Question about BF2 and Origin

**Owyn_Merrilin** · 09-30-11, 12:21 AM

I just have a quick question that I was hoping someone on here would know. Can a retail version of BF2 be added to Origin? And if so, does a code from the initial release work? Further, if that works, is there any chance that a vanilla CD key will get you the full game, including the Special Forces expansion? Because that would be awesome if so. The only reason I haven't bought it yet is because you actually can't buy it separately without going to e-bay; last I checked (so pre-Origin) the only way to get special forces through a digital distribution service was to buy the complete pack.

I would test this right now, but I'm on a new laptop, and I won't have access to my BF2 discs until I go home from college this weekend.

Thanks in advance for any answers.

**loki2158** · 09-30-11, 05:53 AM

I do not see anywhere in Origin where you can upload CD games to be accessed by it. Now that does not mean they will not implement it, Origin it's self is in BETA. I would doubt you would get SF using a vanilla key. EA is about money these days. They only made the Euro and AF maps free with the last patch. If you want SF you will either have to buy it on Ebay or buy the complete pack for BF2.

**SmokenScion** · 09-30-11, 01:27 PM

I purchased SF through EADM years ago, and It shows up in my Origin games. Ah, the good ol days of SF.

**Owyn_Merrilin** · 09-30-11, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by SmokenScion

I purchased SF through EADM years ago, and It shows up in my Origin games. Ah, the good ol days of SF.

Interesting. At some point, they must have taken down the option to pay for the expansions separately. Currently, the only BF2 related item in the store (unless you count Battlefield Play for Free as something BF2 related) is the complete edition, which costs $20 and comes with the game and all of the expansions. It's a bit of a rip off, considering that the only expansion that isn't free to anyone with a copy of the vanilla game is Special Forces -- meaning they're basically charging $10 each for the game and the expansion, this far down the line. Whatever happened to $10 being the standard price for PC games that were more than 5 years old, regardless of how many expansions were included?

**Fred Fargle** · 09-30-11, 08:01 PM

Sadly Special forces is pretty dead these days. there are still a couple of servers but they seem to be mostly 24/7 warlord and ghost town.. so many good maps in SF.. I'd still pay 20 bucks for BF2 and not feel ripped off.

**QuickLightning** · 09-30-11, 08:17 PM

Originally Posted by Owyn_Merrilin

Interesting. At some point, they must have taken down the option to pay for the expansions separately. Currently, the only BF2 related item in the store (unless you count Battlefield Play for Free as something BF2 related) is the complete edition, which costs $20 and comes with the game and all of the expansions. It's a bit of a rip off, considering that the only expansion that isn't free to anyone with a copy of the vanilla game is Special Forces -- meaning they're basically charging $10 each for the game and the expansion, this far down the line. Whatever happened to $10 being the standard price for PC games that were more than 5 years old, regardless of how many expansions were included?

Check out Diablo 2.

Good games hold their value for a LONG time.

**Owyn_Merrilin** · 09-30-11, 08:40 PM

Originally Posted by Fred Fargle

Sadly Special forces is pretty dead these days. there are still a couple of servers but they seem to be mostly 24/7 warlord and ghost town.. so many good maps in SF.. I'd still pay 20 bucks for BF2 and not feel ripped off.

Yeah, but you need a copy of Special Forces to get the second tier weapon unlocks. I know nobody actually plays on the SF maps, but I want the extra guns XD

Oh, also, I already have a copy of BF2; if I were to buy what they have on Origin, I'd effectively be paying $20 for an expansion pack -- which, as I noted earlier, is only good for the weapon unlocks. That's why it feels like a rip-off.

Originally Posted by QuickLightning

Check out Diablo 2.

Good games hold their value for a LONG time.

Blizzard is notoriously bad about overcharging, though. $10 was the standard for a "greatest hits" equivalent PC game for quite a while. Prices stopped significantly dropping at all for a while, and then when it started up again, most studios started pricing them at $20, as far as I can tell just to take an extra $10 of profit (which matches up to the licensing fee on consoles; incidentally, that's why console games have traditionally been about $10 more expensive than PC games -- console manufacturers charge a licensing fee to publishers, which works out to about $10 per disc.)

Edit: Case in point, Morrowind, Halo, and Halo 2 all still go for $20 a pop. It doesn't have as much to do with quality games holding their value (not that I'm saying those aren't quality games) as it does with the cost of a "budget" PC title having somehow doubled in the last 10 years or so, and having done it gradually enough that it's only in the last 5 years or so that $10 AAA games are rare. The only one I've bought at that price in recent memory, oddly enough, has been the original Assassin's Creed.

**Owyn_Merrilin** · 10-01-11, 03:16 PM

Okay, just in case anyone aside from me was curious as to what the answer to this question was, I just tried to activate my retail copy of BF2 on Origin, and it didn't work. Apparently, it only works on games that were released from 2009 on. Since BF2 is from 2005, and my copy is from the initial run (as opposed to a complete collection or something along those lines), I'm SOL on adding it to Origin. No big deal, really; I'm basically right back where I was before, which is with a working copy of BF2, but no second tier unlocks.

By the way, I like the way Origin handles the product codes; they aren't case sensitive, and the hyphens are completely optional, so it works whether you type them in or not. I've lost track of how many services I've screwed up product code entry on because they automatically added hyphens or spaces after a certain number of characters, and my adding them manually messed up the system.