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The Battlefield 2142 Demo just came out on Friday. It took all day Saturday to download, and finally got a chance to play it on Sunday with Matt. I installed it on both computers and though it was pretty buggy, it was a lot of fun.

It’s similar to BF2, less skills, less weapons. Grenades aren’t standard, nor are mines. Assault merged with Medic. The extra items you can unlock are EMP grenade, extra ammo, and I believe mines as well. There are now mechs to drive, and though they’re not quite Mechwarrior worthy, they’re a force to be reckoned with. Most people shied away from them, and those that did drive them weren’t doing a very good job. I hopped right in and started blasting. I was doing well right from the getgo with the Mechs, but any of the tanks pale in comparison.

The level had a good setup in that you had to get from one side to the other a very specific way, forcing a more strategic approach. They didn’t improve the graphics a lot, they were fairly basic in most respects, but the effects really added to the experience. While in the mech you’re viewing through a glass screen. The sides are distorted, with a scan line running down the display. An EMP grenade will warp the display, digitizing and distorting the image in addition to a periodic lack of response from your equipment.

The tian mode is probably the greatest game mode to come along since someone thought of capture the flag.
It’s basically the same premise, grab control points – but they’re missle silos, each capture results in another silo pelting their giant “Titan” ship with missles. Once your shields are down you can board the enemies ship by pod or gunship. Get inside and you’ve got to destroy 4 control points before reaching the core. Once the core is destroyed, your team wins.

It’s a LOT of fun, and where Matt doesn’t really like Battlefield so much – he really enjoyed this one. I like the realistic war more, this game feels like Unreal Tournament to me, but it plays great, looks great, and has an incredible new twist on multiplayer war. I’d like to know what other people think about it. I haven’t quite made up my mind. Where I know it’s going to be buggy as hell on release day I really want to get started playing so I can get good at it and start building my score. I can at least be really good at it until those without jobs get a week or two into it 😉