Yeah, we also had nukes in Britain, France, and nuclear powered submarines in the Arctic Sea armed with nuclear ballistic missiles as well. Having nukes in Turkey was 'such' a big issue. *sarcasm* Face it, Russia never needed a nuclear missle base in Cuba anyway. Unless the US went all out and virtually carpet-bombed the USSR, there was no way the US could've gotten away with zero retaliation. (And even then some tacticians would've said that Russian nuclear submarines would still managed to hit the US.)
Given the fact that the US/NATO would've had to fight a two front war (one against the Warsaw Pact and one against Communist China), anything less than nuclear usage would've meant defeat, if not stalemate, in favor of the USSR and its allies. (Manpower superior China and North Korea armed with surplus Russian tanks and artillery overrun South Korean and US forces on the Eastern front, with Europe turning into a large scale replica of Germany circa 1945 with guerilla fighting breaking out across the continent only with larger guns, more people and more ammo. US can't respond quickly enough to either front due to sheer distance, a much smaller army/navy/air force and there is little equipment that can be moved quickly enough to rival battle tanks.)
To be fair, some sciences are WAY too complex to be explained to Joe Average (most people don't understand how computers work let alone understand the physics of launching a spacecraft into deep space). On the other hand, some people are WAY too lazy to write a report easy enough for Joe Average to understand or Joe Average is too lazy to read a report that hasn't been dumbed down for his benefit.
I think the reviews are all going to be predictable.
If you loved FFVII, then the movie is gonna be the greated damned thing you've seen since the game.
If you didn't love FFVII then you're either not gonna like it or outright hate it for a number of reasons.
If you never played FFVII, you're gonna think the movie is a total piece of crap since no amount of time spent on the backstory will be enough to explain it to moviegoers.
Overall, expect direct-to-DVD unless SE is willing to risk another FF:Spirits Within.
More expensive hardware = more expensive product. More expensive software = more products need to be sold to make a profit.
More expensive cartridges were JUSTIFIED through this simple fact. If it cost an extra $7 for the extra RAM (most) gamers were willing to accept a $5 or $10 price increase. But if its a price increase because of software changes, people just cannot justify the price increase.
Nintendo's 16-bit Goliath was entering a twilight of late-life masterpieces when PlayStation launched.
Wtf? The SNES is released roughly FOUR years before the PS1 and they say it entered 'a twilight of late-life masterpieces'? Final Fantasy 3US/6JP was released the year before ('94) followed by Chrono Trigger ('95) and were arguably two of the most successful games of the system. If anything Nintendo's SNES was ENDING its life by the time the PS1 was launched. (Yoshi's Island was really a final 'tech demo' if you will of the SNES's hardware when you really think about it.)
This whole article is riding on the failures of every other company (Nintendo, Atari, Sega) while writing off their successes. N64's z-trigger, analog stick and vibration and Dreamcast's controller design and built-in modem and online gaming for the masses being the biggest high points. Nitpickers could probably throw in some more, PS1 starting the overly long and overly used FMVs, horribly pixelly graphics even into PS2 games, a largely copy-cat controller design and the beginning of selling what should be standard accessories (memory cards that only holds 16 slots? 8 frikin MBs memory cards for the PS2?!)
Final Fantasy made a bunch of chocobo spin-off games including a Chocobo Racing game. As for GTA, considering theres only 4 big hit games in its entire history 2 of which are arguably 'expansion packs' of GTA3 (GTA:VC and GTA:SA), GTA isn't a fair comparison considering how long short lived it is. (GTA1 came out in early '98, compared to Super Mario Bros 1 coming out in '85.)
Its about frikin time! You'd think Sony forgot about Europe after all this time. Such a long delay is inexcuseable, especially if Sony keeps trying to downplay the DS let alone beat Nintendo at handheld war.
Logistics, management and coordination would be a nightmare. Try moving thousands of people, from a branch that was never designed to be mobile far beyond state borders, then figure out which state national guards have experience/training with water rescue then coordinate the efforts of all of those remaining with no clear high level chain of command. (I'm pretty sure theres no General of the National Guard.)
