KiLL3r
7th September 2006, 01:15 PM
Conquest
All EA has talked about when mentioning 2142 to this date is Titan Mode. As you probably know by now this requires players to capture missile silos that unsurprisingly fire missiles. These missiles strike the opposition's 'Titan,' the titular vehicle that is basically a floating carrier. Once enough missiles have hit, the Titan's shield drops and then it must be boarded and four control consoles destroyed before the Main Core Blast Doors are opened to allow the attackers to destroy the Titan once and for all.
It was with some surprise then that the 30 odd high-spec machines (AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Dual Core Processor, 2GB RAM, top-end Nvidia graphics cards) were in fact running Conquest, something all Battlefield 2 players are familiar with (capture areas to gain control of the map and reduce the amount of tickets the enemy has. First team to 0 tickets or with least tickets when time runs out loses.)
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/8358/screenshots82lf9.th.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshots82lf9.jpg)http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/8313/screenshots83sb9.th.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshots83sb9.jpg)
As Conquest requires no further explanation, and the build we were using was just two days older than the one presently available via FilePlanet.com with no notable major changes apart from an updated GUI, and the addition of a weak artillery strike for the Commander, I'll focus on the new maps we sampled.
Tunis Harbor
This port map was the first of the day and an early favourite of mine due to its close-quarter battles that are predominantly infantry based due to the lack of anything other than Fast Attack Vehicles (think a buggy) and one Battlewalker (a mech) per side. Another highlight of the map was that it was set in Africa giving it a warm glowy feeling that you just don't get on the harsh and barren ice-filled maps that feature in most of EA's released screenshots.
Action was never far away on Tunis Harbor due to its compressed layout and wonderful overhead walkways that provided snipers with a dazzling array of firing positions rarely seen in Battlefield maps, and other infantry with quick access to all capture points. Enemy walkers clumsy enough to stumble into tight areas quickly fell prey to infantry-thrown EMP grenades and anti-tank weapons that made light work of the fearsome vehicles that are typically so dominant on the Tuning Beta map, Verdun.
Gold badge baby, yeah!
Suez Canal
Suez Canal is a relatively large map geared towards vehicle use with a large bridge over the titular canal acting as the main choke zone between the two halves of the map with further progress once the two opposing forces meet typically only being made by squads utilising the speedy air transports - certainly not my favourite map of the day, though I'm sure the tank nuts will love it.
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/43/screenshots42fx0.th.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshots42fx0.jpg)http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/5160/screenshots53zq2.th.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshots53zq2.jpg)http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1729/screenshots46fq0.th.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshots46fq0.jpg)
Sidi Power Plant
Back in the North Pole we switched over to Sidi Power Plant, another African map featuring a good balance between vehicles and infantry, and one capture point that to capture required units to dismount from their vehicles.
Shuhia Taiba
Another African map, though this one was tough on the legs if you were without a vehicle, unfortunately. I say unfortunately because Shuhia Taiba had a really good flow and a lot of vertical action that spiced things up, so basically, if DICE could pop a few more FAVs in there they'd be golden.
Shuhia Taiba also featured some great unique buildings including a giant circular "thing" whose shadowy underside was great for ambushes, and the laying of automated turrets.
Q&A Session
Our team's decimation of the enemy was halted for a Q&A session with DICE Sweden's Kristoffer Bergqvist (the only fellow other than myself to fly across the Atlantic to get there). Kris answered numerous questions though revealing answers weren't particularly forthcoming due to agreements and as-of-yet unannounced plans but he did discuss DICE's new "Live Team" that will handle anything to do with the community, support of the mod tools (they're coming ASAP, though don't expect documentation at the same time), and any other miscellaneous issues that pop up, including the support of patches. If you'd like to see the Q&A session yourself head on over here to download Tim's footage.
Kristoffer Bergqvist, the standee
All EA has talked about when mentioning 2142 to this date is Titan Mode. As you probably know by now this requires players to capture missile silos that unsurprisingly fire missiles. These missiles strike the opposition's 'Titan,' the titular vehicle that is basically a floating carrier. Once enough missiles have hit, the Titan's shield drops and then it must be boarded and four control consoles destroyed before the Main Core Blast Doors are opened to allow the attackers to destroy the Titan once and for all.
It was with some surprise then that the 30 odd high-spec machines (AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Dual Core Processor, 2GB RAM, top-end Nvidia graphics cards) were in fact running Conquest, something all Battlefield 2 players are familiar with (capture areas to gain control of the map and reduce the amount of tickets the enemy has. First team to 0 tickets or with least tickets when time runs out loses.)
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/8358/screenshots82lf9.th.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshots82lf9.jpg)http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/8313/screenshots83sb9.th.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshots83sb9.jpg)
As Conquest requires no further explanation, and the build we were using was just two days older than the one presently available via FilePlanet.com with no notable major changes apart from an updated GUI, and the addition of a weak artillery strike for the Commander, I'll focus on the new maps we sampled.
Tunis Harbor
This port map was the first of the day and an early favourite of mine due to its close-quarter battles that are predominantly infantry based due to the lack of anything other than Fast Attack Vehicles (think a buggy) and one Battlewalker (a mech) per side. Another highlight of the map was that it was set in Africa giving it a warm glowy feeling that you just don't get on the harsh and barren ice-filled maps that feature in most of EA's released screenshots.
Action was never far away on Tunis Harbor due to its compressed layout and wonderful overhead walkways that provided snipers with a dazzling array of firing positions rarely seen in Battlefield maps, and other infantry with quick access to all capture points. Enemy walkers clumsy enough to stumble into tight areas quickly fell prey to infantry-thrown EMP grenades and anti-tank weapons that made light work of the fearsome vehicles that are typically so dominant on the Tuning Beta map, Verdun.
Gold badge baby, yeah!
Suez Canal
Suez Canal is a relatively large map geared towards vehicle use with a large bridge over the titular canal acting as the main choke zone between the two halves of the map with further progress once the two opposing forces meet typically only being made by squads utilising the speedy air transports - certainly not my favourite map of the day, though I'm sure the tank nuts will love it.
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/43/screenshots42fx0.th.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshots42fx0.jpg)http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/5160/screenshots53zq2.th.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshots53zq2.jpg)http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1729/screenshots46fq0.th.jpg (http://img59.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshots46fq0.jpg)
Sidi Power Plant
Back in the North Pole we switched over to Sidi Power Plant, another African map featuring a good balance between vehicles and infantry, and one capture point that to capture required units to dismount from their vehicles.
Shuhia Taiba
Another African map, though this one was tough on the legs if you were without a vehicle, unfortunately. I say unfortunately because Shuhia Taiba had a really good flow and a lot of vertical action that spiced things up, so basically, if DICE could pop a few more FAVs in there they'd be golden.
Shuhia Taiba also featured some great unique buildings including a giant circular "thing" whose shadowy underside was great for ambushes, and the laying of automated turrets.
Q&A Session
Our team's decimation of the enemy was halted for a Q&A session with DICE Sweden's Kristoffer Bergqvist (the only fellow other than myself to fly across the Atlantic to get there). Kris answered numerous questions though revealing answers weren't particularly forthcoming due to agreements and as-of-yet unannounced plans but he did discuss DICE's new "Live Team" that will handle anything to do with the community, support of the mod tools (they're coming ASAP, though don't expect documentation at the same time), and any other miscellaneous issues that pop up, including the support of patches. If you'd like to see the Q&A session yourself head on over here to download Tim's footage.
Kristoffer Bergqvist, the standee