Yes the loading times are unfortunate and I hate that we didn't allow skipping the EA and DICE logo movies, that is just evil.

You'll have to wait for, ehem, future products for very fast load times :)
 

I take it you are on the dev team, Repi?

So EA required the no-abort logo screens? Or was it an internal decision. I remember Sony's requirement was that it was optional UNLESS the logo screen was > 5 seconds, in which case it HAD to be able to be cancelled. (IIRC). Not sure if that's still the case (I'm so out of it these days). I don't think we allowed the screens to be aborted either - bad us.

Good luck on the future products :) Faster load times would make a WORLD of difference for me - as it is, I found that I started keeping a book near the computer to read while waiting to connect to a game. And if the game happened to be full by the time the connection finished - ARGH! (Admittedly, that was a LOT worse in BF: Vietnam... I've only had that happen a couple of times in BF2).
 

battlefield 2 works fine for me. I've never had a problem finding a server with ping less than 100 ms.
 

Really? How long does it take?

I can find plenty of servers just fine - and use the little auto-connection tool sometimes. But maybe it's my otherwise-speedy DSL - once I try to connect, I find myself taking a bathroom break, reading a few pages of a book, or anything else to fill the 5-10 minutes to wait for the connection to complete.

Once I'm in a game - assuming everything remains stable (it usually is), I'm golden. The game is a joy. But I can jump into my favorite MMORPG (currently City of Heroes) and be playing within 60 seconds. Unreal Tournament 2004 - assuming no mods or new maps need to be downloaded - is also pretty speedy.
 

Maybe you are too farway from the service to connect. Just like visiting some website abroad.
 

I renamed the movie files so they didn't show, which increased the load time for me (on adsl).
From the moment I press "Play Now", I am only waiting 20 seconds before I'm slipped into a server game.

Gray+Fox
 

Wow - 20 seconds?

Just waiting for the graphics to load in a single-player game takes a lot more time than that for me.
 

I have hit that damn "play now" button 3 times - once on purpose the other two by accident and each time I regretted it. It was hung for a good minute or two and when I finally got game I was the only player there and the screen read "game will start when 7 more players join" WTF?!?! thats hardly a "play now".

I like the game but the load time is too long. Initially -just by bad luck of the draw - it seemed that when I finally got into a game it was ending or I had nowhere to spawn. I lose connection more than any other online game as well
 

dang, i know in BFV you can stop the logos in the begining by entering a few words in the short cut line OR by using ASE. I actually bought BF2, and my it sux. So long to get into a game, which isn't worth the trouble in the end. Heck, sometimes, its more fun to play with those stupid bots. But I just gave up and went back to BFV and I can start pwning in about 35 seconds, with the map loaded and all.
 

I'm quite happy I downloaded the demo first, because I sure was excited, and I sure am disappointed after trying it.

I have the same problem as you, it takes yonks for BF to even load up. I hate the unskippable logo's (you lose 15 seconds of "productive" time right there), I hate the "optimizing shaders" process (what good is it? why don't many others use it? why did EA have to make it obvious they're using it?), and I hate the awful "these settings won't take effect until you restart BF2" crap. And when you restart, you'll have to go through the aforementioned brain numbing process again. Hell, it even has to load to display the menu while in-game!

This game is not worth your money unless you are desperate for it. If other game makers can do it right, why can't EA? If this was the first time they'd have an excuse, but unfortunately for them it isn't.

No, I really think this is a piece of crap, glad I didn't waste my money on it. I'd rather play Far Cry for some longer.
 

i checked out the game preview and was pretty impressed, i bought the game though as soon as it was released in oz (late as per usuaul) got it working within 6 hours (yep, bloody long time to get a game working) jumped online and enjoyed ot for about one month...

it's been gathering dust for over two months now - very disappointed, feel ripped off and probably won't purchase anymore bf games... the online community (in game community that is) are extremely immature and annoying - since bf2 doesn't have an decent sort of single play ability - the game is completely unplayable...

two words - ripped off.
 

