EA

EA had a big booth setup showing off lots of their properties, from the recently released Burnout: Paradise Ultimate Box to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and even the just announced Battlefield 1943. We took some time with the latest in the Battlefield series to see how it stands up to its much revered predecessors. From what EA has explained to us, BF1943 is going to be a downloadable-only game sold over Live, PSN, and over the EA downloader service.

EA did not have a pricing structure for us, but they did say it will most likely follow other high profile Live games, around the $15 price point or 1200 MS points.


EA had kiosks setup allowing gamers to play through the classic Wake Island map. If you’ve ever played a Battlefield game, with the exception of Bad Company, then you should pretty much have this map memorized by now as it has been included in every iteration since 1942. Since Microsoft limits Live Arcade games to 350MB, BF1943 is going to be somewhat limited in the graphical department and it does show as textures aren’t as sharp as previous games. Also, the game almost has a cartoony quality to it that doesn’t really fit in with previous franchise games. The game does seem to make use of the destructible environments featured in Bad Company, as we found out when a jeep driven by an enemy player plowed through a roadblock and pancaked us against a wall.




Our time with BF1943 was interesting, but we were a little underwhelmed as the game felt more like Battlefield light than a real progression for the series. This is no doubt due to the size limitations forced by MS, but we would still rather see a true sequel than an Arcade variant. Ultimately, we think 1943 is going to appeal more to the uninitiated Battlefield players than veterans, with its limited map variation and cartoony graphics. Battlefield 1943 is set for release later this summer.