After a couple of months of addiction to Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, EA did the community a solid and released the Battlefield 2: Modern Combat™ Warsome Booster Pack (oh the irony, considering that much like Halo 2 there are boosters in this game also online). The new downloadable content includes 3 new maps, 4 new vehicles and a new skin (winter camo) applicable to certain maps. It is all for online play, no single player additions but the best part is that they made it absolutely free…. and for good reason in my opinion.
Anyone that has played this game on Xbox has likely been torn, at least I have. It has easily taken over as my favorite game in my collection, hands down. The part that tears me up, see my previous write up, is the lack of certain features to the game that would make this likely the top Live game out there. In any case, I think that EA and Dice made the right move by keeping us happy with an excellent addition until they sort out the other issues that remain. Enough ranting, on to the review…
On the new maps, there are 3 as I mentioned. Full Frontal, Hidden (aptly named because there is a flag you swear by your map you are near and cannot freakin find) and Frostbite. They are all terrific maps; I got the chance finally to play them all last night for the first time (damn holidays). The first one I got to experience, with a bunch of my 2Old4Tactics brethren I might add, was Hidden. It is similar to the existing Black Gold map where one side begins at an immediate disadvantage of controlling only their main flag point leaving the remaining flags on a nearby island. It was a lot of fun, I normally hate Black Gold (one side on this one starts on an island, leaving the rest of the flags on an oil rig, I suck at this map) but I found myself loving Hidden as it seemed a little more wide open and not the typical Black Gold snipe fest.
Next we moved onto Full Frontal, it is an urban setting at night lit basically only by streetlights. I hated it, partly because I am waiting on my new glasses and I could not see, but I can see how it can be a fun map. The urban setting is cool, my main complaint was the lighting but it did make it pretty competitive and not so much run and gun, or in my case run and get shot then bleed a little and eventually die.
Finally we played Frostbite, which is probably my favorite out of the 3 new maps. They added a snowmobile with dual mounted machine guns and it is pretty sweet, and very fast. The map is very nice looking and well laid out making it pretty even for all soldier classes with great flag placement.
The new vehicles include the previously mentioned snowmobile, pickup trucks with mounted .50 cals, assault vans loaded up with come mini-guns and a new boat with 4 positions (handy for Hidden). All in all, I was very pleased with the new release and the gesture on EA’s behalf, knowing full well that they missed the mark on the launch of the game not being all it should have been as far as features and functionality go. They released an auto-update as well that fixed some minor glitches and I am happy to say that personally, many of the issues I had a problem with before (lag, connecting to games, etc.) have gone away. A few more fixes, and this game will be just about perfect, keep up the good work EA and Dice!
On the new maps, there are 3 as I mentioned. Full Frontal, Hidden (aptly named because there is a flag you swear by your map you are near and cannot freakin find) and Frostbite. They are all terrific maps; I got the chance finally to play them all last night for the first time (damn holidays). The first one I got to experience, with a bunch of my 2Old4Tactics brethren I might add, was Hidden. It is similar to the existing Black Gold map where one side begins at an immediate disadvantage of controlling only their main flag point leaving the remaining flags on a nearby island. It was a lot of fun, I normally hate Black Gold (one side on this one starts on an island, leaving the rest of the flags on an oil rig, I suck at this map) but I found myself loving Hidden as it seemed a little more wide open and not the typical Black Gold snipe fest.
Next we moved onto Full Frontal, it is an urban setting at night lit basically only by streetlights. I hated it, partly because I am waiting on my new glasses and I could not see, but I can see how it can be a fun map. The urban setting is cool, my main complaint was the lighting but it did make it pretty competitive and not so much run and gun, or in my case run and get shot then bleed a little and eventually die.
Finally we played Frostbite, which is probably my favorite out of the 3 new maps. They added a snowmobile with dual mounted machine guns and it is pretty sweet, and very fast. The map is very nice looking and well laid out making it pretty even for all soldier classes with great flag placement.
The new vehicles include the previously mentioned snowmobile, pickup trucks with mounted .50 cals, assault vans loaded up with come mini-guns and a new boat with 4 positions (handy for Hidden). All in all, I was very pleased with the new release and the gesture on EA’s behalf, knowing full well that they missed the mark on the launch of the game not being all it should have been as far as features and functionality go. They released an auto-update as well that fixed some minor glitches and I am happy to say that personally, many of the issues I had a problem with before (lag, connecting to games, etc.) have gone away. A few more fixes, and this game will be just about perfect, keep up the good work EA and Dice!