Battlefield 2 is the most flawed game I have ever played, the most disappointing game I have ever played, and sheerly the most annoying game I have ever played in my entire life. The physics system is nowhere to be found, the weapon accuracy is abysmal, weapon damage is absolute rubbish, sound is pants, graphics are standard, reliability is awful, teamwork is non-existent. Do not buy this game.
 

Yep. Complete crap. Last EA product for me period. Load times suck. The game is full of exploits. Lost my acct. password sent to me was right but wouldn't work. Two months of pts. down the tubes. My cat could program a better game.
 

Really ur cat? thats very impressive, ive never seen a cat which could program before. you could make a lot of money. Film him with itunes.
 

bf2 sucks... 15 mins loading time.. full of hackers, get kicked if ur doing well. lags, get banned for no reason, game requires no skill people just blow themselves up and do the same over. If you want a good fps with very short load, without hackers, allot of fun, and requires a lot of skill without server being full of noobs, then try Amercias Army. and bloody hell its free too. content patch coming out soon which adds vehicles and planes like bf2. takes a while to get used to but damn its worth it. Bf2 originally copied army ops but totally screwed it up. Counterstrikesource is getting old. army ops is the future and more and more people are starting to realize it.
 

I could not have said it better and i agree AA rocks

RE:
bf2 sucks... 15 mins loading time.. full of hackers, get kicked if ur doing well. lags, get banned for no reason, game requires no skill people just blow themselves up and do the same over. If you want a good fps with very short load, without hackers, allot of fun, and requires a lot of skill without server being full of noobs, then try Amercias Army. and bloody hell its free too. content patch coming out soon which adds vehicles and planes like bf2. takes a while to get used to but damn its worth it. Bf2 originally copied army ops but totally screwed it up. Counterstrikesource is getting old. army ops is the future and more and more people are starting to realize it.
 

Army Ops would be the best if it wanst for the stupid training but after uve done it i probably agree with you.

traning = noob filter
ha
 

www.americasarmy.com
 

God there are some seriously anal retards here. "Whaaa it takes more than 1.5 seconds to load!" every game has its hackers so quit your bitching about that. just because your computer is lacking, or your bad at fps games dosent mean the game your playing is lacking. and quit crying about the fucking load times, its like 60 seconds at most, 1 minute is completely acceptable at all standards. if you have so little time that 1 minute is going to impact your gameplay, then you dont have enough time to play a game at all.
get real people!
 

I just bought BF2 to try it out and I'm really dissapointed. The hit detection is weak, the game takes forever to load, you cant swim under the water, spawn rapers everywhere...

I think hands down Joint Operations: Escalation is the best FPS out there. Its very similar to BF2 but Nova Logic did it right. Everyone bitches about the kill cam in it, which does kinda suck, but its still way better than BF2...
 

Go to
\Program Files\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2\Movies
and rename or delete dice.bik and EA.bik
to get rid of the ads at the start.
 

Well, I've got a new machine I'm gonna try it out on.

My load times weren't just "more than 1.5 seconds." We're talking go-upstairs-and-get-a-drink-and-go-to-the-bathroom-come-back-and-its-still-not-loaded problems.

I've heard its better now. It's been many moons since I uninstalled it (well, actually, the secondary drive it was installed on died...). So I'm gonna jump back in for more punishment and see how much things have changed in the 9 months or so since I tried it.

Unfortunately, I sucked at the game back when it was new and everyone was learning it. I'm sure I'll suck worse now. But dang it, I shelled out $50 for the stupid thing, I'm going to try at least once more to get my money's worth.

I hear it's easier to knock jets out of the sky now --- that should make things a LITTLE more balanced at least. If the load times don't suck as bad, it might be worth playing now.
 

I am a keen follower of the BF series right from the begining...and because of the terrible ping times, im afraid im going to finally put it to bed and remove it from my system...and never buy a game from EA again....
 

