Battlefield 2: Modern Combat

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is the fourth game released in the Battlefield series as a port of Battlefield 2 to gaming consoles. It was developed by DICE and published by EA for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles, first releasing on October 24, 2005. It's milestone was that it is the first Battlefield game to go on consoles. On April 11, 2006 an updated version was re-released for the Xbox 360. The updated version has re-worked graphics and online play through Xbox LIVE.

Singleplayer
Like its PC counterpart, Modern Combat pits the People's Republic of China and the Middle Eastern Coalition against the European Union and the United States. In Modern Combat, there are 5 classes to choose from. These classes are the following: Engineer, Special Ops, Assault, Sniper, and Support. The Engineer class has a shotgun, a rocket launcher, a pistol, and a Blowtorch to fix vehicles. The Spec Ops class has a scoped sub-machine gun, a suppressed pistol, Flashbang grenades, a Knife, and C4. The Assault class has a scoped assault rifle with an undermounted grenade launcher, a pistol, Hand Grenades, and Smoke Grenades. The Sniper class has a bolt-action sniper rifle, a suppressed pistol, a GPS (this points out where any hostile individual target is hiding at, and is best used if they are taking cover), smoke grenades, and a Laser Designator. The Support Class has a light machine gun, a pistol, an Auto Injector (heals comrades or yourself), hand grenades, and a Mortar Strike designator. In addition, there are numerous vehicles to use on land, in the air (Helicopters only), and on the water (River Patrol Boats)

Also, this game has a unique feature to it: you can switch bodies with your comrades in order to get to or complete an objective relatively quickly. The feature is called the "Hot-swap" feature.

Plot
The Game begins with News Broadcasts from both NATO and China, reporting on escalating hostility between the two in the nation of Kazakhstan. The center of this hostility is a city near the Kazak capital of Almaty. The player first begins as a member of a NATO force in the area, rescuing a unit under heavy fire at an oil refinery in the city, crashing hostile communication uplinks in the city, and finally guarding a school where a Negotiator will arrive from Snipers. When the Negotiator arrives, an Attack helicopter with unknown markings arrives and blows the Negotiator up. NATO and China blame each other for the incident, pushing the hostility up to a full-scale war in the country.

The player's perspective then switches to that of a Chinese soldier. In response to their losses in the city, the Chinese launch a counter-offensive on the Caspian sea Coast. Since NATO is apparently veteran to maritime operations, the Chinese strike at several critical targets, including the destruction of 3 Fast attack submarines, and the assault on an Oil rig, and an Island. Finally, NATO sends a ship loaded with High Explosives disguised as a Civilian cargo ship to destroy these targets. However, the Chinese destroy the ship before it reaches its targets, foiling the plan.

NATO propaganda blames the Chinese of destroying a civilian cargo ship (the same one with explosives) out of unprovoked aggression, marking the player's perspective switch from China back to NATO. While NATO was occupied on the Caspian coast, the Chinese managed to secure the entire city. NATO launches a counter-offensive within the city, managing to reclaim a crucial Heliport, gain Recon data via Helicopter, destroy a Chinese Armored Brigade holding a Hill, and finally, destroy a bridge the Chinese were using to send reinforcements into the city.

Chinese propaganda blames NATO for destroying the bridge which was "The people's only escape route". The player's perspective switches back to China, where the player is once more back on the Caspian coast. The player first launches a waterborne assault on a NATO held hill, as the Hill provides a critical overwatch position, and then destroys the only complete Oil Refinery in Kazakhstan, because NATO was using it to fuel their operations in the area.

The viewpoint switches one more time to NATO, who has now launched operations in Central Kazakhstan. First, the player recons the area by Humvee, liberating several nearby towns on the way. Then, a Special Ops team is sent to kill a Chinese regional commander who has been hindering NATO operations in that area. The Spec Ops team finally manages to kill him as he attempts to escape by helicopter.

