Battlefield 1942 Review

Overall Rating

Game play, Attention to detail, Selection of theatres to fight on, Weapons, Vehicles, Online play, Interaction between other players, lots, lots more.

Single play mode is just a rehearsal for the online mayhem that awaits.

Don't know were to start really. I've been playing video games now for about 15 years or so, ok yes I'm nearly 30 but who cares.

BATTLEFIELDS 1942, as you've probably work out by the name is set in WWII and the fighting takes place on four fronts: North Africa, the Pacific plus Eastern and Western Europe. The game is a first person shooter and has a 15+ certification and rightly so, although there is no blood detail, there is plenty of ways to kill the enemy, so parents be warned.

When choosing the online option, you will have to connect to a server to enter a game. There are a few ways to do this you can either view all the servers that are currently online, the ones highlighted in yellow are the ones you can connect to, the others will be greyed out which are password only. To save a bit of time trailing through all the servers available, you can apply filters to the list which will show you just the ones you can use password dedicated or not.

Once you've connected to your chosen MAP e.g. WAKE ISLAND, MIDWAY, OMAHA BEACH etc.. the fun really starts. You can enter the game as Allied or Axis, either as a Scout (Sniper), Assault (Infantry), Anti-tank (Bazooka), Medic or Engineer. Each character has its own strengths, weakness and array of weapons, e.g. the Medic can heal people including your-self and the Engineer can fix vehicles and lay mines etc.

Choose your required spawn point and away you go, depending on the game you have chosen, you will have to either capture the enemies flag (the team with the most flags at the end of the game wins or Conquest - capture all the enemies control points so they have no where to spawn.

The vehicles vary on which map you choose, I think there are over 30 including Tanks, Cars Ships, Subs and Planes (use a joystick for the planes much easier). You can also communicate with your fellow soldiers with a selection of built-in voice commands, that you select with your F-keys as well as a free type option. Excellent fun.

I've been playing this game now for four months and show no signs of stopping in fact the addiction is getting worse, I almost get with-drawl symptoms if I miss a day.

I have a broadband connection to play online and experience very little lag when 30 or more gamers are on, you can get kicked from a game from time to time but not often.

I haven't talked much about the single play option as I have played it once for about 5 mins, I really cant see the point, that's the only thing that lets the game down, for people with no internet connection there are better single play games available.

So just to re-cap for me this game is without doubt the most realistic, all encompassing, addictive game I have ever played yes not just first person shooter game but game full stop. This game has coursed arguments between me and me girlfriend, sleepless nights with battles raging in my head (sad but true) plus with the choice of expansion packs and a new Vietnam Battlefields on the way, it can only get better.