Battlefield 2 is literally everything I wanted Battlefield 1942 to be like. I got into 2 different servers last night. The first one was okay, but there was very little squad or commander interaction and no headset talk at all. Kind of made me feel like I was in Battlefield 1942 all over without Teamspeak and my friends. Granted, the game was extremely fun, but not as fun as my other server I got on.
I found the Brothers of War server and entered knowing it was probably a clan-type outfit for a server. Looking at their website after I played they are indeed a clan-type outfit, but they seem to be open for anyone. I may eventually decide to join them, although there is talk of a combined Console Gold/Octopus Overlords server via user Harkonis. Contact him via e-mail (the address is in that forum if you are interested). I believe the price is $5/seat.
Anyway, the Brothers of War server was extremely fun to play on. It was a 32 player server with very little lag (I did experience it here and there). I jumped on the Alpha Team on the US side and had the time of my life. At least 3 other people in the squad had headset capabilities and we coordinated attacks and all that. We also had a very good commander who must have been listening to the squad leaders or something because everything was well coordinated. I was switching between Anti-Tank, Sniper and Special Ops kits as I was going depending on the situation. At one point a squadmate and I sat on top of a building and sniped anyone that came into range. We had a lookout on the ground to alert us of infantry or armor being spotted. It was a bunch of fun and showed how much better this game is than Battlefield 1942 (and I love that game). The simple addition of being able to spawn to your squad leader is a godsend in this game because the maps are big and if planes or helicopters aren't going down you won't see the re-spawned ones for a long time and you may be far away.
I expect to be playing this game tonight as well, hopefully on the same server. My nick is AgtFox (just like everywhere else), so join up with the team I'm on if you can.