Battlefield Vietnam
Sam begins humming Brown Eyed Girl as the tanks roar into battle.
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Everyone but our politicians and manufacturing industries know that war is something abhorrent that should be avoided at all costs. The pain and suffering war causes to societies is beyond description, as are the emotions of the individuals caught up in the fighting. No sane person would ever want to be a soldier engaged in a fight to the death in a war. Yet sane people the world over hunger for the thrills and glory of armed conflict. So let's thank the maker for computer games.
Battlefield Vietnam is the sequel to developer DICE's WWII themed Battlefield 1942. By adding a few tweaks and enhancements and yanking the Battlefield idea forward in history by a quarter century publishers EA hope to recreate the success they had with the first game. While you can play BFV at home on your own against the revamped bots the only real way to play the game is to get yourself online. You see, BFV is a team based shooter which gives the player one of two sides to choose from and then, having made their choice, it deposits them into the middle of a raging battle on some very large maps indeed. The idea behind the game is to take over control points. When one team controls more of these points than the other then the number of tickets that side has will slowly dribble down to zero. Drop to zero and it's the end of the round. If the losing side can rally and take over a few control points while holding on to the ones they already possess, then the tables are turned and the other side sees their ticket reserve dwindling in number. Every time a soldier dies his side has to pay a ticket as well. Some games are on a timer and others will only end when the number of tickets hits zero. Players can choose from one of four different kits, ranging from heavy weapons to snipers through to grunts and engineers. Any player can hop behind the wheel of the games many tanks, jeeps, boats and filled artillery as well as grab onto the control stick of a nearby helicopter or jet plane. The all inclusive nature of the combat, with individuals forming squads backed up by air and land power, is the big draw of BFV. The choppers can pick up manned vehicles and drop them behind the lines. Riding shotgun in a jeep, chopper or boat troops can be ferried around the battlefield, and there are a number of gun emplacements and traps on certain maps with which to turn the tide of battle.
The presentation of BFV is up to EA's high standards even though it eschews the flashy menus of their other titles. Most notable of all is the authentic 60s soundtrack. With over 20 original tracks the sounds of the war which numerous films and TV shows have associated with the times come blaring out of the speakers. Whenever you take the controls of a vehicle you can open up the playlist and ride into battle to your selection from the game's fantastic licensed audio. Featuring a number of songs that you will instantly associate with a particular 'Nam film, the power of EA's bottomless wallet has rarely been exploited to better effect than in this game's music. While some of you may groan at some of the tracks, EA has gone and gotten rare and dirty sounding versions of these classic songs. Which is a relief, as riding into battle listening to 'Time-Life' versions of these originally subversive songs would have been just plain wrong. The sounds of battle are also impressive, especially when enjoyed in 5.1. Unfortunately I encountered a good few problems with the sounds in the game. From stuttering songs and gunfire cutting out to some problems with getting the volume of distant battle right, the sound coding is one of BFV's weakest points. There's a lot of incidental propagandists chatter on both sides which add immensely to the atmosphere, and the radio chatter from your team mates is both informative and immersive. Unfortunately, these radio calls cannot be turned down independently of the main volume and they become a tiresome noise all too quickly. The fact that both the NVA and South Vietnamese chatter is all in the correct language may be realistic but it's a shame that you have to flick your visual attention down to the chat channel to know what is being said.
BFV walks a thin line between realism and the arcade. So while it may have been necessary to outfit the NVA with a lot more hardware than was common for the sake of balancing, it does dilute the game's otherwise strong adhesion to history to come under attack from waves of NVA helicopters. The weapon load outs for some of the soldiers stretch things too far as well. Anyone other than Arnie would have struggled to carry and fire an M60 from the hip while weighed down with an additional 100 rounds of ammo and a LAW launcher with five rockets. On the other hand, some of the realism has been used to good effect in enhancing the firefights. Each weapon is reloaded and cocked in the correct manner which can lead to some incredibly tense moments huddled behind a wicker wall or crouched in a muddy puddle.
