I never fully understood why the expansion packs for BF2 weren't more popular than they were, but at the time of their original release there was a huge amount of groaning an whining among BF2 players about the way EA decided to do the BF2 expansions. Personally, I thought they were good value for money, and added some very nice touches to the original game to keep it fresh and exciting. But, sadly, the actual effect was to splinter the BF2 community, and eventually - to all intense and purposes, the expansions were largely ignored and forgotten.

Having said all that, there was always a hard core within the community who recognized that 'Special Forces' was one of the better expansions, and that it added some really nice maps and features. Because of this there has always been a underground following if you look about the servers.

So what's so different about Special Forces?

The main differences between vanilla BF2 and SF were - of course -  the maps, locations and 'armies' that were added. For a start and for the first time, British players now had the chance to actually play British forces, in the guise of the SAS!

Armies added: British SAS, Russian Spetsnaz, US Navy SEALS, MEC Special Forces, Russian Rebels, Middle Eastern Insurgents

Kit wise it all seemed to be something of a mixed bag, with two steps forward and two steps back! There were some nice unlocks, but the unlock system seemed hamstrung because the inventory didn't actually provide you with all the weapons that you had in BF2. But, it did add some excellently amusing bits of kit, like the grappling hook, zip wire and - my favourite - tear gas.

Above: Two of the more exciting vehicles deployed in Special Forces; the Russian Hind and the American Longbow. What a pity they didn't retrograde the vanilla BF2 with these fantastic helecopters!

But best of all were some of the maps. Two in particular have become firm favourites within the BF2 community; 'Ghost Town' and 'Warlord', and these remain very popular on the servers today.

I was a little amazed that the unusual night map - 'Devil's perch' - which featured in the very impressive movie trailer of Special Forces was so heavily criticised when the expansion was released. I found it a very exciting map myself, but night vision just seemed to turn a lot of people off.

What's it like today?

Well, obviously, BF2 is now getting a little long in the tooth graphically (comparitively speaking). But having said that there are enough very well modeled pieces of kit and unusual locations in Special Forces for you to forgive it's ageing visuals (compared to, say, CoD4) and to not let that detract from the quality of play.

I was actually amazed in how much play style differed between the vanilla BF2 and Special Forces. I am not a bad player (not terrific either), and I would expect these days a game score of around 100 points in a BF2 game. So imagine my surprise when I was absolutely thrashed in my first game of SF, and even now - after a dozen games or more, I still think myself lucky if I break 40 points.

Part of this is the unfamiliarity with the maps, part of this is the fact that I'm working alone and not in a familiar team, but most of all it seems to be to do with the speed of the play.

Special Forces just seems to be a faster game to play in. There seems little of the thoughtful and measured tactical pushing that you can get in BF2. Instead there is a manic, full speed ahead rush - and sometime a game ends before I feel I have played any really significant part. This *may* be to do with the fact that on the servers I have played SF on so far I have not seen a lot of team play or teams. It seems to be more of an individual battle for points - with little importance placed on supporting a team win - that seems secondary and a side effect rather than a main objective.

I am sure team games do go on in Special Forces - I just haven't seen any yet! (Compare that to a vanilla BF2 server like UKSF for example, where on most days you can see small cohesive squads forming, and some semblance of teamwork tactics in play.)

However, having said all that, I did enjoy my re-visit to 'Special Forces'. There are enough unique parts of this game to make you feel a refreshing buzz about playing it. And if nothing else, you have the added novelty of being able to play a British force and earn some new badges (if that's your thing)!

Recommended servers:

= 22nd = SAS Regiment 24/7 Warlord - 193.93.47.91 - Infantry only

= SPM = Special Forces 24/7 Ghost Town - 84.244.186.87 - Infantry only

As I am still house bound at the moment, I decided to have a bit of a bash at BF2 again - jumping into a German public server that wasn't too busy. And feeling a little lazy I decided to command, as no one else seemed to want the role!

What transpired was a 2 hours marathon of a game, which became a really fierce battle for Wake Island. An unusual aspect of this particular game is that the German clan who owned the server had a strange rule I had never come across before: 'Commander must not become involved in fighting' - in other words, if you choose commander, that's ALL you do.

It actually makes sense really, as you then have to concentrate on serving others to get your points, and don't take the eye off the ball by being concerned with your own personal survival. It was a bit different but really rewarding.

