I hate to say it, but this is pretty much vietnam all over again isn't it?
Once you get over how great it is to have new maps/weapons/countries you realise how unoptimised, slow and sluggish this game has now become thanks to the touch of the DICE canadian development team.
BF2 release from day one has been sub-par in terms of everything but the core gameplay (which is fantastic.) But it was acceptable. The UI and server browser were ugly and of low quality, but I guess they worked. They sped up the browser eventually. (It's still a U.I. minefield though.) Nothing show stopping. It felt like a turd until you shoveled quickly though to get at the golden innards! but i guess it all worked, couldn't complain.
This new "Special forces layer" of unoptimised additions surfaces horrible memories of Vietnam brining my system to it's knees for no reason. No reason except unfinished, rushed, sloppy, unoptimised coding
Anyway...what gives...
Optimizing shaders takes LITERALLY 10-15 minutes on my machine (p4 3.4, 6800gt, 2GB) Is it because I get bored and alt tab? Even when i didn't it seemed to be hella long. Im getting kicked often for idleness, or I'm actually getting the game loaded and the map has switched already because it took so long...time to optimise those shaders again...JOY!
My FPS were WAY down. Initially this was because the XPack didn't carry over my graphics settings from the full game. Sweet, so all this optimising shaders is going to have to be done all over again?
So i set the graphics back down (and in some cases...UP....to 1600x1200 res) it's looking much better, running better...but damn, it's still a BIG FPS DROP from BF2.
I would guess it's a 30% drop overall, maybe not quite that much.
So there's 2 BF2.EXE's now, huh? And after I closed the game...one remains....eating CPU...but not really "existing" :-(
The whole "crossover aspect" of allowing SF items in regular battlefield seems like PURELY an EA ploy (encourage people to buy our new game!). I liked the idea at first, integration, keeping the communities together, until i looked into why no servers are offering both BF2 and SF maps. What the hell?!?!
So i fork out for more map variety and the SF servers don't run regular maps? Does this feel tacked on much?!?!? I can understand not allowing regular BF2 players in SF servers, but to deny SF players the original maps?!
Now we know copying the maps across folders on BOTH Client AND server works, but why haven't DICE fixed this for us? (not that you should have to keep 2 copies of HUGE maps on your machine just to get around an illogical decision.) Maybe i'm missing something here? Please correct me if i've got this information wrong ..
Basically if there are 3 regular maps, and 3 SF maps you enjoy, TOUGH LUCK, get ready to alternate between effectively 2 DIFFERENT GAMES, including shuffling DVD's, quitting out and reloading, hell, lets optimise the shaders while we are at it for some more fun :-)
It seems like the worst of both worlds. It's still goign to fracture the community, and you are annoying the XPACK buyers.
And this reminds me, this is an online game, why oh why do we need the CD/DVD in the drive to play? This is beyond my understanding, and incredibly annoying.
Now that's not a huge list of problems, becuase to be fair, the gameplay seems very close to BF2....this is a good thing....more DICE Sweden...less DICE Canada... new maps, without screwing with what we really enjoy.
Im generally pretty happy with the BF2 gameplay. I defo wouldn't call it buggy. I just wish they would separate CHAT from DEFAULT MESSAGES, that REALLY bugs me, there is no camaraderie among friends in this game because "chat" is almost non-existant. Also, when the round ends...where's the oppertunity to chat a little?! I dont want to watch broken props falling out of the sky in silly ways, i want to give out abuse, or say "GG." :)
The game should have had auto-patching too, I dont want to get into this tho, anyway.....
WAKE UP EA, LOOK AT VALVE, LOOK AT BLIZZARD, the top PC devs make eveything streamlined, easy to use and polished for their customers. They do not milk them while distracting them only to put out a press release for the sequel. And their games sell BUCKETLOADS. Stop ignoring and then disgarding gaming communities and games. Battlefield is not a sports game due a yearly rehash.
Will we be hearing about Battlefield 3, or maybe another expansion, LONG before most problems are fixed?
