Battlefield 1942: WW2 Anthology PC Games and Downloads

Battlefield 1942: WW2 Anthology Product Details

Released on 03/09/2004

• Battlefield 1942

  Every now and then a game comes along that reinvents a whole genre

  Ultima Underworld did it for RPGs, Command and Conquer changed the way we played and viewed strategy, and Goldeneye did it for the FPS (no doubt I'll be laughed at for such insolence, but it's true).

  Now it's about time that the FPS got another makeover, and EA are on hand with their make-up bag, and a certain Battlefield 1942.

  Here's the pitch. Think of a WWII FPS which is more strategic than Medal Of Honour, but not as complex as Operation Flashpoint. Think being able to play as five historically accurate sides - American, German, British, Russian, or Japanese. Think of real campaigns - Normandy, the battle of Midway, operation Market Garden.

  So far, so what?

  Now get this. Fancy some more firepower? Climb into that tank and take control of its movement and the main cannon. Or jump atop the tank and man those machine guns. Take to the skies in a fighter plane and engage in dogfights and bombing raids as the battle scorches below you. Grab the nearest Anti-Aircraft cannon and flak the enemy planes out of the sky. Dive below sea level in a U-boat and sink battleships with your torpedoes, or even captain a warship. There are 35 vehicles are available in all, and some will take more than one to man them successfully.

  You'd usually expect something this ambitious to fall flat on its face. But if the beta we've been playing for the last week is anything to go by, Battlefield 1942 may turn out to be the most important PC game of the year - and that includes Neverwinter Nights.

  Up to 64 players (32 per team) can battle it out online, with each fulfilling one of a number of roles, including medic, engineer, anti-tank crew, assault troops and scouts. Each class of character is equipped slightly differently. The scout will carry a sniper rifle while anti-tank troops have bazookas, because it's usually quite tough to take out a Sherman with your bare hands. Medic and engineer might not sound like the most fun but each class has their own strengths and weaknesses. Engineers can lace a bridge with explosives and destroy it while a tank lumbers across. One amazing example of bravery and inventiveness I witnessed was an American engineer jumping from the back seat of the Marauder aircraft he was riding in, parachute onto the deck of a Japanese carrier and scupper their whole attack by peppering the deck with mines and ruining any chance the Japs had of getting further planes into the sky.

  The sheer excitement engendered by the whole concept is still hard to extinguish after several days of play. To look at a warplane swooping towards you with the intention of strafing you with its guns, and to realise that it's another player - in fact, your boss, chuckling away to himself in his office - that's in the plane...to get into an armoured troop carrier, get someone to man the guns, a load of mates in the back and smash into the centre of a enemy's camp...to feel the exhilaration of knowing that battleship out there is sinking because of your expertise at the helm of a massive gun emplacement on the shore. All in all the gameplay experience on offer here is completely uncharted.

  The handling of the numerous vehicles seems extremely strong at this point, sitting comfortably somewhere between the regions of sim and arcade-style handling. The planes on the other hand have a bit more depth to them and seem to have been designed with flight-sim experts in mind. This was frustrating for myself as every time I tried to take off I spiralled hopelessly into the sea, but really it's for the best - it gives people who know the basics of flight already a real sense of purpose and plus if I want to be a top pilot myself I'm just going to have to learn. Still, jumping into the back of a plane with a skilled pilot and taking out enemy fighters with the rear gun while being taken on a loop-the-looping joyride is an awesome rush.

  There's a single-player game of course, where you have a series of missions to play through as each of the five factions in order to finish the game, but this is undoubtedly a title made for LAN and online gaming. On a decent PC the graphics remain smooth and detailed, and though a broadband connection is obviously recommended, things really aren't too bad with an older PC or a 56k modem. Modes include your standard Deathmatch, and Conquest, where the battle is won by seizing control of the camps on a given map - take control of an encampment and your country's flag will proudly fly in the centre.

  Criticisms at the beta stage are few, but niggling. One map I played was strewn with minefields, and yes, I understand that knowing where mines are defeats their object, but from the very little I (admittedly) know about real war I would imagine the rough whereabouts of mines are usually known. Another reality-driven thorn in my side was the inability to tell whether the soldier up ahead is on your side or a bloodthirsty enemy (it's not always clear what colour uniform they're wearing). Holding the crosshair over the unidentified person will eventually bring up a name (colour-coded so you know the allegiance) but by that time I was usually dead. Realism is all well and good but let's hope the developers don't forget that it's a game at heart and some concessions are necessary to keep it a fun, rather than frustrating, experience. Not to worry though, there's still plenty o' time to iron out such worries.

