Battlefield 1943 Comments by Dan Whitehead

Game is fucking awesome. It's just bloody hard to get a game!

@Gl3n - No one cares

Great review, I've had a blast with the game, when I get to play it... EA are doing some maintenance right now and no one can play, hopefully the get things running more smoothly soon!

I love the fact that instead of playing a multiplayer shooter in dark, grim environments, I get to shoot people in the head under lovely blue skies, on gorgeous pacific islands, with a big ass bright sun shining away - awesome stuff ;)

hmmmm ps3 or 360

i suppose 360 for the pad

It's a really, really fun game, and the planes are extremely well done! I can't wait for Coral Sea to be unlocked.

And whilst doing a bit of browsing I found out that EA has confirmed BF3 somewhat under the radar in a cryptic statement! Why did nobody tell me, because it's about time that BF2 got a proper sequel!

Great review, great game........... :P

The default controls aren't immediately intuitive for sure. Odd spread of weapon-swap controls on the infantry and confusing transitions between infantry and vehicles, with vehicles making next to no use of the left analogue stick. Why does nobody learn from Halo that third person vehicle control and consistent use of left stick movement and right stick aiming is the way to go? Bah!

Could do with another map I felt, though I'll get my wish in a few million kills time so now I just have to play the waiting (and killing) game...

Great game though, love the simplified classes.

"The land vehicles aren't quite as successful - with no reverse gear they're easy to jam into impossible spaces"

I'm 99% sure that there is a reverse gear, you just have to hold LB (on the 360), the same button used for braking.

"The land vehicles aren't quite as successful - with no reverse gear they're easy to jam into impossible spaces, and tanks are often more trouble than they're worth."

Err... All the land vehicles I've been bombing around in have had reverse gears! Good job too especially when I slide tanks down hills and through trees!

paulanator ..... left trigger forward...... left button is reverse :P

Hold L2 for reverse.

8 is a fair score, but when you consider it's only £10 for the amount of hours that will get spent playing this it's well worth it.

A few European City maps, such as Berlin and Operation Market Garden from BF1942 and a few more weapon classes would well be worth a few quid in DLC.

"The land vehicles aren't quite as successful - with no reverse gear they're easy to jam into impossible spaces,"

+1 to all the people who have played the game and noticed that there is a reverse gear!

I think it is great except for the uber deadly snipers :(

/tries to find reverse for plane

Good review based on the game, fair enough the controls are maybe slightly niggly, and the destruction may cause some issues, but I think it deserves an extra 1 point for the price! Definately the best XBLA game i've played.

-1 to whoever thought holding the LB Button to reverse was a satisfactory button allocation. :P

Played it last night, briefly, it does seem to favour super serious players (with the powerful planes and snipers). I thought a more forgiving and accessible appoach would be better suited to a cheaply available, and inevitably popular, console shooter.

Any BF42 veterans who have played the game? Wonder if it's worth it because it seems a lot of the depth, and sheer fun, has disappeared. Probably going to wait for BF3 instead of supporting this DLC fueled dumbing down of one of the most deep, engaging mp games ever.

I swapped the land vehicles onto stick drive, feels much more natural than splitting throttle control for forward / brake(and reverse, Dan) across two buttons.

I think the plane controls are daft though. To pull off a tight turn you should be able to roll it so the wings are vertical and pull back on the stick (like you would with a real plane or a scale model). Instead, nearly all the directional control comes via the rudder. That is, unless I'm missing something...

Great game for starters, but hopefully we'll see free DLC. A couple more classes and maps would be grand.

Er, left bumper button does reverse, left trigger accelerates.

"If anything dampens things on that front, it's the lag, which is most notable if you're trying to shoot down planes which teleport across the sky in distracting lurches. Hopefully the server fix will eradicate this problem."
That's all that has been said on the crippling problems that have beset the 360 launch, meaning many people can't play the game they've paid for?

You wonder with the preponderance of sniper wannabes in FPSers nowadays, that no developer ever came out with a successful sniper game...you'd think they'd be tripping over themselves to play such a game....the sneaky little runts.

How many MS points is it?

1200

Well worth it IMHO

Exactly how overpowered are the sniper rifles? We in AWP territory here?

To pull off a tight turn you should be able to roll it so the wings are vertical and pull back on the stick (like you would with a real plane or a scale model).

You can do this - although I find it's much easier if you flip the sticks over (southpaw) and invert the axis.

Edit, I still think they should have seperated the rotation and tail flaps to opposite sticks (like most arcade flights sims handle control) with the rudder assigned to the triggers - It feels wrong to rotate and pull back all on one single stick to me.....

