Crisis Overted, it was a hoaX – call me ‘spanker’

EA BF2 CRISIS!

After this months announcement of a delay in the release of the much anticipated patch 1.4, the final patch to be issued for Battlefield 2 comes some good news: the patch is ready to go. However, gamers expecting the changes, fixes and improvements much discussed and debated on the Battlefield community’s many web forums are set for a big shock. A Gamespy insider has revealed that despite the DICE testing team throwing much time and EA money at Battlefield 2’s multitude of problems they still keep popping up, and despite the delay and an extensive public and private testing plan no solutions were found. The final patch will be put out next week with the Comcast sponsored map ‘Road to Jalalabad’ but minus the essential fixes promised. Not good news, and not news likely to please the army of fans seemingly ready to riot outside the doors of EA hq unless they’re fixed. The problems in question were introduced with the May release of the 1.3 patch, an essential update to implement the lucrative ‘Armored Fury’ booster pack and therefore one, unlike earlier faulty patches, that couldn’t be rolled back. Gamers have experienced frequent server crashes, game crashes and a large number of multiplayer glitches that have rendered the game an unplayable mess for most. As a result according to Gamespy statistics, player numbers have dwindled by as much as 40%, whilst the UK based server provider Multiplay reports that ranked server rentals have dropped by 60% in just 2 months. Things are set to get worse for BF2 players however with the news that EA will sever their ties with Gamespy over the persistent scoring system that is hosted by the US provider, possibly as early as October 1. Players who have entered the EA Battlefield 2142 pre release program will be able to retain their in game ranks, however all scores and awards will go offline as EA switches from the Gamespy login service to its own in house system. Judging by the popularity of Battlefield 2’s scoring and ranks this will not be a well recieved move to say the least, and will no doubt further irritate players expected to purchase another EA Battlefield title just over a year past Battlefield 2’s release, and one expansion and two booster packs later. Regarding Battlefield 2142, the release date is apparently set to be moved up from November to late September after the public beta test revealed the game to be in better shape than first imagined. Whether anybody will be around to play it is another matter.