The more flags one team has, the faster the other's tickets will decrease. The tickets decrease by 1 for each time a player spawns after death or the initial spawn on the corresponding side, and by progressively more, depending on the number of flags either team has. There are two counters, which show the tickets remaining on either side. In Conquest, the goal is to capture a majority of the flags scattered across the map. Three additional maps were later made available for the Xbox and Xbox 360 versions.

Which faction faces which is determined by the map being played of which there are thirteen in the game, ranging from desert towns to secret Chinese airfields. There are four playable factions, the United States Marine Corps (USMC), the European Union (EU), the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the fictitious Middle Eastern Coalition (MEC). The Multiplayer mode offers two game modes, Conquest, returning from previous games in the series, and the new Capture the Flag game mode.

During the course of an intense battle, the ICBM launches are halted and Commander 31 killed, with the player being hailed as the hero who made China's- or NATO's- victory possible. The winning side must then stop Burning Flag's leader, Commander 31, from launching 3 nuclear ICBMs at the United States, Europe, and China failure would mean neither side would have anything left to fight for or live for. Various war crimes each side believes the other committed during the fighting were in fact arranged by Burning Flag, which also sabotaged the only known attempt at negotiations. When the player eventually chooses a side to lead to victory, it is revealed that a terrorist organization called Burning Flag is responsible for misleading both NATO and China into starting the war. The media on both sides air propaganda that accuses the other of war crimes while the player fights for each nation back and forth. The single-player campaign game revolves around a fictional war between NATO and China that takes place in Kazakhstan. All Xbox, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 2 servers are offline. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat multiplayer on Xbox was shut down on April 15, 2010. A PlayStation Portable version was developed by EA Bright Light and announced in 2005, but was canceled. In 2006, an updated version of the game was released for the Xbox 360, featuring improved graphics and online features. The game was initially released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2005. The game was titled Battlefield: Modern Combat until shortly before release, when the numeral was added to evoke a connection with the PC game Battlefield 2, in an attempt to boost sales. Despite its name, the game is neither a port nor a spin-off of Battlefield 2, which was in development at the same time. Modern Combat is the first Battlefield game for video game consoles and the first to offer a full single-player campaign. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is a first-person shooter video game in the Battlefield series, developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts.

Battlefield 2 map list