The company also counted "Internet Game Room players [who have] accessed the game over the last seven days" as paying customers.
Does Blizzard really think they can to get away with this kind of bulls***? Thats like saying 'if customers have test driven a Toyota car within the past month, they're a Toyota owner.'
While these one-hit wonders are nice in the short run, lets face it. These kinds of games are hit or miss. For every Bejeweled, theres hundreds, if not thousands of other games out there that get almost no public attention.
Do you have any idea how much water pressure a fire hose gives off? Fire hoses are not just oversized garden hoses, they have the range and power to rival most small caliber handguns. (Have you ever seen or heard of a single man holding, controlling and aiming a single fire hose?) At close range, you could EASILY kill someone with a fire hose (if not from drowning, then from the tearing of the skin and subsequent bleeding that follows.)
As for patrol cops handing in guns in exchange for non-lethal/less-lethan alternatives, that'll happen when gun/weapon makers create an multipurpose weapon to suit their needs. Tasers are too short ranged, useless against armored targets and can range from useless against enraged subjects to potentially lethal if used against someone with a weak heart. Pepper spray/guns suffer from the same problem, poor accuracy over long ranges, useless against gas masks and ineffective/potentially lethal depending on subject. Sound and laser-based weapons are too experimental to be fielded. Beanbag guns can only really be used if the target is not behind cover, have seriously varying effects on a case-by-case situation and can cause internal damage if too many shots in the same general area.
It isn't that police don't want less lethal weaponery, its simply a matter of the current stage is too experimental. (Pepper spray is useless if I'm charging you with a knife in a small room. A taser won't work if I'm trying to run you over. Most people who work out at the gym will be able to take a couple beanbag hits and will be able to attack. So on and so on.)
Of course, this is all predicated on the idea that a democratic society is stable or even a good idea.
Which basicly sums up the problem of a 'from the people, by the people, for the people' democracy.
In some cases, a democratic society is a good idea (it forced a reluctant U.S. government to pull out of Vietnam, no comment on the after-effects, and it helped create a technology boom during and after WWII). In other cases it (arguably) indirectly caused the prolonged suffering in numerous wars (the late entry into WWI which was viewed as a 'European war' and the failure to properly respond to Japan's invasion of Manchuria).
Judging by the number of responses on this thread, doesn't seem like it.
In the past, pro-Halo (1 or 2) posts have generally been karma bombed. Throw in the anti-Microsoft and "damned Bungie is a sellout" complaint, and VERY few people admit to being fans here anymore.
One word : Manager. At the very least there should've been a manager who had come in and seen the guy at least twice within those 50-hours (Manager A comes in to open for the day, Manager B comes in to close for the night. Anyway you time it, one of those managers saw the guy there twice within a 24-hour period.)
None of their fields became more expensive to drill, so to them it's just more profit.
Actually, if you include the costs of extra security (gotta stop those bombing attacks), hiring new oil crews (most fled and/or are too afraid to come back in fear of retribution), and the fact that most oil in Iraq is largely untapped (no thanks to Saddam's spending) theres isn't THAT much profit. Throw in the fact that almost all of it gets thrown BACK INTO Iraq means Iraqi oil companies aren't too stubborn in negotiating since they win in the end no matter what price they sell at.
We're building what will be our three largest permanent foreign military bases in Iraq. So when we really do need that oil, we'll have the facilities to grab it.
Saudi Arabia is still the biggest sole exporter of oil. If the U.S. starts seizing oil wells suddenly and illegally, what do you think the OPEC is going to do? And no, the recent U.S. invasion of Iraq doesn't count due to extreme circumstances. Course this doesn't even include the fact that even MORE money will have to be spent on security and military forces.
And who gets paid to rebuild the pipelines and other oil infrastructure in Iraq when it gets blown up?
Who has to foot the bill for the military forces that are being stationed in Iraq right now? Who's paying the payee? Last I checked oil companies weren't paying tens of millions of dollars DAILY to the U.S. government.
