Baffled, or perhaps bemused would describe my reaction to reading the plethora or reviews for Battlefield 1943.
Here is a game that offers even less than its diminutive size would suggest averaging a rating of 8 out of 10. The reviewers seem to be admitting that the game offers nothing new, that the graphics are not that great, that the sounds are ok and that there is limited gameplay value, but wait, It’s download only content therefore the graphics are brilliant, the sounds are wonderful and the massive selection of 3 whole maps sets some kind of precedent for generosity. Being DLC, it seems that the bar against which this game is judged is set a lot, lot lower.
I supposed I may be spoilt coming from the PC gaming market where a full game costs in the region of £20-25, it feels to me like I’m getting less than a quarter of the content for half the price. I suppose it’s not such a bad proposition to the console gaming crowd, who get stung for twice the amount for new games than their PC gaming brethren.
The graphics are certainly nothing to write home about, certainly some improvement over Battlefield 2, but not much, and nothing to write home about in 2009. There is still a cartoonish element to the visuals, the tanks and planes look like caricatures of their real life counterparts.
Gameplay is of the genre run around like a headless chicken with the trigger held down like some sort of digital Rambo. Every level plays the same; there are no tactics and nothing to inspire teamwork. All the assets seem to respawn in femtoseconds, so it hardly seems worth destroying them. You take on a tank head on, tanks which incidentally can be destroyed by the use of harsh language or an offensively loud shirt, only to get shot then respawn and have to take on the same tank again and again and again.
In conclusion, if you are in the habit of spontaneously throwing ten pound notes down drains, at tramps or in rivers you may as well waste some more money on this game, play it for an hour, get bored and delete it from your hard drive forever. If you have the attention span of a knat, you may also enjoy this game. I would imagine EA/dice will bring several more instalments, ending up with something resembling a full game but at twice the price, but hey it’s only Microsoft Points right, it not like it’s real money. In terms of entertainment per £, I would have been better off with a couple of cinema tickets, or if you haven’t played it, Battlefield2 with all the add-ons is now available for much less than a tenner.
I’m now off to go sob in the corner for having spent £10 on what in times gone by may have been called a demo. Such is progress.
4 out of 10
Here is a game that offers even less than its diminutive size would suggest averaging a rating of 8 out of 10. The reviewers seem to be admitting that the game offers nothing new, that the graphics are not that great, that the sounds are ok and that there is limited gameplay value, but wait, It’s download only content therefore the graphics are brilliant, the sounds are wonderful and the massive selection of 3 whole maps sets some kind of precedent for generosity. Being DLC, it seems that the bar against which this game is judged is set a lot, lot lower.
I supposed I may be spoilt coming from the PC gaming market where a full game costs in the region of £20-25, it feels to me like I’m getting less than a quarter of the content for half the price. I suppose it’s not such a bad proposition to the console gaming crowd, who get stung for twice the amount for new games than their PC gaming brethren.
The graphics are certainly nothing to write home about, certainly some improvement over Battlefield 2, but not much, and nothing to write home about in 2009. There is still a cartoonish element to the visuals, the tanks and planes look like caricatures of their real life counterparts.
Gameplay is of the genre run around like a headless chicken with the trigger held down like some sort of digital Rambo. Every level plays the same; there are no tactics and nothing to inspire teamwork. All the assets seem to respawn in femtoseconds, so it hardly seems worth destroying them. You take on a tank head on, tanks which incidentally can be destroyed by the use of harsh language or an offensively loud shirt, only to get shot then respawn and have to take on the same tank again and again and again.
In conclusion, if you are in the habit of spontaneously throwing ten pound notes down drains, at tramps or in rivers you may as well waste some more money on this game, play it for an hour, get bored and delete it from your hard drive forever. If you have the attention span of a knat, you may also enjoy this game. I would imagine EA/dice will bring several more instalments, ending up with something resembling a full game but at twice the price, but hey it’s only Microsoft Points right, it not like it’s real money. In terms of entertainment per £, I would have been better off with a couple of cinema tickets, or if you haven’t played it, Battlefield2 with all the add-ons is now available for much less than a tenner.
I’m now off to go sob in the corner for having spent £10 on what in times gone by may have been called a demo. Such is progress.
4 out of 10
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