Battlefield 2142

[Apo]

MS has released a patch for the problem that the KB917422 security update might cause with BF2142, so there is no need to uninstall the security update anymore like EA suggested in the readme.

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.

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

Cheers

Apo

[aim4it]

My favorite part of the article.

He particularly commented: "If gamers still want to have a high amount of good quality titles year in and year out, there needs to be alternate revenue streams" for next-gen gaming - IGA clearly sees in-game advertising as a notable example of this.

"knew the kind of painful transition that most publishers are going through right now"

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new...hp?story=11300

EA's net income for the quarter saw an even steeper year-on-year decline. The company's profits were slashed by nearly a third, going from $375 million in calendar Q4 2004 to $259 million in calendar Q4 2005--a drop of $116 million. Electronic Arts announced yesterday it was laying off 5 percent of its worldwide workforce--around 350 people

http://videogames.yahoo.com/newsarti...=435132&page=0

I wouldn't place the battlefield 2 engine as "quality". If EA is in a tight spot economically they put Themselves there with poor quality control and slow/unreliable patching process. They have some of the worst consumer support of any major game publishings company, compared to their major competition.

[cjofthedead]

The plot thickens...(posted today)

Hey, even more reason to just love Battlefield 2142, EA and DICE. Sure, they are infecting you with spyware... I'm sorry, a piece of software that allows them to more accurately monitor in-game ad usage. Sorry, even worse! But hey, it's just spyware... not exactly like they're leaving the backdoor open to hackers.

Well, except they are. According to Hearless Gamer, EA has already released a patch for BF:2142 today that requires you to uninstall a critical Windows Update patch.

What does that patch do?

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.

Gosh, what will EA do to their loyal Battlefield: 2142 fans next? Decapitate them by propelling the DVD out of a cannon at their necks?

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/ea/batt...ers-208695.php

[jayedub7423]

i'm not totally opposed to in game ads if there is a benefit to us the consumer. if it means more revenue for developers to make better games, games that are less expensive and free downloadable content, then i would say that is a good deal.

the software that comes with BF2142 may be harmless, and i'm sure it doesnt affect the gameplay, but its the fact that at this time, there is no benefit to us as consumers. the game will still cost $55, and i'm sure we will still need to purchase future booster packs for the game.

it's like the first time i saw a commercial before the movie trailers at the movies!

[Koroush Ghazi]

There's some confusion over this Microsoft security patch issue and BF2142.

Firstly, this is not something the new BF2142 1.01 Patch has added to the game - it was in the demo Readme.txt file as well (see earlier pages of this thread as it's mentioned here as well).

Secondly, as Apo has pointed out in his post above, there is now a fix from MS for this, so you don't need to uninstall the security patch.

[Ethernal Demon]

The bad thing is that all the teenagers, kids and such who'll buy it wont even know or notice anything about this ad feature, If there are some strong BF groups outhere that are aware of the issue, would be great if all major clans refused this EA's installment in order to further make EA's aware of how gamers feel
Let the word spread around

[Koroush Ghazi]

Ok, I bought BF2142 today ($109AUD = ~$80US), and as expected the Australian edition does not have any slip of paper mentioning advertising. Nor is there anything in the EULA while installing the game. Here are the box contents:



Aside from the disk and manual there are only two promo pamphlets for Crysis and a couple of other games.

The game itself is almost identical to the BF2142 demo in terms of performance and tweaking, although obviously I will update the BF2142 guide with full details for the game. The main game process takes up just under 1GB when running on some maps, which is slightly up on the BF2142 Demo.

Now for the in-game ads. Well there appear to be none at all. There are generic billboards around the place, but obviously it looks like IGN did not pay for any advertising in Australia, or the ad servers are not yet in place for Australia.



You can see from the first screenshot above that there are two billboards on the main path out of one of the base spawns, with one billboard facing one way, the other facing the opposite (i.e. you can't miss em whichever way you're going). In the other screenshots you can see how these billboards often stand out quite clearly, and they're almost everywhere, not just in out-of-the-way places. To me they look totally out of place in the desolate blasted/frozen landscapes, but since they don't actually have any real advertising at the moment on them they're easier to ignore. EA hasn't activated the ad system yet, they've put 'generic' made-up brands on these billboards as placeholders, using very muted colors, nothing attention-getting.

If anyone has any screenshots of the real advertising, please post them.

I will provide more details in the guide as soon as it's updated over the next couple of days, but so far everything that worked in the demo works in the full game.

Update: Over at Totalbf2142 forums here they discuss some more findings on this, it appears the ads haven't started showing yet for other people - the ad system hasn't been turned on. I suspect this may be either because EA wants to make sure everyone buys the game first before the negative feedback over ads starts flowing, and/or some logistical issues with ad servers and testing potential load for example. My intuition tells me the first reason is the most likely.

Update 2: Ad system's still being trialled by EA, they've loaded up some generic but slightly more detailed ads to 'warm up the audience' so to speak (screenshots are from Totalbf2142 forums, not me):



Update 3: The real ads appear to be online now, here's one from Intel:

[Whizzer]

Interesting read, Koroush. I can't confirm your questions as I still can't play this game. It just won't start. I installed the patch, disabled the intro-movies and tried the MS hotfix but nothing helped. My screen just goes black and then crashes to desktop without any error or such thing. I'm returning this game to the store and see how my friend is doing with this game. I have a far better PC than he does, so I wonder how well he can play it.

[Ethernal Demon]

I see you have a 4.1 OCed CPU, you could try lowering the overclock and see how you go

[H3LLSPAWN]

Originally Posted by Whizzer

Interesting read, Koroush. I can't confirm your questions as I still can't play this game. It just won't start. I installed the patch, disabled the intro-movies and tried the MS hotfix but nothing helped. My screen just goes black and then crashes to desktop without any error or such thing. I'm returning this game to the store and see how my friend is doing with this game. I have a far better PC than he does, so I wonder how well he can play it.

Had the same problem. Are you forcing 1280 X 1024?? When I did that the same thing happened to me. Then I went into my profiles and changed both my default and created video.con to 1024 X 768. Once I did that the game started. For some reason I cant force 1280 x 1024. Even when I put the extension on my shortcut the game seems to ignore it.