Comments
I'll have to disagree with intro of this review, and with the actual review, this game deserves an 80% max. Bad engine, bad controll, no balance, Unreal Tournament 2004 makes this game look like a piece in every aspect.
its crap the enemy can see u were eva you go
A good review of the game spoiled by a mush-for-brains viewpoint that war is the greatest evil and is entered into lightly w/o thought. Pleeez.......... this is the same thinking that left millions of South Vietnamese and Cambodians dead from the boot heel of vicious communists or, if they were "lucky", suffering in re-education camps. Peace is not defined as the absence of War but rather better defined as the ability to live w/n one's God given right to freedom and self-determination. When will you damn liberals ever understand that???
Sam,
I served from December 1967 to January 1970 with the !st Squadron, 9th Cav, 1st CAV Division. All of this was combat service in Vietnam. I was awarded two SIlver Stars, 2 Bronze Stars, 7 Air Medals , 3 ACMs, and two Purple Hearts. I can tell you from my experience that the only senseless thing about the Vietnam War was how the Gutless Democratic and Republican politicians set the rules of engagement. Further, If you believe any of liberal garbage in todays PC text books, you're the one that needs to be educated. Now, back to the subject of the game. It's not bad, however, My 3.2 GHZ Pentium 4 with 1 gig of matched PC 4000, with 256 MB GForce FX 5600 running on 3MB a second cable modem still suffers the worse lag I have ever seen. The game needs a patch and needs it fast or I will go back to playing the EOD MOD for Battlefield 42. That is if I can find a server still running it.
A ten year war which led to around one and a half million deaths and that ended with the same result as if it had never been fought in the first place certainly appears senseless to me. Iâm in no way trying to cast any general criticisms to soldiers like yourself Old LLRP. I have the utmost respect for anyone who has been an active soldier. I have absolutely none for those who perpetuate these wars and send people to their deaths.
Nor do I have much respect for developers who take so long to patch games that suffer from particular problems. The lag in the game seems to have gotten worse since I played the game for review. Come on DICE, sort it out.
Sam
Thank you for making my point!! What you mush brained liberals can't understand is that millions died for net effect BECAUSE OF YOUR OWN TRAITOROUS ACTIONS!!!. If not for liars like John Kerry, Walter Cronkite and most of the press and traitors like Hanoi Jane, perhaps millions wouldn't have died for no "net effect"!! The fact of the matter is, the NVA are on record as crediting anti war protestors like Kerry and Fonda w/enabling them to stay in the war and force a withdrawal of American troops due to political cowardice.
Next time don't assume someone doesn't have the facts because their viewpoint doesn't match your own!! I understand it far better than you apparently do.
Ok Clint, I can see we are not going to agree on things here. Especially as you seem unable to read my posts correctly and skip over anything contained within them that your brain cannot compute.
If the generals had been given utterly free reign they may well have been able to take the North, after the deaths of a few hundred thousand more people. Then what? The cost of keeping the entire region occupied and pacified may well have been so high that the US would have been unable to implement the defence spending that eventually bought the Soviet Block to its knees. You may also have noticed that when the commies took over the entire country of Vietnam that this didnât lead to a cascade effect of reds taking over all of SE Asia. Hence, a rather pointless war.
Also, call me a liberal once again you muppet-headed fascist and Iâll send a legion of Ralph Nader supporters round to your neighbourhood with big banners proclaiming âThank you Clint for your unwavering support and financial assistanceâ
paska
This game rules. The bf1942 that came before and this game are the best first person shooters that I have ever played. These games are really only good on multiplayer. But to not have one's rear handed to them, better be good and have strategy. Also, Bf Vietnam has my favorite helo sim in a game ever.
I can't found Battlefield Vietnam language patch on the site. I just wounder if guys know the site i can dl it.
hey i like this game