The argument about the U.S. invading Iraq for oil is worse than a high school economics paper. Who's paying for the military? Who's keeping the people at home happy? How much is it costing to keep the international community happy? Who's taking care of North Korea and Iran? Afghanistan? Russia's nuclear disarmarment? The U.N.'s complaints? China threating the U.S. for economic superiority? The issue regarding E.U.'s Euro contesting the U.S. dollar? How's the 'war on terror' going to be 'won'? What does the U.S. do about London after the recent bombings?
Do the rewards outweigh the risks? The answer is simply, No. Don't forget even before the invasion of Iraq in '03 there was Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran rattling the nuclear saber and ALL the 'other issues' that simply aren't finished by the previous administration(s). Iraq is simply the most publicized issue for the Bush administration. Go complain about China's social issues. Or protest against North Korea. Or do something about illegal immigrants coming in from Mexico. Hell, go after the Patriot Act if you're so upset about the Bush administration.
Sony has generally let each company decide for themselves how to run the online portion of their games.
Actually, thats because they knew it was going to fail. Mostly because it was their fault.
When the PS2 launched the network adaptor, the hardware was already horribly outdated, there was no centralized servers (bad lag), and no fancy addition that PC users didn't have/already had (not including the mouse+keyboard argument). Fast forward to the hard drive. HORRIBLY outdated hardware, games are not allowed to put any major data on the hard drive (with the special exception of FFXI) and at this point the Xbox is making the PS2 look like a 7 year old rig for PC gaming. Fast forward again and we have the Slim-PS2 announced/launched. Simply put, Sony kicked the online market in the groin. No network adaptors, no hard drive, no more online gaming.
Actually, a huge majority of video codecs do work with WMP 'right out of the box'. The only significant codecs that do not are Quicktime (some computers ship with it installed so its a matter of the creator's perferance), DivX (which is being adopted into the mainstream) and MAYBE Realplayer (which is fading). 'Other' video codecs range from the lesser known Xvid to incalculable DVD codecs (which in turn require special video players.)
Seriously though, unless you count the free junk they hand out for free to people on the streets (advertisement, AOL CDs, cell phones...) most bands would be happy to distribute thousands of copies of their music for free, it people would just listen to it. Try setting up a lemonade stand and keep track of how many people pass by without buying any versus the number of people who stop and buy a drink.
From there, its not hard to imagine that 70+% of the songs that are actually downloaded online are simply dumped into 'Storage' or 'To be Sorted' folders.
Now if only the TV and movie industry would catch on.
This is OT but, the only problem with the TV and movie industry moving in the same direction is simply file sizes. Simply put, low res, low sound quality sound movies/TV episodes suck ass if the alternative is superior TIVO or buying the uber-high quality plus bonus features DVDs. Most Americans (lets not bring the foreign market into this) do not have broadband. Those that do get it from their workplace or from a public access (library, school...) Throw in the fact that the average size for a pirated ~2 hour long movie is crunched into a still sizable 700 megs (perfect for fitting onto CD-Rs though) and Joe Average isn't very interested.
Something like the squad system, VOIP, online ranking and statistics tracking, seeking and laser/wire/tv-guided missiles, destroyable bridges, etc?
Squad system was done in Wolfenstein Enemy Territory.
VOIP has been done for years : Xbox Live, PS2 online games, Dreamcast online games thats not counting PC games or 3rd party add-ons/software either.
Online ranking and stats tracking has been done since (the first) Unreal Tournament. Halo 2 and Xbox Live did it as well.
Heat-seeking/laser/wire/TV-guided missiles have been done one way or another in games long before BF2. (Half-Life ONE had laser guided missiles, Metal Gear Solid a PS1 game had wire/TV-guided missiles, and heat-seeking missiles are nothing more than 'home-onto-vehicles-automatically' missiles.)
Destroyable bridges? Hell I'll give you destroyable TERRAIN, go look at Red Faction 1 or 2. Admittedly it was heavily restricted, but the game engine was capable of supporting it.
