BATTLEFIELD 1942
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| Posted:2002-07-03 By Master Chief Number of View:6291 |
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BATTLEFIELD 1942
By :Master Chief Posted:2002-07-03
Battlefield 1942 Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: Digital Illusions CE Genre: Action ESRB: Teen System Requirements Minimum: PIII 500, 128MB RAM, Win98/2K/ME/XP, 32MB 3D graphics accel. Recommended: PIII 800, 256MB RAM, 64MB 3D graphics accel. World War II games have traditionally come in two distinct flavors: strict simulations and titles merely possessing a W.W.II theme. The latter group has always been a diverse crowd, with some even adapting science fiction conventions, such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Most themed offerings, however, have been reluctant to recreate actual engagements of the War. Battlefield 1942, developed by Digital Illusions, is the first great exception to that rule. It seeks to bridge the gap between the two flavors in a way that\'s sure to generate popular appeal - appeal not particularly concerned with the moral ambiguities of combining horrific events with online deathmatch.
Battlefield 1942 seeks to deliver nothing less than everything. Featuring over 35 vehicles for players to command over land, sea and air, the sheer number of options that it brings to the table makes comparisons to more authentic simulations such as World War II Online and Operation Flashpoint inevitable, even if it has both feet planted in the realm of the first-person shooter, and is more comparable to games like Tribes 2. While a pair of single-player modes are offered, both the campaign and the instant action modules consist of the same 16 maps that make up the multiplayer component, with the addition of computer-controlled players, or "bots", filling the ranks of each side. Between the online focus on team play and the attention paid to authenticity, at least on the material level, Battlefield 1942 is a true genre bender. On a critical level, it might be easy to classify it as a first-person shooter, though its historical setting and diverse gameplay dynamics often make it feel like a true military simulation. Though many of the maps can be played as pure deathmatch or a more traditional contest of capture the flag, the more popular and compelling mode is that of Conquest, where teams vie for command of various control points, which serve double duty as spawn locations for both players and vehicles. The Conquest mode is further divided into two subcategories: Assault and Head-on. In Assault matches, one faction begins the round with control of every point on the map, while the other is required to strip it from them, such as when the Allies land on To make things even more interesting, the concept of "tickets" has been added to the mix. Each side begins with a certain number of tickets that\'s reduced whenever a player is killed in action and subsequently re-spawns. When the number is reduced to zero, the game is over. However, fulfilling certain victory conditions will cause the opposing team\'s tickets to slowly deplete every second until they manage to reverse the situation by reclaiming a required control point. This gives teams a chance to come back from the brink of disaster, or at least give players the resolve to stay in a losing game and manage a minor, rather than a total, defeat based on the percentage of tickets by which they lost.
The battle for World War II games have traditionally come in two distinct flavors: strict simulations and titles merely possessing a W.W.II theme. The latter group has always been a diverse crowd, with some even adapting science fiction conventions, such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Most themed offerings, however, have been reluctant to recreate actual engagements of the War. Battlefield 1942, developed by Digital Illusions, is the first great exception to that rule. It seeks to bridge the gap between the two flavors in a way that\'s sure to generate popular appeal - appeal not particularly concerned with the moral ambiguities of combining horrific events with online deathmatch.
