Battlefield: 1942
by Electronic Arts
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Video Game Reviews of Battlefield: 1942
Customer Review: Fun at times, maddening other times.
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a solid ww2 pc game, no doubt about it. You have reasonably good control of your sides' bots, and you can generally tell them to hold a position or attack. There are some drawbacks though. First off, the men you commmand frequently do not follow instructions, sometimes even doing the total opposite. The german side in market garden scenario is a great example. No matter how much you shout, your guys will hit that god forsaken bridge no matter what, resulting in slaughter most of the time. Extreeeeeemely frustrating, when you know that there is a perfectly good field to attack the town from, where your forces won't be served up on a silver platter for the priest guns, or the bazooka boys. Another frustrating splinter to deal with, are the so called "count down battles", where you literally watch your numbers fall by the second, while the other side stays at a solid number. The bizarre thing is, you can never actually pin point where all this supposed carnage is taking place. It's as if the game has some sort of bug that randomly picks a side to be inexplicably decmimated.
good game though, i hope future EA ww2 games have a special court marshalling option to deal with insubordinate a.i. bots.
peace.
Customer Review: Battlefield 1942: Makes you say, "Quake what?"
Summary: 4 Stars
When rating this game, I didn't want to give it a Perfect 5, but then it is better than a mere 4, so I would like to customize the rating process and give it a solid 4.5. Here is my justification of such a complimentary score:I have played this game on a somewhat limited basis and all I can say is that I have been highly impressed!
I "grew up" playing games like Doom, Quake, and most recently, Unreal. These are very entertaining games; however, they lack one very important trait: realism. Though it is entertaining to force-feed your enemy a healthy serving of shrapnel from a flak cannon on some alien world with orange skies, it isn't realistic.
This is where BF 1942 distinguishes itself from every other FPS I've ever played: realism. From dying after being hit by one bullet (or two max), to being able to carry only a handful of equipment, the realism of this game stands out. I believe the realism adds to, rather than detracts from, this game.
Another distinguishing characteristic of BF 1942 is the goal of conquering territory (similar to the "Axis and Allies" board game). I like the idea of having to do more than kill the most people in a given time period (a la "Quake").
The third impressive thing, which most everyone alludes to when writing a review of BF 1942, is the use of vehicles. This is something that Quake (et al) can't even touch. The fact that you can jump in a tank, plane, gun turret and blast away adds an extra degree of entertainment. The game's realism also plays into this: you can roll/damage your vehicle (invulnerability gets old after a few minutes). I also like the fact that you can have multiple players in the same vehicle (i.e. a driver and a gunner).
And finally, for those multiplayer fans, the online version is rather challenging and impressive.
So, in closing I would encourage any FPS enthusiasts to go out and get this game right away! If it made me go out and get a faster computer, it's gotta be good!
Cheers.
Customer Review: Great Game
Summary: 3 Stars
Battlefield 1842 is a WW2 Arcade game in which players can battle in a very basic singleplayer campain or players can battle on the net in various game types such as Capture The Flag, Coop, Conquest, and Team Deathmatch with upto 64 players.general: The graphics are pretty nice but the ground is lacking. no tall grass famr fields or anything like that...its simply just green or borwn ground with a few bushes and trees. the sound isnt outstanding but it gets the job done. The game is not historically correct for instance the americans use a bolt action rifle instead of the garand.. theres no m1 carbine, etc.
If you are looking for a single player expierence turn away now. Battlefield 1942's single player is not the games strong point at all - No story/plot line, no characters, no cut scenes, no scripted events, etc. The AI in singleplayer are simply bots - even though you have this nice command list in singleplayer where you shout out commands and such, the AI do not listen or even react(the command list is ment for multiplayer). The AI simply runs to a destination - they dont talk, do cool moves, etc... they dont even throw hand grenades even though they have them. The AI do enter vehicle though..wow. i know.
Lets talk multiplayer. Ive heard its the games strongpoint.. but.. to tell you the truth... ive played it once for the 5 or 6 months ive had the game.. why? ive been playing modifications for the game (modifications are a conversion of the original game which can totaly change it - new vehicles, guns, or new setting and time) such as Desert Combat(http://www.desertcombat.com/) and Forghotten Hope(sitedown).
Modifications are defently a plus though for this game since they are pretty much free new games.
Pros:
-upto 64 players multiplayer in fast qqb ww2 action
-Lots of vehicles to choose from
-Nice looking graphics
-Well designed maps
Cons:
-MOST Server technology cant quite yet support a full 64 player server without lag
-Singleplayer is horrible and boring - no plot-bot ai - etc
-Not historically correct
-WWII first person shooter and Arcade do not go together to well
Features:
-Play multiplayer with upto 64 players
-Play as America, Germany, Russia, Britain, Japan.
-Choose between Scout, assualt, medic, anti-tank, or engineer.
-Choose from 19 authentic WWII handheld weapons, including two stationary machine guns, to take into battle.
-16 maps to play on -
-WWII theaters of war: North Africa, South Asia Pacific, Western Europe and Eastern Europe.
-Community made moddifications supported
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Ea has released Numerous patches and maps for this game adding more features!
