Battlefield 1943

Having beaten the hell out of Bad Company, though not to say it ran dry, and having passed my GCSE exams I decided to be spontaneous and download Battlefield 1943, the recent remake of 1942 for the Xbox 360 arcade and Playstation 3 (PC version coming soon). It's a download-only multiplayer game which proves that time and time again Battlefield games will always be a success, with it already breaking the record of fastest downloaded game of all time.

For anyone comparing this to Bad Company, it is different in a few ways. The health system is no longer a bar which goes down and will only come up again if healed, it is regenerative in the same way as CoD, Halo etc. This may disappoint some as it admittedly takes a bit of skill out of it - at least that's my opinion. It's also using the classic Conquest game type; to anyone who hasn't played older BF games it's the same type that you play in the fairly-disappointing-yet-free DLC for Bad Company, or in the Star Wars Battlefront games. It's also limited to three classes (Rifleman, Infantryman and Scout) and no buyable upgrades or weapons, due to its download-only form which means there isn't a motherload of data, and this restriction can bring the game down in places.

The good parts of the game mainly consist of variety in playing styles, good maps and graphics. By variety I mean that you are able to use the many different vehicles - tanks, cars, boats and to my delight, planes - to get to your objective, and each class REALLY has strengths and weaknesses. For example, while you're able to take on a few men at some range with your M1 Garand with the Rifleman kit, you'll be screwed if you find a tank coming up to you, nor will you be able to fix vehicles. The vehicles work the same way, while a tank is great for capturing flags because of its firepower and it being hard to destroy, it's also a slow mover and is a sitting duck for planes. Flying in general is a strong point, once you get the hang of it it's great fun doing barrel rolls, and weaving around in elegant dogfights. This is even better with the new Coral Sea map with a planes-only gametype.

Despite the great Battlefield experience, something is still lacking. After a good 7-8 hours gameplay I can really no longer be bothered. I understand that it's a download-only game and as such it has its limits, but the lack of more than 3 classes and no upgradeable or buyable weapons, along with there only being 3 original maps and one extra, the fun will run dry at some speed, despite the fun being plentiful. The theme is great, and the gametype works well, not to mention fighting on what seems to be a real battlefield with a thousand things going on at once, but they should make a 'full' version of this on disc, with the same - if not bigger - amount of classes as Bad Company, and THEN I believe it will be what CoD WaW could have been.

So in all it's what Battlefield should be aiming to be with a WWII setting, just painfully limited. Worth the 1200 points, but don't expect to be hooked for weeks. 6/10