Customer Reviews

Battlefield 2142

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This game is NOT a port. Its has NOT been re-written for OS X. It's performance as a result is unacceptable, and EA's attitude toward Mac users regarding support and customer service is equally unacceptable. Buy the PC version. Once you do, you will experience the game in all it's glory. And it is an amazing game. Just not on OS X.

Please keep in mind, I'm NOT attempting to start up the lame old "PC vs Mac" war in *any* way, I own 3 Macs. But I also own 2 PCs. I prefer OS X for every computing task other than gaming.

I'm also not insinuating Macs are not suitable for gaming. They are. It's entirely possible to create amazing games on Mac. Look at any of Blizzard's games for proof of that. Granted, you won't be playing state of the art shooters with frame rates of 90 on anything less than a Mac Pro, but the other 98% of the Mac gaming market could and should be served.

But this game is the perfect example of how *not* to do it.

Again, this game is NOT a port. It's using emulator technology to trick your Mac into thinking it's a PC for the duration of the game. Emulation is VERY processor and RAM intensive. As a result, you have sluggishness, horrible frame rates, and a few other, more minor issues.

EA's customer service and support for this game is non-existent. You can't install the newest patch for the game. You can't install the expansion for the game. You can't even download the game using the EALink/EA Store service. The website for the game does not even acknowledge the existence of the Mac version. All you have is one forum with users spending way too much time attempting to fix the problems EA's programmers should have done.

So since you have an Intel Mac, or you would not be reading this review contemplating the purchase of this game, do yourself a favor and save $10 (as of this writing the PC version is $10 cheaper here) and acquire a copy of XP SP2 and install it and PC version of this game. It may seem like a great deal of effort, but it's not when you consider the value of your time you will spend attempting to improve its performance, or the rage and frustration you will experience when you realize what a cruel joke EA has let loose with this EMULATION.

I've never been more disappointed with a mac version of a game. Obviously very little attention was payed to installation, updates, video card support and multiplayer. 5 co-workers all bought the game and all of us have had trouble crashing, connecting or even playing the game. I've had to reinstall twice now in the last 2 weeks to solve inexplicable stalling/crashing. Also only plays at 1024x768 or 800x600 (unless you want more crashing)

The game itself rocks. Tons of fun (once you can get the blasted thing to run). We had better luck running it on older intel macbooks than on newer, faster intel towers. You'll do better buying the Windows version and running it through Boot Camp or Parallels.

Come on, EA. How many hundreds of hardware/software configurations do you have to test for on the Windows platform? and on a mac there are maybe 5? Oh.. and the mac version is more expensive to boot. I think I'll stick with Aspyr and id for my games from now on. Ridiculous.

I love this game, but playing it on a Mac is nothing but frustration. You'll pay twice as much for the game up front. Then you'll experience the wonderfully chaotic cider emulation. No matter how fast your Mac, you'll get laggy performance and lots of crashes.

Assuming you keep playing, you'll be disappointed to find EA never bothered to port the Northern Strike booster pack, so your choices of servers is limited (and this is a server-only game. No real single-player mode). Even better, when EA releases an incremental patch (to introduce new maps, new weapons and fix bugs), Mac owners get the patch about a month later than everyone else. I am currently waiting for the 1.50 patch. In the meantime, every server in the known world has upgraded to 1.50. In other words, I am unable to play the game. Furthermore, EA refuses to comment on when they'll get around to patching the Mac version.

Avoid this game. Buy the PC version if you must, but I suggest avoiding EA altogether. They have proven themselves to be unabashedly anti-consumer and happy to rest on their pile of Madden cash.

I played and loved this game on my mac, but i was using boot camp and running it on windows. When I saw it was out for osx i jumped at the chance to play it on my native operating system.I was sooo disappointed, this is a clumsy, inefficient and rough version of the game I had loved. To me this version is virtually unplayable.

I'm pissed about this game. I got it for my brand new macbook and it didnt even meet the MINIMUM graphics requirements. A game should always have phenominal graphics as an OPTION not a requirement. It literally wont even open because of this. This game was expensive and because I opened it, I cant return it. I am pissed.

DONT buy this without making sure your computer is up to it. It looks like a cool game, but I wouldn't know. Wont even open. grrrr.

Battlefield 2142 will not work on a Mac that is equipped with the GMA 950 graphics chip. This chip comes on the older Macbook and the Mac Mini. This information is provided in the Read Me file that comes with the game, but unfortunately is apparently not provided elsewhere by EA. I have an iMac 20, mid 2007, with the OEM chip and 2.5 Gb of DRAM, and the game runs very well.

