Battlefield: 

Having played Battlefield 2 for approximately 5 years (My Stats), now, and having before that been an avid player of Battlefield 1942, when I learned that the 2008 Mod of the Year was awarded to a Battlefield Modification, I had to try it.  I have enjoyed the FPS since Wolfenstein, and of all of them that I have played, the Battlefield series seems to consistently deliver the most adrenaline pumping, cinematic, fun action sequences (Though the Action Quake and Action Half-Life 2 games provided a really, really good romp, too).  That being said, my only criticism of most FPS games is generally a lack of realism (Which is why I don't play BF2142 very much even though I have most of the unlocks).  I hate having to shoot a guy 3+ times on average for him to drop, and BF delivers in this sense.  Project reality promised to make sure that this wouldn't be the case, even moreso than BF2.  I was in.

Project Reality:

What is Project Reality (Trailer, Youtube)?  It takes Battlefield from being a "game" to being closer to a "Simulation".  Not completely, fun gameplay elements are kept, but, it moves it towards combat simulation.  Tactics actually matter in this game, and, while it is sometimes disappointing that I can't rely on myself to charge into a room and kill a whole squad, the added lethality of Project Reality increases the necessity for good teamwork and common sense.  This game is not for people with short attention spans or impatient individuals.  The fun of playing Project Reality is the sense of accomplishment that comes with successfully capturing an objective, wiping out an enemy squad, or even assisting another squad in doing so by giving them a helicopter ride.  

The game adds layer after layer of complexity to the game, erasing many of Battlefield's copious "abstractions".  Gone are the ever-present mini-map and UAV scans, easily dropped in mortars, always visible crosshairs on screen, and kill spam.  These are replaced by their real-life equivalents, communication, target lasing and coordination with the commander (Check out the JDAM), iron sights and scopes, and the realism of not knowing whether or not the guy you shot at 200 meters away actually died or not when you saw his turban fall below the hedge he was firing from.  Also missing from PR is the health bar, which has been replaced with a realistic injury model that allows soldiers to be shot and bleed to death.  Very cool, because now that medic is really, really important, since spawning right back up in the battlefield is not quite so easy, and fighting while injured is a difficult task.  

Some more interesting differences between BF2 and PR: 

Project Reality soldiers won't be bunny hopping, dolphin diving, and C4 suicide running (well, the insurgents might do this last one).  Instead, they'll be hiding in windows, outflanking you, landing on rooftops, establishing firebases, and planting IEDs.  You won't find 10 snipers on the enemy team, nor be faced with constant grenade spam.  Kits are limited, and getting close enough to throw a grenade is something you WON'T generally want to try to do.  One man becoming an insurmountable force in your team's tank that he hopped in just before you got there is NOT an element of PR.  You can't use enemy tanks (you don't know how, soldier), and tanks and APCs require 2 people at a minimum to operate properly (the turrets even take about 20 seconds or so to "warm up" and make ready).

One of the first big things you'll notice will be the size of the maps, and the revamped sounds.  Gunshots in the distance give a realistically muffled thunder, while nearby gunshots deliver a loud crack.  Automatic gunfire will resound through an area and tip you off that there's a battle going on in the distance that you might need to be aware of.  Helicopters can be heard from really far away, so, their landing position has to be carefully chosen to avoid ambushes.   You can see far enough into the distance that people look like little ants running around (and this is very well done and adds greatly to the feeling of realism, as, being able to see a whole forest from a mountaintop is both useful and realistic), something that very rarely happens in BF2.

Because assets are worth tickets as well, individuals won't be bee-lining for them and "one-manning" them over to the enemy base just to get blown up.  Server admins will kick you for doing this because it injures your whole team.  Vehicles don't respawn quite so quickly, and, the maps are often 1-4 kilometers in size, which means if you strand your team by wasting vehicles, there's a good chance you've lost the match for them.  As a Project Reality soldier, you'll come to appreciate deeply the efforts of expert helicopter pilots, who follow protocols and understand that their work is often the difference between winning and losing an engagement.  This is a far cry different from the typical "use it till it explodes" mentality of regular Battlefield.  