BF2 added NOTHING to the FPS genre. I'll admit its a pretty game, but its not much else. Artillery is nice but again Wolfenstein:ET did it. Radar is nice but Savage:Battle for Newerth did it. Supply drops are interesting but detract from the importance of having to ration ammo instead of running in guns blazing to create your own covering fire. The voice command thing is nice but in a fast paced FPS like BF2, it creates more problems than it solves for beginners.
we have discovered some key issues which are making Blackwing encounters easier than intended. This applies to both Razorgore and Vaelastraz encounters.
I donno about you but it sounds to me they simply weren't prepared to deal with the sheer number of level 60 players. Even the toughest bosses fall to sheer numbers, especially when those numbers are max leveled players and creative, clever players.
Of course, I came to the games late, only starting to play BFV 3 months ago, and never really playing BF1942 much at all.
So you basicly skipped the entire Doom series, Quake series, Half-Life 1 and 2, the Deux Ex series and Unreal Tournament series? Thats the kind of statement that causes gamers to scream 'n00b!'.
BF2 is buggy, crashes on some computers, very very laggy, unbalanced and rewards the hardcore with weapons that throw the idea of individuality out the window. (Medics getting rifles? Wth?!) The anti-team killing system is too strict against commanders (if people run into their own artillery its their own damned fault), vehicles are still overpowered (a good helicopter pilot can rip most ground troops to shreds in seconds) and the game feels like a fanmade mod that spent too long in development. (Nice graphics, now how about something beyond an extra 2 classes and a 'commander' system?)
At any given time, Sony is hosting more than 150 000 sword-wielding, laser-shooting, dragon-slaying gamers from all over the world.
Everquest is merely the highlight of the report, but theres also EQ2, Planetside and SWG all running off these servers. With that in mind, 150,000 users 'at any given time' isn't too impressive when spread out over 1,500 servers. Assuming the number of users is equally divided (37,500 users and 375 servers per game 'at any given time') then theres not much workload really being put on the servers. That comes out to roughly 1 server per 100 players.
Job, class, architype, whatever, in MMOs it generally boils down to the basics. Tank, healer, damage dealer. People who try to break the mold simply get rejected. Doctors don't try to be soldiers without training and cooks don't try to be auto mechanics. Same with MMOs, a Paladin isn't supposed to be a damage dealer, its supposed to be a tank. Warlocks aren't supposed to be tanks with their pets, they're supposed to (basicly) be a damage dealer. Etc, etc. You can try doing things the way YOU want to do but don't expect a high level instance group to let you join, let alone get a good share of the rewards if you plan on front-line fighting as a healer.
Course this is the ultimate problem of MMORPGs. Give a player TOO much freedom in his independent actions early on, and you break the game at later levels (see: WoW and level 60ers trying to solo everything he sees like a level10er.) Restrict a player TOO much and you end up with a game too hard to get into at first (see: Ultima Online, FFXI.)
Like you said, MMOGs are generally boring and uninteresting, but what happens when a MMOG appears but is TOO complex, has TOO much variety, and/or has TOO much player-skill dependancy? Since FFXI has been beaten into the ground on this topic, I'll point to an old model. Ultima Online.
The current version of Ultima Online is a far cry from the early versions. Ignoring the lag and server issues, the game was EXTREMELY complex, relied a LOT on player teamwork and had so much variety that it was possible to maroon yourself on a small far away island if you wanted to. You had dozens of different spells, weapons, status effects, monsters, and the ever-present threat of PVPers. You HAD to travel in groups if you wanted to travel the main roads without fear of being ganked by a group of 13 year olds who would mock you for dying in a 1-on-5 fight. It was also possible to set up teleports even into a monster's dungeon so you had to seriously trust a person if you were willing to step into someone else's portal before they did.
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Given the fact that the US/NATO would've had to fight a two front war (one against the Warsaw Pact and one against Communist China), anything less than nuclear usage would've meant defeat, if not stalemate, in favor of the USSR and its allies. (Manpower superior China and North Korea armed with surplus Russian tanks and artillery overrun South Korean and US forces on the Eastern front, with Europe turning into a large scale replica of Germany circa 1945 with guerilla fighting breaking out across the continent only with larger guns, more people and more ammo. US can't respond quickly enough to either front due to sheer distance, a much smaller army/navy/air force and there is little equipment that can be moved quickly enough to rival battle tanks.)
