Confirmed Northern Strike Download Date

[Crisis]

I was just on EA Link to change my soldier name for a Battlefield 2 booster and i noticed an advert for Northern Strike.

It's avaiable for download on the 1st of March.

I wonder when its fully released?

I'm sorry if this has already been discussed but i couldnt find anything in the search.

[kamikaze cow]

Think it will be ready in time?

[BrokenPhoenix]

Think it will be ready in time?

When a game is in beta, it's pretty much already done and ready. Beta is just to work out minor bugs that may only come out infrequently in regular play or tweak balance. Neither of those things are things that take more than a day to fix in most cases.

Short answer: yes.

[[TW] Alixsar]

That sounds about right.

[D-Zone]

If that's true I would have assume the patch will ready at least 2 weeks prior...Feb 15th???

[Crisis]

It does say download, not released, it may be fully available for a month after download, we dont know, but i imagine the patch and booster should be out within each other.

[BrokenPhoenix]

It does say download, not released, it may be fully available for a month after download, we dont know, but i imagine the patch and booster should be out within each other.

Being able to download it before it works would be completely pointless.

[Crisis]

Being able to download it before it works would be completely pointless.

You dont need the patch for it to work do you?

The fixes are for vanilla BF2142, not the booster.

[BrokenPhoenix]

You dont need the patch for it to work do you?

The fixes are for vanilla BF2142, not the booster.

You need the patch. The patch is what actually contains the NS unlocks. So people with the booster can use them against people without, and so anyone can use them as field upgrades.

[Crisis]

Ah, but how will it work for the vehicles for the people who dont have the patch? as well as the levels

[BrokenPhoenix]

Ah, but how will it work for the vehicles for the people who dont have the patch? as well as the levels

People who don't have the patch won't be able to play Northern Strike. In order for the unlocks to work period you have to have the patch. Attempting to install Northern Strike without patch 1.2 will likely prompt you to install the patch first.

[Crisis]

You can access the unlocks by field ypgrades though, last time i checked it doesnt work for vehicles and maps :/

[BrokenPhoenix]

You can access the unlocks by field ypgrades though, last time i checked it doesnt work for vehicles and maps :/

You aren't getting me... the only reason people can access the unlocks through field upgrades is because they have the patch. The code and graphics for the unlocks themselves are in the patch, not in the Northern Strike booster. Having Northern Strike installed just gives you the ability to use a permanant unlock on them.

The vehicles and maps are a part of the Northern Strike booster, separate from the patch.

Also, the patch isn't just for vanilla BF2142. They both work on the same engine so a patch for one can apply to any boosters installed. Northern Strike will still use the vanilla BF2142 stuff to run, thus why it's a booster and not a completely separate game.

If someone doesn't have the 1.2 patch, NS maps won't work, NS unlocks won't work, NS vehicles won't work, Northern Strike won't work at all. You won't be able to get the new unlocks as field upgrades, you won't be able to play with anyone else that has access to those unlocks, you can't have anything to do with Northern Strike at all.

To get NS content you MUST have the 1.2 patch.

[HG_Eliminator]

When a game is in beta, it's pretty much already done and ready. Beta is just to work out minor bugs that may only come out infrequently in regular play or tweak balance. Neither of those things are things that take more than a day to fix in most cases.


:rofl::rofl:

if that was the case were "still beta testing" 2142..its been what 2 mo' and theres still bugs?

[Crisis]

Ah, i get you. lol

Sorry if i sound dim, ive only just woke up.

So back on topic, do you think it will be released a couple o fdays after the download date or later?

What was it like with 2142 on EA Link, i bought retail so i wouldnt know.

[BrokenPhoenix]

:rofl::rofl:

if that was the case were "still beta testing" 2142..its been what 2 mo' and theres still bugs?

All games have bugs. The last game I bought before this was Battlefield 2. I went to a BF2 forum and saw people complaining how many bugs the game had. Before that, The Sims 2. Went to a forum.... Waaahhh all these bugs. Before that I bought Company of Heroes. Went to a couple forums. Waaaaahhh Company of Heroes has so many bugs! Before that I bought Medieval 2 Total War. There was practically a month long riot on the official forum complaining about all the bugs in the game.

