My personal feeling is that the game had a number of bugs that were severe enough that EA and Dice really should not have released it. I voted the third option, though I could easily justify classifying it as simply unacceptable. The reason I say that is some of the problems with the game (such as shader cache corruption, problems changing display types, etc) are way beyond the average user's ability to troubleshoot and correct.
For instance, most of us here know that if the game crashes to the desktop (sans error message, of course) as soon as we get into a game, we probably have a corrupt shader cache. We know to go delete the cache, let it rebuild, and then enter the game. Joe User doesn't even know how to say 'cache'.
Other problems are far more elusive. Did you buy the recommended Audigy 2 card so you could experience Battlefield 2 in all of its EAX glory? Bummer, because despite being the recommended card (until the X-Fi came out), it actually offers nothing more than your crappy onboard sound does due to problems in either Dice's code, Creative's driver, or both (they're actually not sure what the problem is, even several months after the release).
Playing on anything less than an OC96? Well, then I'd stay away from flying fully loaded choppers, standing on our near ledges, or confronting enemies face to face, because such situations are too stressful for the netcode and you'll be poised to have yourself repositioned by the server right into the side of a building or cratered to the pavement.
Do you intend to shoot people? Well, before doing so I recommend that you stop, put your gun down, and kindly ask your target which team they're on, because you certainly can't rely on the game or even the scoreboard to tell you.
Did you initially have aspirations of remapping your 'Alt' or 'Ctrl' keys? Sorry, that's an unsupported feature.
Did the game servers on which you planned to play have the ability to dynamically add memory hardware as the game leaks 16k by the second?
Want to start a clan? Join a clan? Kiss all of your hardearned stats goodbye, as you cannot change your name.
When the game curls up its toes and dies on you, would you like to see an error message? Error messages are for sissies... go play UT or Counter-Strike, Nancy.
Would you like to use the browser to find favorites, buddies, or apply filters? Sorry, BF2 isn't in the server browser business.
Have you switched from a CRT to an LCD to experience BF2 in widescreen? Well you're screwed, because a) the game will crash on you now because the game cannot handle switching display types without your own manual intervention, and b) there's no widescreen support.
This is by no means an extensive list of the problems, and before you flame me, I do realize that two of these problems were addressed in the patch(es). My point here is that the game wasn't remotely ready to be released and is far from user-friendly.
I think it's a shame that such a brilliant game was marred by such a terrible release, and I'm quite simply just getting pissed that EA continues to pull this kind of crap, release after release, with total impunity. Remember back to BF1942's release... it was just as bad as BF2, and only goes to show that it's becoming totally acceptable to release and sell unstable code so profits can be realized and reported a quarter or two earlier. Not to jump on the bash EA bandwagon, but it seems to me that they have absolutely no qualms about this kind of practice. It's practically standard operating procedure.
For instance, most of us here know that if the game crashes to the desktop (sans error message, of course) as soon as we get into a game, we probably have a corrupt shader cache. We know to go delete the cache, let it rebuild, and then enter the game. Joe User doesn't even know how to say 'cache'.
Other problems are far more elusive. Did you buy the recommended Audigy 2 card so you could experience Battlefield 2 in all of its EAX glory? Bummer, because despite being the recommended card (until the X-Fi came out), it actually offers nothing more than your crappy onboard sound does due to problems in either Dice's code, Creative's driver, or both (they're actually not sure what the problem is, even several months after the release).
Playing on anything less than an OC96? Well, then I'd stay away from flying fully loaded choppers, standing on our near ledges, or confronting enemies face to face, because such situations are too stressful for the netcode and you'll be poised to have yourself repositioned by the server right into the side of a building or cratered to the pavement.
Do you intend to shoot people? Well, before doing so I recommend that you stop, put your gun down, and kindly ask your target which team they're on, because you certainly can't rely on the game or even the scoreboard to tell you.
Did you initially have aspirations of remapping your 'Alt' or 'Ctrl' keys? Sorry, that's an unsupported feature.
Did the game servers on which you planned to play have the ability to dynamically add memory hardware as the game leaks 16k by the second?
Want to start a clan? Join a clan? Kiss all of your hardearned stats goodbye, as you cannot change your name.
When the game curls up its toes and dies on you, would you like to see an error message? Error messages are for sissies... go play UT or Counter-Strike, Nancy.
Would you like to use the browser to find favorites, buddies, or apply filters? Sorry, BF2 isn't in the server browser business.
Have you switched from a CRT to an LCD to experience BF2 in widescreen? Well you're screwed, because a) the game will crash on you now because the game cannot handle switching display types without your own manual intervention, and b) there's no widescreen support.
This is by no means an extensive list of the problems, and before you flame me, I do realize that two of these problems were addressed in the patch(es). My point here is that the game wasn't remotely ready to be released and is far from user-friendly.
I think it's a shame that such a brilliant game was marred by such a terrible release, and I'm quite simply just getting pissed that EA continues to pull this kind of crap, release after release, with total impunity. Remember back to BF1942's release... it was just as bad as BF2, and only goes to show that it's becoming totally acceptable to release and sell unstable code so profits can be realized and reported a quarter or two earlier. Not to jump on the bash EA bandwagon, but it seems to me that they have absolutely no qualms about this kind of practice. It's practically standard operating procedure.
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