Battlefield 1942 (PC)

By PETER ELEY

(Herald rating: * * * *)

Old wars never die, and they don't fade away, either. Just when you thought it was safe to forget World War II, software houses suddenly launch an army of games on us. To name but three, Medal of Honour: Allied Assault, Return to Wolfenstein, and last, but definitely not least, Battlefield 1942.

This is a big game, designed for up to 64 online players on broadband conections, but with a solid single-player mode, too.

The game takes place in the four main WWII combat theatres - South Pacific, North Africa, and Eastern and Western Europe.

There's sea war, air war, desert war, jungle war and war in the frozen wastes of a Russian winter. You can play either on the Allied side, or as a German or Japanese. Then you get the choice of tank, plane or infantry.

And it doesn't end there. Choose the humble life of a foot soldier and you can play as medic, engineer or bazooka-wielding anti-tank soldier.

This variety is necessary to give meaning to a 64-player online game, of course.

It would be chaos if everyone chose to do the same thing.

Single players will probably want to stick with the more exciting and traditional roles of superhero, or some such thing.

Unlike many primarily online games, single player is much more than just an afterthought and the computer AI seems pretty damned smart.

The game has strong a historical base, with mission maps centred around the major battles such as El Alamein, Iwo Jima and D-Day.

The graphics are excellent, but beware - you need at least a Pentium 3 500MHz or similar, plus a 32mb card with Hardware and Transform capability, plus 1.2gigs of hard drive space for the install.

A broadband connection is recommended for online games involving more than 16 players. Under that, a 56kbps modem will do the job.

* EA Games, PC, M15

Email: peter_eley@nzherald.co.nz