The viewpoint switches one last time to the Chinese, who are also operating in the area. First, the player launches assaults on the towns NATO previously liberated, providing the Chinese a strong hold of the area. In retaliation, NATO launches a heavy armed assault on a local trainyard under Chinese control. After repelling the assault, NATO forces retreat from the area. NATO then resorts to packing a train full of explosives, hoping to blow the trainyard up. The Chinese foil this too, and the train is derailed right before it hits the trainyard.

At this point, the player is given a choice of what faction to play as. If the player chooses NATO, then NATO launches the last mission of the war. The commander of all Chinese operations in Kazakhstan, Lieutenant Colonel Zhu, is stationed in the Chinese regional headquarters, not far away from NATO's regional headquarters. NATO launches a heavy assault on Zhu's position, and as Zhu tries to fly away in a helicopter, the helicopter is shot down, killing Zhu. If the player chose China, then China launches the last mission of the war. Lieutenant Colonel Scott, the commander of all NATO operations in Kazakhstan, is stationed in the NATO regional headquarters, not far away from the Chinese regional headquarters. The Chinese launch a heavy assault on the Scott's position, and as Scott tries flying away in a helicopter, the Chinese shoot down the helicopter, killing Scott.

No matter which faction the player chose, at this point, the faction's news agency receives a message from a terrorist group called The Burning Flag, with their leader, a man only known as Commander 31, stating that the helicopter that killed the Negotiator was theirs, so that the war was practically set up by them, and that they intend on World Domination by launching 3 Nuclear missiles at the Player's country. They will do this from a remote Kazak Nuclear Silo complex under their control. The player then leads a heavy and frantic assault to disengage the missiles before they launch. The player manages to disengage 2 missiles before heading to Commander 31's silo. The player realizes that the control room which is crucial to disengaging the 3rd missile is the same one Commander 31 has locked himself in. Frantically, a sniper some distance away marks the control room with an airstrike, killing Commander 31 and disengaging the 3rd missile.

At this point, the player can play the other faction's version of the game's end, because the game is now complete.

Ranking
The campaign in Battlefield 2: Modern Combat features a ranking system quite similar to the multiplayer ranking system. The player can increase their rank by earning stars and medals, the latter being achievements on the Xbox 360 version of the game. To earn a star, a player must have an exemplary performance at the end of the mission. There are a total of 266 stars to collect in all, and there are four categories in which a player may earn stars and a single category in which a player may lose stars at the end of a singleplayer mission. These are:
 * Score - The amount of points the player earned from kills, completing mission objectives, destroying vehicles, etc.
 * Time - How fast the player completed the mission.
 * Style/Weapon Use - The amount of hot-swapping the player did in the mission.
 * Accuracy - How many bullets hit enemies versus missed enemies by the player throughout the mission.
 * Losses* - How many allied A.I. died during the mission.


 * * Note: This category is the one in which players can lose stars, rather then gain them.

To get up to higher ranks, the player must not only acquire stars, but they must gain medals as well. Medals are non-mission specific and can be earned in any level possible in the campaign. These medals include killing a certain amount of enemies in succession with a specific kit or vehicle class, killing enemies with explosives, or doing a kit-specific task like healing allies or repairing vehicles.

Weapon Upgrades
The player can upgrade their weapons by gaining stars. For example, if the player has a total of 266 stars, the Light Machine Gun used by the Support Kit will get an armor-piercing bullet upgrade. Upgrades such as this help the player a lot in the campaign, especially in gaining more medals.

Challenges
Challenges include weapon training, hot-swap time trials, and race challenges with the in-game vehicles. The player has to get a certain amount of score to complete the challenge before time runs out. The player can get a maximum of three stars by completing a challenge with the highest score. The challenges are good practice for the player to master the vehicles and weapons featured in the game.