  In the superlative-ridden, exaggeration-friendly world of games journalism, it's often difficult to tell which games are simply going to refine an existing genre (Unreal Tournament 2003 for example - yes it'll be amazing but it'll be evolution rather than revolution) and which ones are going to completely and utterly shape the future. Barring a major disaster (the Swedish developers being eaten by a rabid moose for example) Battlefield 1942 is surely going to become the first PC title in ages to offer an experience which feels completely new and is mind-blowingly exciting. The initial gaming sessions we've had on the Beta have driven this office into a frenzy like we have never experienced before. Finally we're going to be able to live out each and every war-time fantasy we've ever had without having to put up with the grim realities of mud, exercise, capture, torture and of course, gruesome death.

  War, huh, what is it good for? Well, nothing really, but at least we get games like this out of it fifty years on.

  Dangerous Dave Evans takes time out of his Nuclear Holocaust drills to engage in some bulge battling antics with Battlefield 1942: Road to Rome.

  War is hell, but whether you like it or not, it makes for some damn good games. One of 2002's must-play multiplayer games was Battlefield 1942, EA's tank-driving, plane-flying, beach-storming shooter. Battlefield gained a reputation amongst even the most jaded online gamers as something genuinely new in the world of first-person-shooters. The early releases of the game didn't quite fulfil their promise, but a couple of technical fixes have made the game stable and reliable and largely addressed most online gamers' initial gripes, and for the last few months gamers all over the world have been fighting virtual WWII as Germans, Japanese, British, American and Russians, in battles from Stalingrad to Midway, El Alamein to Berlin.

  However, there are only so many times you can storm Omaha Beach before you fancy a change, so get ready for the first Battlefield 1942 expansion pack, "The Road To Rome". The game concentrates on the Allied assault on Sicily and mainland Italy, and delivers six new battles, two new armies and a raft of new weapons to play with.

  For our first look at The Road To Rome, we played in single player mode, which helps give a feel for the maps and new vehicles, but the real fun will start when we try it out against other players; Battlefield is first and foremost a multiplayer experience and The Road to Rome doesn't change that, and some of the new vehicles and scenarios encourage teamplay more than ever.

  First impressions; the new maps are huge. Most of the maps feature hilly terrain and a lot of capture points when playing in the 'conquest' mode and one gets the impression that Swedish developer Dice have done a lot to make the new maps as tense as possible, with lots of potential for to-ing and fro-ing across the map.

  As with the original game, your first Allied army is the British, this time up against the Italians during "Operation Husky "(The British landings in Sicily) and "Operation Baytown" (the crossing from Sicily to the mainland). You then move on to the American operations at Salerno and Anzio, first against Italian, then German opposition, then finally, you can play as Free French troops against the Germans at Monte Santa Croce and Monte Cassino.

  Across all of these battles, you get new toys to play with; three new infantry weapons; the Italian Breda Model 30, the British Sten gun (although oddly you only get to use it when playing as a Frenchman…) and engineers get bayonets for those corporal Jones "they don't like it up 'em" moments. You get a new set of tanks in this game; gone are the Tigers and Shermans of the first game, replaced by the more obscure Sturmgeschutz tank-killer, M3 Grant light tank and Italian Carro Armato (and no jokes about six reverse gears thank you, these Italians are as tough as you want them to be). There's also a half-track with an anti-tank gun (better than the almost defenceless half-tracks in the original game) and for the first time you get various artillery pieces dotted around the place, which don't move much, but are pretty devastating. The new tanks have been introduced to the game to encourage teamwork; these tanks can carry two players, both with a weapon, and unlike the tanks in the first game, the machine gunner is protected by armour, so taking the machine gunner's seat is no longer automatic suicide. Finally, there are two new aircraft, both fighter-bombers, the Messerschmidt Bf110 for the Axis and de Havilland Mosquito for the Allies, and yes, when you play on the British maps you do get proper RAF markings.

