Battlefield 1943 Preview

If you're looking at Battlefield 1943 and expecting it to have the same level of depth of gameplay as its PC based predecessors, then stop right now as it doesn't. But that is not to say it isn't a good game in its own right.

Battlefield 1943 is currently only available on the PS3 and Xbox 360, and for me it is compromised by the limitations of the consoles. Some people get on fine playing FPS games with a console controller, and for those people it is a well thought out and executed game.

The graphics are lovely and the destructible scenery is fun. If you are manning a fixed machine gun and a tree is in your line of fire you can just shoot it down, and some of the buildings can be damaged and in some cases totally destroyed, which adds an interesting element to defending a point. Whereas BF1942 and BF2 were very intense games that rewarded structured team play, 1943 is much more of an everyman for himself run'n'gun experience.

There are only three maps to start with - Wake Island, Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal, all of which players of the previous versions will be very familiar with, and it is interesting to see how the Frostbite engine improves them. The maps feel smaller somehow but I believe this is because there is a lot more foliage to hide behind. A fourth map, Coral Sea, another very popular 1942 map, will be unlocked automatically when a total of 43 million kills are achieved by all players. It is expected that this will happen around October of this year.

The PC version is planned for a Q4 release, later than the consoles because they didn't want to just do a lazy console port. I understand that this will allow more online players than the 24 that the current version permits.

I was pleased to see that although there is no way to choose which server you join for online play, there is a menu option to allow you to join a game with your friends. The version I have played is on the PS3 so I cannot confirm whether this also applies to the 360, but I would be surprised if it didn't.

The nicest surprise for me was the price of the game. At only £9.99 on the Playstation Network and 1200 Microsoft points on the 360 this is astonishingly good value for money. For me this is a no brainer purchase and definitely one to add to your collection.