E3 06: Battlefield 2142 Hands-On

[UnDeaD77]

Ok, I've been watching Gamespot Since monday and been watching everything that goes thru, and all the new videos/screens they've been posting. So Of course I've been keeping up with new updates for 2142.

LOS ANGELES--We got our hands on Battlefield 2142 at E3, with senior producer Marcus Nilsson himself giving us a tour of what's new in the latest game in the incredibly popular Battlefield series. If you haven't heard yet, Battlefield 2142 takes place in the future, and it pits the American-European Alliance against the Pan Asian Coalition for the battle for territory after a new ice age renders most of the planet uninhabitable.

Of course, developer DICE and publisher EA are showing off the new Titan mode, the first major new mode for Battlefield in pretty much ever, as earlier Battlefields featured only the popular conquest mode. Titan mode requires you to destroy the enemy's Titan while defending your own, and the Titan is a flying aircraft carrier of sorts defended by incredibly strong energy shields.

In order to bring down the shields you'll need a total team effort. You can try and whittle the shields down using regular weapons and vehicles, but that will take a long time. The easiest way is to seize missile silos, which are sort of like the flag capture points in other Battlefield games. Seize a silo, and a counter counts down to the time it will launch a Bloc-2 ATM missile at the enemy Titan, inflicting damage on its shields. You now have a tactical decision. Do you defend the silo after you capture it, to make sure the missile launches, or do you try and capture an enemy silo to prevent it from launching its missile at your Titan. Fire enough missiles at a Titan, and its shields will collapse, allowing you to board it by using assault pods to "shoot" infantry up to the Titan.

Once on board the Titan, it's a close-quarters battle to destroy four security consoles scattered throughout the vessel. Do so, and you gain access to the nuclear reactor. You'll again need a team effort to destroy the reactor quickly, but if you do so, you need to race to get off the Titan in time, running and leaping off the Titan and parachuting to Earth. That's important, because even though your team will win if you destroy an enemy Titan, you only get a special pin and other bonuses if you successfully escape the explosion.

Battlefield 2142 itself feels like Battlefield, but with really cool new weapons and vehicles. The hover tank is unlike any other tank in a Battlefield game, because it slides around like it's on ice. It lets you strafe left and right, and that gives you new mobility to try and dodge attacks. The aircraft, we're told, will be easier to fly than counterparts found in existing Battlefield games (flying a helicopter in Battlefield 2 is remarkably as hard as flying one in real life), but to compensate, the aircraft will be nerfed so that they don't dominate the map like they do in Battlefield 2. (Speaking of which, Nilsson says that DICE is currently working to fix that issue in Battlefield 2.)

We got to see a montage of various vehicles, with their names, including the L-5 Riesig, the MK-1 Titan, the Type 21 Nekomata, the T-39 Bogatyr walking tank, and the UD-6 Talon gunship. It's all ironic that none of this stuff exists in the real world, but they use similar naming conventions to real-world military vehicles and equipment.

Yet perhaps the biggest appeal in Battlefield 2142 will be the customization options of your character. Even though the game features only four class types, you can modify your character's weapons and load outs in countless ways. Pack up on lots of weapons and gear and you'll slow down. Go with a lighter load, and you won't have as much firepower, but you'll move faster. You can create a load that's just right for you. And perhaps the coolest thin in terms of persistence is that we learned that if you get a knife kill on someone, you will always be able to commemorate that kill because you will have your victim's "dog tags." You'll have dog tags for every knife kill, with the victim's name on it, so you can really rub it in if you get multiple knife kills on your friend.

Battlefield 2142 looks very cool. It uses a slightly more advanced version of the Battlefield 2 engine, and it looks a bit sharper up close and in person. The famed Battlefield gameplay appears to be just as sharp as ever, and we'll see when the game ships this fall.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/ba...ml?sid=6150162 full link


also, here's a another story from earlier today.


"Battlefield 2142 Company Line"

Armed with a devastating arsenal of hi-tech weaponry, including assault rifles, cloaking devices and sentry guns, players will also take control of the most lethal vehicles known to man. Massive battle Walkers wage fierce combat on the ground, while futuristic aircraft rule the skies. When taking on this futuristic armor players will need to use their wits and an arsenal of new hi-tech countermeasures like EMP grenades and smart mines to level the playing field.

Epic online gameplay for up to 64 players drops gamers on the front lines as part of a formal squad, or behind the scenes in Commander Mode to direct the strategic assaults of their team-mates.

