Battlefield 1942

Battlefield 19422 (BF1942) was released in September 2002, and is an FPS, a First Person Shooter game, developed by a Swedish developer Digital Illusions CE (DICE) and published by Electronics Arts for Microsoft Windows only. The Mac OS version came out only in 2004.BF1942 has been popularly labelled “a comic book version of World War 2”. Set in the 1940’s, the maps include famous WW2 battle fields which are realistically depicted. It can be played in single player mode with computer bots or with other players via, LAN or the Internet.

Minimum system requirements:

500 MHz CPU, 128 MB RAM, 3D accelerated 32 MB video card(Nvidia Recommended) or equivalent with HTL and a 24-bit z-buffer, 1.6 GB free hard disk space plus space for saved games, 8X Speed CD-ROM/DVD-ROM, DirectX 9 Compatible Sound Card and for Mac: Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later, PowerPC G3/G4/G5 700 MHz or faster, 256MB of RAM, 1.6 GB free disk space, 3D Graphics Acceleration (ATI Radeon 7500/Nvidia GeForce 2 or better, 32MB of VRAM), CD drive required to install and play.

The ESRB rating is T (Teen - Violence).The MSRP is $19.95. What is it that makes this game click, is it the graphics, the gameplay or conquest mode with multiple players? Let us find out with some hands-on experience.

The game involves players across teams fighting to across expansive and realistic battlefields, using various vehicles from a selection of more than 35 choices, with varied weaponary.BF1942 is WW2 mayhem amplified and simplified. You get to choose from one of 5 classes, Scout, Assault, Anti-Tank, Medic, and Engineer. Players also have the ability to fly various World War II fighter aircraft and bombers, navigate capital ships, submarines and aircraft carriers, man coastal artillery defenses, drive tanks, APCs and jeeps, and take control of anti-aircraft guns and mounted machine guns.

The gameplay of BF1942 represents a shift in focus from other existing FPS games as it is not only important to kill the opposition but to also hold certain "control points" around the map. Capturing control points allow the team to reinforce themselves by enabling players and vehicles to spawn in the certain area. Subsequently, capturing and controlling control points also would reduce enemy reinforcements. This sort of game tactics encourages both individualistic as well as collective gameplay, which is a dramatic achievement to say the least.

This game had some problems while playing over LAN, such as time lag and garbled audio video in the initial stages that does ruin the overall game play experience at times. The main appeal of the game lies in the range of vehicle from different countries, which really buoys the gamers’ mood. Another plus point of the game are the universal controls, meaning the set of shooting controls for a soldier on foot and for driving a vehicle are the same.So are the visual themes and maps which are a real pleasure to play on. The sound quality doesn’t match up to the visuals though.

Overall, apart from the issues of huge lag times, and finding skillful team mates, playing BF2 is a real blast, and it is truly the game which has changed the mindset of all the upcoming FPS games.