  Battlefield 1942 has proved to be one of the most popular PC games online over the last few months, and The Road To Rome looks set reinforce that popularity; it's got all of the great gameplay of the first title, with some useful tweaks in tactics and equipment to promote greater teamwork. The Road to Rome is also encouraging because it shows that Battlefield 1942 franchise has a lot of life in it; it's not difficult to imagine further expansion packs coming along once you've stormed the monastery at Monte Cassino for the thousandth time.

  
  When Battlefield 1942 stormed the multiplayer gaming front last year, it offered a breath of fresh air to first-person shooter nuts.

  Featuring huge scale battles between two teams of up to 32 players each, and the ability to control numerous vehicles, it was an instant hit. In any one game you could find yourself piloting planes, driving tanks, sinking huge battleships or simply fighting through the streets with a choice selection of small arms.

  The first expansion pack Road To Rome expanded upon the playing experience, and free-to-download mod Desert Combat added the recent Gulf conflict to the available battles.

  Secret Weapons returns to WWII for inspiration, and, as the name implies, features a selection of weapons which were in development, in secret, during World War II. Some of them saw combat in real-life, some of them were at least feasible, and some of them were just stupid. But no matter, because for the purpose of this expansion pack, they all work just fine and dandy.

  Secret Weapons will feature eight huge new maps, and, in response to popular demand, six of them will feature objectives (as seen in, for example, the excellent Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory). Locations involve the infamous Eagle's Nest, where the Third Reich stored the riches they'd looted from the furthest corners of their short-lived Empire, while objectives can range from destroying fuel dumps to deactivating experimental new missile silos. It certainly looks like Secret Weapons will add some depth to a formula which already provided a fair bit.

  This is all well and good but the Secret Weapons of the title are what will really get your whistle wet. There's a selection of weird and wonderful tank-like vehicles, such as the snub-nosed little wonder that can blow a hole through practically anything, and a marvellous mobile rocket launcher.

  The Natter is a rocket plane that launches from a ramp and comes complete with a huge payload but limited hangtime, while the Wasserfall remote-controlled missile (somewhat reminiscent of the Redeemer in Unreal Tournament) is powerful but very tricky to get to grips with. The Jetpack is perhaps the piece of kit which is causing the most excitement and though it can be incredibly useful it requires a skilled player to get the most from it. Its fuel cells need to be constantly refuelled, meaning that it's capable of huge leaps rather than constant flight. Take care not to run out of fuel at the top of a jump, as you'll plummet to death unless you get wriggle out of the pack and release your parachute.

  There's also some other changes involving less secret weapons. Allied Medics and Engineers now come complete with a powerful shotgun for close-range combat, While their goose-stepping counterparts are equipped with a silenced SMG and rifle-grenade respectively. The standard issue weapon of choice for the Allied Assault troop is the British Bren, a good solid weapon and one that stops our boys running into battle with American-made weapons of friendly-fire destruction as they did in the original game.

  Battlefield 1942 remains one of the greatest multiplayer experiences available, and this second expansion pack looks like it can only improve on what has gone before. Get ready for action featuring some of the craziest weapons dreamed up by the maddest warmongers of all time.

  Published: 07/01/2003

• Battlefield 1942 Review

  CJRavey jumps into more vehicles than a cockney on an evening spree, as he reviews Battlefield 1942.

  Battlefield 1942 recreates well known battles from the Second World War. This information generally provokes a number of reactions. Enthusiasm for the strategy and war gaming situations. Indifference. A discomfort or disapproval for the recreation of such real world events. If you're in the third camp this game isn't necessarily for you - but moral dilemmas aside, we've always played war games and this is one of the best.

  Battlefield places you, as you'd expect from the title, in the middle of a full scale combat situation. As either a scout with a sniper rifle, or with an assault rifle, anti-tank rocket launcher, or as a medic or engineer, you're pitched into the middle of a full-on war.

  Americans, the British and Russians face off against Germans, and Japanese in arenas from the Pacific to Europe, to Africa. Within these battlefields there are flags, representing the bases and 'control points' of the landscape. Capture these and your side gains points, lose them and your points score falls. If your score level falls to zero it's a major defeat. Oh, the scores are called 'tickets', for some reason.

  All sound simple? Well, where the game differentiates itself is with the amount of vehicles available, and ironically given its subject, its sheer sense of fun.