Battlefield 1942 seeks to deliver nothing less than everything. Featuring over 35 vehicles for players to command over land, sea and air, the sheer number of options that it brings to the table makes comparisons to more authentic simulations such as World War II Online and Operation Flashpoint inevitable, even if it has both feet planted in the realm of the first-person shooter, and is more comparable to games like Tribes 2. While a pair of single-player modes are offered, both the campaign and the instant action modules consist of the same 16 maps that make up the multiplayer component, with the addition of computer-controlled players, or "bots", filling the ranks of each side. Between the online focus on team play and the attention paid to authenticity, at least on the material level, Battlefield 1942 is a true genre bender. On a critical level, it might be easy to classify it as a first-person shooter, though its historical setting and diverse gameplay dynamics often make it feel like a true military simulation. Though many of the maps can be played as pure deathmatch or a more traditional contest of capture the flag, the more popular and compelling mode is that of Conquest, where teams vie for command of various control points, which serve double duty as spawn locations for both players and vehicles. The Conquest mode is further divided into two subcategories: Assault and Head-on. In Assault matches, one faction begins the round with control of every point on the map, while the other is required to strip it from them, such as when the Allies land on
To make things even more interesting, the concept of "tickets" has been added to the mix. Each side begins with a certain number of tickets that\'s reduced whenever a player is killed in action and subsequently re-spawns. When the number is reduced to zero, the game is over. However, fulfilling certain victory conditions will cause the opposing team\'s tickets to slowly deplete every second until they manage to reverse the situation by reclaiming a required control point. This gives teams a chance to come back from the brink of disaster, or at least give players the resolve to stay in a losing game and manage a minor, rather than a total, defeat based on the percentage of tickets by which they lost. The battle for Before players are allowed to spawn into a match, they must first choose a combat role from the five available kits. Despite every soldier being able to man any vehicle or mounted weapon he comes across, class has a profound impact on the way players must approach the game. Though it\'s possible to change to another kit by "using" the corpse of a dead soldier from another class, few players use the feature or seem to know that it even exists. Most choose to stick with their current kit until their death and subsequent re-spawn. The assault trooper is the predominant choice amongst most teams, as he has impressive firepower in the form of an automatic rifle (which differs slightly in capability according to the nationality of the player) and enough ammo to remain in the field significantly longer than other classes. The anti-tank kit is chosen the least of all, due to his low survivability when confronted with enemy infantry, as the bazooka he carries is a tremendously ineffective anti-personnel weapon. While naturally an ace at disabling armored vehicles, his weaknesses are made all the more glaring, causing him to be passed over unless there\'s a dire emergency necessitating his immediate use.
Engineers are not only able to drop and disable mines, which play an important role in engagements like the Battle of the Bulge, where bridges and narrow roads serve as choke points, but also are able to repair vehicles in the field. The medic class supposedly serves the role of keeping the rest of the team on its feet, but as players rarely stick to one spot for very long, and death often comes instantly with the number of heavy weapons on the field, the medic often only gets the chance to heal himself. Because of his rapid-fire machine gun and remarkable constitution, many choose this class on the smaller city-bound maps. The scout class is not only the sniper of the bunch - though he lacks enough ammunition to fully take on that role for extended periods of time - he can also use his binoculars to create a camera for indirect-fire support, allowing others to use artillery more effectively. The largest draw of Battlefield 1942 is certainly its many varieties of vehicles. Jeeps are typically the fastest mode of transportation across the combat zone, though they\'re more often used in a far different capacity. As vehicles tend to retain some of their momentum after a player exits them, jeeps make effective battering rams against even armored tanks as soldiers leap from the careening vehicles a split second before impact. Players of Battlefield 1942\'s popular beta test speculated that this was a bug, but a diagram on the game\'s box actually indicates that this is the designer\'s preferred use of the jeep. Armored personnel carriers (APCs) are capable of transporting even more soldiers, with one driving, another manning a mounted machine gun, while the rest are seated in the back, where they\'re able to recuperate health. Being that few players are content to be driven along with no view whatsoever, and as it\'s dangerous to have so many eggs in one basket when planes are dropping bombs from the sky, APCs tend to be used more often as mobile anti-aircraft support. Tanks are the pick of the litter, and players tend to covet their use and availability. Many models have an additional seat for a top machine gunner, though it\'s not always an enviable position. Not only is it extremely vulnerable to enemy weapon fire, it can be difficult to aim, as the driver typically pans the turret in random directions to scan the battlefield, forcing the gunner to constantly reorient his view.
