Software: Buy Battlefield: 1942 Online

Average Rating:

THE BAD: The single player campaign. If you can call it a campaign. It's merely the multiplayer maps against pathetic bots. If you aren't planning on, or do not have the connection to, play the game online: don't bother. This game was built with online play in mind, and that's it.

THE UGLY: The computing power and connection speed required to enjoy BF 1942 are huge. Even with a 1.47 ghz CPU, 512 megs of DDR RAM, and a 64 meg Geforce3, I still had to adjust the in game graphics settings to get it to run smoothly. It lags quite often, even in single player mode! Now that my settings are tweaked enough, the game runs fine, but still hits an occasional hiccup even over a 784k/256k DSL connection. Don't even bother if you have a dial-up.

BOTTOM LINE: If you have the computing power and the CABLE/DSL/T1 connection to run it smoothly, you won't find many games more fun than this one to play online. The maps, gameplay, vehicles, and soldier classes are all outstanding, and with the abundance of variety in tactical approaches, you'll never get bored. A fabulous game.

This game is sooo addicting. The multiplayer battles are too much fun; fighting on a HUGE battlefield with 63 other people blowing each other to bits with explosives, guns, and various naval, air, and armored vehicles is irresistable.

There are some flaws with the gameplay; the infantry combat isn't as polished as some other first person shooters, but believe it or not that really doesn't matter. The focus here is on using vehicles and strategy rather than charging in with your guns blazing, as a rambo style approach will get you minced up in no time. The use of vehicles really is the selling point for this game; they really make the game more fun and add complexity to the gameplay. You can either bomb your enemy from above or fire artillery shells at their base from a distance; or you can sneak in by foot or jeep and go for their flag, it's really up to your preference.

Single player is useless here however; if you're looking for a good WWII single player experience refer to Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault or Return To Castle Wolfenstein. The learning curve for online play with those games is less steep than BF1942 as well, since this game requires you to learn to navigate a large battlefield which is much more complex than most maps from other online shooters. While both of those titles also boast great multiplayer modes, they aren't quite as authentic as BF1942, nor are they as engrossing; there's just more freedom here and more methods for destruction.

If you like playing games on the net, buy this now!!

First off: The game looks and runs fantastic. I have a PIII-800 and it runs well. I know people with better machines, and they report it runs fantastic.

The first person shooter aspect runs fine. It isn't groundbreaking when compared to other contemperary FPSs, but it performs well.

The 'flight sim' aspect also runs fine. It seems geared more towards close air support, as high altitude winding air battles ain't happening...but I still feel like I'm 'flying' an aircraft. Strafing and bombing can't be described easily in words...dropping a bomb on an unsuspecting enemy ground troop was a priceless first in my gaming experience :)

The tank/armor/vehicle portion is STRONG. It isn't fancy, but it is fast and furious action, and provided (for me) the most nerve wracking and exciting moments of the game.

The sea aspect of the game scores a little lower than the rest. It just feels a little 'cheesy.' It is hardly a surface warfare game, but then again, it never claimed to be. There is ample opportunity to put sea power to use. The destroyer in the demo MP game made for an excellent bombardment platform. Once you get over the fact that a single man can control a destroyer/carrier, it is rather fun. However, most players tend to ditch the ships for tanks/planes, as they offer more exciting ways to smite your opponents :)

For sheer gameplay, BF1942 scores all 5 stars easily. I have wasted many hours online, every moment of which was exciting and fun. The gameplay is fast, balanced, and easy to jump right into. It also runs great online, and I played in games with a server ping up to about 170, and it was hardly noticable.

My *ONLY* negative comment on the game is the 'realism' claim. In order to make it a fast, furious and easy game to get into, EA had to (understandably) simplify things quite a bit. Clearly, and engineer can't repair a destroyer in 20 seconds (as I was able to do in the Demo). Aircraft in real life can't buzz airfields and pickup teammates on the fly. There are several other examples, none of which take away from the game at all, but are hardly realistic.
The other realism complaint is the weapons and vehicles inventory they are advertising on the webpage. There was a missed opportunity to provide more historically accurate weaponry...specifically, the Russians had plenty of potential weapons that aren't reflected in the game (i.e. the PPsH40, a superb SMG). The final game isn't out yet, so they may very well have added more specific weapons/vehicles (or do a patch later).

Overall, my minor complaints have nothing to do with the actual gameplay. Grab hold and hang on for a gameplaying experience you'll not soon forget!