Field Tasks
The field tasks are search and destroy tasks scattered throughout the campaign. The player needs to find objects listed in the "Field Tasks" menu. After the player has destroyed, for example, all of the water towers on a level, the player will get a star towards their next rank. Most of the objects the player has to destroy are hidden around the outskirts of the map, but it is recommended that field tasks are done after completing the campaign. The easiest field task objectives to find are aerials, road signs, billboards, statues, sea mines and buoys. This feature, however, was removed from the Xbox 360 version.

Multiplayer
thumb|300px|right|Multiplayer gameplay of the PS2 version of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat on the map [[Backstab.]]Multiplayer Online features 24 player matches on Conquest maps. The multiplayer is different from the singleplayer in that things such as controls, weapons, sounds and movement speed have been changed from singleplayer to balance gameplay. Sometimes, when the game is near a conclusion or the game hasn't proceeded almost at all and the timer reaches zero, the game will not end.

For a teamkill, the player loses a point, if the teamkilling persists the player loses more and more points until 24+ points is lost, when 24+ points is lost, the player gets kicked from the match. The player will get kicked even if the player does not go over -23. The game automatically saves the amount of negative score got in a match. If the player has for example, 30 points and started teamkilling, the player would still get kicked by going lower than 7 points.

There are ranks and medals in the multiplayer online mode as well. The player starts off as a Private like in the campaign mode, and goes up in rank by gaining medals, score and Points Per Hour (PPH).

As of April 15, 2010, Microsoft has closed online support for original Xbox titles and Battlefield 2: Modern Combat can no longer be played online. However, the PS2 servers are still functional.

There is also no more official support of EA and Gamespy. Since September 2009, EA ended their support for the game and they shut down their security servers, which made a player unable to open more than one Gamespy account for the game. A player needs a Gamespy account to run the game as the serial number can only be activated through Gamespy. Because of problems relating to Gamespy's servers EA shut them down. Because of this Gamespy is no longer able to activate any serial numbers as they were no longer responsible for the multiplayer online game feature, so Gamespy decided that they would let the game continue running, but no new serials can be activated and accounts be created on Gamespy.

Although Microsoft, Electronic Arts, and Gamespy dropped support of the game, Clan stats, and messages can still be broadcasted, making it a beacon for many recent Battlefield games, such as Battlefield 3, because of it's unique and easy to use Clan communication system.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack for Battlefield 2: Modern Combat was released on the 1st of December 2006. It contains 14 tracks all composed by Rupert Gregson-Williams, the brother of the famous movie music composer, Harry Gregson-Williams.
 * 1) BF Menu Music (3:19)
 * 2) Headshot (6:02)
 * 3) End Of The Line (5:59)
 * 4) Bunker Bust (4:14)
 * 5) Air Traffic Control (3:23)
 * 6) Heavy Tonnage (4:28)
 * 7) Zone 2 China (5:05)
 * 8) Big Bang (4:14)
 * 9) China Final (9:01)
 * 10) Chopper Catching Flak (3:40)
 * 11) Defend The Villages (5:39)
 * 12) Helicopter Recon (4:00)
 * 13) Nato Final (8:12)
 * 14) River Mission (4:12)

Reception
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat has received slightly positive reviews from critics. The game currently holds Metacritic scores of 80 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and 77 for the Xbox 360.

Trivia

 * In 2005, a PSP version of the game was announced, but it was later cancelled.
 * Battlefield 2: Modern Combat was supposed to be multiplayer only, but DICE decided to add in a single player component as well.
 * Many gamers thought of this as a console version of the smash hit Battlefield 2, in reality it's more of a spin-off featuring the same factions and most of the weapons, but consisting of its own Campaign, Multiplayer Maps, et cetera.
 * The music in the game was composed by two people, the Campaign portion was composed by Rupert Gregson Williams, while the Multiplayer portion was composed by Tobias Marberger.
 * The official soundtrack of the game only features music from the single player missions.
 * This is the first Battlefield game to not use the Refractor engine, instead using the RenderWare engine.
 * This is the only modern-era Battlefield game to NOT contain any Russian forces.