I’m not a 360 shooter fan, so that’s why I didn’t buy 1943 for the 360. Instead, I was sneaky and played Graev’s copy to see whether or not I liked it. Quick history lesson: I played 1942 and its expansions. Loved it.
BF 1943 is a real deal for only $15.  It plays nearly identical to its predecessor because, duh, it’s the same maps. However, they’ve been updated with the Frostbite engine which makes the environment destructible. See a tank on a bridge? Shoot your bazooka at it and watch the bridge go BOOM! Want to airstrike a town full of people but afraid they’ll hide in buildings? Who cares?! Blow’em up! In 1942 I would often cry as my tank would get stuck on geometry (I’m a bad driver, okay?) but in 1943 my tank just bulldozes those trees and fences down as I pursue and run down the little screaming infantry. Needless to say the graphics get an ‘A’ even for a console game.
There are three kits: Rifleman, Infantry, and Scout. The Rifleman is the guy with the one shot rifle and yes it comes with one of those attachable grenade launchers (more BOOM!). The Infantry comes with a wrench to repair, bazooka to be anti tank, and sub machine gun to spray at people. Scout = Sniper… the Japanese one gets a Katana! All the kits are fun. I’m horrible with the machine gun on the Infantry so I just run around and blow stuff up with the zooka. The rifleman’s rifle is powerful and I tend to be a strafer (I’m trying to quit) so it’s fairly easy to line up one-shot kills. The Scout’ sniper rifle is pretty good as well, but it’s your run of the mill sniper.
Wake Island is, again, my favorite map but this time each team has a ship. I tried to figure out how to move the ships but I came to the conclusion that you can’t in ’43. Why? I don’t know. It used to crash the servers back in 2002 if you moved them too much, but that was then and this is Frostbite… but I digress. The maps are great, sounds are phenomenal, the vehicles are familiar… in fact it’s all familiar. It’s like eating your favorite food after going months without: In reality it tastes the same but it’s extra delicious this time.
There are some quirks, like the Squad system being “Meh” and the HUD giving away sniper locations, but I really enjoy the game.
I am, without a doubt, buying ’43 for the PC.
bf2 for pc is better, they stripped alot of the stuff for consoles, 24 players is nowhere near as epic as 50. and the destruction graphics arent that good and very scripted from what i could tell, check out the new red fraction if you want to blow stuff up.
It didn’t feel scripted at all watching parts of buildings get blown off by my bazooka.
BF2 and 1943 are entirely different beasts and you can’t even try to compare them on a feature level. One is a PC only game designed for modern warfare and the other is a re-release of an older game – the one that started it all for the BF franchise.
It’s 24 players only on console because it’s a console game. Perhaps the PC version will have no such limitations.
As for epic, if you want to compare BF2 to BF1943, having planes flying over wake island from aircraft carriers and troop transport boats landing on the beach … I’d award 1943 the more “epic” feeling.
COuple of questions Keen… I am considering it for the Ps3..
1. How are the controls with a console? Is it hard to fire accurately etc? Control everything feels awkward without a mouse?
2. Online finding games? how is the interface? lot of open games available?
3. Can you play 2 players in your house online at same time?
thanks
@Romble: 1) Controls are responsive on the 360. I’m not very good at console shooters these days, but I feel that I do okay. It’s still nowhere near the precision of a mouse though.
2) I’ve only done quick match which puts me into a game instantly with 23 other people for some great high action 12v12. I didn’t see a server list. I think it’s just quick match which pops you in a game, party with friends and join a game together, or create a private game for just you and your friends.
3) No split-screen coop.
1. I come from PC FPS gaming, consoles will never equal KB, but consoles feel way better than ever. PS3 has better fine adjustment over the Xbox 360, but the Xbox 360 controller layout feels better for FPS games.
2. Lots of games, as Keen said Quick Match places you in matches with a lot of people, I’m never on a server that isn’t full.
3. As Keen said, no.
I’m getting quite used to FPS games on consoles now. When I first tried Halo on the XBox I was aghast at the thought of playing one without a keyboard and mouse yet now I find the control pad second nature. I have a PS3 and I particularly enjoyed the Resistance games and Unreal Tournament. Kinda fancy playing a FPS now again 🙂
Wrong article to post this in (and I’m sorry for that) but you seen to stop checking comments on older articles so here it goes anyways:
Dunno if you are getting the Mortal Online newsletters, but I got one last week stating that they are opening the webshop for preorders (which gives beta access) TODAY (20:00 GMT+1).
Will you be checking it out Keen?
I know I will, it’s looking promising but I am approaching it very down to earth expecting bugs and missing content/features. I wanna get a feel for the type of game as I didn’t try Darkfall and UO and see if I can enjoy such a game, then judge the content and features once the game has matured somewhat.
Hope to see some more articles on MO from you in the future. 🙂
What happened to Graev? Usually this is the type of game you’d expect to hear from him about!
I HATE freaking shooters in consoles, but I am playing the HELL ata this game. once I got past cursing my thumbs for the first 10 hours I’m starting to get the hang of it.
Flying in this game is fantastic, and you just can’t beat sneaking up on the enemy in the woods and watching a plane come crashing down next to you knocking all the trees down.
Brings back a lot of good WWII online memories, except without all the crappy graphics and waiting 20 min to see an enemy. I just can’t get enough of fighting on the ground with real dogfights/mid air collisons happening overhead.
And as much as I do hate the FPS part with a controller, I do like the driving and flying with it. So its got some bitter sweet.
FAN-DAMN-TASIC game ….. for a console. If you see “Howdy Doody” skimming the tree tops I’d get out of the way! ahahhaha
@Proximo: I probably won’t be checking it out as an early adopter – in other words I won’t pay full price to pre-order the game just to get in beta/early. If it were like $5 down I might consider it. I’ll be waiting to hear what others think, then I’ll try it. If I do try it, you can expect me to write about it.
@Qpon: He’s around. He was actually playing 1943 as I wrote this. His schedule has been busier than mine lately, but I’ll continue to bug him to post about console games (his forte).
I also have been playing 1943 alot the past few days. The destructible environments are fantastic. It’s incredibly satisfying to blow up a sandbag wall with your tank turret and then MG down the infantry guy that was previously safe. Or do the same to the wall of a building. Also, Firing an MG nest at a guy in the woods and watching the foliage shatter all around your target is awesome too.
The carpet bombing air raid ability is alot of fun too!
Boo the 360 guys though. You already unlocked Coral Sea! PS3 still has aways to go to hit the 43 million kill mark 🙂
12 v 12 does seem somewhat small, but the way the game plays out on the maps, it actually is nice to not have stuff overly crowded and you have a chance to be a little sneaky, even with the red triangles revealing you to the other team if someone has crossed thier sights over you.
Note to Scouts: even if you don’t snipe the guy, just the act of zooming in your sight on him will paint him with a red triangle for your teammates.