First Look

[Albereth]

Picked up my copy (and for CD) and for Nerdboy (cos he is going drinking at the Jolly Roger tonight).

The installation is straightforward - single DVD and the key is on the back of the manual (flimsy few pages stapled together). Got a cool rat pad and the mem stick is rather nicely done in a presentation pack - haven't touched that yet.

Installation is quick. Couple of yes choices to be made re licenses, asks for gamespy comrade and updates directx.

Log on with account from EA - this automatically links to the veterans program and your nick will be ready waiting for you. Nice touch. I installed the game and then did the patch before firing it up. I also installed for CD and fired up first - it told me there was a patch available and the I could get it through downloader. Again nice albeit annoying that there is a patch so soon.

Did the options thing. There is no 1280x1024 option which is annoying because that is the native resolution of my LCD. I'll have to look at the con files tonight.

I didn't check the | things but RN says they work in the demo. I'll look tonight.

There is no SGS server at present and if you type in the ip for the demo server it tells you that your version is later than that. Well I'd expect that but I'd also expect SGS to have pulled a finger - where do they get their admins?

I went off to Belgrade in Holland or Germany? Wasn't paying attention. I needed to render the graphics. This is a very much snowy feel map. The buildings are cool - not just ladders on the side any more - you go up flights of stairs onto corridors. Wasn't there too long - just long enough to die twice - I was pinging around 500 but it wasn't noticable - except I couldn't hit a barn door from the inside.

I looked at single player - I think that of the 10 maps there are 6 available in single player. Bot ability is controlled by a slider.

Running seems annoying and I am going to have to change that minimap - I prefer it to be fixed rather than orientating itself on me.

[Albereth]

A bit more:

The |WrG| tag does work, you can either type it in the clan space or edit the con file. Not that you'll see the bars in the clan space.

System freaked out and led to a reinstall when I tried setting the graphics res I wanted. It worked fine going in the firs ttime but the game itself tried to be clever and then we ended up recycling.

Mini map is sorted

There are 3 game modes, conquest, titan, and conquest co-op. Not all the maps are available for all of these game types.

Went and annoyed the ints because this time the lag sucked major league. Killed one just for fun.

I applied the little mem stick thing - you get a rank up. There is another bonus available in the world for a unique weapon. You have to have pre-ordered from Best Buy and they give you a weapon that is only ever going to be available through that offer.

Wonder what cool things will come in the future?

[rainy]

My copy has been shipped. Should be able to pick it up tomorrow.

[rainy]

Got my copy, busy installing as I type.

The USB stick looks spiffy, but as someone said, chances are you have a bigger flash drive already. It does come in a nice black leather box (prolly not genuine leather tho) and contains a text file with your preorder code (they could have done it a bit nicer).

The mousepad is nothing worth mentioning. It comes from the country of El Cheapo and looks a lot less good than on the preview pictures. I won't be using it.

Game installed, running for the first time. Takes a moment to start up, showing a black screen in the meantime. Accoutn details entered, contacting EA master server... My firewall doesnt say anything - hold on, it does. Just blocks the app silently. Need to correct that. There we go. My soldier from the demo is already there - loading. There's my promotion and unlock. Gonna select it quickly - hmm, do I go for the APM or C4? I want to get the Scope Stabilizer and advanced sniper rifle, so the APM is the way to go. But let me just enter my preorder code first and then see what happens.

Code entered, restarting the game, logging in - there's the second promotion. I am selecting APM and the DysTek scope for unlocks. The rest can wait - need to start playing first

Giving it a quick bash in single player. The first run takes ages for the shader optimizing - and I havent even changed my graphics settings yet Nice one though: unlocks can be used in Single Player mode.

Will write more when I've had some time to get into the game.

[Albereth]

Even after the patch, for many members of the community, including myself, who have been experiencing crashes, there is a solution that may fix it. In the readme file attached with Battlefield 2142 you'll notice it saying:

"Players who have the Windows security update KB917422 installed may suffer from an application error when running Battlefield 2142. This error can be solved by uninstalling the KB917422 update."
If you head on over and look at Microsoft's website you'll notice what this specific security update does:

"A security issue has been identified in the Windows Kernel that could allow an attacker to compromise your Windows-based system and gain control over it."
Fear not, you won't have to uninstall the Windows security update. Microsoft has posted up a hotfix for this update. Here's what the update has to say about explaining the issue:

"After you apply security update 917422, programs that limit the application stack size to 2,048 bytes might not run. You do not receive any error message when this problem occurs."
To take a look at the full article as well to download this hotfix, click the link below.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924867/

[gus]

Anybody figured out how to set it to 1280x1024 resolution?

I promised myself not to moan, but here goes: I cannot believe that the native resolution which, if the analysts are to be believed, is the one on about half all monitors currently being sold, is not avialable in the video config.

[rainy]

How did all the gaming sites benchmark the game at 1280x1024?

The problem with 1280x1024 is thta it is a 5:4 resolution instead of 4:3. The proper 4:3 resolution would be 1280x960.

[rainy]

Take a look at this:

http://forums.tweakguides.com/showpo...&postcount=118

[Albereth]

I tried it changing the video.con file to that res. Freaked out the game and I had to reinstall.

[Albereth]

Take a look at this:

http://forums.tweakguides.com/showpo...&postcount=118

DO NOT trust this post. It was done when the demo was out and the demo did have the ability to set the res to 1280x1024. The game doesn't.

And +restart does not work.