Today, MMORPG.com debuts a new column that will see our writers give their opinions on some of the games that don't fit into the MMORPG genre. In this week's column, Jon Wood talks a little bit about Battlefield 2142 and the franchise behind it.

Today, we kick off a new column here at MMORPG.com. In this column, our writers will be asked to look beyond the MMORPGs that normally fill this site and talk about games from other genres. What they’ve liked, what they haven’t liked and what’s new. After all, man can not survive on bread alone, and neither can gamers survive on MMORPGs alone.

Today, I wanted to talk about my current non-MMO obsession: Battlefield 2142. Made by Dice and aptly published by Electronic Arts, this game fills a fair amount of my computer time. 

The Battlefield series has been, in this writer’s opinion, relatively solid in terms of a franchise. War games have always been popular, and the Battlefield games have always done a stellar job of putting players into the action, stripping away most of the pretense of story to create a PvP lover’s dreamland where player skill makes the difference between life and death, and player kits take the place of classes, allowing for more specialized soldiering on the field of battle.

Read the whole article here.

Dogtags make phat lewt!  Woot! Woot!

Yeah, I've been addicted to Battlefield since the first one came out - and like the author, I hardly touched Vietnam. There haven't been any real MMOs that seem to revolutionize the genre and get me to jump back in, so it's been 2142 killing them all!

I find this game very addictive, you have an hour or 2 to kill 2142 is the best game around and it helps to fill the void of not having an mmo atm.

I like the premise that this column, I think it's a great idea and this, along with the other areas you've been expanding into such as Hardware reviews will add alot more depth to the site. I also really like the subject of the article being Battlefield 2142, and not just b/c it's a game in my regular rotation. BF2142 is sort-of a psuedo-MMO, a hybrid FPS/MMO if you will. It's definately more FPS then MMO, but it still has some RPG-liteish elements to it which I think is what really sets it, and BF2, apart from the crowd of multiplayer shooters.

All that being said, I would like to see this article try and at least stick to games that have MMOish elements to them. For instance, I know the site has been receiving alot of feedback on, and internally debated carrying, Hellgate:London on the site. This article could be the perfect vessel to bridge the gap between the sites main focus of more traditional MMO experiences ala EQ2, WoW, EVE etc, and the games that don't all of the requirements for what makes up a traditional MMO. Games like the afore mentioned Hellgate:London, or games live Savage and it's follow-up Savage 2 that are a really neat blend of RTS and MMO, the possibilities are nearly limitless.

Good show

Battlefield 2142 = Battle field engine + Physics + Way less Players + Ideas and concepts from plantside.

I miss PlanetSide. 

Why the hell aren't there a dozen MMOFPS games in development!?!?!?! 

Yeah, BF2142 is in my regular rotation also. I love this game. Especially 32vs32 city battles without all the vehicles. Haven't played in about 2 weeks tho due to me playing WoW more this month. (just came back after about 2 years).

I really see the potential for a larger scale type of Battlefield game. I'm talking 64vs64. Maybe in about 4-5 years.

I also see the potential for a planetside type of Battlefield game where it's not matches but world war, where the battle rages on forever. Or if it's match style....you win but it's tracked as that place being won by a particular side. I know EA/Dice already has a simulated type war of this kind, but maybe it goes larger scale and the entire world is the map. Persistent world.

Originally posted by Sovren1

I really see the potential for a larger scale type of Battlefield game. I'm talking 64vs64. Maybe in about 4-5 years.

Yeah that would be nice.  However, I'm wondering why they don;t have such 64v64 (or higher) games now..?  And what can they not do now that will be possible in 5 years (regarding player numbers).  It seems to me that 32v32 is the practical limit.  Beyond that the server just can't communicate with all those players at the same time and keep the FPS requisite "bullet goes where you aim".  I could be wrong, but then, what is the problem that is holding BF back from having larger player numbers in a single game?...

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Originally posted by hadubnano

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Originally posted by Sovren1
I really see the potential for a larger scale type of Battlefield game. I'm talking 64vs64. Maybe in about 4-5 years.

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Yeah that would be nice. However, I'm wondering why they don;t have such 64v64 (or higher) games now..? And what can they not do now that will be possible in 5 years (regarding player numbers). It seems to me that 32v32 is the practical limit. Beyond that the server just can't communicate with all those players at the same time and keep the FPS requisite "bullet goes where you aim". I could be wrong, but then, what is the problem that is holding BF back from having larger player numbers in a single game?...

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Not certain what's holding them back. I think a few of the maps are large enough for the next leap. Atleast 48vs48. I basically said 4-5 years because it would be my guess that the BF that they have in the works will still max at 64. Probably be out in 2years. I think once they make the jump 64vs64 will be the new standard.

I love this game. Like a previous poster said, it's what I play when I don't have an MMO.

I just want to add that I think the Battlefield series is very poorly written. My copies of the games would install but not play on an optimized system. So I have to use the manufacter warranty in order for them to replace the opened copies with sealed copies so now we have to sell them on ebay to make up lost $. It really takes good programming skill to do what some of the independent developers and also the best ones do to put together the MMORPG games.

