A new beta patch for Battlefield 2 (Includes vista and widescreen support)

I pretty much stopped playing the PC battlefield games after moving over to vista. This was mainly because both 2142 and Battlefield 2 like to crash on my newest PC with vista. Problems aside I have always enjoyed playing battlefield 2 and decided to give this 1.3 GB patch a go. The game runs fine and it looks nice at the newer higher resolutions it supports but there is only a handful of beta servers available. These few servers all seem to run one map 24/7 which means a server gets boring quickly. I can understand people wanting to play on the new maps so hopefully that will change soon. The main problem with this new patch aside from the lack of servers is there is some weird bug that prevents people from join certain servers. I checked it out on the forums and there is no solution yet, so I think I will wait before the patch comes out properly and all the servers move to the new patch before giving it another go. The new maps seem good although I could not play them properly as most of the servers I could actually join had vehicles disabled. To me if someone wants to play battlefield with vehicles disabled why not go play cod? After all Vehicles are the main selling point in the battlefield series are they not?

Red Alert 3 Beta: Empire Unit Showcase

Here is a collection of screenshots from the final team in the Red Alert 3 Beta. This team being the newcomer to the series is likely to interest a lot of people. The Empires units mainly consist of robotic vehicles, some of which transform. There is also a telekentic school girl and sword wielding/smoke popping infantry. Check out the cool screenshot of the psychic school girl sending an engineer up in the air before being left to fall to his doom.

The Empires buildings are trained as units then unpacked.

The Empires air units consist of land and sea units that have transformed into aircraft.

The Empires naval fleet

The school girls way of killing people

The empires infantry, some wield swords as well as guns.

The Empires land units consist of mainly transformer like robots.

Red Alert 3 Beta: Sandbox mode

You may have read that I have been getting all my screenshots using the sandbox bug in the beta. A moderator on the C&C forum actually explains how to do this, but its pretty hard to find in between all the other information on there so here is how its done.

As posted by TheMystic (C&C forum moderator)

Thanks to a bug it is possible to play a game without an opponent, this is called Sandbox mode and is great for just experimenting with things:

Go to automatch, after it’s searched for a bit you’ll notice the stars freeze for a second, at that exact point click create game and (don’t enter a game name) and you’ll be in sandbox mode.

Every time I try it my stars never freeze. Instead I alt and tab out of the game and leave it for 5 minutes before going to create game and it usually works. Let me know if you have any luck, or problems getting it working. Hope this helps some people out there wanting to play with the beta without getting rushed in 5 minutes.

Red Alert 3 Beta: Soviet Unit Showcase

Here is as promised the soviet teams units from the beta. The soviets are my favorite team so far, mainly because I love the kirov airships. The soviets also have alot of vehicles with legs, their telsa boats have legs so they can come out of the water. This teams most impressive land unit is the apocolypse tank which is very powerful, and has a beam to drag in and crush units. The soviet commando has a sniper rifle and can call in airstrikes.

Copters tow vehicle ability

bullfrogs launch infantry ability

Kirovs bombing, and exploding

Conscript molotov ability

Soviet air power

Soviet infantry army

Soviet Land Units

Soviet Naval Power

Red Alert 3 Beta: Allied Units Showcase!

Thanks to the command and conquer forums someone has informed me of a bug in the beta that allows you to play in sandbox mode on your own. This means I was able to build at my own pace and play with all of the units. I have captured screenshots of every allied unit in the beta (probably the full game too) and uploaded them for you to see. If you want to know what any of the units do then leave a comment. You will also notice some other changes in the screenshots, such as ore being in mines rarther than patches on the ground. You can also now build on water, and gather ore at sea. Some of you will be very pleased to see that walls are back in C&C. To make walls you build two pillars and the wall appears inbetween. The two largest land and sea vehicles are mobile construction vehicles. In RA3 MCVs are amphibious so you can deploy them at sea or take them to other landmasses. The collection of vehicles for the other two teams will be up soon, enjoy!

Allied air unit collection

Allied land unit collection

Allied sea unit collection

Chronosphere super weapon

New ore miner at work

Secondary ability of the bomber

Shield ability from artillary unit

Airstrike ability

Tanya goes for a swim

NOTE : The soviet gallery is now up. Check out the next post up on the blog.

Red Alert 3 Beta: Impressions

I received my eagerly awaited Red Alert 3 beta invitation at the weekend and could not wait to start playing it. The beta is very generous, giving you the choice of all 3 teams with what looks like most of the units as well. There are 2 maps, a two player and a four. It is multiplayer (online) only so you will need a key to join in. I got my key from Kanes Wrath but I am not sure if there are other ways to get one.

So how is the game shaping up? Well after the disastrous Kanes Wrath, it seems EALA may have something promising to offer for forgiveness.