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This is a cool PC game, probably the best since World of Warcraft.  I’m sure it will also make a great console game at some point as well. It is also a better sequel, at least IMO.  Of course, that wouldn’t have been hard in Battlefield series, since the other one wouldn’t run on my computer, which I now realize is a shame since this is a good game and I think its predecessor was probably good too.  (BTW, the reason it didn’t run wasn’t because my computer wasn’t powerful enough, it had some weird issues with the resolutions I use.)

Battlefield 2142 is a first person shooter that simulates military combat.  It allows games of up to 64 players (32 per team) in opposing factions.  (The EU vs. PAC). 

You can choose one of four options:

• Recon:  This is basically a sniper.  They get sniper rifles, explosives, and camouflage.
• Assault:  Basic infrantry.  They get assault rifles and med packs.
• Engineer:  Good at killing armor and air.  They get something akin to a stinger missle launcher.  They can also repair armor, cars, air, etc.  They also get mines, which are quite nice.
• Support:  These are heavy machine gunners.  They can also resupply (provide more ammo).

The other interesting thing about this game is that you can get in vehicles such as tanks, mechs (large, heavily armed and armored robot looking things), cars (little dune buggie type vehicles with a machine gun turret), and various helicopters.  Tanks and mechs are really fun.  You can see the list of vehicles here.

The commander can also issue orders to people and squads (up to six players per squad).   A commander can also launch a UAV to monitor enemy troop positions and movement and can bombard them with an orbital strike. 

GOOD:  It’s fun to play.  32v32 is a blast.  It seems to be relatively easy to find game servers that are popular.  You can play a game pretty quickly, often around 30 minutes, and they are a blast.  You usually get some good adrenaline rushes.  I also admit to have a significant bias towards games where you play against or with other people as opposed to alone.  This is one of only three games I’ve found myself playing for any reasonable amount of time in the last few years (the other two are World of Warcraft and Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne – I’ll discuss them later).

BAD:  The game doesn’t handle Alt-Tabbing very well which I find really annoying.  It also could have better game finding and matching features, sometimes joining with a friend is a royal pain because you have to keep hitting refresh until a slot on a server opens up and then sometimes it puts you on a different team.  Finally, the documentation pretty much sucks, but hey it’s a game and you’ll figure it out.

COOL BONUS:  It does have a pretty cool webpage showing your ranks and stuff.  Ranks that you get from playing and badges/awards (which are cool) lead to unlocks (better gear).   This is probably makes the game ten times more interesting.

SEE:  LokiTX (that’s me!)