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Every now and then we see a thread posted here like "BF2 Dead?" or "Who's finding BF2 boring?"
Realize that a lot of the people putting up such threads have 400 hours of playing time behind them. 400 HOURS. 400 hours of ANYTHING will lose some of its appeal. Really, 400 hours of SEX with the same woman since June 2005 would start to suck too, no matter how hot she might be or how many things you try, so let's be realistic here. If you ABSOLUTELY are bored of it after 400 hours of multiplayer play, what did you really expect???
Okay, for the rest of us for whom there's hope, who still have some enjoyment of the game left, here is a guide to keeping the fire a little longer.
For starters, there is a difference between playing for points and playing for fun. You could easily rack up points by choosing the medic class and pouncing on every dead body you see, playing just one class and becoming an expert with it, or seating yourself in a tank and spraying a spawn point with shells and bullets. But "YAY, I got another 40 kills this round in my 60-ton spawn-raping machine!" gets kind of old after a short while. If you ABSOLUTELY need those points to get that cool unlock you just HAVE to have, then by all means go for it. But if you're trying to rack up points to get imaginary ranks, badges, and medals to show how much better you are than all the other 16 year-old kids playing the game, at the very least the game is not about fun anymore, and at worst it's pretty unhealthy. If you rack up lots and lots of points in BF2 online, it will NOT mean DICE will hire you as a tester, you will NOT get on the cover of PC World, you will NOT get more money out of it, it will NOT get you a scholarship to UCLA, and it will NOT make you more sexually attractive. BF2 is a computer game, a computer game is entertainment, and entertainment is about FUN, so make it your goal to have FUN above all!
With that said, here is my guide to playing Battlefield 2 for FUN:
1) TRY NEW VEHICLES: One of the beautiful things about Battlefield 2 is that it incorporates a fighter-bomber game, attack helicopter game, and armor game, in addition to the basic first-person shooter. It's really like 4 different games in one. So if you get bored of being on foot, work to become an expert chopper gunner. If you get tired of that, try to become a chopper or fighter pilot, or tank driver. Learn to use cover in a tank, or how to position yourself to better protect against bombs and other air-to-ground weapons. Personally I'm not interested in piloting air vehicles, being a former infantryman myself, but if flying interests you then give it a shot!
2) JOIN A CLAN: Joining a clan can renew your enthusiasm for the game and enhance your team play. This might just be the step you need to start enjoying BF2 again.
3) PRACTICE AND TRY NEW TACTICS: Join up with some other players (or your new clan) and practice tactics like diversions, flanking the enemy, fire & maneuver/advance to contact, etc. on empty servers. Then hit a populated server and put what you learned into practice.
4) TRY A NEW CLASS: Of course we all have our favorite classes depending on our preferences (mine is Support). But trying another class, and seeing the possibilities and tricks available with each one, can inject some fun into the game again. Better yet, a real challenge is taking the class you like LEAST and working to become really good at it!
5) PLAY AS SQUAD LEADER: Because of your other responsibilities, becoming squad leader will usually lead to a lower score--so many people avoid it for this reason. But points aside, the reward is in having a squad that works well, and in completing your objectives. A lot of people get frustrated as squad leader, complaining that no one listens to their orders. I've found the key is in using teamspeak to explain WHY you're doing what you're doing. If I can explain the reason we're going after a certain objective ("We need to recapture the Backyard flag so we can get the use of our tank back"), I find my squad a lot more open to my orders. Also, be realistic in your orders; if your entire squad is on foot around the Hotel flag in Karkand, and you order an attack on the Factory, chances are that order won't be followed. Most importantly, keep it FUN and light. In the end this is a GAME, and your squadmates are there to have fun, so don't bark orders and micromanage.
6) FORM A SPECIALIZED SQUAD: Spawn as Support class and form a squad named "AntiArmor". The squad's name will encourage anti-tank class players to join it. AntiArmor Squad's "job" would then be to roam the map in a vehicle finding enemy tanks and APCs, then dismounting and annihilating them. As a support player, you could keep them armed with a full complement of anti-tank rockets, and cover their flanks with your SAW or PKM in case any infantry try to rush the position. Or spawn as Medic class and create a squad named "Repair". Repair Squad would follow your team's vehicles and armor around in a vehicle, and repair them after every engagement. As Medic you could heal them if they come under fire while repairing, and the commander would have a quick repair crew on-call if his assets are destroyed. Or spawn as Medic class and create "Medic Squad", and follow a squad from your team around that needs help, reviving their dead and healing their wounded after a firefight. Or spawn as Support class and create "SpecOps Squad", and have your Special Forces class squadmates take out bridges, commander assets, and other strategic points, while keeping them supplied with ammo and covering them with your LMG. These are just some of the possibilities, I'm sure there are plenty of others as well.
