Battlefield: Warzones

Battlefield: Warzones is the latest video game from D.I.C.E. and the folks at EA. It is an expansion to Battlefield: Bad Company and includes more maps. Although built for the computer, consoles can play this as well. Campaign is a base mode of Conquest maps, but as the player moves through them, it becomes apparent something is unwell inside this world...

As well, the campaign can be played co-operatively and through the Internet. The layout of this article is taken from the Battlefield 2 article at Wikipedia.

Gameplay
The gameplay is similar to regular Battlefield: at the start of each match, a Commander election is held. A Commander is selected at random to lead his team (Commanders will be explained below). In the standard gameplay mode, Conquest, each side starts with 250 tickets (a homage to the first Star Wars: Battlefront game) and one or more flags. Each flag, or control point, acts as a spawn point for vehicles and soldiers. There may or may not be neutral ones, and sometimes "base" CPs cannot be captured. Overall, the goal is to drain the opponent's tickets, or "reinforcement points", to zero. Every time a soldier is killed a ticket is lost. Thereby, there are a few ways to remove tickets, including recklessly killing enemies, holding more than half the CPs on the map (causing the other side to lost tickets due to a tactical disadvantage), or hold all the flags and kill all enemy soldiers, thereby nullifying their presence on the map.

There are 15 second "spawn cycles" where players may choose their spawn point, class, and weaponry. At the end, players are automatically dropped onto the map. This feature is excluded in single-player modes except for CTF or Gold Rush.

There are multiple modes of play and they include Campaign, Conquest, 1 Flag Rugby CTF, 2 Flag CTF, Multi Flag CTF, and Gold Rush. Conquest is described above. Capture the Flag uses points instead of tickets, and the goal is to earn a certain amount of points or get a defined amount of captures. 1 Flag Rugby changes the rules: instead of being a vehicle-altered event where players simply need to sprint, grab the flag, and run to their base, Rugby CTF places the capture zone in the ENEMY base, requiring the player to travel to the enemy's base CP and drop the flag there. 2 Flag remains unchanged. Multi Flag CTF is a game of "keepsakes": inspired by Killzone's "Supply Drop" multiplayer mode, there are multiple neutral flags and each player must capture one and insert them into a flagpole on their base. Neutral flags do not return: instead, they are kept there. For every 5 seconds a team holds a flag they get 1 point, meaning that every 5 seconds a team holds 5 flags they gain 5 points. Enemy players can capture the neutral flags by running over the enemy flagpole and grabbing the flag. Gold Rush is taken directly from Bad Company: attackers attempt to destroy caches of gold hidden throughout the map while defenders attempt to run down their tickets. In exchange for the attackers having a ticket count, the attackers recieve more players due to the defender's infinite spawns (example: out of every 10 matches of Gold Rush you play, in at least 6 you would be the attacker). In all modes except Conquest, flag capturing is COMPLETELY disabled.

Infantry classes
Before their initial spawn, players are able to select a class. There are five classes: Assault, Support, Recon, Anti-Armor, and Engineer. Assault classes carry an assault rifle which may have a grenade launcher, a pistol, some smoke grenades, and a knife. Support classes carry a light machine gun, ammo and health bags, a pistol, a pair od defibrillators and some grenades. Recon classes carry sniper rifles, silenced pistols, frag grenades, and a laser designator to call in airstrikes. Anti-Armor classes carry SMGs, a pistol, some grenades, and, obviously, a rocket launcher. Engineers, finally, carry shotguns, a wrench, a pistol, and 5 blocks of C-4 explosives.

Players are able to switch between classes between respawns. The Options menu is where the kinds of weapons are adjusted as they are unlocked. As well, players can pick up the kits of dead comrades or enemies and gain their weapons and ammo. There are also heavy and light classes: Support and Anti-Armor classes move slowly but have flak jackets, and Assault, Recon, and Engineer classes have no armor, but can run faster.

Vehicles
Unlike Bad Company, Warzones places more emphasis on vehicles, adding more types (Light Scout, Heavy Scout, APC, Tracked APC, Light Tank, Heavy Tank, Scout Helicopter, Transport Helicopter, Assault Helicopter, Light Fighter, Heavy Fighter, Fighter-Bomber) and reviving naval warfare (adding in the Nuclear Submarine, Advanced Battleship, Anti-Submarine Destroyer and the Nuclear Aircraft Carrier) as well as making aircraft like AH-64D Apache Longbows and Su-27 Flankers easier to fly.

Features
Warzones hosts a multitude of features while improving on them at the same time.

Squads
The ability to host squads is included. There are four squads (Fireteam Alpha, Fireteam Beta, Charlie Squad, and Delta Squad) but custom named squads can be made. In the style of games like Hidden and Dangerous 2, only four people are allowed in the squad: the Squad Leader, and three others. In addition, a private VoIP chat is included for each squad. Squad leaders have VoIP channels to the commander, can request aid from the commander, and can issue orders to their squadmates, as well as issuing orders that the commander has given him. Squad soldiers can respawn at the Squad Leader's location, assuming he is alive at the time.

