Battlefield 1943 Now on Xbox Live Arcade!

Raikus — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:32:27 GMT

A couple of years ago I was into competitive PC gaming. While that mostly means Counter-Strike, I played WW2 shooters for the most part. My favorite was the original Call of Duty, but I messed around with Battlefield 1943 and Vietnam as well. It may sound silly, but I still recall those times as some of the best gaming experiences I've had. And after playing Battlefield 1943 last night, some of those memories started flooding back.

Battlefield 1943 is a World War 2 FPS game that features the island hopping strategy of the Pacific campaign. Each map is one of the islands fought over by the Americans and Japanese such as Wake Island, Guadalcanal and, of course, Iwo Jima. The Xbox Live version features a 24 multiplayer cap and is for conquest mode only. Conquest is a capture the flag type game where capturing certain map points awards points and unlocks tanks, boats, jeeps and planes. The longer and more you hold, the faster your points accumulate. Eventually one team will win.

What separates Battlefield 1943 from most FPS is the ability to drive and fly vehicles and the element of teamwork throughout the game. If you don't have an overlying strategy when starting the map chances are you're not going to win the battle. Most strategies involve taking the key map point (usually the airfield) and holding an additional two pieces of real estate to accumulate the points. If you go for all five map points you could decimate the enemy in a quick game, but it leaves your forces spread thin and the possibility for your opponent to gain map points.

Even if you're an excellent console marksman, Battlefield gives you the added challenge of mastering flight and driving controls to really inflict damage via planes and tanks. Usually the most helpful player in the game is the one that controls the air. Of course, there's always those pesky flack guns spread about the map for that reason.

You can download Battlefield 1943 for 1200 Microsoft points ($15) and I consider it well worth the money if you're looking for a smarter FPS multiplayer experience.

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Battlefield 1943 Now on Xbox Live Arcade!