7) PLAY AS COMMANDER: It goes without saying, but give commanding your team a shot. Commanding is like having a FIFTH game, a real-time strategy/RTS game, built into Battlefield 2. Anyone who's ever had fun playing Command and Conquer would no doubt have some fun playing as commander. But as is the case with squad leaders, a lot of commanders complain that no one listens to their orders. Once again, the key is to explain WHY you need a certain squad to take a certain position, or to repair an asset, etc. BF2 is not really the USMC, people will not automatically follow your orders, so you need to have a good reason for your orders so that you can "command by concensus". Remember again to keep your orders realistic; if squad 4 has an engineer in it, but they're all on foot by the Old City in Daqing, they're not going to jog all the way back to the USMC main base, past 4 enemy flags surrounded by infantry, to repair your artillery.
8) TRY NEW THINGS: I guess every tip I've given so far has been a variation of this tip, but it counts on its own. Try new things! Explore the map, find new ambush points, play maps that you usually avoid, find the best places to put mines or blocks of C4, etc.
9) TRY SPECIAL FORCES OR EURO FORCE: For 30 bucks (for BF2SF) or 10 bucks (for BF2EF), you could add several maps, weapons, and vehicles to your BF2 experience. I've barely played either of them because I'm still entertained by vanilla BF2, but it's good to know when I get tired of it I'll still have 2 expansion packs to play, with new maps to explore and figure out.
10) UPGRADE YOUR HARDWARE: If you're still playing BF2 on an ATi Radeon 9200, or a GeForce 5200, then the game will look pretty lousy, and it's only natural that you'll get bored. There are a lot of beautiful effects, shadows, detail, and locales in the BF2 world that you can only really enjoy on medium or high settings, and the eye candy will keep the game fun and enjoyable. Not to mention that nothing will kill your enthusiasm for an online game of BF2 faster than......LAG!!! I leave this suggestion for last, since most people will not drop 200-300$ on a new video card or stick of RAM just for one game. If this is your stance though, remember that such upgrades will also improve your gameplay on all of your other games you enjoy, right now and in the future, so it may be a good investment.
So if you're finding your BF2 enthusiasm slowing down a bit, give the above suggestions a try. Some of them will have a negative impact on your points-per-game average, but the important thing is that you'll still find BF2 FUN. Happy fragging!
Realize that a lot of the people putting up such threads have 400 hours of playing time behind them. 400 HOURS. 400 hours of ANYTHING will lose some of its appeal. Really, 400 hours of SEX with the same woman since June 2005 would start to suck too, no matter how hot she might be or how many things you try, so let's be realistic here. If you ABSOLUTELY are bored of it after 400 hours of multiplayer play, what did you really expect???
Okay, for the rest of us for whom there's hope, who still have some enjoyment of the game left, here is a guide to keeping the fire a little longer.
For starters, there is a difference between playing for points and playing for fun. You could easily rack up points by choosing the medic class and pouncing on every dead body you see, playing just one class and becoming an expert with it, or seating yourself in a tank and spraying a spawn point with shells and bullets. But "YAY, I got another 40 kills this round in my 60-ton spawn-raping machine!" gets kind of old after a short while. If you ABSOLUTELY need those points to get that cool unlock you just HAVE to have, then by all means go for it. But if you're trying to rack up points to get imaginary ranks, badges, and medals to show how much better you are than all the other 16 year-old kids playing the game, at the very least the game is not about fun anymore, and at worst it's pretty unhealthy. If you rack up lots and lots of points in BF2 online, it will NOT mean DICE will hire you as a tester, you will NOT get on the cover of PC World, you will NOT get more money out of it, it will NOT get you a scholarship to UCLA, and it will NOT make you more sexually attractive. BF2 is a computer game, a computer game is entertainment, and entertainment is about FUN, so make it your goal to have FUN above all!
With that said, here is my guide to playing Battlefield 2 for FUN:
1) TRY NEW VEHICLES: One of the beautiful things about Battlefield 2 is that it incorporates a fighter-bomber game, attack helicopter game, and armor game, in addition to the basic first-person shooter. It's really like 4 different games in one. So if you get bored of being on foot, work to become an expert chopper gunner. If you get tired of that, try to become a chopper or fighter pilot, or tank driver. Learn to use cover in a tank, or how to position yourself to better protect against bombs and other air-to-ground weapons. Personally I'm not interested in piloting air vehicles, being a former infantryman myself, but if flying interests you then give it a shot!
2) JOIN A CLAN: Joining a clan can renew your enthusiasm for the game and enhance your team play. This might just be the step you need to start enjoying BF2 again.