  You can climb in tanks, jump into planes, even control great big battleships. Adversely your opponent's arsenal includes the same things, so you'll run down ruined streets only to come face to face with an enemy tank, hear the scream and whistle of a plane's bombs heading for your position and try and sink your enemies' battleships...

  This is all fine and dandy, but in the single player version you may feel restricted - and not only the fact that it gobbles all your PC's resources and power to run the single player mode. Having started off playing the multiplayer demo, attempts to conquer the single player version by hopping in and out of vehicles proved disastrous. A single minded attack on the enemy at a certain position, barely moving from the spot, eventually saved the day where all previous efforts had failed.

  Basically, this is a game for multiplayer. During the single player campaign enemy AI seems too harsh, and your comrades' AI too hopeless - your fellow soldiers bumble in and out of manning the gun positions of your armoured vehicle leaving you helpless. Very rarely did they seem to follow my orders (hammered out frantically using the Function keys) - if they were listening at all I didn't get a sense of it.

  With real people on your side you're able to flex your muscles a bit more and the game's just generally more fun that way. Humans are unpredictable, unreliable, impulsive, but they seem to know how to have a good war. In the multiplayer I took down battleships single handed, watching the eerie site of the huge grey, metal beast sink beneath the waves. Onboard, scores of enemy players scrambled to launch boats to escape, or take off in their plane before the deck was submerged. I know this because they were my mates playing on LAN. In the single player I listlessly shot at the battleship using the gun tower for about a minute, then the reliable enemy AI hit the target of my gun emplacement dead-on, first try, from a passing plane. More realistic? Oh yes. Less fun? Aye.

  The great thing about Battlefield is that it allows you to pelt around like a madman, whilst still feeling that you're part of a bigger picture. The game respawns you as many times as you like, but each time your team loses tickets, so there are always plenty of enemies to fight. But just like in some Sharpe episodes, (as extras are reused) the soldiers advancing might have actually fought and died in earlier battles!

  You can't decide to stop being a medic or whatever class you choose until you respawn, but each one is nicely balanced so you'll always have plenty to do - whether calling in air-strikes as a scout or repairing vehicles for another advance as an engineer. An enemy flag can be held by a single John Wayne figure, so you won't feel like you're on the periphery of things if you don't want to - unlike in the single player game, which is rather like attending a badly organised party which everyone else is noisily enjoying in another room.

  Each vehicle too, has its charms - without being like a sim to pick up. The planes are the hardest to master - but switch your view to either no-HUD or F10 for outside view and you'll soon get the hang of it... Or not, but then you've always got the tanks! There's lots of nice touches in the game, such as when in the aforementioned tank an icon shows you where the turret is facing as compared to the tracks - to stop you getting completely confused, facing one way, firing another. Everything's designed to make things quick and fun.

  To put it simply, Battlefield is a stunning game - and deserves to become a LAN circuit favourite, and a perennial online offering. But its single player should be considered a training session for the real meat of the game, because you need to experience this game online - you'll have the time of your life! It's a great introduction into team multiplayer, because whilst you find your feet the blur of battle may shield you from some of the playful abuse you'd get in a tighter, less open multiplayer. You'll also soon find your strengths - some people are tank divas but can't control a plane for their life, others vice versa - soon your speciality will be an asset to your side as they advance wave after wave.

  If I were to rate the single-player game it would attain a measly 6 out of ten - but viewed primarily as a multiplayer game it scores much higher.

  Published: 16/10/2002

• Road to Rome Expansion Pack Review

  REVIEW: The Road To Rome

  For historical accuracy and insight into the Battlefield 1942 expansion pack we would have to turn to 'Dangerous' Dave, our beloved boss who previewed Road to Rome some time ago. We suspect that's because he was there, either that or his Tivo is locked onto the History Channel and he can't figure out how to shift it.

  As mentioned in our preview, RTR offers six extra maps covering the all important Italian and Sicilian campaigns of World War II. Whereas the original game covers Eastern and Western Europe, the South Pacific and North Africa, Road to Rome focuses on the battle for Italy which the Allies thought would last weeks, but stretched out to a tougher than expected year. As well as extra maps, there are new vehicles and weapons - for more info, you guessed it, check the preview.

  But how do the new additions add to the game - is this expansion pack something you should rush to lash out on? Well, yes, if a) your PC ran the game without a hitch first time around and b) you intend to go online with it. The frankly rather poor single player of the main game is, to us, vastly improved for Road to Rome's levels (which have to be played as instant battles rather than as part of the original campaign) but Battlefield's raison d'etre is still taking on folk online.

