Rumor has it Fry's Electronics will have it for $39.99 tomorrow.

Maybe, but Outpost.com (which is kinda, sorta their online store) lists it at $50.

Note that CompUSA has a $15 gift certificate by mail. So if you go elsewhere and have them price match, you may be able to get the gift certificate in store.

Anyone have any opinions on joysticks for the planes/choppers? I've pretty much narrowed it down to the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro or Thrustmaster Top Gun Fox 2 Pro, but anything else in that price range w/ a hat is under consideration.

Rumor has it Fry's Electronics will have it for $39.99 tomorrow. Anywhere else cheaper?

If you get up close to the door, they clip thru it to the point where you can damage them. Hey, it's not cheating!

I'm actually all for tactics like that when all else fails, but I have to believe the designers had some notion of how to best make it past this particular level and I still haven't heard from anyone in the year since its release who's strategy has been anyting more than "run like hell and get lucky". Maybe I just missed something . . .

Is that the one where you can move a chair down to the door and keep it open while you pick off all the guys that come up to it?

That's a different area, but a very good trick if you get tired of reloading.

The nice FedEx man just dropped off my copy.

The demo did not support the GF4 and the offical stance last I knew was they weren't going to support it. The word is NVIDIA had some influence on that decision to make gamers upgrade their cards, but who knows *shrug*. There is a hack out there somewhere that allowed the GF4 to work, but it didn't sound that reliable.

As for EB and getting a hold of the game, it'll probably depend alot on your local EB. Mine will be waiting for me when I get home, according to FedEx online :). I went with the ebworld pre-order.. free overnight shipping and a free headset. Don't hate me because I'm playing BF2 tonight.

I'm running an Athlon64 3200, nForce 3 setup with a 9800 pro. I have the Catalyst 5.6 drivers. I know there have been recommendations to switch back to the 5.1's if 5.6 doesn't work, but it's not like I'm getting any graphical problems or glitches, just severe system instability. Has anyone else encountered this kind of problem? Has anyone else found the solution?

This may have already been addressed (I don't have time to read all of the comments) but if I were you I would try rolling back your driver.

I also run a 9800. I recently upgraded to the 5.6 and had GTA SA lock up on me two times in a row. I then rolled back to my very old driver (don't know what it is, but it was new back in Nov 2004) and haven't had a problem since. And BF2 hasn't given me any trouble.


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"We're innocent critters squashed on the highway of life!"
This comment was edited on Jun 21, 15:07.

Teddy, I think it's because they didn't include pixel shader 1.3 support.

And about singleplayer, clearly that's thier stance, I'm just saying their stance is wrong.

Hey, and are you the Teddy that did all the original maps for UT2004?

Finally, they've made it way more exclusive then it needs to be by not taking the time to include Geforce 4 support, one of the most used cards by casual gamers, and a card that can play the likes of Half-Life 2 of Doom decently.

I think you are very confused. The game requires a minimum of a Geforce 3. It DOES support a Geforce 4.

As for SP... Dice have ALWAYS made it known that SP in the battlefield series is an afterthought. It is an MP game by default. Going to broadband only is a step in the right direction. Anyone expecting to play online games with a dial-up connection is just plain foolish these days.


Edit: Well isn't that interesting... Future Shop lists the minimum as an FX5700, while Best Buy lists it as a Geforce 3. According to EA's support site, you are correct, a 5700 minimum which makes little sense considering the ATI minimum for the game is an 8500.
This comment was edited on Jun 21, 14:59.

space captain, It definitely is sour grapes, I know - mixed in with some legitimate gripes.

I probably wouldn't have posted this if it wasn't for the fact that they have bots that are capable of playing on the larger maps, they've said so in an interview, just not as coherently as on the small maps. That's what irks me, it seems like they've poorly thought some things through, by not wanting anyone to play their game at anything less then optimal conditions, they've naïvely cut off a lot of their potential customers. That’s what’s getting to me.

And Creston, somebody in my head told me I wasn’t being jaded gamer bitch, as you can see with my brief discussion with myself, so I’m just going to go with that. My second personality knows what he’s talking about most of the time.

Ok, guy under me who things F.E.A.R demo on FP kicks ass is on crack. That was a POS demo right off the bat.

It helps when you back up your unsolicited opinions with a reason. Its a plain DM MP demo. It looks good, the opponents die when you shoot 'em, am I missing something?

