The premise is simple - recreate a number of key battles from World War 2 in an FPS environment, with the focus squarely on multiplayer team-based tactical warfare. The developers (Digital Entertainment CE, or DICE for short) certainly have the pedigree to make it happen - their previous effort, Codename Eagle, was groundbreaking in its inclusion of almost any weapon and vehicle that was around at the time. They also managed to keep patching the game, adding features and fixing bugs, making CE something of a cult LAN game experience that (unfortunately) few really had a chance to experience. Electronic Arts have setout to ensure that BF1942 gets significantly more exposure than CE, with huge launches and lots of publicity around the world. As you read this, hundreds of slobbering gamers throughout New Zealand and thousands throughout the world already have the game in their hands. An instant success, this kind of popularity will ensure that when you get it home, there'll be options aplenty as far as servers go for when you take your first tentative steps onto the online battlefield.

The singleplayer experience is fairly simplistic. It's a capture-and-hold affair (just like the online game), where the objective is to hold more strategic points on the map than the enemy. Hold more for longer and win - simple as that. There is no back-story (other than the grand it's World War 2, folks) and nothing that really ties each mission together. That's ok though, as the focus for this game is the online play (and as such, the singleplayer makes for a great training ground - there's lots to know) and, while simple, the singleplayer game is damned good fun - expect to replay it alot!!

The options available to the player are remarkable in their scope - no matter how you like to play, chances are good you will find the tools available in this game to keep you tucked up safe and warm inside your comfort zone. With a large variety of tanks, APCs, jeeps, fighter planes, bombers, battleships, destroyers and even aircraft carriers available to use, you can even break out of your comfort zone and try something else - all from within the same game! If base defence is your thing, you'll find anti-aircraft guns, huge mounted cannons, mounted machine guns, pillboxes and more - all eagerly awaiting a human to control them. Expect to say "wow" a lot while playing, as you continuously discover nice touches and little nods to other games and films etc.

Multiplayer is where this game is king. Not since Tribes has a game offered large environments, indoor environments, vehicles and hand-to-hand combat all in the one package. Like Tribes, this game screams "setup a clan and play me seriously" - with the large variety of weapons and vehicles available, specialist skills are already showing their worth. Let your best pilots control the planes, your best gunners pound away at the beach and your best marksmen sit behind the scopes of your sniper rifles and you will triple your chances of obtaining that elusive victory. If you are a LAN gamer or are interested in playing online in a team or clan, this is the game to get. Nothing comes close to offering this much to a team of players, especially if they are dedicated and will practice together.