I think the server problems have definitely got to be taken into consideration as a strike against the game. No matter how great the game is and it is tons of fun once you eventually get into a match, that matters little if you cannot even play the game.

Also, the sniper rifles really aren't overpowered. If anything, most people have been complaining about them being underpowered on forums I go on/Twitter. They're actually neither - they're really good and powerful if you master them, but incredibly difficult to use effectively if you don't know what you're doing. Certainly not AWP territory. I think Dan may have been sniped a few times by some experienced players, which made him think they were overpowered.

Any BF42 veterans who have played the game?

I'd like to know this too. How does it compare? BF1942 is still the best in the series.

I'd like to know this too. How does it compare? BF1942 is still the best in the series.

It's good! I'm enjoying it a lot. 8/10 is probably about spot on. If they bring some more maps out from the other campaigns, it'd be absolutely awesome. Obviously I'm missing the extra vehicles/classes, etc., but this works really well with a control pad and I'd recommend it.

Very good game for a tenner. Hugely entertaining.

I don't think 3 maps will be too much of an issue with this either, half the people who played BF2 were happy to only ever play Karkand, Sharqui Peninsula and Mashtuur City all day every day :P Twas even worse on BF2MC where you only ever had 2 maps come up :D

Snipers are spot on btw. Bodyshots won't kill, headshots do. Simple.

Here we go again with the "Snipers are too powerful and deadly" bullshit...the sniper in real life as ingame is designed to be a stealth killer so get over it...as for the rifles being overpowered hmm not come across that yet in my two solid days of playing(when i can get on) all body shots drop the targets health by about half and unless you follow up instantly with another hit the guy is gonna live...alas the chances of following up instantly are slim to say the least as it takes a second to reload and any player with an ounce of sense has realised he's been hit by a sniper and will scarper into cover sharpish...headshots will kill in one no surprises there as they will with all the other weapons...this game for a tenner is unfucking believable and should be a 10 yes a few teething problems at launch but its called patience people (come on EG you show me the equivalant in price and gameplay and community), sorry for the mini rant but i'm fed up with us poor sad grotesquely overpowered super snipers getting a bad rep...and yes you can drive the vehicles backwards i would have hated bieng your driving instructor :P

I enjoyed the 30 mins I was able to play in the demo, now I need to decide whether to buy it...

Been playing Battlefield from the start here... 1943 is obviously similar to 1942 but I prefered the aircraft in BF1942. I loved Bad Company though so overall I'm enjoying 1943 more. I just wish they would do a Battlefield Vietnam remake!

@j-bo
Have you been avoiding console FPS games or something? I got used to the stick controls years ago and I find it no harder than using a mouse and keyboard. It takes some getting used to just like anything and if you feel it doesn't work then that's just your inability, not the concept's fault. Millions of people are just fine with a controller in FPS games... your argument is old.

However, BF2 was brilliant. Not sure about BF2142.

As long as the planes aren't overpowered, that totally ruined BF2 most of the time.

Played this for hours last night on my PS3 and I love it. Surprisingly didn't have any lag issues whatsoever, and no trouble joining games. Got disconnected a couple of times, had some trouble with comms, and the "join match with friends" feature doesn't seem to work properly. Apart from that, very little bad to say about it.

Oh, and the vehicles do have a reverse gear.

Marvelous value for a tenner\twelve euros, balance perfect, weapons and vehicles spot on. Maps gorgeous. No complaints here...

I don't care whether they are overpowered or not, I merely stated that they are a very popular class in almost all FPSers nowadays. In the forces they are an elite...in games (yes, yes, I get that they arent real) you cant move for tripping over them. I just wondered how much fun they'd be if everyone decided to be a sniper.

>I just wondered how much fun they'd be if everyone decided to be a sniper.

This could easily be fixed by adding pop caps for certain classes and maybe a queue if you really want to be something specific.

"Guessing this doesn't stand up much to BF2 or BF2142 for any of us PC & Console gamers? "

BF2 and 2142 are getting a proper sequel anyway - BF3 - but even as someone who has well over 2000 hours combined between the two, 1943 is absolutely great!

@Fab4

Snipers < Tanks

If everyone was a sniper, wouldn't you simply jump in the nearest plane and drop bombs on their heads?:/

I think that's whats great about this game, you have lot's of different tactics at you disposal if one thing isn't working.......

Can't reverse with Land Vehicles? erm you can???

Makes me wonder how long EG played this for based on that no reverse gear statement, the most obvious thing in the game tbh lol.......obviously if they were on the same servers as us they would get about 1 game per hour, damn you EA! :(

I wonder if Dan's going to amend that line in that review...? :)

Mappman - Clearly they didn't anticipate such a large number of players