Arcano-D.E.S
Member
+13|6774
60 some odd hours later I have finally recieved my Euro medal. So I have decided to write a little review of my time spent.

The Maps:
Great Wall is a great map. Should be added to vanilla. I love the infantry battles that take place on the walls if the internal compound is split good times. Armour doesn't dominate either and artillery isn't terrible. I love the movement that you can get on through out the map. I dislike the claymores but an organized squad can overcome this with face first defusals. The only thing I didn't like about the map is that is can become very one sided with either side cutting off complete access to the compound.

Operation Smoke Screen:
Another great map that has good potential. The variety of the vehicles on the map made for a good showing of what the booster had to offer. Also the map featured some interesting features like the smoke and lots of ground defence positions. The few problems that I found with the map are the lack of infantry combat. Occasionally you would see some good fights but they would only last as long as it takes 4 tanks to show up. The mobile AA being only available from the windfarm means that one team can claim the air advantage and keep it, mostly because of the ability for the mobile AA to get into striking distance of either sides uncap.

Taraba Quarry:
I have mixed feelings about this map. I liked the rolling fields of the map because it made for some good tank battles. I also thought the bridge expanse made for some good action between both sides. On the other hand the bombers made the long travel times even more frustrating when you get smoked halfway to a flag. The map is also not infantry friendly with very little action for people how like playing medics or assault.

The weapons:
I liked the way the tanks looked but other than the skin there was no difference. Im sure this was intentional but did anyone find that the EF tanks were easier to kill than the MEC tanks? <- maybe just me.
Tiger Hap looked cool and was fun to use but the "flip and explode for no reason bug" annoyed me.
I loved the EuroFighter, im not much of a pilot but I just loved flying it. I found the Mig could out turn it though but that could just be me.
The infantry weapons were great. The FAMAS was my favourite and I was hoping that they would bring it over. The HK21 was cool and had a great sound. The L96 is the hot sniper weapon of the season and it deserves the kudos it gets. The Benelli is cool but not too special. The Specops gun had 40 RDS! I couldn't believe that and I instantly fell in love.

The award:
Not worth it. 50 hrs playing the EU is crazy. I like this booster but that is a lot of play time for a medal. Putting 50 hrs over 3 maps just made it very difficult to keep interested.

Final impressions after 60 hrs: I spent a lot of time on the servers and UTAC and Jolt were my favourites. My one complaint is about the balance of servers. I found that in many cases I would be on a server for one balanced map and then it was 31 EU players and 9 Mec players, this would kill the server attendance dead. I overall think it is worth the money and if you have EF and AF there are some great servers out there.

Thanks for reading.
d3v1ldr1v3r13
Satan's disciple on Earth.
+160|6913|Hell's prison
Nice Well rounded review +1!
Phrozenbot
Member
+632|6843|do not disturb

Indeed, nicely done. I'd like to add my two cents.

Like you said, Great Wall is a great map. Scenic and the most distinctive of any BF2 map I've played so far. A medieval castle wall, during the fall, in the evening after a rain storm? Nothing like it's beauty, but people tend to like the warmer and drier feels of maps like Karkand. And like you said, tanks don't really dominate, but they are a deciding factor. The long stretches tanks have to go make them less desirable and less problematic, as once you killed an enemy tank, you won't see it again for maybe another minute. Mines pretty much put all armor to a halt, which is interesting, but a few more holes in the walls for infantry should have been included. A really good team and keep the whole wall in their hands with no problem. The frame rates can also be an issue. The numerous polygons for the man holes start to drag the CPU on a full server. The map needs to be optimized, probably cutting the polygons more with he draw distances.

My favorite map for chopper combat has to be Operation Smoke Screen. I hate the mobile AA though. Once they roll down the cliff, they will base rape to no end, and with that AA range, it's not even worth trying to get a helicopter lifted off the ground. It's very important for MEC to hold the wind farm though, as the migs are pretty much useless against the Euro Fighter. Not a whole lot of infantry combat. Maybe some stairs or ladders that led up to the wind farm could have led to some interesting fights, but it's mainly armor. The environment is well done though, and I applaud Dice for their hard work.

Taraba is a jet whores heaven. The large a free air space to roam makes bombing a lot easier, and that pretty much dominates the map. Infantry are slow, and screwed against everything. Transports are fast, but tanks and jets still murder them. Tanks are slow, but faster than infantry, but still have enemy tanks and jets to worry about. Jets only have to worry about other jets and mobile AA, which can be avoided. The food chain sucks. I like the map though, except the dynamics. Only two ways to the enemy, across the river over the bridge, or all the way at the Quarry dig site. Since ground forces are slow, or fast ones too weak, it leads to a stalemate and attrition kicks in. More flags, and transport choppers would have made the map more fun.

Meh, there is all sorts of reasons why armor maps are hated, and I won't go into detail. From my observations though, they all play their factor, and it has lead to the demise of EF. Sad, terribly sad, but sometimes poor receptions happen. They should have let people beta tested it (I'm not aware of any).

I've played 180 hours of EF. I'm sure those guys at UTAC have played it a lot longer, for obvious reasons, but it's still an insane amount for 3 maps. Love it or hate it I guess.

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