Not as much as your mom!

Wow, thanks for steering me towards Rush. I tried it out last night, and while I felt utterly disoriented during the first game, I stuck with it and after that 1 game, I didn't have a match below 2500-3000 points. I don't think I've had a match over 1000 before that. Hell, I was in the top 3 of my team (often top 1) and in the top 5 of the match in each game.

I played exclusively as a medic, with the enhanced health pack range. Between that, healing, and the great aim and reflexes I was sporting last night, I can say it was really successful.

I originally intend to play an hour or two, and started playing at 5:30 pm. I was so into it that I didn't notice time fly. When I put down my controller, I was convinced only about an hour had passed, only to find out that it was 9:00 pm. I was honestly shocked.

Still, it was an evening well spent, because I my best time in a multiplayer game since Battlefield 2.

I still say you and I, and other -ians with BFBC2 on the xbox need to hook up and kick the ****. Sadly, this weekend I'm gonne be terribly busy, but next week we could look into it.

I'm all for it. My weekends are real hit and miss too, but I'll add you and we'll see what works out. My gamertag is JacquesAlbert.

But yeah, I do enjoy rush...it isn't horribly different, but it ends up being pretty intense because it's so focused on a couple points at a time.

Right on, thats what I'm loving about it so far. I'm still fighting disorientation from time to time, but being a medic, I get the excuse of following team/squad mates around. It took me a while though to realize that the objectives were marked with [A] and , leaving me running around blindly. By the end of the evening I was really getting it though. My favorite maps remain the snow-based ones, especially the one at twilight.

The twilight one is Nelson Bay, the one I said I love plastering the buildings and roads with smoke on. It's also got a really effective machine gun emplacement for the defenders on the water side of one of the areas.

Yeah, being a medic is awesome because if your squad is decent, you can just follow them around keeping them alive (with heals, revives, and just by watching their backs) and they'll do the rest. When I'm assault, nothing is better than knowing there's a medic following me around.

There was a portion yesterday, on one map, where I basically hung out around 3 snipers parked around the same spot. That turned out to be really effective against enemy snipers. Even if they got one of our men down, the other two might get him. If they didn't I was rezzing the fallen, who got back up and gunned his nemesis down. I basically kept all the 3 up while we opened the way for the assault.

I want to learn to play engineer too so I don't become a one trick poney. I like assault too, but I really shine as a medic.

The thing that makes me annoyed with shooters like this, after reading your posts, is that maps become too familiar and the game becomes a test of experience rather than janking and jiving. With destructibility and some pre-defined structure, a procedurally generated map would be awesome.

A randomly generated map generally tends to look artificial and a lack balance and proper flow. It would require incredible programming for a system to come up with brilliant randomized maps. Really, any multiplayer game with static maps become a test of experience. You get to know where the best weapon placement is, what areas are travelled most and how you can use vantage points to exploit said traffic. Team Fortress 2 is a good example of that.

In my opinion there is plenty of room left for skill, regardless of experience, but overall that's why I usually either play a game's multiplayer mode from launch, or I don't bother and wait for the next one. Joining in late in any game is a pain, moreso in games with unlockable weaponry à la teamfortress, modern warfare and battlefield.

Still, I think you need to look at the battlefield genre as long term game. You'll gain ranks and weaponry and experience and in the long haul it'll pay off. Its just that from launch it pays off right away. Besides, there are already rank 25+ out there with much more damaging weaponry. They'll usually stand out in a game, but they die too.

Of course, I'm not talking about the freaks of nature at the top of the leaderboards, who somehow manage to kill 7000+ people and die only 2000 times. I just can't phathom (except being a sniper) how you can get such a ration.

Right now my kill:death ration is about 6:10, though I'm working to bring it up. Of course, as a medic, I focus more on helping team mates than killing. Sadly, the game doesn't take these things into account when calculating your skill level.

But doesn't the possibility for an advantage diminish since the players have to actually learn the map? Furthermore, the destructable environments were particularly why I thought that it'd be a good idea. When you can MAKE a path, advantages become temporary.

I remember when DoD:S came out and "familiar" maps were changed ever so slightly it actually gave new players a leg up, from my perspective. I feel like I do really well at games in beta and in the first few weeks, but then as the game progresses I still beat people in a fire-fight, but my deaths are padded by people who simply know exactly where to stand to kill the most people.

I guess I'd really like to play a game where my ingenuity and creativity is rewarded, not my memorization.

I tend to agree with you (ence why I'll usually not bother playing an MP game if I miss the launch). There needs some sort of solution. Through and through, though the destructive environments really do give an additional dynamic feel to the maps. Really, nothing's stopping you from blowing off the roof across from you and jumping across buildings to get to a perch otherwise innaccessible or unlikely. Thats the beauty of it.

The good news is that for a while they intend to add new maps, which means you can try and play these maps to get a feel of the game.

But yea, the problems you point out are problems I've faced in every multiplayer game since the days of Quake and Jedi Knight. After a while, my skill level / memorization just reach their limit, while others far surpass it, leaving me at a strict disadvantage.

Thankfully, I think the dynamic battlefields in this game will give me an edge a while longer.

One thing that needs pointing out: Rush mode is surprisingly concentrated, though, and your objectives are pointed to you on the map. That adds direction, even if you haven't memorized the maps themselves. Additionally, combat tends to be so focused around the bombs that really, there will never be a 'key' location to pick people off from. Your inginuity will actually be put to the test when you're trying to defend the bomb and walls are crumbling all around you.

Conquest will suffer more from the memorization and experience than Rush will.

However, as with any battlefield games, ranks and unlocks will cause some more experienced players to have superior firepower. That, in my opinion, is more dangerous to new comers than knowledge of the maps.

Then I suggest you join my clan, The Magical Mischief Boys.

Jep, I'll definitely do that, so don't be alarmed when someone named "Lemonparty01" adds you, haha. Yeah I agree about squadding up with fellow massassians, we could really lay down the hurt with a coordinated squad. I've noticed that when I'm in a squad that communicates and works together, my team usually ends up winning. A couple of those squads and any map would be a cinch.

Yep, you can always tell when a squad is really working together. They'll be the one based out of a house on the perimeter of your capture point, endlessly spawning and reviving in there, and leveling anything that comes near, meanwhile sending out attack groups to continually take your point and harass your troops. Had that happen in the one round I played earlier today.

BC2 servers are offline for the weekend God forbid I'll have to do something productive!