The alarms in your tank are blaring. An enemy sniper almost has a lock on your tank with his laser designator, so in a few seconds a missile will be inbound directly to your vehicles position. "Time to bail," you announce to your teammate manning the .50 Cal in the turret on the roof. Quickly making your exit, you make your way to the nearest cover, a bombed out 2 story building still burning.

Looking back to see your tank detonate as the missile hits. Thanks to you the gunner made it out as well and is on way to take the next flag over. There is no way to tell where the sniper is so you head toward the flag with your teammate to overtake the position and further your control of the battlefield. An enemy helicopter is incoming, the flash of rocket fire signaling that you and your comrade have been spotted trying to hold the flag long enough to dominate the area. What the chopper doesn’t know is that you are a combat engineer, and your rocket launcher quickly brings it down in a cloud of flames, smoke and wreckage. You then hear the confirmation that the area is secured and is now under your team’s control. Time to move to the next flag you think as you switch back over to your shotgun. A hummer pulls up, a friendly, and you hop into the turret up top and scan the area for targets as is speeds off toward the next flag.

I Love the smell of cordite in the morning!

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is a port of Battlefield 2 for the PC. There are a few differences between the two versions, namely the inclusion of a campaign mode. The campaign takes you into the middle of a modern day clash between NATO and the republic of China as conflict erupts in Kazakhstan. The game is standard first person shooter fare, not bringing much innovation to the table, but solid and polished nonetheless. EA and Digital Illusions have the recipe for a first person down pat, and this is a worthy entry into the field.

There are five classes of infantry available to play in the game; Assault, Sniper, Covert Ops, Support, and Engineer. All of the classes are balanced, and because of the various weapons load outs, determine the style of play you will have to use to play them effectively. The assault class is a general infantry soldier, carrying an assault rifle fitted with a grenade launcher, smoke, frag grenades, and a pistol. The sniper is equipped with a sniper rifle, smoke grenades, GPS unit that reveals the location of all enemies to your team for a few seconds, silenced pistol, and a laser designator that directs a vehicle to its location after locking on. The covert ops class is all about stealth, naturally, and carries a silenced submachine gun, silenced pistol, stun grenades (flash bangs), C4 explosive packs and a combat knife for up close silent kills. The support class has a variety of tools at its disposal; a heavy machine gun, pistol, frag grenades, an auto-injector that heals him or others, and a radio that is used to call in mortar strikes. Last but not least, there is the engineer, packing a shotgun, land mines, rocket launcher, pistol, and a blow torch to repair vehicles. All of the classes are fun to play and keep the game interesting. You have to change classes to use weapons different than your classes’ equipment, which can be done in game by picking up the kit that is left behind when a soldier gets killed.

As you play through the campaign mode, you increase rank based on your performance, which unlocks the weapons available for you to use. During the campaign missions, you can take control of any friendly soldier on your side with the hot swap feature, a nifty ability that enables you perform a variety of roles and also move quickly around the battlefield depending on the situation and your objectives. The campaign mode is entertaining and kept me interested and on my toes from start to finish. None of the missions are a cake walk, as they require strategy and thought to accomplish. The story is plausible and well done, which keeps you engaged and moves game along nicely.

The Xbox live mode is a blast to play. However, the modes of play are a little sparse, as there is only capture the flag and conquest game types available to play. Conquest is where there are multiple flag points at strategic spots throughout the map and the winner is decided by which side can conquer and hold these positions the longest. Once a flag is taken over, it starts to reduce the enemy teams point total, and when one team is at zero, game over. There is a decent selection of maps available to play, but it seems that there are three that get played more often, which can start to get old if that’s all anyone picks to play. There are quite a bit of servers available, so there is a good amount of games to pick from though. The maps are well planned, and all are fun and balanced for each side. As in the campaign, strategy is required as just charging in will only succeed in showing you the respawn menu. The respawn menu is where you choose what class to play and where you choose what map points you will start at, depending on what flags your team controls. Most of the maps feature at least one flag that cannot be occupied by the enemy, but there are some "Incursion" maps where any of the points can be held by either side, meaning that if all the points are held by one side, and all of the opposing team is killed, they lose, regardless of points.

There is a multitude of vehicles available to utilize in Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. There are land, air, and sea vehicles that are available for use in the game. The land vehicles range from military to civilian, as there are tanks, humvees, cars, small pickups, and even snowmobiles equipped with machineguns on one map. The air and sea vehicles include several helicopters and attack boats. Almost all of the vehicles can carry two or more soldiers, and many of them have guns mounted for passengers to operate. The vehicles handle adequately, only the helicopter taking any practice to pilot adeptly. All in all, they are all fun to operate, my personal favorite being the minivan equipped with several miniguns.

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is a great game, but other than the hot swap feature in the campaign, there just isn’t anything that you haven’t seen before in a first person shooter. It is a solid, polished game that doesn’t do anything special to stand out as unique.

Does this camo make me look fat?

The visuals of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is very nice. The graphics are HD compatible and easy on the eye, but you cam tell that this is a game the was brought forward from last-gen systems, as it was first released on the Xbox and Playstation 2, then slightly updated for the Xbox 360. They are nice and pretty, but they do not the luster and clarity of a true next-gen game. The 360 handles the graphics with relative ease, rarely ever slowing down during the action. The cuts scenes are beautiful, but aren’t as slick as most next generation games.

Click. Click. Boom!

The games’ audio is outstanding. Weapon fire, explosions and other sound effects are impressive. There are a lot of little details that make the games sound work very well. Things like the damage alarms in the tanks that you can hear outside if you are close enough, the thrum of helicopter rotors, and the subtle differences in the various weapons are awesome. Effects like realistic echoes and directional sound is great. Even the voice work in the game is up to par with the rest of the sound. In game announcements are handled like they are actually coming through a radio on the soldiers’ person, so they will vary in language and will create echoes if applicable to your location. I was very impressed overall with the audio of the game.

Lock and Load!

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is a blast to play. The game is well made and enjoyable, with the offline challenge mini games and the excellent online mode extending the playability for quite a while. The challenges include weapon, driving, and hot swap games. The campaign and online modes are fun and challenging, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing every minute of the game.

Another Brick in the wall. . .

All in all, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is a good game. But there just isn’t anything that makes you need to play it. Everything about it is good, but nothing makes it stand out. Basically it feels like a good home cooked meal. Tastes great, made well, but nothing fancy or exciting. I enjoyed the game, and still play it frequently, but there isn’t anything particularly standout about it.

A Solid Shooter and a bargain

I would recommend Battlefield 2: Modern Combat to any gamer looking for a solid first person shooter at a good price. Most retailers are selling it for around thirty dollars, so it’s a good game at a good price and the game has no glaring problems, but it doesn’t standout as a must-own for every gamer. EA and Digital Illusions have put the first person shooter recipe to good use, and have created a worthy offering that is more than adequate, but not necessarily exceptional.