There are only a few mods you’d comfortably group together with Project Reality. It’s an absolutely gargantuan project for Battlefield 2, which aims to take that game’s spine, rip out a few vertabrae, and replace them with new game modes, tweaked technology and heaps of additional content.
It’s four years since Project Reality was first launched. Since then, it’s gone through countless iterations. Despite this, it’s only at version 0.91, with Project Reality Studios determined to keep on working and working on their baby until their entire vision is realised. Its giant scope is as admirable and intimidating as any other mod you might care to mention.
At its most basic level, Project Reality turns a relatively gung-ho multiplayer shooter into something more resembling Bohemia Interactive’s work on Operation Flashpoint or the ARMA series: a game in which keeping your head down and proceeding with absolute caution is the only way to stay alive. That in itself is a good enough premise for a Battlefield mod, but it’s the precision with which this aim is pulled off, and the polish with which it’s presented, that makes it so remarkable. Tot it all up with the custom models, the abundance of new maps, the frankly insane level of accurate detail in how everything works… it really is quite the remarkable mod.
And it just keeps growing, and growing, and growing, and with each iteration something’s new and better and even more astonishingly ambitious but wholly successful than ever before. The current version, released just a few days ago, represents several years of hard work on the team’s part. You owe it to them – and to yourself – to sign up for service.
Why is it on our list?
It’s one of the most ambitious, polished and expansive mods for any game, ever. And it’s still not finished!
Get it from
www.realitymod.com
Easy to install?
You’ve to run two separate executables, but both walk you through the process nicely.
What’s the current level of activity? Were I to pick up a copy of Battlefield 2 at this late hour, would I find an active daytime community, specifically in the UK or East Coast US?
I checked this a month or so ago, and there was more than enough servers – I found a match pretty easily, midday UK.
Yeah it’s more than reasonable, especially shortly after updates.
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What interests me most is what the differences are between this and ArmA2. They sound very, very close. Why would I pick one over the other? Besides the fact that ArmA2 is more hardware hungry and therefore prettier?
@KillahMate
Arma 2 is a military simulator, and Project Reality is a Battlefield 2 mod. Even though they both strive for realism, they play very differently. Arma 2′s strength lies mostly in its simulation qualities, for example, independent head movement and bullet physics. Project Reality plays much more like a traditional first-person shooter. The focus is more on tight, team-based matches. In spirit, it’s closer to a more punishing and difficult Battlefield 2 than a solid military simulator, but that’s the limitations of Battlefield 2′s engine.
@Jakkar
PR is comfortably the most populated BF2 mod, averaging around 800-1000 players at peak UK times and outstripping 1000 at weekends. Roughly 20,000 different players load into a server and play at least 2 hours per month afaik.
For more info, take a look at PRSpy:
http://realitymodfiles.com/geze/prspy/
In short, you’ll have no problem finding a decent game.
Plus you can pick up a copy of BF2 now for around £10 :)
This is the only “game” I really play, and will continue to play.
Arma2 has its benefits in good engine, mission editor, more options, better graphics. Bad things are price, still unrealistic at some points, you need a clan to play really good.
Project Reality benefits in challenging gameplay flow, various gamemodes and you can join a pubbing server and still get very good coordination. Also for those 10€ you get Same, if not more fun than ArmAs 50€. Downsides are wrse graphics (wich doesnt matter to pretty much everybody playing it) and engine limitations. EA doesnt help at all because they are bad. :D
If you have those 10€ lying around, i say you should go for it!
Myself and the Project Reality Studios thank you Lewis for the kind words, getting recognition like this is very motivating for our team to continue doing what were doing ^_^
As for your question Jakkar, PR servers are very active, especially on weekends. It can range from 400-1000 concurrent players at any particular time. The mods gameplay is designed around 64 players, and as such most players flock to the same servers so you will routinely see the same servers being full 64/64.
Heres a handy tool to see all players currently playing PR: http://www.realitymodfiles.com/geze/prspy/