3) PRACTICE AND TRY NEW TACTICS: Join up with some other players (or your new clan) and practice tactics like diversions, flanking the enemy, fire & maneuver/advance to contact, etc. on empty servers. Then hit a populated server and put what you learned into practice.
4) TRY A NEW CLASS: Of course we all have our favorite classes depending on our preferences (mine is Support). But trying another class, and seeing the possibilities and tricks available with each one, can inject some fun into the game again. Better yet, a real challenge is taking the class you like LEAST and working to become really good at it!
5) PLAY AS SQUAD LEADER: Because of your other responsibilities, becoming squad leader will usually lead to a lower score--so many people avoid it for this reason. But points aside, the reward is in having a squad that works well, and in completing your objectives. A lot of people get frustrated as squad leader, complaining that no one listens to their orders. I've found the key is in using teamspeak to explain WHY you're doing what you're doing. If I can explain the reason we're going after a certain objective ("We need to recapture the Backyard flag so we can get the use of our tank back"), I find my squad a lot more open to my orders. Also, be realistic in your orders; if your entire squad is on foot around the Hotel flag in Karkand, and you order an attack on the Factory, chances are that order won't be followed. Most importantly, keep it FUN and light. In the end this is a GAME, and your squadmates are there to have fun, so don't bark orders and micromanage.
6) FORM A SPECIALIZED SQUAD: Spawn as Support class and form a squad named "AntiArmor". The squad's name will encourage anti-tank class players to join it. AntiArmor Squad's "job" would then be to roam the map in a vehicle finding enemy tanks and APCs, then dismounting and annihilating them. As a support player, you could keep them armed with a full complement of anti-tank rockets, and cover their flanks with your SAW or PKM in case any infantry try to rush the position. Or spawn as Medic class and create a squad named "Repair". Repair Squad would follow your team's vehicles and armor around in a vehicle, and repair them after every engagement. As Medic you could heal them if they come under fire while repairing, and the commander would have a quick repair crew on-call if his assets are destroyed. Or spawn as Medic class and create "Medic Squad", and follow a squad from your team around that needs help, reviving their dead and healing their wounded after a firefight. Or spawn as Support class and create "SpecOps Squad", and have your Special Forces class squadmates take out bridges, commander assets, and other strategic points, while keeping them supplied with ammo and covering them with your LMG. These are just some of the possibilities, I'm sure there are plenty of others as well.
7) PLAY AS COMMANDER: It goes without saying, but give commanding your team a shot. Commanding is like having a FIFTH game, a real-time strategy/RTS game, built into Battlefield 2. Anyone who's ever had fun playing Command and Conquer would no doubt have some fun playing as commander. But as is the case with squad leaders, a lot of commanders complain that no one listens to their orders. Once again, the key is to explain WHY you need a certain squad to take a certain position, or to repair an asset, etc. BF2 is not really the USMC, people will not automatically follow your orders, so you need to have a good reason for your orders so that you can "command by concensus". Remember again to keep your orders realistic; if squad 4 has an engineer in it, but they're all on foot by the Old City in Daqing, they're not going to jog all the way back to the USMC main base, past 4 enemy flags surrounded by infantry, to repair your artillery.
8) TRY NEW THINGS: I guess every tip I've given so far has been a variation of this tip, but it counts on its own. Try new things! Explore the map, find new ambush points, play maps that you usually avoid, find the best places to put mines or blocks of C4, etc.
9) TRY SPECIAL FORCES OR EURO FORCE: For 30 bucks (for BF2SF) or 10 bucks (for BF2EF), you could add several maps, weapons, and vehicles to your BF2 experience. I've barely played either of them because I'm still entertained by vanilla BF2, but it's good to know when I get tired of it I'll still have 2 expansion packs to play, with new maps to explore and figure out.
10) UPGRADE YOUR HARDWARE: If you're still playing BF2 on an ATi Radeon 9200, or a GeForce 5200, then the game will look pretty lousy, and it's only natural that you'll get bored. There are a lot of beautiful effects, shadows, detail, and locales in the BF2 world that you can only really enjoy on medium or high settings, and the eye candy will keep the game fun and enjoyable. Not to mention that nothing will kill your enthusiasm for an online game of BF2 faster than......LAG!!! I leave this suggestion for last, since most people will not drop 200-300$ on a new video card or stick of RAM just for one game. If this is your stance though, remember that such upgrades will also improve your gameplay on all of your other games you enjoy, right now and in the future, so it may be a good investment.
So if you're finding your BF2 enthusiasm slowing down a bit, give the above suggestions a try. Some of them will have a negative impact on your points-per-game average, but the important thing is that you'll still find BF2 FUN. Happy fragging!
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