Battlefield 2 - another really enjoyable game

I really enjoy playing Battlefield 2. They had the ingenious idea of integrating rewards, unlocks, and goals to strive for in a multiplayer first person shooter (FPS). Now, this isn't unique to video games by any means, Ghost Recon did this years ago with "hero" unlocks, and other games have similar features.

Why I give them credit for this, is because they are the first to do so on such a large scale (MMO). And I don't mean MMO in the sense that 64 people can play on the same server, I mean large scale in the sense that tens of thousands of people have their stats recorded and ranked (here's my stats).

Right now my global score is just under 3,000. I need 11,000 for my next rank advance and weapon unlock. The benefit of the weapon unlock is obvious. But the benefit of the advancement in rank really only matters to leaders. People with higher rank will be able to take the position of commander from those whose rank is lower. I don't play commander a whole lot, I prefer forming my own squad and playing as squad leader. But as squad leader you will sometimes notice that the commander isn't doing a good job. If that's the case, I'll apply for commander at the start of the next round.

Today I got my Basic Command badge. That's not an easy one to get. I'm rather proud of this, and grateful to the group of soldiers that I was playing with today. Without their skilled work (play?), I wouldn't have gotten this.

Saturday night (really it was Sunday morning, but I hadn't gone to bed yet, so it was Saturday to me) I got my Explosive Ordinance badge, and my Basic Transport badge! I'm so happy. The Explosive Ordinance badge is acquired by getting 15 kills with explosives in one round. I had tried to get this for weeks, but was only able to get it by using a rather devious method. While playing Strike at Karkand, I spawned at the USMC southernmost base. There is almost always a HMMWV or two there. Playing as spec-ops I loaded all 5 C4 packs on the front of the jeep, and drove towards the enemy. When I would get close to a group of 2 or more enemy soldiers, I would hop out of the jeep, and hit the C4 detonator. This would send jeep chunks all over the place, killing the bad guys, and myself as well. As I was doing all this, I also earned my Basic Transport badge (24 minutes in a transport vehicle)!

Now I need only the Knife, Pistol, Helicopter, and Aviator badges to complete my full set of Basic level badges. This is exactly what makes this game so good. It's very replayable because there is always something to strive for. After the Basic badges, you can try for the Veteran badges, and then the Expert badges. There are also many commendations that you can earn. Most of them have never been earned by anyone, so nobody outside of EA really knows how to get them all.