Tuesday, July 14, 2009 10:30 AM
32 million dead and counting
According to a news ticker message that scrolled across the bottom of my screen, some 32,000,000 kills have already been recorded in Battlefield 1943 for the Xbox 360, a new downloadable game that launched less than a week ago through Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network. If it were real, it would be death on a scale not seen since the Second World War, the conflict which, perhaps appropriately, happens to be the game’s setting.
No official download numbers have been released yet, but it’s safe to say the latest entry in DICE’s enormously popular Battlefield franchise is a hit. However, it seems even the studio’s parent company, Electronic Arts, underestimated how quickly gamers would take up arms this time out. I was unable to join a game for the first four days. Every time I tried I’d be bumped back to the title screen, where I’d read another news ticker message stating that EA was in the process of adding more servers to try to deal with the game’s unexpected demand.
However, I finally managed to squeeze my way into a game on Monday night. I played for nearly three hours straight for fear that if I dropped out of the match I wouldn’t be able to get into another one.
And also, if I'm being honest, because I was having a heck of a time.
Battlefield 1943 is wonderfully old-school; a return to the franchise’s decade-old roots. We begin by choosing one of three character classes—infantry, scout, or rifleman—and then set about navigating a trio of massive Pacific Theatre maps on foot, in tanks and jeeps, by sea and by air. We can also man emplaced guns, call in air raids, and parachute to the ground when necessary. And it’s all done in the name of capturing strategic control points that whittle down the opposing team’s life meter.
As a boxed retail game it would have received a middling review. There’s no real innovation here, and it lacks the sort of depth found in modern online shooters—there are no unlockable items or character customization options (a ranking system exists, but it is for prestige only). Plus, with only three maps players can explore most of the game’s nooks and crannies in a single night.
But as a $15 downloadable game players don’t need to play more than a single evening to feel like they’ve gotten their money’s worth. It’s the same price as a night at the movies. What’s more, it’s unlikely most players will stop playing after one session, which is only enough time to get a feel for the game and increase rank by a couple of bars.
Expect to see more games like Battlefield 1943 popping up on Sony and Microsoft’s download services. They’re cheap to make and distribute, have a huge target audience, and are affordable enough to be an impulse purchase. It’s just one of the ways the combination of broadband connectivity and online distribution are working in tandem to change the landscape of modern gaming.
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