Once you get over how great it is to have new maps/weapons/countries you realise how unoptimised, slow and sluggish this game has now become thanks to the touch of the DICE canadian development team.
BF2 release from day one has been sub-par in terms of everything but the core gameplay (which is fantastic.) But it was acceptable. The UI and server browser were ugly and of low quality, but I guess they worked. They sped up the browser eventually. (It's still a U.I. minefield though.) Nothing show stopping. It felt like a turd until you shoveled quickly though to get at the golden innards! but i guess it all worked, couldn't complain.
This new "Special forces layer" of unoptimised additions surfaces horrible memories of Vietnam brining my system to it's knees for no reason. No reason except unfinished, rushed, sloppy, unoptimised coding
Anyway...what gives...
Optimizing shaders takes LITERALLY 10-15 minutes on my machine (p4 3.4, 6800gt, 2GB) Is it because I get bored and alt tab? Even when i didn't it seemed to be hella long. Im getting kicked often for idleness, or I'm actually getting the game loaded and the map has switched already because it took so long...time to optimise those shaders again...JOY!
My FPS were WAY down. Initially this was because the XPack didn't carry over my graphics settings from the full game. Sweet, so all this optimising shaders is going to have to be done all over again?
So i set the graphics back down (and in some cases...UP....to 1600x1200 res) it's looking much better, running better...but damn, it's still a BIG FPS DROP from BF2.
I would guess it's a 30% drop overall, maybe not quite that much.
So there's 2 BF2.EXE's now, huh? And after I closed the game...one remains....eating CPU...but not really "existing" :-(
The whole "crossover aspect" of allowing SF items in regular battlefield seems like PURELY an EA ploy (encourage people to buy our new game!). I liked the idea at first, integration, keeping the communities together, until i looked into why no servers are offering both BF2 and SF maps. What the hell?!?!
So i fork out for more map variety and the SF servers don't run regular maps? Does this feel tacked on much?!?!? I can understand not allowing regular BF2 players in SF servers, but to deny SF players the original maps?!
Now we know copying the maps across folders on BOTH Client AND server works, but why haven't DICE fixed this for us? (not that you should have to keep 2 copies of HUGE maps on your machine just to get around an illogical decision.) Maybe i'm missing something here? Please correct me if i've got this information wrong ..
Basically if there are 3 regular maps, and 3 SF maps you enjoy, TOUGH LUCK, get ready to alternate between effectively 2 DIFFERENT GAMES, including shuffling DVD's, quitting out and reloading, hell, lets optimise the shaders while we are at it for some more fun :-)
It seems like the worst of both worlds. It's still goign to fracture the community, and you are annoying the XPACK buyers.
And this reminds me, this is an online game, why oh why do we need the CD/DVD in the drive to play? This is beyond my understanding, and incredibly annoying.
Now that's not a huge list of problems, becuase to be fair, the gameplay seems very close to BF2....this is a good thing....more DICE Sweden...less DICE Canada... new maps, without screwing with what we really enjoy.
Im generally pretty happy with the BF2 gameplay. I defo wouldn't call it buggy. I just wish they would separate CHAT from DEFAULT MESSAGES, that REALLY bugs me, there is no camaraderie among friends in this game because "chat" is almost non-existant. Also, when the round ends...where's the oppertunity to chat a little?! I dont want to watch broken props falling out of the sky in silly ways, i want to give out abuse, or say "GG." :)
The game should have had auto-patching too, I dont want to get into this tho, anyway.....
WAKE UP EA, LOOK AT VALVE, LOOK AT BLIZZARD, the top PC devs make eveything streamlined, easy to use and polished for their customers. They do not milk them while distracting them only to put out a press release for the sequel. And their games sell BUCKETLOADS. Stop ignoring and then disgarding gaming communities and games. Battlefield is not a sports game due a yearly rehash.
Will we be hearing about Battlefield 3, or maybe another expansion, LONG before most problems are fixed?
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