Many players devote themselves to using the game\'s aircraft, acting as dedicated pilots. Planes come in three varieties: fighters, bombers and torpedo craft. Many aircraft also have one or more extra seats available for other soldiers to act as gunners. Though fragile against anti-aircraft cannons and flak guns, a single plane can wreak havoc upon the battlefield with its bombs, and pilots routinely top the scoreboards with their impressive numbers. As each soldier is equipped with a parachute, planes can also be used to launch sneak attacks against enemy bases or control points, where players fly deep into enemy territory and then parachute into the middle of an enemy stronghold, most often in an attempt to steal a tank and turn it against the defenders. The naval aspect of Battlefield 1942 is certainly the most innovative. Carriers spawn planes, while one or more players can guide it across the sea and man its many anti-aircraft cannons. Although the primary role of the battleships and destroyers is to duel enemy fleets, they are just as often used to bombard an enemy ground position before an assault is to take place. Soldiers who spawn on these ships must use the dedicated landing crafts to get to shore, with each one making an impressive splash as it drops off the side of the vessel. Conversely, defending players have access to shore batteries for striking back at opposing ships, although it\'s often futile without the support of aircraft. Players desiring a more relaxed game can take to the submarines and quietly stalk the enemy\'s navy with little resistance, as most ships are typically ill equipped to deal with these predators. While submarines are extremely deadly, sunken vessels typically re-spawn after a short period of time, often making it of little consequence. Graphics: Great graphics come in two varieties: those which imitate art and those which imitate life. While Battlefield 1942 might not have the sharpest textures or the most advanced pixel-shading effects on the block (even though a video card with Hardware Transform and Lighting is required), its ability to completely bowl the player over with its vast expanses is nearly unparalleled. Whether bathed in the warm light of the Pacific or the dust of western Russia, Battlefield 1942 remains convincing, if a bit Spartan in appearance. Screenshots fail to capture the vitality of the game in motion: Watching a battleship and a shore battery exchange fire from the position of a gunner on an APC that\'s speeding along a narrow road on Wake Island is unforgettable, even if a few of the polygons are on the chunky side. The accumulation of these details results in graphical excellence; from tanks belching smoke as they fire to the wakes left by landing craft as they speed to shore, Battlefield 1942\'s visual presentation is breathtaking and clearly more than the sum of its parts. Many players, especially pilots, take issue with the fact that, even with maximum draw distance in effect, the fog seems to limit visibility on the larger maps. All things considered, the draw distance does appear to be set at an adequate level, balancing the game for both performance and playability without giving too much of an advantage online to those with superior hardware. Unlike most titles that possess a scripted sequence of events, where developers are able to control what occurs at any time in order to scale the gameplay to run well on a given hardware platform, anything and everything can, and often does, happen in Battlefield 1942. This causes a wide discrepancy between sustained average frame rates and minimum frame rates, meaning that most players should err on the side of using the minimum graphic settings if they wish to remain competitive, and not have their computers grind to a halt when crunch time arrives. Those primarily interested in the single-player campaign should also be aware of this, as the AI bots that populate the mode require an unchangeable 20 percent of the computer\'s processing power, making Battlefield 1942 rather unique in that it typically runs much faster in multiplayer. Gamers who prefer to play offline should add at least 20 percent to the system requirements listed on the box, because in many respects, the recommended 800 MHz machine is barely acceptable as a minimum for multiplayer, let alone single-player. That said, even with all graphical options set to low and at a resolution of 640x480, the same sense of immersion is maintained.
Interface: Battlefield 1942 follows most of the conventions of the FPS genre, using both mouse and keyboard to control infantry and vehicle movements. Those wishing to spend a good amount of time in the cockpit will certainly want to enable joystick support. This can be frustrating, as the game will only recognize the first (or “default” joystick installed on the system, so those with additional controllers such as gamepads will have to adjust their computers accordingly. Unfortunately, neither force feedback nor special vibration effects are implemented, so those with bulky flight sticks might want to trade theirs in for something more manageable, considering they\'ll sometimes be without a plane and must return to the normal controls. Even though hat switches are not supported, both throttle and rudder functions are. The throttle acts unrealistically in that it must remain in its center position to stay parked, and taking it to zero can launch a plane backward at takeoff. The rudder controls are also more powerful than they need to be, allowing the plane to turn in a rather tight circle without banking. Though Battlefield 1942 was never marketed as a serious flight simulation, it\'s regrettable that the developers didn\'t put more effort into that portion of the interface since so many gamers are devoting their entire playtime to providing air support. Equally unfortunate is a player communication system that\'s geared toward the lowest common denominator, making it frustrating for newcomers and experts alike. Various types of messages are tied to the function keys and are represented visually at the top of the screen. Not only are these icons unsightly, but they\'re often a shade redundant in meaning (e.g. "alarms" vs. "spotted") and lead to additional menus of various function keys for specific messages. While it\'s indeed possible to memorize the key strokes for an intended message, that\'s still far more cumbersome than the approach taken by games such as Counter-Strike, which have set the standards for the genre. Despite the unsightly communication icons, the interface is otherwise attractive and functional, facilitating switching gunnery positions and displaying all the pertinent information a player could desire, from the number of a team\'s control points on the scalable mini-map to the locations of multiple players within a single vehicle. Swapping between teams and spawn points is done with the graphical user interface as well, rather than with keystrokes. This makes it especially easy for newcomers to get into the game, although it sometimes results in players missing their spawn wave and having to wait 20 seconds for another one, as they don\'t have enough time to select a spawn point in some cases, such as if their previous one was taken by the enemy.
