Battlefield 2
Judging from the incredible year we just had, you might think that 2004 was pretty much it for the game industry in terms of exciting and promising games...especially since so many of them turned out well. But while you and I work on the happy task of fighting through the backlog of all those great games from last year, we've also got plenty of great games on the horizon. I'm going to cite two games I'm especially looking forward to, but there will be plenty of other great games in addition to these.
The first game I'm really looking forward to playing is Battlefield 2, by the team of DICE Sweden and EA Games. You might think that it's a bit strange to look forward to the next Battlefield game, because the teams have already put together two previous games in the series with a lot of the same qualities, like fast-paced arcade-style shooting on foot and armed vehicles that travel by land, sea, and air and allow for multiple passengers (and plenty of great team-based battles). This is even more particularly strange since I've already played the game (or an early version of it, anyway). But now that I've seen what the game has to offer, I, like the rest of you Battlefield fans, want more.
Fortunately, Battlefield 2 looks positioned to give just that. The game will have, among other things, lots of new squad control options, including a "commander" view, which is not unlike some of the options featured in Novalogic's Joint Operations. If you're serious enough about your Battlefield to be able to participate in an organized online clan in your spare time, which there's never enough of (don't games like these always seem to make that painfully obvious?), you can create organized squads where leaders can give move orders, and teammates can view one another from various distances. These squad controls are clearly intended for serious players and can be safely ignored by casual players. But the higher-level stuff, especially the commander option of calling in strategic strikes, seems like it may at least make online games a little less chaotic. And it may even encourage players in pickup games to try to act as a team. Naw.
Aside from the fact that the team focus is actually going to help me get ranked for being a good medic and a good engineer (rather than only letting me earn points for kills and captures), Battlefield 2 just seems like it will be a lot more dynamic and fast-paced. Case in point: Compared to the clunky panzers of the original Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2's fast-moving M1A1 Abrams tank, which has heavy forward-armor plating and whose forward cannon packs a wallop, moves like greased lightning. From my short time with the game, the generally faster vehicles and on-foot sprinting seems like they could really help quicken the pace of the average match (which, in the previous games, would still require you to either sit and wait for a vehicle respawn or would require you to slowly hoof it to the next control point, several clicks away, at least every so often). A Battlefield game where I can spend even less time walking around and even more time mixing it up in a tank (and hopefully not getting caught in artillery and air strikes)? I'm on board for that.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
The other game I've picked for my list is Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. It was disappointing to find out the game wasn't going to make it out in 2004 after all, but it still looks incredible. It was easily the most impressive-looking game at E3 2004 (where I first saw the game), and it continues to look fantastic. It also apparently promises to finally go beyond being just a stealth game, where your choices are limited to "Don't get caught." and "Lose." Yes, you still play as NSA agent Sam Fisher, and, yes, he's still one of the most skilled sneaks around.
But in Chaos Theory, Fisher looks like he can actually make "adjustments" whenever a situation goes wrong. In the previous Splinter Cell games, your primary means of dealing with enemies was to creep up behind them or simply avoid them for fear of triggering an alarm. It doesn't look like you can openly fight your way through an entire mission, but in Chaos Theory, Fisher will be packing heat in the form of an honest-to-goodness submachine gun, along with other things like grenades and handguns, which will let him go at it in an honest-to-goodness firefight...at least in a pinch. And Mr. Fisher will also be bringing his trusty stabbin' knife, along with several new and innovative ways to neutralize hostile elements with his bare hands. If all goes right, he won't be the helpless weakling that stealth-based games often make you feel like you're when trying to sneak past a bunch of dumb guards as quietly as possible.
That's to say nothing of the other great details we've seen of the game, like how Fisher can also use his knife to quietly slice open curtains or sheaves of insulation to clear his view without making much noise. Fisher can now also breach doors with explosives, stunning any enemies foolish enough to be standing too close. In some cases, he can rip right through thin walls and strangle any enemy unfortunate enough to be on the other side. And in what may become a tradition for the Splinter Cell series, Ubisoft Montreal is following up the highly innovative spy-versus-mercenary multiplayer of Pandora Tomorrow with an even more intriguing cooperative multiplayer mode that will take real advantage of online voice chat to let players accomplish tricky tasks, like giving each other boosts to get over ledges or to more easily negotiate guarded walls. Chaos Theory looks really, really impressive, so you can see why I'm looking forward to playing both this and Battlefield 2 later this year.
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They interviewed all the IGN staff, dumb dumberton.
CdnKou 4 years ago
I don't get it? We should buy these because he is asian?
TempFix 4 years ago