And here it is over a year later and I can honestly say, it still sucks, and for even more reasons. while it was also one of my favorites, the bugs and glitches are just too damned annoying. The latest patch apparently causes players to disconnect for no apparent reason. It's incredibly frustrating to wait 10 minutes to load the game, login, find a server, load and client verify, only to spawn and get 30 seconds of game play before losing connection. some of the same old crap still exists like blowing yourself up when firing a rocket just because you stood too close to a wall (5 feet away) even though your sighting showed a clear shot. I think I myself will start a blog, so I can list the hundreds of irritating things about the game. I have been a faithful BF2 player, and bought every expansion (what a fool) but I'm at my wits end. the game is supposed to be for fun, but I end up ranting endless obsenities because its not fun due to all the stupid crap that EA hasn't/won't fix. I am now officially boycotting the game, and buying of anything battlefield related in the future.
 

I dislike Battlefield..
I just bought Battlefield Vietnam... and i am very dissapointed mainly cause of the poor single player.

I am officially not sure if i want to keep the game anymore.
The entire series.... if it is anything like battlefield vietnam i am never gonna touch a battlefield game again.

Battlefield 2 sucks if its anything like the others....
Plus what is with the Just windows XP system requirements of Battlefield 2. Whats wrong with windows 2000...98SE...

The only reason i bought battlefield vietnam versus Battlefield 2 was cause of the 98se compatibility...

Unreal tournment 2004 has way better single player. And its better even in multiplayer.
 

BF2 is NOT a multiplayer game. If you're complaining about the singleplayer then you obviously shouldn't of bought Battlefield 2. The game has very good gameplay but it's a resource hog. If you don't have the system don't complain because obviously is wasn't meant for your computer.

My computer is a decent computer and the loading time is under a minute and I can run at medium/high graphics. If you can't run the game at anything above low, then don't even bother going online with it.
 

There's SO many reasons why BF2 sucks. I think for every good thing in the game there are 2 annoying things.

As you said the loading times are horrendous. Oftentimes after the map loads and the "JOIN GAME" button appears, the game will crash after I hit the button, completely wasting 3+ minutes of load time. And what's up with 24/7 maps that still need to load every 2-3 rounds EVEN THOUGH THE !@!# MAP DOESN'T CHANGE?!?!

Absurd.

How about weapon balance? It takes 2-3 rounds from a high powered sniper rifle to take a man down, but a stab to the foot kill in one hit. Umm..what?

Or how many times have you rouned a corner and spotted an opponent, only for him to drop down to the prone position, steady his rifle, fix you as a target, and take you down all in under a second. Yeah, that's realism right there. Hell, that's ridiculous for any game whether it is striving for realism or not.

And why can an aircraft or helicoptor re-equip just by being near the strip? The jets and helo's are already a powerful thing to contend with so at least make it so you have to land the damn thing and refill via a crate or a support unit just like everyone else.

Shame on you DICE, and double shame on EA for their craptastic QA and for letting buggy, unbalanced turds like BF2 slide out the door just for profits.

2142 f*ck off. You won't get my money.
 

Firstly, I have read some cr*p in my time, but this is one of the cr*piest bunch of whiners I have seen in a long time. I can dispute every one of your points that I have bothered to read. Here goes:
1) Long load times? Yeah right. you say 15 minutes to load up... I don't think so. I don't exactly have the most awsome machine in the world, but let me tell you that it never takes me longer than 3 minutes from double clicking the icon to joining a server. (FYI i have 1GB ddr400, AMD athlon64 3400+ skt754 @ 2.411Ghz, radeon 9600 Pro 256MB, 160GB maxtor diamond HD @ 7200rpm.)

2)high ping times? don't make me laugh! Dou you honestly expect to be playing a game like battlefield 2, where each entity alone has millions of polygons, missiles flying everywhere, actually travelling, ricocheting bullets, tank shells, that you will get 20ms ping? Even with only 1024mbits per second, you should get no more than 90ms, and with my connection (around 2.8 mbits) I easily manage 40ms on full 64player maps.