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Originally posted by trev9999
I just want to add that I think the Battlefield series is very poorly written. My copies of the games would install but not play on an optimized system. So I have to use the manufacter warranty in order for them to replace the opened copies with sealed copies so now we have to sell them on ebay to make up lost $. It really takes good programming skill to do what some of the independent developers and also the best ones do to put together the MMORPG games.

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I agree with the poorly written part, as the battlefield series as a whole seems like they test their games after launch.

With that said, These games are still that good imo to make me wanna play anyway. I don't think I have ever put up with games that have had the problems these have had.

EA in general pisses me off due to alot of their practices. *The madden thing kinda pissed me off as I like the Sega Sports 2k thing...not only did EA steal the contract for Sports Center, They struck a deal with the NFL for complete and ONLY right to it's label making every other football game out there not able to use real nfl player names or teams. They did this to monopolize the professional football gaming market making madden the one and only which I saw as an inferior game to the 2k games anyway.*

They tried to do the same with the other sports sectors and failed. Nba live in my circles has been blown out of the water by the 2k series.

I personally love BF 2142 and considering i just quit wow im playing games to hold me over till AOC SO BF 2142 fits nicely, it also reminds me alot of Planetside.  I really wish they made a Planetside 2 , taking alot from BF 2142 and PS, would be awesome!

I also agree that BF2 and 2142 were very sketchy at first. i still get goofy crashes all the time and i have a pretty badass system. that being said i love the games and i actually realy enjoyed BFV and played it for a quite a while aswell, and i still regularly play BF2.

And i also cant understand why there isnt several mmofps's in development. i know we have huxley coming up, and we have Planetside still, which btw i still think is one of the single most enjoyable online gaming experiences ive ever had , and i go right back to Subspace and UO as my first online games, so ive been around the block.

Bottom line, i see many many many gamers asking where all the MMOFPS'S  with strong RPG elements are. im willing to bet in a few years the game companys will start to see the financial possibilities of the market for them.

Ajaxee.

My two main problems with BF and BF2142 have always been the stability (they have way too many bugs to work through over at DICE) and a lack of coherancy.

I have to be on voice chat to meet people in BF2142. I also have no effect on anything AT ALL except my own character. Sure, my reputation depends on my performance, and if I keep plowing through my own teammates or blowing up things by accident, then people start to notice. But beyond that, losing and winning mean nothing. There are no long term goals, no alliances, no politics...

Not to say that's nessisarily bad, but without those things I get bored. Just as in an MMORPG, without the addictive, fast paced, backstabbing gameplay of a FPS like 2142 (where you can stealth for a good minute or more with the expansion) I lose interest and no amount of politics or consistant world design will keep me playing. (See EVE and the awsomeness of gate camping in a never ending war)

It all comes down to gameplay versus world design. BF2142 is all about gameplay. They don't care about world design (though they have the building blocks in place for the world to start mattering to players, they choose not to persue that line of development) they care about letting you go gank people while working as a team with others.

What I want is a game like planetside with a much richer world design, more stability, and gameplay like BF2142. That may be aiming high.

I thought it was BF2 with some changes based on a poor sci-fi wich wasn't fun at all + the game engine is horrible and you never get the feeling of firering a gun or hotting your target. Games like CS and TF2 are soooo much better an more fun...

Originally posted by Sovren1

 

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Originally posted by hadubnano

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Originally posted by Sovren1
I really see the potential for a larger scale type of Battlefield game. I'm talking 64vs64. Maybe in about 4-5 years.

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Yeah that would be nice. However, I'm wondering why they don;t have such 64v64 (or higher) games now..? And what can they not do now that will be possible in 5 years (regarding player numbers). It seems to me that 32v32 is the practical limit. Beyond that the server just can't communicate with all those players at the same time and keep the FPS requisite "bullet goes where you aim". I could be wrong, but then, what is the problem that is holding BF back from having larger player numbers in a single game?...

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Not certain what's holding them back. I think a few of the maps are large enough for the next leap. Atleast 48vs48. I basically said 4-5 years because it would be my guess that the BF that they have in the works will still max at 64. Probably be out in 2years. I think once they make the jump 64vs64 will be the new standard.

I seem to recall being on Tribes and Tribes 2 servers "back in the day" that had 64 vs. 64 games going on. In fact, I think the major reason why the Tribes Community rejected Tribes: Vengeance was because the online play ONLY supported 32 vs. 32 and not 64 vs. 64. I'll have to check up on that tho'

Still, I do remember some pretty big games of Tribes over a 56K dial-up connection. <shrugs>

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Battlefield 2142 = Battle field engine + Physics + Way less Players + Ideas and concepts from plantside.

1.) Devs that refused to stop drilling their product into the ground with increasingly stupid patches and expansion packs

2.) Absolutely horrible FPS

3.) Just as awesome lag

Though I still loved that game in its hayday :( I woke up 3 hours before school to play it...

I would like to know what the writer's 2142 name is, might be worth hunting you down for your dogtag!  That truly is the best and most unique part of 2142. 

If I saw an ad that advertised a new mmo that was nothing but a black screen... kept the audience waiting for a couple seconds... and played the classic BF(1942/2/2142) music and ended

I would explode with joy.