As I said, it turned out to be a very long game as none of my team seemed to have heard of defence (we played USMC on the attack), and they consistently lost back flags to the tenacious Chinese team and had to repeatedly go back and re-capture flags.

I spent most of my time as the commander spotting for Chinese 'flankers' who sneaked round the back of our lines and frustrated our advance by taking rear flags. I did this from the safety of the carrier, sitting in the AA gun - as in the beginning the Chinese kept attacking our ship with their bombers until we eventually took the airfield.

An unexpected result of all this 'back seat driving' was that I accumulated quit a few points and awards, which was a nice perk. Additionally, this game recaptured all the early excitement I remember having when I first began to play BF2 (as it seems that a lot of the annoying little frag-bunnies have moved on to frag fests like CoD4)! 

Tonight I just finished the first mission --- Really enjoyed it, although it was mostly a learning exercise, discovering the key layout, etc. But generally, I like this game - it's still as 'recon' orientated as the first game - but with the added joy of better graphics!

Above: My squad - you can control these guys with a very easy to learn 'point and move' system OR a very nice command map system that makes the game almost like an RTS. You can let these guys do all the dirty work for you, they are quite intelligent.

The maps and missions are terrific (SP mode) - and I love the creeping about and getting the drop on the enemy. Don't get me wrong though, this is no Rainbow 6 or Splinter Cell, creeping around isn't the be all and end all...There is plenty of infantry action and shoot outs!

All this shooting is done by a gorgeous set of modern weapons. And you can customize your weapons with lots of different knick-knacks (and you don't even have to wait for unlocks!)

I haven't investigated the multiplayer mode yet, but the CO-OP mode - where you can play through missions against the AI team with your friends - sounds fantastic, and just the thing when there are only a few of you about.

I will add a follow-up when I have more fully explored the game 

Related links:

> UBISOFT official Ghost Recon web site
> Wikipedia: GRAW2
> Game.co.uk: GRAW2 - £14.99

Well, despite it's age (7 years old now) this game has managed to retain a hard core community of players, developers and dedicated servers which are a huge testament to the immersive quality of the game play. So much so, that a new and exciting mod for the game was released just over the past month that has had me scrambling about in my attic for my old Ghost Recon CDs.

Called 'Udmurtia Spetsnaz', this game add-on supplies a completely new set of uniforms, weapons and special characters that represent a snapshot of modern Russian special forces.

"Udmurtia is a region in russia that lies in the southern ural mountains. The capital is izhevsk and there you'll find the ismash gun factory, home of many russian guns.

Many units from this region has seen a great deal of action in recent years. OMSN Sobol - quick reaction force (earlier the name was SOBR), Krechet - an elite unit within the MVD (can cope with the most situations really), and Udmurtia OMON - an elite police unit." Ingleloop, developer of 'Udmurtia Spetsnaz' mod.

What is nice about this mod - aside from the superbly textured uniforms and weapons - is that this completely revitalises the classic Ghost Recon with a completely up-to-date force with which you can battle with in single player or multiplayer modes.

For me, and my involvement in the Russian themed airsoft team - Team AKA - this mod allowed me to investigate some very obscure modern Russian weaponry and uniform loadouts. Indeed, inspired by this mod, I have now started collecting the gear required to play one of the characters from the game at South Yorkshire Airsoft.

If you haven't ever tried Ghost Recon, I don't think this one mod will have you hunting through eBay to secure a copy of the original game, but for hardened veterans like myself this new mod is a delightful reason to dust off the old disks and spin that oldie! 

 DETAILS OF 'UDMURTIA SPETSNAZ':-

Description: New Russian weapons and characters with a 5 mission campaign.

Author/Developer:  Ingeloop/Migryder
Released:  22/12/07
Current version: 1.2
Requires: Ghost Recon plus Desert Siege, Island Thunder expansions
File size: 99Mb


RELATED LINKS:

> Download the ' Udmurtia Spetsnaz' mod for Ghost Recon (PC)

> UBISOFT's official Ghost Recon series website
> GhostRecon.net download section for classic Ghost Recon
> Wikipedia: Tom Clacy's Ghost Recon

I for one don't think it's at all strange that a gaming clan like BIG should have an airsoft section - as I have said before, airsoft is a natural progression of FPS and complements it nicely (as long as you don't mind getting off your ass and away from the comfort of you computer nest!)...