  The first thing you'll notice on installing Battlefield 1942 Road to Rome and booting the game up, is that there's no discernible difference. It's the same intro movie, the same game and menus - the Road to Rome element has to be activated under the Custom Games menu. With a bit of fiddling, (especially if, like us, you're not in the habit of reading manuals) multiplayer can then be filtered to only show RTR games. But frills aside, RTR sets out to add more damn fine gameplay, not a makeover.

  To go back to how your PC ran the original game, don't expect any instant improvement - Battlefield remains a hungry beast that will gobble as much of your PC's power as it can. An upcoming patch should improve things - though the US version left us and another poor player with echoing, stuttering sound. Let's hope the EA boffins can sort that out for the UK 1.3 patch, which is partly intended to improve performance for owners of both the original and the expansion. Such is life for a PC gamer though.

  The new weapons are a bit rubbish. One of the guns looks more like a cartoon farmer's scatter gun (though we're assured it's realistic) and although being given a bayonet option (a one prod kill if you can get close enough) is great, the loss of the vital right click zoom mode on bayoneted weapons is frustrating.

  So - those are our moans. But please, stay with us, because this hasn't really taken the shine of one of our favourite add-ons to one of our favourite games of 2002.

  How come? You may well ask. That's because the general gameplay of Battlefield is stunning enough to take some weaknesses, especially when you take into account just how fantabulous the new levels are. There may be only six, but they are tightly designed, each adding their own special flavour - whether it be frantic uphill dashes, bullet ridden bottle necks at strategic bridges or a constant battle to control an all important central point. Each level plays with the rules (no spawning here, this base can't be taken over etcetera, etcetera) just enough to tweak things and notch up the heat of gameplay without confusing issues. With the right amount of players each map is a veritable playground, with the way you re-spawn (if you die, you choose one of your bases to come back to life at) meaning that both sides feel as if they're attacking or defending wave after wave of soldiers.

  Each level also encourages strategy. Online matches have shown us a tremendous amount of natural born leaders online. Screams for artillery, snipers to find their targets, backup, medics, nothing so far has naturally pushed us towards a genuine sense of team work as Road to Rome. Before we get flamed, I should say 'I'. That is, as a fairly new online gamer, it's Battlefield that has made your beloved correspondent feel a part of something exciting and, well, human.

  Fighting uphill as the French at Monte Cassino, it became quite clear that the manned artillery guns and a couple of stolen tanks were making things impossible for us. The few tanks that managed to get across the bridges were soon mincemeat at the foot of the hill, if not victims of the tanks or the German AT gun then taken out by German rocket launchers. Our tickets were fast reducing (the 'score' of each team, based on territory occupied and foes vanquished - the game's over when your side's tickets reach zero) and at the base of this seemingly unconquerable hill, which rolled with the sound of shell and thunder, we felt defeated.

  Then Sgt Somebody-or-other (sorry we can't remember your name, dude) piped up. 'Snipers, take positions - find your targets, take out those rocket launchers,' he commanded, or rather typed. 'Stop wasting those tanks, group out of firing range ready for attack.' We gathered our forces, the non-stop flow of ever-respawning players wandering into a line of fire now gathered at a safe distance, snipers picking off anyone straying too close, waiting for a committed all-at-once push. Sgt Somebody-or-other spake again. 'Ready?'.

  It's moments like this that make multiplayer gaming; working as a team, knowing what's going on, who's who and what needs to be done. Each level is more or less designed solely to give that kind of feeling, that sense of 'real battle' (if battle were ever as fun, safe and survivable as this). The vehicles too encourage you to invite fellow gamers to 'jump in'. The new stationery artillery weapons make it easier to defend a base whilst calling for reinforcements.

  The whole balancing of the game is superb, and provides a great test of skill. We'd not stopped playing the original by the time Road to Rome became available - it's rather like the much-awaited second series of a favourite TV show appearing mere weeks after the first series ended. Well, it's an analogy that works for us goggle-eyed sorts anyway.

  Get it, get online and get behind me and Sgt Somebody-or-other. We'll see you right lad. Ready?