To be fair, some sciences are WAY too complex to be explained to Joe Average (most people don't understand how computers work let alone understand the physics of launching a spacecraft into deep space). On the other hand, some people are WAY too lazy to write a report easy enough for Joe Average to understand or Joe Average is too lazy to read a report that hasn't been dumbed down for his benefit.
If you loved FFVII, then the movie is gonna be the greated damned thing you've seen since the game.
If you didn't love FFVII then you're either not gonna like it or outright hate it for a number of reasons.
If you never played FFVII, you're gonna think the movie is a total piece of crap since no amount of time spent on the backstory will be enough to explain it to moviegoers.
Overall, expect direct-to-DVD unless SE is willing to risk another FF:Spirits Within.
More expensive hardware = more expensive product.
More expensive software = more products need to be sold to make a profit.
More expensive cartridges were JUSTIFIED through this simple fact. If it cost an extra $7 for the extra RAM (most) gamers were willing to accept a $5 or $10 price increase. But if its a price increase because of software changes, people just cannot justify the price increase.
Nintendo's 16-bit Goliath was entering a twilight of late-life masterpieces when PlayStation launched.
Wtf? The SNES is released roughly FOUR years before the PS1 and they say it entered 'a twilight of late-life masterpieces'? Final Fantasy 3US/6JP was released the year before ('94) followed by Chrono Trigger ('95) and were arguably two of the most successful games of the system. If anything Nintendo's SNES was ENDING its life by the time the PS1 was launched. (Yoshi's Island was really a final 'tech demo' if you will of the SNES's hardware when you really think about it.)
This whole article is riding on the failures of every other company (Nintendo, Atari, Sega) while writing off their successes. N64's z-trigger, analog stick and vibration and Dreamcast's controller design and built-in modem and online gaming for the masses being the biggest high points. Nitpickers could probably throw in some more, PS1 starting the overly long and overly used FMVs, horribly pixelly graphics even into PS2 games, a largely copy-cat controller design and the beginning of selling what should be standard accessories (memory cards that only holds 16 slots? 8 frikin MBs memory cards for the PS2?!)
Final Fantasy made a bunch of chocobo spin-off games including a Chocobo Racing game. As for GTA, considering theres only 4 big hit games in its entire history 2 of which are arguably 'expansion packs' of GTA3 (GTA:VC and GTA:SA), GTA isn't a fair comparison considering how long short lived it is. (GTA1 came out in early '98, compared to Super Mario Bros 1 coming out in '85.)
Its about frikin time! You'd think Sony forgot about Europe after all this time. Such a long delay is inexcuseable, especially if Sony keeps trying to downplay the DS let alone beat Nintendo at handheld war.
Logistics, management and coordination would be a nightmare. Try moving thousands of people, from a branch that was never designed to be mobile far beyond state borders, then figure out which state national guards have experience/training with water rescue then coordinate the efforts of all of those remaining with no clear high level chain of command. (I'm pretty sure theres no General of the National Guard.)
Does Blizzard really think they can to get away with this kind of bulls***? Thats like saying 'if customers have test driven a Toyota car within the past month, they're a Toyota owner.'
While these one-hit wonders are nice in the short run, lets face it. These kinds of games are hit or miss. For every Bejeweled, theres hundreds, if not thousands of other games out there that get almost no public attention.
As for patrol cops handing in guns in exchange for non-lethal/less-lethan alternatives, that'll happen when gun/weapon makers create an multipurpose weapon to suit their needs. Tasers are too short ranged, useless against armored targets and can range from useless against enraged subjects to potentially lethal if used against someone with a weak heart. Pepper spray/guns suffer from the same problem, poor accuracy over long ranges, useless against gas masks and ineffective/potentially lethal depending on subject. Sound and laser-based weapons are too experimental to be fielded. Beanbag guns can only really be used if the target is not behind cover, have seriously varying effects on a case-by-case situation and can cause internal damage if too many shots in the same general area.
