Thursday, January 18th 2007
Details on the first 2142 expansion leak out
The first details about EA's next expansion to the Battlefield series are beginning to leak, with the booster pack expected to be named Battlefield 2142 - Northern Strike. The most notable changes are three new European maps, two new vehicles, ten new rewards, ten new unlocks, the new Epic Titan mode for two maps and improved use of pods. The new content is generally intended to focus on infantry battles instead of using vehicles for extreme force, with the new maps tweaked to create choke-points. There isn't any word on pricing yet, although rumours that the in-game advertising could lead to free add-on packs haven't been mentioned by EA.
Source:
Neowin.net
23 Comments on Details on the first 2142 expansion leak out
Game Monitor
If I remembered correctly BF2142 had roughly 30,000 players within the 1st 2 months of release back in Oct-Nov (I believe). :shadedshu
i dont get lag or any titan issues, but during busiest periods of day i constantly get......
your connection to the ea master server has been lost
connection failed please check your network connection(s) and try again
the ea master server has timed out
etc etc etc etc
does this on router with all ports open, and a usb modem with firewall exceptions set up
also locks up my connection so no other computer in my home can access net for 2 mins or so after 'connection failed' nonsense
oh and i had to wait 3 DAYS for an unlock once
ill still buy it though (mug)
I don't think the concept with these boosters are a good idea. I am fine paying $20-$30 for an expansion that provides 10 new guns, 10 new levels, 10 new vehicles etc, but I am not willing to pay $10-$20 for anything less. Especially when (like in BF2) the added content (like weapons unlocks) can't be used in the original game. SF was more of a success because people who bought it could use the SF unlocks to beat up on players who didn't.
Charge $20 for expansions and provide boosters for free download then I would certainly see them catching on with more open arms than the way they look at it now.
BF2142 has really no big competition following so its pretty much pub clans (those guys who have big servers where one side is an entire clan and the other side is everyone else who just joins the server and has no chance in hell at winning) and the guys who just play for fun. Because of the nature of the game I don't think competitive players can take 2142 seriously, so if you ask me the only way to make expansions and boosters successful for 2142 is to make em quick to adapt (free) or provide features that players are willing to pay for (like with SF, you buy it you get unlocks to use in normal BF2 that non SF buyers dont get)
I guess this xpack is more into the "frozen" part of the world.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjS5YvMsYL0
the hover buggy reminds be the the mantas in ut2k4...
I have heard about how cool it all is, but none about how really enjoyable the game is.
VF1942 was cool, the sniper rifle in the towers, or on top of the hills.
i have spoken to one of the directors of ea...and he pretty much told me that...
...ea really doesn't make much of the games with their name on it (all that ea alone makes is ea-sports games).
Their more of publishing company. But ea has contracts with small companies which makes the games. Its the small companies fault for not making the patches, but as a publisher, ea takes the blame.
same thing for books...if a book is bad or controversial, the publisher takes the hit...thats why its expensive to publish, they take the legal/social risks.
as for the BF series...
ea had a contract with DICE (they didnt own them yet ;)) during bf1942 and bf2. DICE was pathetic with patch release, and there were so many bugs.
now that ea owns DICE, patches for bf2142 are coming at a much faster rate, a community spokesman, and a "live" group to keep the game less buggier.