  Published: 14/05/2008

• History of the Battlefield Series

  When the first Battlefield game arrived the multiplayer gaming landscape was very different to the one we see today. Broadband was only just becoming affordable for the masses and online multiplayer shooters were still at home on PC, where typically between eight and 16 players battled online in kill-or-be-killed conflicts of hi-octane twitch skill.
  
  Battlefield exploded onto PC in 2002 with huge-scale, 64 player, class-driven, tactical team-based first-person shooting, and nothing has quite been the same way since. Backed by the biggest publisher in the world, Electronic Arts', over the last nine years the Battlefield franchise has become one of the most popular and important FPS series on any format -evolving to offer ever greater online conflicts, whilst also adding story-driven shooter action to its arsenal.
  
  With the latest Battlefield title, Bad Company 2, set to release in March, we thought it was about time to look back at the history of this genre-busting series, and take a glance at what's to come in the new decade.

  
  

  Battlefield 1942 (PC, 2002)

  
  The game that started it all was a huge break from the norm. The main Conquest mode favoured cooperation with a team of 31 other players to capture key points on the map, then outflank and outfight opposing forces until all of their respawn Tickets had been depleted.
  
  While the singleplayer experience used bots to simulate human behaviour, it was picking and learning how to play as a specific class, then taking on the authentic WWII campaigns with other real-life players, that made this such a satisfying draw - especially since the maps were utterly huge compared to anything else out at the time. We certainly wouldn't have games like MAG without Battlefield 1942; a true honoured and decorated gaming classic.

  Key Features of Battlefield 1942

  • Huge-scale 64-player online battles: Where teamwork and co-operation were as important as a quick trigger finger!
  • Global Conflict: Players across the world joined either axis or allied armies and fought in battles based on those in WWII.
  • Class Based Gameplay: Assault, medic, scout, anti-tank, or engineer, each with specific abilities that helped the in-game war effort.
  • Raging battles on land, sea, or air: Courtesy of 35 historically accurate WWII vehicles and 19 authentic WWII handheld weapons.

  Expansions

  • The Road to Rome: Focused exclusively on the key Italian and Sicilian campaigns of WWII.
  • Secret Weapons of World War II: Invited players to go to war like never before with 16 new experimental weapons and vehicles, Also added eight fresh WWII campaigns, new locations, and objective-based gameplay.

  
  

  Battlefield Vietnam (PC, 2004)

  
  

  The next stop for the Battlefield franchise took players into a whole new era, this time equipped with more firepower, modernised weaponry and vehicles, and a deeper infantry experience from the jungles to the beaches of Vietnam.
  
  Key Features of Battlefield Vietnam

  • Powerful Vietnam-era vehicles: Players rule the skies in the F-4 Phantom, airlifted vehicles in transport helicopters, and more.
  • Weapons of Jungle Warfare: Gamers mastered pongee sticks and booby traps.
  • Worldwide Online war: From dark jungles to villages on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
  • Customisation: BF Vietnam fans went to war as Viet Cong, Green Beret and more, each with multiple character skins.
  • Rousing Soundtrack: Included songs by CCR, Jefferson Airplane, and more.

  
  
  
  

  Battlefield 2 (PC, 2005)

  
  

  Battlefield 2 brought the intensity and excitement of Battlefield 1942 into the modern era with enhanced team play and the latest, most technologically advanced vehicles and weapons systems available to man - a good two years before Call of Duty got a similar treatment.
  
  Fighting for one of three military superpowers - the United States, the Chinese, or the newly formed Middle East Coalition - Battlefield fans were once again thrust headlong into epic 64-player conflicts - this time with their individual character's growing RPG-style in skill the more they played.On top of which, destructible environments and improved visuals and AI made this a worthwhile step forward from its innovative forebear.

  Key Features of Battlefield 2

  • New Game, New Era: The modern setting delivered state-of-the-art weapon systems, vehicles and armies, with players picking from U.S., Chinese, or Middle East Coalition troops and fighting in warzones across the modern world!
  • More Soldier Classes: Included Assault, Sniper, Special Ops, Combat Engineer, Medic, Heavy Weapons, and Anti-Tank units, all with persistent character growth.
  • Richly detailed destructible environments: Where action was scaled automatically for the number of players, ensuring a unique experience with every play.
  • Soldier kits: Enhancing vehicle interaction by allowing players to upgrade vehicles, like medic kits transforming a vehicle into a mobile aid station.
  • Commander Mode: Allowed one player to strategically coordinate their forces.

