Minimum System Requirements
Operating System: Windows XP with latest service pack installed
DirectX 9.0c February 2006 edition (included)
CPU: Intel Pentium 4/AMD Athlon 1.7 GHz or equivalent
RAM: 512 MB
Video Card: 128MB DirectX compliant video card, Pixel shader 2.0 and above. (AGP and PCIe only)
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible
Hard Drive: 2.2GB of space is required to install the game
Internet Connection: 128kbit Cable/DSL connection

Recommended System Requirements
Operating System: Windows XP with latest service pack installed
DirectX 9.0c February 2006 edition (included)
CPU: Intel Pentium 4/AMD Athlon 3.0 GHz or equivalent
RAM: 1.5GB
Video Card: 256MB DirectX compliant video card, Pixel shader 2.0 and above. (AGP and PCIe only)
Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi series from Creative Labs
Hard Drive: 2.2GB of space is required to install the game
Internet Connection: 512Kbit Cable/DSL connection


Last month, Battlefield 2142 hit store shelves. This is the fourth (and certainly not the last) installment in the extremely popular Battlefield series by EA/DICE.

The game takes place on Earth in the year 2142; The second Ice Age is upon us, and two armies are fighting for control of the remaining land masses on earth. The two opposing factions are the European Union and the Pan Asian Coalition.

Both factions are armed to the teeth with futuristic weaponry and equipment, including hover tanks, battle-walkers, air transports, and more. The new technology is not only very cool, but the concept of these weapons are plausible at the same time. In many sci-fi games, the technology lacks any realism, and takes away from game, while the weapons and vehicles in Battlefield 2142 feel like they could actually exist someday.

The game runs very smoothly on my machines with medium settings (Specs: 6800XT, Athlon 64 3800+, and 1GB 667DDR RAM). The game itself is very polished, with very few visual bugs, and the level designs are well thought out too. (screenshot: Just spawned)

Here’s a rundown on the classes, features, and the new game mode.

There are 4 classes in the game: Recon, Assault, Engineer, and Support:

Recon is a combination of Battlefield 2’s Special Forces and Sniper Classes. Recon starts out as a dedicated Sniper class, and are provided with your basic sniper rifle and a pistol. With some increases in rank, you can unlock some nice things, such as optical camouflage and the RDX Demo Pak (basically C4). You can unlock a more powerful sniper rifle, or a nice Special Forces-esque assault rifle later on in the game.

Assault is a combination of Battlefield 2’s Assault and Medic classes. The Assault class starts out with a nice assault rifle, a pistol, and a medi-pak. You can later unlock a defibrillator (allows you to bring dead players back to life), an integral shotgun or rocket launcher, and smoke grenades. In terms of weapon unlocks, you can get a more powerful assault rifle, or an assault rifle with bigger ammo-capacity.

Engineer is another interesting class; it is a combination of Anti-Tank and Engineer from previous Battlefield games. They start out with an anti-vehicle rocket launcher, a small sub-machinegun, a vehicle repair tool, and a pistol. You can unlock EMP mines, a better repair tool, and a motion tracking mine. Weapon unlocks are an anti-vehicle rifle, and an anti-air rocket launcher.

And last but not least, Support is just your basic Support class from Battlefield 2. Support class starts off with a light machine gun, an ammo distribution device, and a pistol. You can unlock an EMP grenade, a shield that will protect you temporarily from small-arms fire, and an automated machinegun turret which you can deploy. The two weapon unlocks you can get are the heavy machinegun, and a shotgun.

There is also another type of unlocks, known as 'squad leader unlocks', that can be used by any class. There is a floating turret that follows you around and shoots at enemies, a floating drone that you can use for recon, and a spawn beacon that you can place, allowing your squad to spawn on that spot even if you die (until the beacon is destroyed by an enemy).

One of the unique features of Battlefield 2142 is that it allows you to customize your own kit for your character once you’ve unlocked some new equipment by rising in rank. However, while going up in rank is very easy to do when you start out, it gets harder to move up once you start to reach the higher ranks. Kit customizations include the option to choose a rifle (if you’ve unlocked one, or else you can only use the default), two kit accessories (such as: the defibrillator, smoke grenades, auto-turrets, etc.), and one squad-leader item (if you are the squad leader, and have unlocked an item).


Battlefield 2142 introduced a new game mode that everyone has been excited about: Titan Mode. Titan Mode pits two teams against each other, each with a huge floating battleship called a “Titan”. The objective of this mode is to take control of the missile silos on the ground, which will then automatically launch missiles at the enemy Titan at set intervals for as long as you control them. The missiles deplete the Titan’s shields. Once the shields are gone, you are free to board the enemy’s Titan and destroy it from the inside out. You do this by first destroying four reactor consoles, which will allow you to enter into the reactor room. Once the reactor is destroyed, the Titan blows up, the team that blew up the reactor is victorious.

Long story short, this is another great sequel for the Battlefield series. It is obvious that a lot of work was put into the design of this game, and it definitely paid off in the end. If you liked Battlefield 2, then it is highly likely that you will like this Battlefield 2142 as well, so check it out!



Battlefield 2142 retails for $49.99 in most game stores, and is rated “T” for Teen.