Battlefield 2 Forever: A guide to the best BF2 mods

Posted at: Tuesday 4th December 2007 by Mike Jennings

An army of fans have created a huge range of mods for Battlefield 2, from hyper-realistic conversions to comedy mods with Lego and Pirates. Mike Jennings takes a look at the scene

Horrible occurrences in real life often make fantastic games. Look at driving – writing off your pride and joy isn’t much fun, but in Burnout it's brilliant. Wrestling games sell consistently well, but being groped by a greased-up bodybuilder can’t be hugely enjoyable, either. Dwarfing these in the horrible-turned-fun stakes, though, is the art of war. Mankind’s grimmest and most brutal conflicts have been re-imagined in dozens of games, and hundreds more fictional fights litter the digital landscape. It's no surprise, either - some of the best games ever made have used war as their backdrops.



Chief among these titles is the hugely successful Battlefield 2. Based in a contemporary warzone, it’s a critical and commercial success which, despite diminishing graphical abilities and tough competition from other online shooters, is something of well decorated veteran. The cause of its heroic longevity is the vibrant and diverse community that’s built up around the gane, creating a huge range of mods and alterations that make fundamental differences to the way BF2 is played.

In this article we’re going to explore the phenomenon: tell you where to look, search out the finest mods and guide you through the installation process so you can quickly dive into any number of the hugely different battlefields that litter the huge, enthusiastic community.

Finding, downloading and installing mods

Before you start modding the game it’s worth having your copy of BF2 itself patched to the latest edition, too, so there are no conflicts until you get onto the battlefield. And make sure you have a fast internet connection for downloading the mods, as some of the bigger ones can easily top 1GB.

Many of the larger, more successful BF mods are incredibly professional efforts, with slick websites and dedicated teams constantly developing and patching their creations. ModJive is a great example of this; easy to install and use, it collects a range of the leading mods for the game in one client so you can view updates as they become available and install them simply and with a minimum of fuss – rather than having to go to dozens of different websites just to update your game. Installation is easy, too, with most mods having built-in wizards to guide you through the process.


One of the best information sources is Black Sand Studios – a huge gathering of BF2 modders and developers that have created the hugely successful Project Reality, Operation Peacekeeper and Battlegroup Frontlines mods – three of the mods we’ve looked at for this feature.