATI Radeon 9500 / 9700 Series, ATI Radeon 8500 Series, ATI Radeon X300 Series , NVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra, NVidia GeForce 6800 GT, NVidia GeForce 6800, NVidia GeForce FX 5950 Series, NVidia GeForce FX 5900 Series, NVidia GeForce FX 5700 Series