It isn't that police don't want less lethal weaponery, its simply a matter of the current stage is too experimental. (Pepper spray is useless if I'm charging you with a knife in a small room. A taser won't work if I'm trying to run you over. Most people who work out at the gym will be able to take a couple beanbag hits and will be able to attack. So on and so on.)
Which basicly sums up the problem of a 'from the people, by the people, for the people' democracy.
In some cases, a democratic society is a good idea (it forced a reluctant U.S. government to pull out of Vietnam, no comment on the after-effects, and it helped create a technology boom during and after WWII). In other cases it (arguably) indirectly caused the prolonged suffering in numerous wars (the late entry into WWI which was viewed as a 'European war' and the failure to properly respond to Japan's invasion of Manchuria).
In the past, pro-Halo (1 or 2) posts have generally been karma bombed. Throw in the anti-Microsoft and "damned Bungie is a sellout" complaint, and VERY few people admit to being fans here anymore.
One word : Manager. At the very least there should've been a manager who had come in and seen the guy at least twice within those 50-hours (Manager A comes in to open for the day, Manager B comes in to close for the night. Anyway you time it, one of those managers saw the guy there twice within a 24-hour period.)
Actually, if you include the costs of extra security (gotta stop those bombing attacks), hiring new oil crews (most fled and/or are too afraid to come back in fear of retribution), and the fact that most oil in Iraq is largely untapped (no thanks to Saddam's spending) theres isn't THAT much profit. Throw in the fact that almost all of it gets thrown BACK INTO Iraq means Iraqi oil companies aren't too stubborn in negotiating since they win in the end no matter what price they sell at.
We're building what will be our three largest permanent foreign military bases in Iraq. So when we really do need that oil, we'll have the facilities to grab it.
Saudi Arabia is still the biggest sole exporter of oil. If the U.S. starts seizing oil wells suddenly and illegally, what do you think the OPEC is going to do? And no, the recent U.S. invasion of Iraq doesn't count due to extreme circumstances. Course this doesn't even include the fact that even MORE money will have to be spent on security and military forces.
And who gets paid to rebuild the pipelines and other oil infrastructure in Iraq when it gets blown up?
Who has to foot the bill for the military forces that are being stationed in Iraq right now? Who's paying the payee? Last I checked oil companies weren't paying tens of millions of dollars DAILY to the U.S. government.
The argument about the U.S. invading Iraq for oil is worse than a high school economics paper. Who's paying for the military? Who's keeping the people at home happy? How much is it costing to keep the international community happy? Who's taking care of North Korea and Iran? Afghanistan? Russia's nuclear disarmarment? The U.N.'s complaints? China threating the U.S. for economic superiority? The issue regarding E.U.'s Euro contesting the U.S. dollar? How's the 'war on terror' going to be 'won'? What does the U.S. do about London after the recent bombings?
Do the rewards outweigh the risks? The answer is simply, No. Don't forget even before the invasion of Iraq in '03 there was Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran rattling the nuclear saber and ALL the 'other issues' that simply aren't finished by the previous administration(s). Iraq is simply the most publicized issue for the Bush administration. Go complain about China's social issues. Or protest against North Korea. Or do something about illegal immigrants coming in from Mexico. Hell, go after the Patriot Act if you're so upset about the Bush administration.
Actually, thats because they knew it was going to fail. Mostly because it was their fault.
When the PS2 launched the network adaptor, the hardware was already horribly outdated, there was no centralized servers (bad lag), and no fancy addition that PC users didn't have/already had (not including the mouse+keyboard argument). Fast forward to the hard drive. HORRIBLY outdated hardware, games are not allowed to put any major data on the hard drive (with the special exception of FFXI) and at this point the Xbox is making the PS2 look like a 7 year old rig for PC gaming. Fast forward again and we have the Slim-PS2 announced/launched. Simply put, Sony kicked the online market in the groin. No network adaptors, no hard drive, no more online gaming.
Actually, a huge majority of video codecs do work with WMP 'right out of the box'. The only significant codecs that do not are Quicktime (some computers ship with it installed so its a matter of the creator's perferance), DivX (which is being adopted into the mainstream) and MAYBE Realplayer (which is fading). 'Other' video codecs range from the lesser known Xvid to incalculable DVD codecs (which in turn require special video players.)
