Grooves twin and his bf2142 experience, similar to mine, but I am not creating a new account to play this fuckin thing.
The newest game is Battlefield 2142, which takes place in the future. I haven’t paid much attention to it, as I have not really been into multiplayer games as of late. But when I heard the demo was out, I thought I would give it a spin. Here is a (LONG) summary of my experience.
EDIT: I have figured out how to play Battlefield 2142 in Widescreen. w00t! (yes this is just a shameless plug
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* Tried to download the demo from EA directly, only to find out that Gamespot had the exclusive on the demo to begin with.
* After going to Gamespot, I found out that the demo was only released to people who pre-purchased the game. The rest of us would have to wait a day.
* The next day, I go to download it. Again, Gamespot is the only place to carry the demo to begin with. The idea of this is to get people to sign up for their service, because otherwise you would get a very limited download speed (the demo is 1GB in size). You couldn’t download it whatsoever without a free account, so I didn’t even bother.
* Later that day, I saw it on my NZB list site. In other words, someone uploaded it to the usenet. This is the best way for me, because I can download it at max bandwidth (6.5 Mbps).
* I installed the game, and went to play it. I got the error “d3dx9_29.dll was not found”. Apparently, you need the latest version of DirectX 9. I knew I had DirectX 9C, but there are always un-numbered updates, so that would have to be downloaded direct from Microsoft.
* Microsoft will not let you download from their website unless you install a “Genuine Windows” plugin. I am not interested in installing this plugin, so I had to look elsewhere
* I tried Download.com - they had a file titled “DirectX 9C Redistributable”. This file was about 30MB
* The version on Download.com was not the latest, so the game still did not work
* I decided to try the “DirectX 9C Web Installer”. This is a small file that downloads the rest of DirectX. I figured this would download the very latest files directly from Microsoft
* Wrong. This version of DirectX 9C is still not the latest
* Finally, I found a site that lists direct download URLs to DirectX files on Microsoft’s server. There is no need to use their website to download, and thus no need for “Genuine Advantage” plugins. I downloaded the latest version of DirectX 9C, dated August 2006. This file is about 50MB, so I figure it’s the very latest version (why the fuck didn’t they call it DirectX 9D?). Here is the link (I figure people might find this post looking for various errors and other problems due to these stupid file naming schemes).
* IT WORKED! I CAN PLAY THE GAME NOW! EA says they didn’t want to include DirectX in the demo, to keep the file size down. The demo is 1 GB. Adding the updated DirectX would have been another 30 MB.
* As with most annoying games, you can’t skip the intro scenes. I KNOW who the fucking publisher is. LET ME PLAY!
* A short intro plays, to explain the new game style called “Titan”. It’s basically Conquest, only instead of a simple time limit, you hold the flags long enough to damage your opponent’s “base” instead. Once it is fully destroyed, you win the round.
* You are asked for your “EA Login”. I enter my login ID from Battlefield 2. It doesn’t work.
* I go to create a new account. Since the Battlefield 2 login does not translate to Battlefield 2142, I go to enter the same account ID I use in all games. It tells me the name has been taken.
* Well if the name is taken, that means I can log in, right? I try again. It still doesn’t work. I notice that the error is that the account “cannot be found”. Well if it can’t be found, why does it say the account exists when I try to create it? FUCK!
* I try my secondary login that I use when ‘lowlight’ is taken - lowlight_hcw. This eliminates the possibility of it being taken by anyone else. Once again, it tells me that the name is taken. Well then, maybe that was my Battlefield 2 login!
* I try to login with my secondary account ID. Nope, name does not exist.
* Finally, I create a brand new EA account (for all I know, this is the fifth or sixth one), and I finally get into the game!
* It asks to name your new character. Frustrated, I called it “EASUCKS”. It does not let me use the name, since it contains the word “suck”. I try “EASukz” and it works.
* The entire interface feels laggy, like you are controlling a remote server across the pacific. This is nothing new to Battlefield games.
* The first thing I do when playing a new game is changing the resolution. Most new games support native widescreen resolutions by now. Battlefield 2142 does not. 1152-by-whatever is the highest res available. I select that.
* I set the graphics details to “high” (I am running a GeForce 7800 GTX on a Core 2 Extreme CPU). It tells me the settings won’t take effect until I restart the game. That’s fair.
* I go to set the audio options - X-Fi mode, and “Extreme” quality. It will not work. Oops, I forgot that my X-Fi was still in “Entertainment” mode. You need to set it to “Gaming” mode to be able to fully utilize the settings.
* I Quit the game, go back to change my X-Fi settings, and re-enter. Fucking intro movies. The video settings have taken effect, and the audio settings now work.
* Time to change the control settings! Battlefield games are notorious for their fucking HORRIBLE interface when it comes to changing settings. Thankfully, they have fixed the main problem - when you choose a key that is taken, you can actually override it right away. No need to look all over the place looking for “left ctrl” - and sometimes it isn’t even found in the game interface, so you have to open a config file to delete it. Amazingly, I was able to set all my keys properly, right away.
* I go to join a server. It takes about 30 seconds to refresh all the servers. Ping times are not shown in numbers. WTF is this, 1998?
* Only 14 games are listed. All but one are ‘red’ or ‘yellow’ meaning the ping is probably higher than 600 or so (it is not specified what the colours mean). I try the only green one. Server full. It has to refresh the entire list again.
* Another green server shows up. It says 12/14 - two spots available! I go to join it. It says the server is full. It has to refresh the entire list again.
* Yet another green server shows up. This one also shows two spots available. This time it connects.
* “Optimizing Shaders”. Fuck. This takes about 5 minutes.
* After it was finished optimizing shaders, I got disconnected. It has to refresh the entire list again.
* I try the same server again. This time it connects! I am IN THE GAME!
* I spawn in a jet. It gets destroyed right away.
* I spawn on the ground; there is considerable lag, noticable even when turning around in the game. I check my ping - it says 64. That is extremely low, but it sure doesn’t feel that way.
* I hop into a turret - someone tries to sneak up on me and kill me, but he must be lagging worse than I am. I get out and kill him
* Someone finishes me
* I spawn again, and find a flag - err, rocket pad. Someone is guarding it in a turret, and he is attacking my teammate who is in a tank. I sneak up to the turret and kill him. Unfortunately this was not before he killed my teammate. Sorry bud.
* I capture the flag - err, rocket pad.
* Another teammate shows up in this mech-looking thing. I hope in as a co-pilot.
* I tested out the guns - Fire 1 is a standard machine gun. Fire 2, well I don’t know what it does… It shoots this particle burst or whatever, but it doesn’t go anywhere NEAR where I am aiming.
* We spot an enemy APC. We both start unloading on it. Our weapons don’t seem to be doing much damage… My Fire 2 just shoots up in the air, missing completely. After what seems like 2 minutes, we finally get destroyed by another tank… I have no fucking clue why we couldn’t destroy a simple APC
* I spawn in our “Titan”. It is nearly destroyed. I hop off, and jump in another tank as a co-pilot. We try shooting an enemy, but the round is over.
* ~, /quit
* This is not a game, it’s a fucking MOD. How the hell can they charge full price for this, I do not know. I obviously haven’t spent much time with it, but it’s pretty obvious that they are just giving up on Battlefield 2 (which is pretty much broken down even after the last 2 patches) and are cashing on what is obviously a mod riding the same crappy, sluggish engine. I will reserve final judgement until I get some more play-time in, but I don’t feel the least bit interested in playing the game anymore.
* Total time spent downloading, installing, and trying to get the game to work: 3 days. Total time spent in an actual game: 10 minutes.
* EA Sucks.
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