First off, I have never played BF2 and I read of many of those who have say that this is a glorified mod BF2.

I am running BF 2142 on a MacPro tower 2X4 core OSX Leopard 6GB RAM 750GB HD stock gfx card. And have NO performance issue.

These other reviewers that are whining about performance, are not running fast enough machines. This game demands fast hardware, if you play on anything below the minimum requirements, it will not run properly.

Having said that, the game itself occasionally crashes, but rarely. My biggest problems came from a cheap router I had, which caused me to constantly lose my connection. I replaced my router with a D-Link game router, and I have no more problems.

I have played BF1942, BF Vietnam and Halo, Quake(1-4) and Unreal Tournament.

What EA has always done a superb job with is game play and balance. Even my previous favorite, Halo, had some real imbalance regarding the pistol, no one should be able to snipe someone from 50 + yards with a freaking pistol! But the weapons are so well balanced in BF2142 that there is no real consensus on which weapons are truly better, I think this is because it depends on what you get used to/prefer. That is a good sign that they did a great job balancing the weapons.

What really makes this game superb in my opinion, is that they have really gone to great lengths to reward teamwork! You can be a "Lone wolf" if you want, but you will gain points and rank at 25% of what well performing squads can gain. The hierarchy is that orders come down from a Commander (You get killer points for commanding!) If the Commander gives orders, he gest points, if the Squad Leaders follow those orders he gets more points, if those orders result in success everyone gets even more points!! Likewise the Squad Leaders get more points when their fellow squad members follow those orders. Having played so many other FPS games without this feature, and being frustrated at the lack of teamwork or the ability to give orders, let alone receive reward for it, these new features make my heart sing!!

Another great feature is the game play modes. Gone is the Capture the Flag mode, which frankly I am bored to death of. The game types are Conquest, where the defender has all the points and you have to capture them and hold them. Assault Lines, where all the points start out neutral, and you fight to gain more. But the best of all is the Titan mode! The control points are actually missile silos, which you capture and reprogram to attack the enemy Titan shields. Once their shields are down, you can then board the enemy Titan and try to destroy their reactor, by first destroying 4 reactor consoles and then the reactor itself. Any description will fall short of doing this justice, it is a real blast!! I often play as Commander, helping my men capture the silos, then if and when our Titan gets boarded, I help defend our Titan. A real heart racing thrill!

The ranking system is great! With each new promotion you get an "Unlock" which allows you to access another weapon or piece of equipment in you player class tree. I am not familiar with how BF2 worked in this regard, and have read others complaints about the classes and unlocks, but I think this system rocks! I have filled out my Assault class and my Support class and am now filling out my Recon class. I just love the equipment I have gained, they really make a difference!

EA has also gotten the vehicles down! I know of no other game that has such excellent vehicles! Sure the gunship's seem to many to be too powerful, and there is no denying that if you are on the receiving end of a good enemy pilot, it can really stink. But a resourceful player can take one down without too much trouble, depending on the circumstance. Heck, last night I shot one out of the sky with my Support MG, that was trying to crush me by landing on me.

I would give this game 5 out of 5 stars for game play and entertainment, but I have to say that the bugs are very annoying! The came will occasionally crash, and I sometimes get a strange glich where there is no spawn point on the titan? Also it is often impossible to choose squad one from the list in commander mode. But these minor irritations won't stop me from playing the greatest FPS game to ever make it to the Macintosh.

There was nothing on line at Amazon about this game for Intel only. I bought it for my grandson, when it came he opened it and tried to download, and when it wouldn't play. he called me and we found that it was for intel only. It was already opened so we could not send it back. Poor knowledge about specs on your web, on items.I have a Imac G5.

With not much of a wide variety of games for the Mac, Battlefield 2142 is a good addition to the small selection of games. It has exciting gameplay and such and it's pretty sweet.

Only issue is the technical problems. Unless you run it in windowed mode with low details, it'll crash pretty often. But the game still looks alright and is a minor problem.

If you have a Mac I'd recommend this game.

i got this game for my macbook and it runs ok.When i am playing it has a lag which grows with the number of players and map.to be a beginner at this game you have to like to watch your soldier die and wait for the respawn. becouce on a populated map you are an easy kill for the more experinced players with advanced sniper rifles or scar 11s. if you are going to get this game i would strongly recomend a mouse and a desktop computer.