Game Review: Battlefield 1943
Mclatchy -Tribune News Service
Jul 17, 2009
"Battlefield 1943"
For: Xbox 360 Live Arcade and Playstation 3 via Playstation Network (coming September for PC)
From: DICE/EA
ESRB Rating: Teen (violence)
Price: $15
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Despite the lower price and budgetary disposition, "Battlefield 1943" is, in ways crummy and wonderful, a "Battlefield" game through and through. There are only three (eventually four, pending the release of free bonus content) maps, and they're essentially remakes of maps from 2002's "Battlefield 1942." There's also only one objective (territorial control) and three soldier classes (infantry, rifleman, scout) from which to choose. But the pared-down options palette merely pushes "1943" along as the get-in-play-around-and-get-out experience it purports to be, and at that, the game excels magnificently. "1943" allows friends to set up custom matches if they prefer, but for those who just want to play, a single button click is all that's needed to drop into battle. Once one 24-player fight ends, "1943" whisks you straight into another and continues doing so until you decide you've had enough. It might be a while: The classic maps from "1942" and the technology from last year's "Battlefield: Bad Company" are a fierce tandem, and everything that made past "Battlefield" games great - guns, tanks, planes, jeeps, boats, medals and ranks - is here. Like too many "Battlefield" titles before it, "1943" has suffered early from server overload and all the misery that entails. But those issues have grown scarcer by the day, and they'll likely be just a memory by week's end.
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Copyright 2009 by Mclatchy -Tribune News Service
