If you`re a regular to the site you know that I share a particular fondness for Battlefield 2. I`ve lost track of the number of times that I`ve invaded Karland, defended the TV station in the Sharqi Peninsula and been killed trying to secure the middle command point of Kubra Dam. For a while it bordered on addiction but then I managed to break the habit with the help of Oblivion, GRAW, and Rise of Legends. So it was with some trepidation that I installed and tried out the Armored Fury booster pack for Battlefield 2. Would the old flame re-ignite? Would I once again loose two to three hour segments of my life defending virtual locations against hostile forces? How many times would I be lying down in front of a flag waiting for it to turn neutral so that I no longer had to worry about someone spawning behind me?
The short answer is yes, the new booster packs actually managed to re-ignite my passion about Battlefield 2 and I`ve certainly been playing the game more than I should since the pack came out last month. The theme of the booster pack is that the MEC and the Chinese have decided to take the battle to the Americans and have invaded the US. The MEC have invaded through the southwest and the Chinese are invading through Alaska. While there are nearly infinite Red Dawn jokes to make the packs do bring something new to the table just by changing the venue of the battles.
As the name implies the new maps are focused heavily on large scale tank warfare which take place across the three new maps in the game (engineers and anti-tank people are going to become very popular). The maps are Road Rage, Midnight Sun, and Operation Harvest. Of the three maps only Operation Harvest will allow one side to win by capturing all the points on the map.
The three maps are all fairly well done and all of them have a slightly different theme. Road Rage is probably the most iconic of the three with the two symmetrical based on either side of a large highway clover leaf. I was expecting most of the best action to take place over this key part of the map but the times I played the action was really focused on the MEC’s refueling station to the south of the bridge and the USMC’s first base to the North of the highway. The highway segment itself has six vehicle accessible entry points (four on ramps plus the main pass over the highway) in addition to the two ladders infantry troops can use to get to the map. The bridge segment does seem to be quite the target for bombing runs and strafing runs but is somewhat easily defended with a few well places mines. I will admit that going up an on ramp in a tank does help satisfy more than a few suppressed road rage incidents.
Operation Harvest takes place in a somewhat scenic Midwestern area. The map is split ...