It's an interesting analogy that military computer gamers have long known that the real armies of several nations use games like BF2 and America's Army as training tools for real soldiers. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that playing TFPSs (Tactical FPSs) can give you a head start when starting to play airsoft.

A excellent example of how TFPS experience can have a positive effect on the field is Dewey & my teamwork last Sunday at South Yorkshire Airsoft. We drew on our work as team players of Battlefield 2 to effectively support each other tactically on the airsoft field.

You'd be surprised at just how many airsoft players don't have even the most basic tactical awareness - using cover, supporting each other and most importantly COMMUNICATING WITH EACH OTHER!

Believe it or not, our [computer gamers] use of Ventrillo voice-comms gives TFPS players a big advantage in playing airsoft - we don't mind constantly chattering to each other about 'what's going on' about us (at a sensible volume of course!)...

I've followed other groups of airsoft players around the field, and have been very surprised by the complete lack of tactical communication - spoken or unspoken - that goes on. Many patrols are done in complete silence!

One of the greatest advantages of working as a team is that you effectively add extra sets of eyes - but if that additional visual awareness is not translated into the communication of information between team members, then you are no more than a big herd of individuals. And you're patrol will ultimately fail.

Computer games like Battlefield 2 can be seen as good training tools for airsoft teams to practise certain movement and communication procedures. And likewise airsoft is a great team building and fun activity that can drive home the important of being aware of your environment. As I say - both activities can complement each other.

In the beginning...(1994)

Well, not right at the beginning - I don't think my experiences playing 'Knight Lore' on the 48k Spectrum are quite relevant. No, our interests lie in TFPS, and for this I would have to start my potted history in 1994 with two games that I can truthful say changed the way I played games altogether - Bungie's 'Marathon' and ID's 'Doom'

The twist in this tale is that I started my gaming not on a Windows PC, but on an Apple Macintosh Performa 630! And this has a particular relevance with regards to the history of computer gaming, because it was Bungie's 'Marathon' - a game designed for and only available (initially) on the Apple Mac that made the games industry sit up and take notice.

Left: Marathon action! Click on picture for larger image. 

 Both games - Marathon and Doom - introduced me to something new and exciting - multiplayer networked gaming. Oh my lord!

It also introduced me to that other gaming phenomenon, the 'LAN party'. Which in those days literally were parties, when a group of us totted our humongous Windows computers to some unfortunates house, along with huge amounts of beer and wine and spent 3 hours un-knotting BNC cable in order to play for an hour before we were too drunk to see our screens! 

Oh, but it get's better...(1999)

And just when I thought nothing could be better than playing three or four friends in a tiny bedsit (with never enough electrical sockets - or potato chips), along came the new object of my obsession - 'Unreal Tournament'.

Now, aside from the fact that 'UT' got me into playing online for the first time, it's place in this story is special because it additionally introduced me to the concept of game 'mods' (game expansions and conversions). Here it was that I got into a mod called 'Tactical Ops: Assault on Terror' - a 'UT' version of some game called 'Counter Strike' that apparently a few people were raving about! The real draw, though, was that the mod used 'real' weapons - 'just like the ones real soldiers use!' - and some very rudimentary tactics.

This is where Tactical First Person Shooters really arrived for me.

When the going get's tough, the tough get Ghost Recon...(2001)

The problem with 'TO' (and Counter Strike for that matter) was that it was little more than dressed up 'UT' or - by that time - 'Quake'. It was primarily 'run & gun', and while there were game tactics, they were little to do with real military or SWAT tactics and as such were not subversive - not allowing the gamer to believe he was taking part in a military operation.

For this level of submersion - or simulation - we had to wait until Red Storm Entertainment released 'Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon'. Now I will hold up my hand and admit that I have never read one of Mr. Clancy's novels, but I am told they contain a nitro mixed cocktail of action and convincing military detail - and for me this is exactly what 'GhR' was, excitement and realism.

Ghost Recon gobbled up my spare time for the next FIVE YEARS! It is a huge testimonial to Red Storm and the game that so many people were happily playing this game for quite so long. To this day there are hardened 'Ghost Recon Classic' fans out there who are still regularly filling server spaces.

