Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (Xbox)

Modern Combat is a decent stab at Battlefield on a console

The Battlefield series on the PC pretty much does what most men want from a video game. It lets you play a soldier, armed with a load of guns, grenades and gadgets, and then throws in a load of army vehicles. It's a total war experience that few other games have come close to matching, and an experience that, on a console, only Halo 2 comes close to. Sadly, despite its name, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat shares little of what made the PC game so great.

Being a console game, a single-player campaign is expected, and Modern Combat centres on some unrest in Kazakhstan. A US peacekeeping force is sent in to deal with the situation, and the Chinese also become involved. Throughout the campaign you'll play as both the US and Chinese, and the conflict is padded out through news broadcasts from each side of the war. These interludes in the action go someway to drawing you into the war setting, but the actual combat isn't all that convincing.

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The single-player campaign plays rather like a multiplayer game. Mission objectives are thrown at you and you'll have to do destroy or protect various things, but there's no real sense of each mission actually being a level within a campaign. It's just like playing a team-based shooter, except your team-mates aren't the brightest bunch. You'll often see a comrade on his knee, a few feet in front of an enemy, both of them firing haphazardly at the other. Being able to play as numerous infantry types, drive tanks and Humvees, fly choppers, cruise along in attack speed boats and more should be fun, but it all feels a little dull.

Rather surprisingly the game plays with a heavy arcade slant, with a score totting up as you play, certain achievements giving you medals and health rewards, enemies simply spawning in right in front of your face (or behind your back) and an ability to zoom from one soldier to another with a simple button press. This hot-swapping is the game's only real standout feature, and lets you experience the war from numerous angles. It's not just a gimmick either; swapping to an RPG carrying engineer when a tank comes on the scene is just one example where the move can be used.

... the game supports up to 24 players in both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of the game.

If you're into collectathons, the number of medals and rewards that are on offer should be very pleasing, but otherwise the game lacks the spark required in a good single-player game. As a prelude to playing online it does its job, acting as a lengthy training session, but unless you're totally new to the world of online first-person shooters, you'd be better off heading straight to the online game modes.

Online the game supports up to 24 players in both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of the game. If you're expecting huge maps, plenty of game types and general online wonderment, you'll be a little disappointed. Firstly, while the maps are large enough to make for some entertaining 24-player matches, they're nowhere near the size of the behemoths found in the PC game. Secondly, game types are limited to two: Capture the flag and Conquest. Neither mode is hugely original, but Conquest makes for some great battles assuming everyone knows what they are doing.

Unlike on the PC game where players often go out of their way to work as a team, on consoles players tend to think only of themselves. With the way the game tracks your stats (quite extensively) players often forsake the wellbeing of the team, in favour of improving personal statistics. This obviously isn't true for all matches, but on the whole, playing Battlefield on a console just doesn't feel as involving as on the PC. There's scope for some enjoyable matches, but with the less than brilliant vehicle control, a lack of team spirit and some bland maps, judging the series on its console debut would be foolish.

There are a number of environments, but they're pretty bland

Presentation is solid, but wholly unremarkable. The PlayStation 2 version is perhaps the most impressive, but that's purely down to what else the system has to offer in this genre. On the Xbox, where Halo 2 reigns supreme in the online arena, Xbox owners may be left wondering what all the Battlefield fuss is about. Muddy textures and some unremarkable character modelling are countered by an impressive draw distance and fairly consistent frame rate. It's not silky smooth, but holds up pretty well during battle. Audio is solid, with the news broadcasts impressing the most, but weapons generally feel a little weedy.

If your online gaming is restricted to consoles, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat isn't a bad option. It lacks the insane large scale combat of the superior PC game and is more akin to something like Star Wars Battlefront, but if you find the right group of people, online matches can be a lot of fun. PlayStation 2 owners can find a better online experience in the latest SOCOM game and Xbox owners can go one better with Halo 2. A solid first effort at Battlefield on consoles, but next-gen versions will have to be significantly better.