  Expansions

  • Special Forces: Allowed players to fight across new maps as one of six different Special Forces soldiers.
  • Euro Force: Yet more maps, vehicles and weapons on show as players took the powerful new Euro Force into action against MEC and Chinese armies across all-new Asian locations.
  • Armored Fury: Dropped players into a deadly confrontation between the Middle Eastern Coalition, Chinese Army and U.S. forces following an attempted invasion of America.

  
  

  Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (PS2 & Xbox, 2005; X360, 2006)

  
  Battlefield's first foray on consoles dropped players into the heat of battle with Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. This was the first Battlefield game to feature a singleplayer story-driven component on top of its signature online play, plunging players headlong into the fog of war in war-ravaged Kazakhstan, before asking them to ultimately choose sides in a furious showdown where nothing was as it seemed.
  
  Key Features of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat

  • Battlefield on consoles: First released for PS2 and Xbox, then ported to Xbox 360, this was the first Battlefield to appear outside of PC, paving the way for Bad Company!
  • An all-new story-driven singleplayer mode: Players across the world joined either axis or allied armies and fought in battles based on those in WWII.
  • Class Based Gameplay: Dropped players deep into an action-packed war framed by government-sponsored propaganda.
  • Online play with features from Battlefield 2: Featured 30 vehicles, 50 state-of-the-art weapons, persistent character growth and more than 10 maps!

  
  

  Battlefield 2142 (PC, 2006)

  
  he year is 2142, and the dawn of a new Ice age has thrown the world into a panic.The soil not covered by ice can only feed a fraction of the Earth's population. The maths is simple and brutal: some will live, most will die.

  That was the premise behind Battlefield 2142 - a radical departure from previous instalments, jumping forward into the next century to a world where technology had evolved, but mankind was still at war. The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?
  
  Armed with a devastating arsenal of hi-tech weaponry, including assault rifles, cloaking devices and sentry guns, Battlefield 2142 saw players take control of the most lethal vehicles known to man, including massive battle Walkers on the ground, and futuristic aircraft ruling the skies. This was back to intensely tactical 64-player battles on PC, but not like fans had ever seen before - and featured an all-new mode that made this stand out from the rest...

  Key Features of Battlefield 2142

  • Titan Mode: Players waged epic-scale war to defeat theirr opponent's Titan, a massive flying warship, controlled by the team's commander. Doing so meant destroying the Titan's shields, boarding the craft, fighting to it's reactor core and detonating it from the inside - all while defending their own Titan!
  • Customisable Abilities: Gamers got to expand their abilities and blend multiple player classes to match their play-style - making for an even more personalised experience!.
  • A changed world: In BF 2142 players fought for survival in brand new 22nd Century snow-covered locations from Minsk to North Africa!
  • Futuristic warfare: Still 64 player, still online, but featuring EMP grenades, sentry guns, smart mines, cloaking devices, Battle Walkers, high speed recon vehicles, and more!

  Expansions

  • Northern Strike: Boasted ten new unlocks, three new maps, two new vehicles, and a new game mode called Assault Lines.

  
  

  Battlefield Bad Company (PS3 & X360, 2008)

  
  

  After the console success of Modern Combat, Battlefield got it's first fully fledged HD console outing, featuring trademark multiplayer mayhem (complete with the new Gold Rush mode), plus a singleplayer story laced with irreverence.
  
  Set in the near future, the Battlefield: Bad Company single-player campaign dropped gamers behind enemy lines as part of a squad of four soldiers -risking it all to go AWOL on a personal quest. Featuring a dramatic storyline flavoured with attitude, Battlefield: Bad Company leads gamers far from the traditional frontlines on a wild ride with a group of renegade soldiers who decide that sometimes the gratitude of a nation just isn't enough.
  
  Key Features of Battlefield Bad Company

  • Cinematic single-player experience: loaded with dark humor.
  • War, your way: With environments that were 90 percent destructible, gamers got to shape the battlefield to match their play style like never before in Bad Company
  • 24 players online: Like the original Battlefield did on PC, Bad Company raised the bar from the typical 16 players of Halo and CoD.
  • Gold Rush: A fresh mode for Bad Company, this pitted two teams of twelve against each other in attack/defend objective-based matches that made full use of the destructible environments.
  • HD visuals: This was the first Battlefield game designed exclusively for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
  
  

  Battlefield Heroes (PC, 2009)

  
  Released in June 2009, Battlefield Heroes was the first Play4Free downloadable game from EA.
  