3) poor damage system?? 2-3 shots for a high-powered rifle to take a man down? you seem to misunderstand the complexity of the damage system. Let's say you have the m24 sniper rifle - decent accuracy and damage from 1 bullet. you shoot an assault soldier in the jugular form 100 yards, he goes down. you hit him in the arm, he takes more damage than in the body. Why? Because he's wearing BODY ARMOUR! 1/2 inch think plate of steel+kevlar on both sides for crying out loud! no doubt many of you have played counter strike and/or source, and expect sum1 to take more damage in the body than leg, but it simply isn't true if that person has kevlar on! no kevlar on legs you see... And a knife can clearly deal more damage than a small pointy piece of lead or whatever. a combat knife is about 10 inches long. If you're stabbed by that, you're going to know it.

4) 24/7 maps reload because the admin sets them to reload every 2-3 rounds. That's not the game's fault - it's the admin's.

5) "BF2 is NOT a multiplayer game. If you're complaining about the singleplayer then you obviously shouldn't of bought Battlefield 2. The game has very good gameplay but it's a resource hog. If you don't have the system don't complain because obviously is wasn't meant for your computer.

My computer is a decent computer and the loading time is under a minute and I can run at medium/high graphics. If you can't run the game at anything above low, then don't even bother going online with it." very nicely put right there - if you're complaining about low fps or crud graphics, or 90% of crashes, your computer sucks, I'm afraid to say. DONT BUY THE GAME WITHOUT AT LEAST FULFILLING ALL THE REQUIREMENTS.

6) I'll agree that non-compatability with earlier windows versions kinda sucks, but this is done to promote XP - it's a business agreement between Microsoft and EA or Dice or whoever. That's the world of PC gaming - you have to have reasonably up to date hardware and software.

7) Blowing yourself up after firing a clear shot from a rocket? That is VERY unlikely to be the game's fault, as I myself have fired countless rockets through caps in walls, standing next to walls or even into walls while standing reasonably close. Maybe you have forgotten that the rocket is guided/not 100% accurate after firing.

Rampant Coyote, I'm sure that you can see the game's potential, but because of problems that may or may not have been it's fault, you have become disheartened. Let me assure you that battlefield 2 is the definition of online multiplayer gaming, and will be for a few years yet to come.
 

Your Full of Crap and Obviously a NOOB to FPS Games.
The Accuracy of the small arms is the worst in any FPS Game Period!!!!!!
That alone totally ruins the game as its designed for noobs to run in circles and shoot at the sky.
Ironically They get Kills doing it, LMFAO.
Second The Load times are a bit long but its when you change a video setting it damm near siezes.
#rd The Graphics Blow ,its worse than a 3 yr old Delta Force Game.
Yet It Laggs a Super Computer from All its Bad Code on High Settings.
A 9800 pro runs it with every thing on the lowest setting if you have a 3ghz or better computer.
EA does not suck but there Battlefield Series Does.
I would Except all the Faults and the Fact that the Game is Buggier than a Camels Azz if the Small arms were accurate, But by taking away the hand to hand the Game is Total Rubbish........
 

You guys all make me laugh. You should all throw out your computers because you obviously all need new ones
 

My new system is actually pretty bleeding-edge. Well, okay, it was when I got it earlier this year... :) Graphically, it eats Battlefield 2 for lunch and still has room for dessert.

It definitely loads faster, now, but it's still painfully slow connecting to a game. Not AS bad as it used to be, but it still feels like an ordeal.
 

I see a lot of arguing back and forth about efficiency issues such as load times, resource hogging, etc...

I've been *writing* computer programs and games for longer than most of you have even been playing them, so please give me the benefit of the doubt as to knowing what I'm talking about.