One final issue is that targets falling even remotely near a player\'s crosshair are identified by both name and the color representing their faction. While this should theoretically cut down on friendly fire, it often gives away otherwise well hidden soldiers, even if they\'re lying prone behind debris or on the other side of a rather prominent hill. This detracts from the competitive quality of the game by making classes such as the scout somewhat ineffective. On the other hand, it also keeps sneaky players from being able to create too much chaos after stealing an enemy vehicle (players would otherwise not know the difference between them and team killers), so this interface decision does have merit. Gameplay: Those in search of a single-player game should look elsewhere. While two solo modes are available, they\'re largely a way for new players to orient themselves without the embarrassment that might result online. The included campaign roughly orders the 16 multiplayer maps by their relative complexity and fills them with a pre-assigned number of bots, letting the player loose with nothing more than a canned historical essay and a list of objectives. The instant action mode offers an identical experience sans essay, but with the benefit of being able to tweak the number of bots and the percentage of CPU time dedicated to their intelligence, a godsend for those with less than cutting edge gaming rigs. Though the AI is competent, as it should be, given the number of megahertz it siphons off, single-player Battlefield 1942 is still less than enjoyable. While an individual might want to take to the sky or command a destroyer, battles are still won and lost on the ground by virtue of the control point system, leaving the player with few tactical options other than that of infantryman or tank driver if they want to progress through the campaign. Although titles such as Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament have similarly perfunctory offline modes, their emphasis on deathmatch rather than team play are more exciting, as players succeed or fail on their own merits, not the random result of their artificial team\'s luck in a given round. In order to capture a control point in Battlefield 1942, all enemies must be expunged from its command radius for a period of 10 seconds - a feat that\'s often impossible unless the human participant is actively involved in the ground war. Thus, the existence of planes and naval vessels, rather than an asset, only serves to mock those unable to participate in a multiplayer session.
The real tragedy, however, is that neither single-player mode adequately trains the player in the mechanics of the game. The number of different vehicles is staggering, and learning to use some of the more exotic ones can be a chore without the help of other players. Things such as using landing craft, indirect artillery fire, anti-submarine maneuvers and deflection shooting all require tutorials, as users are often too vulnerable to learn or practice these abilities during gameplay. It\'s also necessary to note that this is an extremely buggy product when it comes to installing and running it successfully. While the exact issues that players are experiencing are too numerous to go into at length, it can be concluded that Battlefield 1942 is generating substantially more problems than average, even for users with fairly standard hardware. After playing for nearly a week without incident, I began experiencing a game-stopping bug myself - likely the result of copy-protection mechanisms - so there\'s no guarantee that Battlefield 1942 will remain incident free for even those who get it working out of the box. Multiplayer: The multiplayer portion of Battlefield 1942 is as good as the single-player is bad. While a solid team working together can demolish a bunch of rag-tag irregulars, as they should, the mechanics of the game make it so all players can feel useful and succeed at something. Despite making it possible for up to 64 players to compete at once, because of the specific roles players take on, Battlefield 1942 still provides a good measure of intimacy as they meet the same few opponents time after time. The diversity of the map design is also unparalleled, whether one prefers close infantry action, naval maneuvers or a solid airfield - or any combination of the above - there\'s a map tailor made for that kind of gameplay. While other titles have featured a variety of vehicles and team dynamics, none have done it in a way that\'s as approachable or uniquely gratifying as Battlefield 1942. Players can browse different servers before connecting and conveniently sort them with the integrated GameSpy client. Because neither DICE nor EA Games has direct control over the servers listed, they\'re certainly plentiful in number - though seeing servers named "Cracked 1.1 NO-CD Rip" alongside the official EA ones can be disconcerting when one purchased the title at retail. Despite 64-player capability being advertised, few servers as of yet support it, including EA\'s own. Nearly all are limited to 32 players, which, while more practical for today\'s hardware, is often still not enough participants to ideally populate a given map and cover all the necessary combat roles (such as providing anti-air support, giving pilots more freedom than they should have). Modem owners are typically limited to joining 16 player sessions, certainly