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THE SECOND EXPANSION PACK for that remarkable online game, Battlefield 1942, draws near. After the slightly lightweight but grounded in reality overtures of the first expansion this second one has decided to become slightly whimsical. Well as whimsical as large calibre heavy weaponry can be...

This time the focus is on the experimental and prototype weapons that mostly did feature in the final stages of the fighting but were usually either never seen in numbers or were too fragile to be sound battlefield gear. Dice's conceit is to build maps around them and treat them as reliable working weapons. So what do we get?

Eight new maps featuring :-

• Horton HO 229 "Flying Wing"

• Sherman tank with a T-34 Calliope rocket launcher

• T95/T28 Super Heavy Tank

• The Sturmtiger -- featuring a naval gun mounted atop a Tiger tank

• The American AW-52 advanced fighter

• The Wasserfall guided anti-air missile

• The Natter rocket plane

• Top secret German prototype Rocket Pack -- fly and fight at the same time

• Seven new weapons include throwable one-shot-kill knives, the Bren light machine gun, the Auto 5 shotgun, and the Mauser K98 grenade rifle

In all sixteen new vehicles are promised with fighting in and around places like the Pennemund V2 facilities, Hitler's Eagles Nest, Prague by night and Norway.

To be honest we aren't too sure what to make of this one. This does almost seem one expansion pack too far with what is essentially a few new maps, some vehicle models and some slight tweaking to the game but not much else. The first expansion pack did come under some criticism for that and Dice has been listening to their customers, so there is also a healthy chance that they won't repeat the mistake. Certainly they have listened enough to include more maps and more new vehicles than the last pack. Whether they put in enough to justify the asking price and make the more gimmicky items fun to play with remains to be seen. Rest assured we at Gameplanet will be following this closely right up until local release in September.

Show me the screenshots!