Key Features

* Titan Mode – Wage epic-scale war to defeat your opponent's Titan, a massive flying warship, controlled by the team's commander. Players must destroy the Titan's shields, board the craft, fight to it's reactor core and detonate it from the inside – all while defending their own Titan.
* 64-Players Online* – Experience all-out war with Battlefield's legendary multiplayer for up to 64 players.
* Real-Time Persistence – To the victor goes the spoils! Equipment, medals and other rewards are awarded in-game and in real time. Choose an unlock and have access to it immediately next time you spawn. The game features five times more unlocks than Battlefield 2.
* Customizable Abilities – Gamers can expand their abilities and blend multiple player classes to match their play-style.
* Lethal Vehicles – Gamers control menacing Battle Walkers that stalk the land and futuristic gunships that patrol the skies. APC's and high-speed recon vehicles keep the action fast, furious and unpredictable.
* High-Tech Weaponry – EMP grenades, sentry guns, smart mines, cloaking devices, and more change the rules of the Battlefield forever.
* The world has changed – Fight for survival on the Battlefield of the 22nd century in brand new locations from Minsk to North Africa as the ice presses down from the North.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/ba...ml?sid=6149368 full link


I'll update this thread as I get more info from e3 about it.

btw, yay for the 2142 forum, and thanks.

[UnDeaD77]

Looks like the engine is going to add Bloom, I believe I heard him correctly,

64 Player still for conquest mode, and so far he said only 32p support for Titan mode.

[Diceman]

When I first heard about BF2142, I was skeptical. I wondered what new elements they could add to the gameplay - and watching the video didn't seem to show any of that. To be mildly flippant, it just looked like they replaced the armour with mechs, the helos with those flying things and other one for one changes. In short, it looked like an extensive mod of BF2.

But reading about the new titan mode in particular, and character customization is bringing out the fanboy in me. I dunno if I'll be ready to sink the $1200-$1800 needed for a fairly extensive system upgrade - but this game looks like it is going to be a motivating factor in that direction.

[UnDeaD77]

Here is the stage demo I was watching earlier live, I believe its lower quailty if your a non-subscriber, but its worth watching, you catch little more footage of the game, and some quick shots of the kit selection screen. I think Titan mode is going to be very fun, considering now you've actually got an objective and should be a nice change of pace for the Battlefield series.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/ba...142/media.html

enjoy.

[Turbo]

Titan? What is this EVE Online. It does look really cool, I taped the G4 program so I will have to check it out on TV when I get home.

[Obi]

Uuuuuuuuhhhhgggh. I hate computer game TV presenters.

I still think it's too early to really see what this game is going to be like although the RPG elements seem quite interesting.

[tau_neutrino]

Originally Posted by Turbo

Titan? What is this EVE Online. It does look really cool, I taped the G4 program so I will have to check it out on TV when I get home.

Speaking of EVE Online.. I think this is their E3 vid:
http://myeve.eve-online.com/download...wnload&vid=146

If you can't access that, then it's the top one on this page:
http://www.eve-online.com/download/videos/

[Turbo]

Originally Posted by 0b1one

Uuuuuuuuhhhhgggh. I hate computer game TV presenters.

Their was a really nice looking female last year, hopefully she is still covering E3.

[Snail88]

Check out this write up that this one tester gave...very imformative...

http://bf2s.com/2142/

[UnDeaD77]

All those negatives, I'm sure will be resolved since its in testing now, the graphics, doens't bother me anyway as the current bf2 engine looks pretty decent anyway.

[Acid]

+rep for the reviews! Those were really helpful.

[Snail88]

check this out.....NOW!

http://planetbattlefield.gamespy.com....Detail&id=137

after seeing that, this game cant come soon enough for me. Titan mode looks friggin awesome. Itll def be interesting how we work the unlocks here. Itll be one of three options most likely - 1. we stay unranked and have limited weapons and gadgets at our disposal. 2. We stay unranked and just unlock everything (my choice) or 3. We just go ranked (close second)

These toys look amazing. Im diggin the sentry drone for SL's. It helps out during a tough assault or defend but its harder to hide. Setry guns are gonna be my new best friend. The squad beacon is going to be great for SL's if they can find a really good spot where its hard to find. Theres a LOT more incentive to be SL in 2142 so i imagine well see more people steppin up.

wow i cant wait.

[sordavie]

Titam mode sounds really cool. I don't know how it'll work on the pubbies, but on TG it would be great. Will we be supporting this game?

[Snail88]

i surely hope so...considering it has its own forums, i would assume so.

[Acid]

Great, we all get dogtags of us knifing the admins .

Santa's computer will lag up with all of them he has.