too few for most maps; however, there are not very many servers dedicated to providing support to these users. In fact, as matches with the maximum number of participants are ideal, most servers are either completely full or empty, staying that way indefinitely. No one is about to jump onto a server with zero participants in the hopes that someone else will sign on for some one-on-one action and get the ball rolling. Because of this, the number of truly available servers - those that are nearly full with merely one or two slots open - tends to be rather small. This is exacerbated by the amount of time it takes to load and unload maps. While a player entering into a session from the GameSpy portal can be in the action in about a minute, when the map changes for those already playing, the level must first be unloaded before the next can be loaded, a nearly a three minute process in some cases. This means that the available spots on a server are unwittingly poached by newcomers and the incumbents are sometimes left with a "server full" message. Even with a broadband Internet connection, lag and packet loss still tend to be issues. While those in vehicles are somewhat buffered from the effects of this, it\'s very disruptive to the infantry game, as soldiers tend to be transparent to weapons fire when moving. Most players manage to adapt to this, often never bothering to shoot unless they\'re prone and firing at a motionless target - a nod to realism in the face of lag - but there are still too many examples of clip emptying exchanges at point blank range without any discernable result. Team killers, people who enjoy disrupting games by using friendly fire to disable their own team and leave them at the mercy of a more powerful enemy, are extremely common among public Battlefield 1942 servers, even more so than in other offerings among the genre. The introduction of vehicles is largely responsible for this. As only so many planes and tanks can spawn and be in play at any one time, many participants who are not team killers in the traditional sense are willing to slaughter their own mates for a chance to control one of them for the greater good. While there is a backfire option that wounds players for their own friendly fire at an accelerated rate compared to their targets, team killers have found a way to exploit this feature as well. By intentionally positioning themselves to allow a player with a vehicle to run them over or bump into them, whatever damage they receive is amplified for the driver or pilot in question, often killing them out-right, allowing the reverse team killer to enter the vehicle. Sound FX: Battlefield 1942\'s audio effects certainly get the job done. Although weapon fire tends to sound a bit hollow, this is more than made up for by soldiers of all five nationalities conversing in their native tongues. Unfortunately, the game\'s many other bugs are dwarfed by the long list of known incompatibilities with popular soundcards, many of which render speech unintelligibly, if at all. Hardware 3D acceleration is supported; however, many users with identical sound cards have reported the feature either slowing down or speeding up the action considerably, proving that gaming is more akin to religion than a science. That said, the implementation of 3D is oddly disconcerting in its realism; because of the distances involved, players will rarely hear the shot that kills them. Musical Score: There is not enough music in Battlefield 1942 to merit scoring this category.
Intelligence & Difficulty: Although playing a team-based game populated with bots is consistently less than entertaining, the AI bots of Battlefield 1942 behave admirably. While they might sometimes get stuck in a loop, hopping in and out of a vehicle as if unable to make up their mind, they\'re still largely able to pilot the numerous vehicles and use them realistically. Bots spawning at sea on battleships and destroyers are able to board landing craft, guide them to shore, exit them and go about their objectives. The ability to change the amount of CPU time allocated to the AI is also a great feature, enabling those with middling systems to maintain a better frame rate by dropping the AI a few percentage points while allowing those running dedicated servers to ratchet theirs up accordingly. Players are also able to interact with bots, forcing them out of specific seats aboard vehicles, though many of these commands are not listed in the manual. Overall: Despite the laundry list of bugs and the steep hardware requirements, Battlefield 1942 remains as engrossing an online experience as they come, with great graphics and explosive gameplay - providing one has a solid Internet connection. While there are currently numerous other opportunities for multiplayer action with a W.W.II theme, from Medal of Honor: Allied Assault to Return to Castle Wolfenstein, none do it quite so well or purposefully, as they all remain committed to the single-player experience. What Battlefield 1942 does, however, is expand upon the niche genre of team-based play, which was previously dominated by Tribes 2. While not necessarily a better game than its more futuristic counterpart, the W.W.II theme and slower pace make it much more approachable to the average player, moving the genre from niche to mainstream. This, most certainly, is a good thing.
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