It's the nature of things today. All games have bugs, not just this one. The bigger the game is, the more bugs it will have.

And it isn't just games. Bugs slip through professional testing all the time. Even mega-corporations with huge teams of dedicated testers end up releasing software that has bugs in it.

The game is not in beta, it's done. All software is declared done with bugs in it. There are ALWAYS bugs unless it's something no more complicated than the program Notepad, and that probably still has bugs in it.


Ah, i get you. lol

Sorry if i sound dim, ive only just woke up.

So back on topic, do you think it will be released a couple o fdays after the download date or later?

What was it like with 2142 on EA Link, i bought retail so i wouldnt know.

The patch will probably be released simultanously with the booster, I think. It won't be released later than the booster because the booster can't work without it, and it probably won't be released earlier because the new patched version contains links to go purchase NS in it. It's possible they could go a couple days early though.

[HG_Eliminator]

for one, i was being facetious. ;)

[BrokenPhoenix]

for one, i was being facitious. ;)

Ah... well so many people say such things seriously that I can barely tell anymore. I've heard about a thousand "this game isn't done" or "this game is still beta" people spread across a dozen different games over time so they all rather blur together :p

[HG_Eliminator]

in all truessence, a Prog is never truely out of "beta", only in the fact that it will forever need debugging and or updating... while yes they are less buggy upon Official release there is no perfect program...;)

Official release is when the dev/producers deem it "ready enough" for the masses....

it was easyer to have less bugs, back at a time when hardware manufacturers/configurations and drivers were at a minimum, ,, but today it's just trying to get the majority of the hardware/drivers working,, expecially since as we speak some where in a back room some coder is building a new driver, that will probably set the devs back to the boards to "Fix" the games ability to work with the new driver...it's a never ending cycle.. some of us just like to playfully gripe ...:)

[Raidyr]

Would be nice if Dice told us that 1.20 wouldnt launch till NS launched, then some people wouldnt be stuck with 2 servers and the same old bugs :hmm:

[EagleEYE]

The game is only available through EA link, You cannot buy NS in stores!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Talus]

Would be nice if Dice told us that 1.20 wouldnt launch till NS launched, then some people wouldnt be stuck with 2 servers and the same old bugs :hmm:

I imagine that v1.2 will be released simultaneously with NS.

I'm sure DICE do not want to have 2 patches released within a short period...and there MUST be a patch when NS is released so that everybody will have access to the new unlocks. Therefore v1.2 = NS.

Just basic logic ;)

[Crisis]

The game is only available through EA link, You cannot buy NS in stores!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After what happened with the BF2 boosters, im not so sure, they'll be in retail at some point.

[Rogue Warrior]

Did you see the tags at the end of the tralier [DICE]ThXu4Bp1y

DICE thanks you for Beta Play

[Tedno]

Just pre ordered it on EA Downloader for a mere £5.99. :)

And release date according to EA D is 8th March.

[Buttoneer]

Being able to download it before it works would be completely pointless.

Not so. If it's big, it will take some people a lot of hours to download, so allowing download before the activation date allows people to start playing from the get-go rather than queueing up on an overburdened EA downloader for the following few days and getting frustrated.

It's how Steam works, although IMO Steam is an excellent delivery medium while EA link is quite pathetic.

[Vreki]

Just pre ordered it on EA Downloader for a mere £5.99. :)

And release date according to EA D is 8th March.

I noticed that the button on http://www.ea.com/ealink/index.jsp?locale=en_US says "per-load", are you already able to download it?

[Tedno]

I noticed that the button on http://www.ea.com/ealink/index.jsp?locale=en_US says "per-load", are you already able to download it?

No cant download yet.

[RangerXML]

Did you see the tags at the end of the tralier [DICE]ThXu4Bp1y

DICE thanks you for Beta Play

The dog tag in the end of the BF2142 trailer, not NS trailer, yeah.

Translation for the non l337 out there:
"Thank you for (BETA sympol I think) play(ing)." Or something along those lines, I know that wasn't a 'B' and looked more like the German "ss" or eszet (sp*).

[molson]

i think they should of gave us this new booster pack because you think about its all be like Bf2 all over again