The Northern Strike pack announced for BF 2142 breaks with tradition, genuinely adding something interesting to the game. Several things, in fact: two new vehicles, three new maps and ten new bits of unlockables. The PAC are given a super-speedy two-seater hover-jeep, with anti-infantry guns, a rapid-fire grenade-launcher, an anti-vehicle rocket-launcher and all the hyphens you can eat. The EU forces get an enormous six-gunned APC that serves as a mobile spawn-point, re-supply depot and self-repairing tank.
The new maps are even chillier than the current ten, with Hoth-style snowscapes to scoot around, and the first city-based Titan map set over Leipzig. Curiously, the new unlockables aren't earned through the usual ranking-up system. Instead you get ten badges for specific achievements, and each of these entitles you to one unlock.
They're even adding a tweaked version of Conquest mode, in which each team's base is uncapturable until the enemy controls every other point on the map - like UT2004's Onslaught mode. Check back for a review in the coming weeks.