When the virtual team became the real team, 'Joint Operations'...(2004)

Since 'Tactical Ops' I had been enjoying the feeling of being a part of virtual team, and I had even dabbled in a short lived membership of a Mac based 'GhR' clan called 'ENS' (Elite Navy Seals). But it was in 2004, when I changed jobs that I became involved in my first taste of real 'clan' membership, when I joined [BIG] - 'Bastards in Gaming'.

This small clan were then playing a game called 'Joint Operations' by Novalogic, a massive battlefield TFPS which, once again, raised the bar for multiplayer military computer games. This game introduced so many new aspects to the game play for me - including many on a 'wish list' I had developed while playing Ghost Recon. For a start - there were vehicles and aircraft you could actually control - oh boy! 

But chief attraction of this amazing game was the fact that you could play with and against up to 150 players online at one time!

Left: 'I'm flying, I'm flying!' Joint Ops had the double whammy of being able to control both land vehicles and aircraft!  And boy did you need them, the maps in this game were some of the biggest I have ever played on. (Which proved a pain at respawn time!)
Picture: GameSpy JO review

The other important innovation this brought was the use of voice comms - specifically 'Ventrillo'. Imagine, no more pushing 'T' to 'talk' - well, type actually! - and no more reliance on pre-defined key macros for tactical orders. Orders and communications now became more instinctive and precise - you could now really start to co-ordinate tactics.

And the hit just keep coming - 'Battlefield 2'...(2005)

The game industry - and computer hardware manufacturers, especially graphics card developers - consistently improved the speed at which they would jump ahead with monumental improvements to the game genre. No sooner had I honed my skill in 'JO' that rumours of 'the next big thing' started to circulate on the game forums. That 'new thing' was DICE's 'Battlefield 2'. 

 But above anything else it was the sheer hype that BF2's launch will be remembered for (along with the huge outcry about the massive upgrade that had to be undertake to your PC just to play the darn thing)!

So ambitious was this project - and so rabid were the demands from the gaming public for it's release - that DICE probably released the game way too early, with the result that some of the promised features (notably destructible buildings, and shooting through certain materials) were not included. What was included, however, were a ream of bugs that took patch after patch to resolve - with some patches actually creating more bugs than they fixed!

But still, Battlefield 2 was a major hit, with huge numbers of player signing up to play the game. It also marked my first entry into competition gaming, as part of my new clan, [OBC] - 'Old Bastards Clan'! (There seems to be a pattern in the names of the clans I join!) 

Oooops, a wrong turning - 'GRAW/GRAW2'... (2006)

Game bugs aside, BF2 had it's problems. In pandering to the broader gaming community it sacrificed realism for ease of play. Nothing wrong with that really, except that a certain proportion of players - myself included - occasionally found the believability of this battlefield 'sim' not quite 'sim' enough. There was still a little too much 'Unreal Tournament' and not enough tactics about what determined who won or lost in a team tournament.

One one very memorable occasion, for example, our team was soundly beaten in a league ladder competition by a team full of players who had perfected a most heinous of game tactics called 'dolphin diving' - a technique which had them 'break dancing' their way around the field completely bamboozling our players. Hardly 'subversive stuff'.

But the alternatives to BF2, when they do come along, had just as many problems - they were either over-complicated and under-developed, like 'Armed Assault', or graphically over-ambitious and lacking the persistence of gamer's profile that had made BF2 such a hit - in the case of  either 'Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter' games.

Left: The superb graphics of GRAW came at a heavy price to the end user. Picture: Ghostrecon.com

GRAW and GRAW2 - the follow-ons from my great favourite 'Ghost recon' - were particularly disappointing, in that they did little more than add eye-candy in abundance, with little acknowledgement that the gaming world had moved on, and that users wanted some sort of in-game 'career record' to mark their success in a game.

GRAWs passing nod to this fact, by allowing upgraded weapons to successful multiplayers (a non-persistant feature which disappeared between milti-player game sessions), simply served to highlight it's deficiencies.

Which brings us back to 'Du-Oh!' - 'Call of Duty 4'...(2007)

The games industry has come a long way - technology wise - in the last ten years of so, and this is plainly evident in how progressively more real looking TFPS games have become. But it is perhaps less evident just how the actual game play has improved over that time. 

Game play improvement can be seen as those areas which have generally lifted the gamers immersive experience and their ability to interact with either other players or the game characters or environment itself.

Above: Street fighting, Call of Duty 4 style. Immersive graphics, storyline and environments were - sadly - not accompanied by a expansive and 'open' game world.