The Commander
The Commander is the top dog behind things. At the beginning of each match, an "election" is held, and whoever wins it by random pick becomes the commander for a match and is removed from the battle to command things, unlike other Battlefield games. Only one person can be picked to be Commander: usually, it is the person who has the higher rank, or, on Xbox Live, the highest TrueSkill rating. The commander has access to multitudes of things: for example, he can order Squad Leaders to certain points and the Squad Leader can relay them to his team. As well, he has access to a variety of support, including brief artillery fire on a certain area, supply drops, vehicle drops, scans of the map, or UAV overflights. All (excluding the Supply Drop) rely on something: scans require the radar is standing, artillery requires at least one piece of artillery is there, the UAV relies on the UAV trailer, and the Vehicle Drop also relies on the radar station to be operating.

Commanders may resign at any point, allowing another player to take the position, or, providing the server has that option enabled, can be voted out of their position with a mutiny vote.

Awards and Unlockable Weapons
For the Nintendo Wii and PC/Mac, there are awards. Each award is obtained for performing a certain feat (ex. Make 5 headshots in a row without missing), but for the PS3 and 360 versions, they have been incorporated into the Achievements/Trophies. As well, there are unlockable weapons. A certain amount of weapons are locked in-game: they require 1-2 unlock credit/s or a certain award to get (in the case of Find All Five weapons). Unlock credits are earned when you level-up and every weapon costs 1 credit to unlock. Once a weapon is unlocked, it is unlocked permanently.

Maps
Maps come in 16 and 32 player variations for the 360, Wii, and PS3: but 64 player maps are only for the PC/Mac versions, except for Wake Island 2010. Map sizes not only determine the availability of vehicles, they also determine the control points and where they are placed.

The Weapons
This section is for the weapons. The six classes are the Assault Rifle, the Light Machinegun, the Submachine Gun, the Shotgun, the Sniper Rifle, and the Pistol. Make suggestions on the talk page for weapons you want in the game, and I will add them. The weapons from Bad Company, as well as a few pistols, are all mainstays. Any weapons added by the community will be released as Downloadable Content.

A special rule applies to the XM8s: if you have the XM8 and XM8 LMG already, you will only have to use 1 unlock credit for the XM8C.

Pistols
M9 Beretta

Colt 1911

Assault Rifles
AEK971

AN94 w/Grenade launcher (2 unlock credits or Grenade Spammer: Kill 10 enemies in a match using the grenade launcher)

AUG

F2000 w/Grenade Launcher (Assault Expert: Reach 500 kills with the Assault Rifle and 350 kills with the Grenade Launcher)

M16 w/Grenade Launcher(1 unlock credit or Assault Sniper: Get 20 headshots with the Assault Rifle)

M416 w/Grenade Launcher

XM8 (1 unlock credit or You're Crazy, Fool: Take out or deliver the killing blow to a Tracked APC or a Light Tank using the Grenade Launcher)

Light Machineguns
M249

M60 (LMG Expert: Reach 500 kills with the Light Machinegun)

MG3 (2 unlock credits or Anti-Armor Machine Gunner: Destroy 5 Heavy Scout vehicles in one match with the Light Machinegun)

MG36 (1 unlock credit or Supressive Fire: Kill 20 enemies within 30 seconds)

PKM

QJU88

XM8 LMG (1 unlock credit or CHARGE: Kill 5 enemies and capture a CP within 30 seconds of each other)

Submachine Guns
9A91

AKS74u

PP2000 (1 unlock credit or SMG Nut: Kill 1 enemy with a headshot at medium range)

SCAR

UMP (1 unlock credit or Bar Assassin: Kill 5 enemies using the 9A91's melee attack)

Uzi (SMG Expert: Reach 500 kills with the Sub Machinegun)

XM8C (2/1 unlock credit/s or Silenced Killer: Kill 5 enemies by shooting them in the back with any of the SMGs)

Sniper Rifles
GOL

M24

M95 (1 unlock credit or Close-Range Sniper: Kill 5 enemies at pointblank range with the sniper rifle)

QBU88 (Sniper Rifle Expert: Get 350 headshots with the Sniper Rifle or N-N-NO SCOPE WAS INVOLVED: Get 25 noscope headshots)

SV98

SVU (1 unlock credit or Stock Assassin: Kill 5 enemies with the stock of any sniper except for the VSS Vintores)

VSS Vintores (2 unlock credits or Silenced Sniper: Make 5 headshots during a match with the SVU without being killed until after the award is earned)

Shotguns
870MCS

NS2000 (1 unlock credit or Backhand Killer: Kill 5 enemies with a shotgun blast to the back)

Saiga12

SPAS12 (1 unlock credit or In Your Face: Kill an enemy with a point-blank shotgun blast to the face, and then taunt their corpse)

SPAS15 (2 unlock credits or SPASatron: Make 10 kills during a match with the SPAS12)

T194

USAS12 (Shotgun Expert: Get 500 one-hit-kills with the Shotgun or BOOM! Headsplode: Shoot somebody in the head with a Shotgun at close-medium range and kill them)