It is an inarguable fact of reality that every consumer is getting more impatient, wanting instant loading and gratification, but there is still no excuse for such long load times and an inefficient game engine as BF2 has. There is even less excuse for over half a gig of updating required.

There also a very real and increasing bloat and inefficiency inherent to operating systems, most especially Windows. This irks me, but what is possibly worse is the increasing use of middleware and other techniques that are pretty much getting beyond the level of "high-level" programming languages. (BTW, high-level languages are easier to program in, including some point-and-click and WYSIWYG tools, but much less efficient).

Some argue that it's not really all that bad, it's just the way things are. No, it's not! I've played games that had shorter load times than BF2, had fewer exploitable cheating and security holes, and ran at a much higher framerate while looking *better* at the same time. Not to mention that BF2 is plagued with terrible physics and allows to many non-bug-related exploits and game balance failures for bunnyhoppers, dropping vehicles on troops, jet-whoring, etc. EA... You fail.

For example, the Unreal series has always surprised me with its efficiency, whether it was running Unreal Tournament on a 533Mhz Compaq with an 8MB *shared onboard* graphics chipset, or running UT2004 absolutely cranked to the max with 16x Anisotropic filtering forced using a GeForce 6200 on a P4 2.66 GHz system. Oh... and it runs on Linux too ;) I bought BF2 and TES4 Oblivion. They can't even come close to this performance in their wildest dreams.

BF2 will run great on a system that's less than bleeding-edge, but it could run great on even a mediocre system if companies didn't want us to pay more $$$ for a new OS to run a new game just because Microsoft pays them or gives them a big price cut (and they DO) to license their graphics libraries (DirectX), and these libraries in turn require the latest version of Windows, and then you pay more $$$ for new hardware just to run the OS and game just because they're programmed poorly. But they don't care, because Microsoft is in bed with the hardware manufacturers anyway. When you buy a new computer, you're paying $40 to $200 for a new Windows license. Think of how many valid Win98 licenses there are that will never be used. And now it's on to Vista, leaving XP behind after only a couple of years...

Games programmed PROPERLY by people who CARE what the end-distributable is are unbelievably so much more efficient and bug-free that I was shocked again when I played UT2004! I guess I'd been used to every other game being so INEFFICIENT because they were done with middleware by lazy-ass programmers whose employing company doesn't give a crap as long as someone shells out the bucks for their overhyped crap.

I'm not saying everyone should get Unreal instead. I'm saying it's an example just to prove how well programs could be if everyone didn't use Gamebryo + SpeedTree or other middleware, and if they coded the game to be efficient and cross-platform in the first place instead of writing specifically for Microsoft.

That brings us to the new era of Windows Vista, where they are going to have a section of the OS called "Games for Windows". In all likelyhood it now appears that they are going to have proprietary "Games For Windows" approval that companies need to pay for, the way companies needed to pay for extra testing for drivers to be branded officially "XP Compatible".

And people are wondering why the game industry (both on consoles and PCs) is going stale and barely breaking even... Try making a GOOD PRODUCT, or trying some NEW INNOVATIVE IDEAS ;)
 

This post has been removed by the author.
 

EA is up to even more BS now:

BF2142 with complementary Spyware

;)
 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2518403971880137515
thats all i got to say
 

I completely agree. I stopped playing a while back for exactly these reasons. I recently found out how to fix the slow login problem (delete server history in general.con file) and decided to give it another try but even with a quick login it still takes too long to get in a game and for some reason, it now wants to optimize shaders every single time I run it. No Thanks.

It's a shame because I really like the game once I'm in it. I would have bought BF2142 if these issues had been resolved.
 

Got BF2 Lag?
Get AMP Mod!
www.amp-mod.com
15-22 fps faster.
Turn up your settings.
Lower end systems supported.
Faster map loads.
Faster Response Times.
Faster Huds and Menus.
100's of edits.
over 25,000 rem lines removed.
Editor code removed from maps.
Full 16,32,64 Modes.
Alot of Guns!

www.amp-mod.com

try it out, let us know what you think and what to change and we will listen to you.
Sincerely, Programmer Sysopo
 

AMP-MOD was cancelled due to EA Games stopping patch support on BF2 1.41.
I will never help an EA Games title again, I've wasted 2 years of my life for nothing.
Sincerely, Sys
P.S.
Tos your Battlefield titles in the trash and play a game thats worth while.
 