  Battlefield Heroes let players create, customise and level up their own war unique hero - then take them into battle against other players of a similar skill level; using their special abilities to destroy the enemy, or support your friends in the fashion of the fully-fledged Battlefield titles.
  
  Being free to play, Battlefield Heroes makes an ideal introduction to the series, and comes highly recommended if you're thinking about dipping your toe into the series bullet-strewn waters.

  Key Features of Battlefield Heroes

  • Don't pay a penny: A free cartoon-style shooter for the PC, Heroes is a great introduction to the series!
  • Combined classic gameplay with brand new innovations: It's a totally new experience!
  • Cartoon-style graphics: Bringing the fun back to shooters.
  • Third person camera: So your Hero takes centre-stage!
  • Unique war Heros: Players make their own with extensive character customisation system!
  • MMO-like special abilities: Added strategic depth to combat.

  
  

  Battlefield 1943 (PS3 & X360, 2009)

  
  This little gem arrived on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network Store in July 2009, and swiftly went on to become the fastest-selling download-only game of all time, thanks to a very reasonable price point for a game with a fantastic online calibre and a respectable set of modes and maps for the price.
  
  BF 1943 lets players pick their path - be it as a rifleman, a steel-fisted tank commander, or ace fighter pilot - and play as a lone wolf or with friends, coordinating to turn the tide of battle in 24-person online gametypes.
  
  Key Features of Battlefield 1943

  • By land, sea, and air: Unleash wide destruction with bombing raids, tanks, or fighter planes launched from aircraft carriers and enjoy one of the best vehicle experiences in any multiplayer game.
  • Varied locations: Play with 24 players online in three beautiful and destructible locations from the Pacific theatre and experience a balance of infantry combat complemented by land, sea, and air vehicles.
  • Next-gen destruction: Watch as the beautiful Pacific islands quickly turn into scarred battlefields as destruction rains upon you and your fellow soldiers as you fight to win the battle!
  • Ranking, persistence, and squad support: Featuring a deep, persistent ranking system accessible through a fully enabled website, track your stats and follow the leaderboards on the web. Jump directly into a squad to set up private matches and play with your friends!

  
  

  Battlefield Bad Company 2 (PC, PS3 & X360, 2010)

  
  In Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the Bad Company crew will again find themselves in the heart of the action, where they must use every weapon and vehicle at their disposal to survive. The action unfolds with unprecedented intensity, introducing a level of fervor to vehicular warfare never before experienced in a modern warfare action game.
  
  The 'B' company fight their way through snowy mountaintops, dense jungles and dusty villages. With a heavy arsenal of deadly weapons and a slew of vehicles to aid them, the crew set off on their mission and they are ready to blow up, shoot down, blast through, wipe out and utterly destroy anything that gets in their way. Total destruction is the name of the game - either online or offline, enemies will soon learn there is nowhere to hide.

  Key Features of Battlefield Bad Company 2

  • Singleplayer Campaign: B Company return to HD consoles - and for the first time, also appear on PC!
  • 8 Huge Multiplayer Maps: Each with a different tactical and gameplay focus and set across a variety of environments!
  • Ultimate Online Vehicle Warfare: 15 land, sea and air vehicles, each with a tactical advantage during play. Race into action with the ATV or rain death from above in the UH-60 transport helicopter with its 2 side-mounted rail guns.
  • All-new Squad Gameplay: Team up with 3 other players and fight together to unlock special awards and achievements in 2 squad-specific game modes
  • Destruction 2.0: Take down entire buildings, create firepoints in cover or blow it up entirely! In Battlefield Bad Company 2there will be no place to hide!
  • 'Play It Your Way': Experiment and refine your ideal combat style with 4 character classes (medic, assault, recon and engineer), 15000+ kit variations, 46 weapons (200 different customisation opportunities), 15 gadgets and 13 character specialisations.
  • Awards and Achievements: Combat efficiency and performance is rewarded with special awards such pins, stars and insignias.

As a valued customer we now offer you the facility to sign up to email price alerts. Please enter the price you want to be, or below, and if drops to that level we will let you know...