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Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburgers

I think DICE might be surprised at how poorly this sells, or at least the amount of returns retail stores report. This is the sequel to one of the most widely popular games among casual gamers, and they have effectively cut off most of these gamers. Firstly, by making the game completely unplayable online with a modem, even though the original played fine with one. Secondly, by limiting the singleplayer into little more then a control and graphics tune-up for the multiplayer.

this is what is known in psych circles as "sour grapes"

this game will probably sell better than Doom3..

and as far as single player goes.. the game is made for online play - not single player, which is an afterthought at best... if you cant handle playing against actual people, there are tons of SP FPS games out there that are designed to be fun offline...



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music from space captain:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/6/errantways_music.htm
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/4/invisibleacropolis_music.htm

Shit, I haven't turned into one of those jaded gamer bitches have I? No? Good.

Well, you ARE posting here on Blues News, I mean, what does that tell you?

Creston

I think DICE might be surprised at how poorly this sells, or at least the amount of returns retail stores report. This is the sequel to one of the most widely popular games among casual gamers, and they have effectively cut off most of these gamers. Firstly, by making the game completely unplayable online with a modem, even though the original played fine with one. Secondly, by limiting the singleplayer into little more then a control and graphics tune-up for the multiplayer. I think they hugely underestimated how many people loved loading up a score of the stupid bots on the huge maps and just ass-raping them with planes and tanks and jeeps. Finally, they've made it way more exclusive then it needs to be by not taking the time to include Geforce 4 support, one of the most used cards by casual gamers, and a card that can play the likes of Half-Life 2 of Doom decently.

The biggest thing for me, though, is the limited singleplayer. I fuckin' love in El Alamein (SP) in DC, flying my chopper and dominating everything. So much damn fun. And I was thinking the 64 player maps in BF2 might even be able to top this unadulterated feeling of power. Hearing that only the 16 player map versions will be available in the singleplayer game has instantly turned this from my most anticipated buys, into only a possible buy. If a patch or a mod enables the larger maps with bots at least as incompetent as in 1942 I might pick this up. I hope.

Shit, I haven't turned into one of those jaded gamer bitches have I? No? Good.

I stopped in at one of our local Best Buys and the guy told me he couldn't sell it till tomorrow. I found out the other Best Buy near me has it on the shelf. Guess I'll go there after work to pick it up.

How do the preorders work at EB? Are we supposed to get it today? Or do we have to wait till Wednesday to pick it up?

I've really enjoyed playing the demo and already pre-ordered BF2. I was notified it had been shipped last night, so I should have it tommorrow! Woot!

I'm sure I'll be spending quite a bit of time on this one.

Isn't the keybinding pretty much exactly the same as BF1942 or BF:V? As best I could tell they didn't change a thing except a bug fix here and there (like mouse4/5 actually working right). Based on that I'd guess that this is how they want it and you're not going to get a "patch" to fix such a major interface component.

I'm hoping they're working on some patches to the multiplayer server list -- but I'm not holding out much hope. It was crap in BF1942 as well.

As for what they've been doing? My guess is catching up on sleep/family/outside world.

Fuck.. just called my local EB in northern NY. They're not handing out pre-orders until tomorrow when the "normies" get it.

Well it's finally shipping. Shrug. It's got solid gameplay and such, but i can't help but mirror the ire for some of the reviews out there. 5/5? 10/10? Come on now. The game has faults. On bugs and interface wonkyness alone you could subtract half a point. People are just too easy on these big-label, big-dollar releases. Give me a QT3 review, then i'll be convinced.

I already killed Kreiger, so I think I'm close

Yeah that area where you died is the absolute last area, you're about 10 minutes away.

There is an easier way to do this area, btw, if you want. I'll put it in secret text so as not to spoil anything.

in the room before the crater with all the ammo and loot, start pushing the chair out of the room. Push the chair with you all the way to that huge double blast door that leads to the volcano. This can be annoying, because the physics on the chair are a bit off, but it'll work.

Push the chair underneath the blast door that's open. Throw the lever. The door you just came through will close, while the outer one that leads to the volcano will open. However, because of the chair, the inner door WILL NOT CLOSE all the way. So you can crawl underneath it, then just kill the rocket guys at will when they stand like lumps in front of the door.
Note, they can still shoot at you, so be careful, but this makes it a ton easier to complete. Once you've cleared the crater, there's just one more battle, and it can be tricky, but nothing too severe.

Creston