Being shot really sucks, even almost being shot really sucks, which is a very cool thing.  This makes covering fire useful.  Bullets bouncing off of the ground or walls near your head will cause your screen to blur and darken as you become stressed out from the battle (Check out this video for an example of how it works).  This gives you incentive to not keep your head out in the open, and a good player will even learn to use this to his advantage.

A single guy in a jet no longer scores 100 kills in a match and locks down the entire enemy team, as in Battlefield 2.

Reviving a fallen comrade is no longer just a quick shock.  Now you have to actually stick him with an epipen and apply bandages until he stops bleeding, a process that takes about 30-40 seconds... sometimes you even have to "resuscitate". 

Another cool difference is that the squad leader is a bit more important now.  He's no longer a roaming spawn point.  He and two others must establish a spawn point somewhere in the field.  But, there's more to him than that, with access to the "officer" kit, the squad leader can actually deploy structures, and with the help of his squad, establish foxholes, machine gun nests, sandbag walls, and the like, all of which can be put to use to devastating effect in the hands of a talented squad leader.  This is cool, because now instead of having just 1 commander and 32 guys, you end up with a commander, 5-7 squad leaders, and a collection of people working under each of those, each filling a useful, fun to play role.  

This all comes together and results in a more rich, deep gameplay, that is equally more rewarding. 

Battlefield vs. Project Reality  

Ultimately, does Project Reality REPLACE Battlefield 2 in my gaming collection, or do I still play both?

Well, that's a tough question.  I am excited to see what changes they have made in 1.50 for BF2, it's rumored to fix many of the small grievances I've lived with for 5 years in the series.  Ultimately, for the past 2 weeks, yes, it has consumed my gameplay, pulling me away from BF2, Counterstrike, and my various other source mods and MMO gaming (even pulling me out of a couple coveted closed betas that I'm in right now, yeesh).  So, for me, they have taken a great thing that I am seasoned with, and made it wholly different in enough ways that I am excited to play again, so, the PR team gets mad props for that (did I just say "mad props"?  Hello 1997).  I do warn, however, that the game is NOT for everyone, as there is a relatively steep learning curve that will seperate serious gamers from casual gamers fairly quickly (Training servers are constantly running and you are encouraged to go there to train, learn how to fly, learn the kits or how to request them, to lase, to drive tanks, etc).

There are of course, a few glaring problems here and there, such as how the kits work and the timers involved which could be worked on a little, and maybe just a couple more transport vehicles here and there on some of the larger maps (there are lulls in the action, unfortunately) would be welcome, but overall, I haven't had this much fun gaming in years.  

It's easy to think that "more realism" = "less fun", but that's not true.  More realism, done the way Project Reality has done it, is definitely more fun.  While it's cool to play Battlefield 2's more "action movie" version of warfare, the gut-wrenching, "keep your head down and return-fire", covering-fire-is-useful, "oh-my-God pop smoke and get the fuck out of here!", "Let's sneak around the side of this mosque while they're engaged from the west!", "Enemy fire incoming from heading 2-2-5!!!" version of video game warfare is so much more rewarding to be a part of, that I'm not sure if I'll ever click that little "2" on my desktop again.

How to Play:

It's easy (But make sure your microphone works, it's really important in PR!):

1) Make sure you've got BF2 installed and patched up (not 100% sure if it works with 1.5 beta at time of this writing).

2) Go over to www.realitymod.com and click "downloads".  MAKE SURE YOU GET BOTH CORE AND LEVELS DOWNLOADS.  They are each in the 1.5 gig range for a big 3 gigabyte download, but, if you stick with the game and make it over the learning curve, it's worth it.  (I suggest Orbit Downloader for use with any browser, as it will greatly speed up the download for you.)

3) Run the Core installer, then the Levels installer.

4) Click the icon that the levels installer put on your desktop, click training, pick a server, and start learning.  

5) When you're ready (probably an hour or two later after step 4), click on deployment, pick a server, and get in the game. 

If you want to meet up with me in game, use the chat link to the right to find me.  I'm JK JudgeX in game, generally tagging along with JK Tenchi and/or JK Mikado.  We'll gladly train you up and accept you into our squad if you're a decent player.