From there, its not hard to imagine that 70+% of the songs that are actually downloaded online are simply dumped into 'Storage' or 'To be Sorted' folders.
This is OT but, the only problem with the TV and movie industry moving in the same direction is simply file sizes. Simply put, low res, low sound quality sound movies/TV episodes suck ass if the alternative is superior TIVO or buying the uber-high quality plus bonus features DVDs. Most Americans (lets not bring the foreign market into this) do not have broadband. Those that do get it from their workplace or from a public access (library, school...) Throw in the fact that the average size for a pirated ~2 hour long movie is crunched into a still sizable 700 megs (perfect for fitting onto CD-Rs though) and Joe Average isn't very interested.
Squad system was done in Wolfenstein Enemy Territory.
VOIP has been done for years : Xbox Live, PS2 online games, Dreamcast online games thats not counting PC games or 3rd party add-ons/software either.
Online ranking and stats tracking has been done since (the first) Unreal Tournament. Halo 2 and Xbox Live did it as well.
Heat-seeking/laser/wire/TV-guided missiles have been done one way or another in games long before BF2. (Half-Life ONE had laser guided missiles, Metal Gear Solid a PS1 game had wire/TV-guided missiles, and heat-seeking missiles are nothing more than 'home-onto-vehicles-automatically' missiles.)
Destroyable bridges? Hell I'll give you destroyable TERRAIN, go look at Red Faction 1 or 2. Admittedly it was heavily restricted, but the game engine was capable of supporting it.
BF2 added NOTHING to the FPS genre. I'll admit its a pretty game, but its not much else. Artillery is nice but again Wolfenstein:ET did it. Radar is nice but Savage:Battle for Newerth did it. Supply drops are interesting but detract from the importance of having to ration ammo instead of running in guns blazing to create your own covering fire. The voice command thing is nice but in a fast paced FPS like BF2, it creates more problems than it solves for beginners.
I donno about you but it sounds to me they simply weren't prepared to deal with the sheer number of level 60 players. Even the toughest bosses fall to sheer numbers, especially when those numbers are max leveled players and creative, clever players.
So you basicly skipped the entire Doom series, Quake series, Half-Life 1 and 2, the Deux Ex series and Unreal Tournament series? Thats the kind of statement that causes gamers to scream 'n00b!'.
BF2 is buggy, crashes on some computers, very very laggy, unbalanced and rewards the hardcore with weapons that throw the idea of individuality out the window. (Medics getting rifles? Wth?!) The anti-team killing system is too strict against commanders (if people run into their own artillery its their own damned fault), vehicles are still overpowered (a good helicopter pilot can rip most ground troops to shreds in seconds) and the game feels like a fanmade mod that spent too long in development. (Nice graphics, now how about something beyond an extra 2 classes and a 'commander' system?)
Everquest is merely the highlight of the report, but theres also EQ2, Planetside and SWG all running off these servers. With that in mind, 150,000 users 'at any given time' isn't too impressive when spread out over 1,500 servers. Assuming the number of users is equally divided (37,500 users and 375 servers per game 'at any given time') then theres not much workload really being put on the servers. That comes out to roughly 1 server per 100 players.
Course this is the ultimate problem of MMORPGs. Give a player TOO much freedom in his independent actions early on, and you break the game at later levels (see: WoW and level 60ers trying to solo everything he sees like a level10er.) Restrict a player TOO much and you end up with a game too hard to get into at first (see: Ultima Online, FFXI.)
The current version of Ultima Online is a far cry from the early versions. Ignoring the lag and server issues, the game was EXTREMELY complex, relied a LOT on player teamwork and had so much variety that it was possible to maroon yourself on a small far away island if you wanted to. You had dozens of different spells, weapons, status effects, monsters, and the ever-present threat of PVPers. You HAD to travel in groups if you wanted to travel the main roads without fear of being ganked by a group of 13 year olds who would mock you for dying in a 1-on-5 fight. It was also possible to set up teleports even into a monster's dungeon so you had to seriously trust a person if you were willing to step into someone else's portal before they did.