The game still languishes on my hard drive. I play it occasionally. I actually kinda like BF Vietnam better.

But yeah - I couldn't generate the slightest interest in BF 2142. I was so excited about BF2, and I definitely had some fun playing it, but the frustrations eventually outweighed the joy.
 

Oy, the server browser is absolute shit! That alone almost ruins the game! And they totally nurfed the minigun on the black hawk so its no longer usefull. BF2 is fun but I am NOT going to be buying any other upcoming games from EA.
 

I agree BF2 has got some SERIOUS problems! Its not really the random crashes to desktop, or the double-standard on servers of purporting to be fair with rules yet one team pummels the other all day long, or the ultra extreme load times (you think BF2 long to load you should try Special Forces!), or the fact that the game can only utilize about 75% of my graphics card's potential, or the rediculously laggy and buggy menu, or the annoying as hell logo screens, its the combination of all of the above that adds up to one big pile of crap! A shame because the core game is fun.
 

I heartily concur; while the game is a lot of fun when it's working properly, the probability of it doing so is frankly remote. This very day I had a ping over my gigabit ethernet LAN of 400(!!) to a server 10 yards away! Whereas if I was pinging it myself or playing QuakeWorld I'd be on <1ms.

Oh, then the connection starts dropping for no reason, gives no explanation, and decides that all those resources it spent ages loading were no longer relevant and must be reloaded. What a piece of poo.
 

i just installed my new graphics card everything is good and well i sat there for about 5 miniutes and it didnt load up ur sayign that i gota wait 15 miniutes 2 play 1 game thats frigin gay
 

18-20 minute load times on my PC.

Vista ultimate (32 bit)
AMD Athlon x64 3000+ (2.0 GHZ)
1 GB PC4200 RAM
2x 80 GB 7200 RPM SATA Maxtor drives in a RAID 0 array
ATI Radeon x1650 (512 mb ram) - AGP

There's really no reason for these insanely long load times. I have 70% disk space free, and close out anything that's running beforehand. The first load takes near 20 minutes, loads after that are quick. Game plays GREAT after about 5-6 minutes of chugging after the initial load is complete while more stuff loads whenever I turn. After borrowing a friend's copy, I'm reminded of why I never bought the game...

All EA games run like crap on my PC, I can't even play RA2... which I haven't even returned yet. My units blow up 10-15 seconds into ANY match as if I were cheating. EA support says to reinstall the game... I've gone as far as to reformat (and switch between XP and Vista) and I have the same problem. Screw EA.
 

Im using a computer with 512 MB OF RAM and it does NOT take 15 min to load a game it takes about 2,3 min somethigns wrong with ur pc mayb ur running 128 mb ram LOL ur over emphasising the problems 2 much
 

I too, heartily concur, and I believe you just need a better PC.

I can run BF2 with max settings (I even force my resolution to 1440x900) and the game runs at a healthy 70 FPS average -- FYI: this is on a LAPTOP (4GIG RAM, 8600M GT GPU, 2.2GHZ Core 2 Duo, 160GB 5400RPM HDD).

I read the whole thread/blog/whateveritscalled and had no idea why you people were whinging about lag! Like others have said, it takes 2-3 minutes to completely load, so you are either exaggerating lots, or must have some very bad viruses on your PC.

-Apostasy
 

i just dont get why they complain about the time it takes to load or the space it uses up...... what kind of cpu's are yall running i mean honestly i have limewire running, i have a IE window opened and playing bf2 and it works great takes about 1minute 30seconds to load and bam in a game shooting heads off and pwning in the helo!