Xbox Living

Being a huge fan of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, I got excited when I heard about Frontlines: Fuel of War. After all, much of the Frontlines development team came from Battlefield projects, so they must know what they’re doing. 32-player online battles in a third world war over depleted oil reserves? Where do I sign up!?

So I did. I got the game, and went to Xbox Live. Quick match, because I want to play quick!

Something happened quick. But it wasn’t play. It was my good old friend, the ‘this game is no longer available’ message. I remember these from a rash of network problems that Battlefield 2 had. I thought it was over. I wanted so much for it to be over.

“Why is this happening?” I thought, as my controller fell to my side and I curled up into a little ball on my couch, sobbing amidst the high-definition glow of a perpetual loading screen.

Okay, it wasn’t quite that dramatic. I believe just swore at the thing and moved on to custom matches. They proved to be a little more promising, as I could generally get into every one in five that I tried. When I did get into a game, I would find myself in two possible situations:

• The game would play out normally.
• The game would lag tremendously.

The second happens way more. Headshots to a still target from a sniper rifle turn out as misses and opponents move around like they’re in SNL’s Lazy Sunday video.

When the network glitches are resolved, it looks like this game will be a lot of fun. The features and combat style are highly reminiscent of Battlefield 2, and the single-player campaign is surprisingly enjoyable so far. The game seems to feature some of the destructible environment that the upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company promises, albeit with smaller scope.

Just, give it some time.