New downloadable maps:
-Battle of Britain
-Operation Aberdeen
-Coral Sea Map
-Invasion of the philippines(adds m1 garand..only for that map though)
Patches:
1.6:
-Liberation of Caen - ADDS THE CANADIAN ARMY!! which adds new guns, vehicles, voice overs, etc!,
-Invasion of the philippines gameplay revised
-The famous Russian dive bomber Ilyushin IL-2 has replaced one of the Yak 9
fighters in Kursk and Kharkov.
-Added punk buster(anti multiplayer cheater sofware)
-added voting interface to kickplayers/votemaps
-Added buddies system
- All players can be seen through scrolling the score list.
-More server filter options.
-and much more!
Customer Review: I'd like to give it a little more, 3.5 stars
Summary: 3 Stars
Ok, I got this game for christmas, and i am not a big fan of FPS games, but i am very happy and impressed with the game and its play. I'll list the good points first:1: Lots of different ways of playing. I.e. Tanks, PLanes, Artillery, battleship, infantry, etc.
2: Lots of different ways to change the difficulty level, tailoring it to your strengths and weaknesses to change how challanging it is.
3: Fun to play and just enjoy the simplicity of it.
4: multiplayer capabilities allow for lots of fun and enjoyment for neverending scenarios.
5: not bad for the money.
Ok, now for the cons:
1: a massive slothful, gargantuan program that has, i am sure, shortened the life of my poor hard drive considerably. The reason being, the program sucks up memory like crazy, and causes real problems with the amount of information the poor computer has to process. Many users have complained about it in gross detail about how slow it makes their computer, and i cant help but think that they probably could have made it a more efficient program, however, one does have to consider the tasks that the program has to perform, namely: the physics for a flight simulator for a myriad of different planes, each with their own unique trim, attitude, and speed characteristics, tanks and artillery all with their own physics laws, eveyr weapon has a different sound, zoom range, reload method, etc, also various ships, including carriers, battleships, and more, and each one fo these has certain physics attatched and i gotta admit, they did a very good jopb with all of thiks in terms of getting it as realistic as possible. But, that does suck up a lot of memory and processor. also, the computer has to deal with the AI for up to 60 odd some characters all at the same time, and some of them are also flying, driving, shooting, etc.
2: I cant help but think that EA wanted to get this out at a certain time, as it is quite a buggy program. I didnt have very many major issues myself, but i do know that i am well above the minimum system and recommended requirements and yet, it still runs slow and choppy, and i had a very difficult time with some maps keeping the framerate smooth. I have heard of problems with a manually set refresh rate on monitors, but mine has been manually reset and i have had no issues. i had to download a ptach that was 143 MB, and i see on EA's site that the next one is much bigger (above 200 MB if i'm not mistaken), not too bad for me, i have a cable line and it only took me about 20 mins to download, but if you have a slower connection you're gonna be a while, pack a lunch. also, i had to scale down some video and sound settings to get it to run smooth.
3: In continuing my theme of a fast production date, the manual just downright sux. it has no help whatsoever for technical issues, and gives you no information than basically what button does what and what some features of the game are. There is NOTHING telling you about basic gameplay, or how the spawning delay works, or even why its there(i still dont know)and nothing that explains how to perform certain tasks. Also, they would have done well to have had tutorials to allow you to get used to the basic operation of many of the vehicles. there is nothing that tells you how to control a ship, or what to do to get your team to help you. nothing explains really how the radio controls work, and no legend of what button is what.
4: Multiplayer can be summed uop in one word. horrific. This could have been designd and executed a lot better. my brother and i spent hours trying to create our own game, to no avail, and the manual is useless in telling you anything otehr than "click here, there, put in a name, and you're done". No support on the website either, telling you what to do. or if there is, neither my brother or myself could find it. it's diffivult to co-ordinate efforts team wise, and to push forward sometimes becasue it's hard and time consuming in a fast paced arena like this to type and not get killed.
5: infantry play is quite simplistic. I can understand somewhat, it' a very complex game, and maybe sacrifices had to be made somewhere, but you should at least be able to control how far you throw a grenade, but nope, it's point, shoot, let go. and hope it lands where you want it to. Though i am told jumping at the point of release helps go further. also, there's no running at all. Your guy walks semi fast, but there's no button to hit to get hime to make a dash for it if you need him to, making him a great target for snipers and guys who are good enough to shoot ahead of the point to nail you with bazookas. There are some cplaints of having to lead your target in distances, but i believe that was buil;t into the game as iun real life to shoot a moving target, especially a fast one, you do have to lead it. I have heard of audio complaints, but i have none, when it is at 44 Hz quality level, and the sounds is very realistic and very authentic if you were actually there, i doubt there's be much difference.
i could go into farther detail, but suffice it to say, i like the game, it's fun to play, but difficult due to its size, and it's inability to use system resources wisely. i pity anyone that tries to play the game with less than 1.5 Ghz, 512 MB RAM, a 32 MB video card, and one amazing sound card. also, if you have less than DSL, forget multiplayer, there's just too much information to be transferred to really play it well. thats my 2 cents worth, if you buy it, enjoy it, but dont expect eveything to operate smoothly, but it is a very realistic, authentic, and reality based combat game, that really was well thought out, and many parts evry well executed, but also very unfinished and untested.
Customer Review: good game, but laggy
Summary: 4 Stars
My computer meets AND exceeds the system requirements for the game, yet, it is laggy. I play on fast servers (GameSpy Arena) and yet, it's slow. I exit almost every other application running before I run the game, and it lags.