Certainly game developers have progressively allowed us to interact with more and more of our fellow players and successfully improved NPC AI to the point where you can expect a decent enough game in single player mode. But it's in the area of the developing of a player character's career, and that of his team mates, that I think has been the greatest achievement in recent years.

In this DICE and Battlefield 2 must be given greatest acclaim for creating a TFPS world that preserves a players career in a very interesting and submersive manner. By creating ranks, awards and linking these to in game upgrades - albeit in a limited manner - they have created drive and purpose that goes beyond the immediate mission.

Call of Duty 4 - the very latest multiplayer battlefield shooter - should be the pinnacle of this player character immersion. Activision has long experience in the creation of superbly thought out and detailed military SP/MP games, and has continently improved the sense of atmosphere and realism with every episode of it's Call of Duty series.

Above: 'You can see for miles and miles!' - Unfortunately, this lovely big world is a lot smaller 'in game', CoD4 promises so much, but when the chips are down it;s the same old CoD linear 'walk through'. Multiplayer maps are even more restricting.

Yet they have chosen to stay close to a tried and tested single player with mulitplayer death match format that cries 'playing safe', and ultimately disappoints. They have made, as with GRAW, cursory forays into the area of player character career development - again by linking player success in the multiplayer game to equipment upgrades, which they call 'perks'. But, what little progress they have made in realism, career development and quality of graphics they have squandered by not daring to provide TFPS gamers with what they really want - a open game world with which to campaign across far and wide.

Multiplayer maps in CoD4 - while beautiful - are little more than stage sets when compared to the rolling playing areas of BF2, JO or ArmA. So, we seem to have come so far, and yet have been really only been walking in circles. What progress games like BF2 pointed to seems to have melted away once again, and we can only envy our RPG friends whose immersive worlds seem to be expanding ever larger year by year. 

Whether the limits to the TFPS is physical - the resources needed to support such a huge and complex playing area - or the limitations of the collective imagination of the developers I do not know. But certainly all those I know who play TFPS and have been involved with BF2 and the like are now very unsatisfied with the cramped and restrictive game areas of old, and want to burst out into less restrictive spaces...

Maybe 2008 will bring us a game that meets the demands of the players imaginations, and not merely characterizes the limited and linear imaginations of the game creators.

--------------------

Promising things to come:

Battlefield 3 | Armed Assault 2 | Operation Flashpoint 2 |

And what else would we like?

'GRAW 3' with a bigger more immersive world and persistent player career, and a 'Joint Operations 2' - JO with the player database fixed, better spawn system and a campaign is somewhere else but the Middle East please! 

(I think this is deliberate as this is the view of war for most of us - via grainy satellite TV.)

The weapons - as with GRAW2 - are beautifully created - and all in all it makes BF2 look like 'Rambo' on the Amiga! (It's that good!)

UNFORTUNATELY - the demo is a single player (for now), which still leaves us all in the dark about how the multiplayer side will work...

Will it be 'capture the flag' type team deathmatch format like CoD2 - or will they produce something a little closer, and tactical, to BF2?

Having said that the single player game looks excellent - still a little linear like the previous CoDs, but they have put in enough detail and urban sprawl so at least it is as exciting and entertaining as the Russian sections of CoD2 SP - which were the best bits in that game. (Actually, the CoD4 urban bits are even better than the Russian CoD2 ones IMHO! - and thats saying a lot as people who know me know how much I liked the Russian bits from CoD2.)

All in all, very promising - but we still await the multiplayer information before saying this is a definite BF2 killer.

(These are screen shots I took on my computer. I particularly liked the way my coputer AI team mates ducked behind cover next to me, and sensibly ran for cover when grenades came close!)

I tend to like my military games based on contemporary or historical themes, and despite being a big 'Battlefield 2' fan was never allured by the release of 'BF2142'. Yet, QW just seems to be 'BF2142 done right', but I was enthralled by the demo.

 There was none of the hesitation and procrastination I've had over some games, reading and re-reading reviews in order to convince myself they are worth the asking price and are as good as the spiel says they are. Quake Wars, I gathered immediately from the demo', does exactly what ID say it does - it's a fast paced, 'no brainer', fun game - with a smidgen of battlefield tactics.

The biggest question for me now will be whether the rest of the clan I belong to think this game is fun too - and therefore support a server for it!