Almost Game - BattleField 2: Modern Combat

For fun I was writing about my all time favorite eleven games but it was talking too long. I’ll get to it later. Instead, I thought it would be more fun to write about an “Almost Game”. For me an Almost Game is one of those near misses, a game with great potential that fell short, a fun romp cut short by a straw so heavy it snapped my mounting joy. Such hard falls make an otherwise beautiful leisure activity a point of frustration. Maybe I should call these games Almost Fun?
BattleField 2: Modern Combat may show up on my top 11 list because it was so damn good…to a point. When I could actually play BF2 it was absolutely amazing. As I start thinking about it I want to stop writing and try playing again – it’s been months. At the time BF2 had to compete with World of Warcraft so it was running with the big boys. It held its own for a while. The problem with BF2 was all technical. The game itself was everything you want in a tactical shooter. Everything. However, load times were outrageous. BF2 took 3x or 4x longer to load than the next slowest. It took approximately 5 minutes after you logged in. This was a common complaint on the forums and is pretty unacceptable. In addition, the expansion pack, Special Forces, was unplayable. The game stuttered, graphic clipping and other anomalies abound, and it would eventually freeze. Numerous tweak guides sprung up to help others who struggled with this but if it takes me over an hour of reading just to fire up a game it’s enough to make me pass on future additions of the series. It was a bitter sweet experience but too much effort to stick with or invest in future BattleField games.