July 16, 1943
Dearest Mary Louise,
It has been nearly a year since I last wrote you, I know that. I'm so sorry to keep you waiting for so long. I've seen things you wouldn't believe...no one would. The asylum in Berlin was just the beginning of a horror story that will haunt me for years to come. We need to have a meeting with Father Colmes when I get back.
For my services in Berlin and the "Swamps of Death" I was given the chance to chose one more theater of operations before I come home. I chose to go with a Marine by the name of Tank Dempsey, who I've made friends with over the last few months; we're in the Pacific, not too far from our last assignment. If you remember, I spent some time training at RAF Oakley last year before being stationed at Peleliu; well, they're letting me fly in combat planes out here near Guadalcanal.
The Imperial Japanese Army has been dive-bombing all week, so we're using F4U Corsairs to fight back. Every time I get up to 300 feet high and see the sun hit the water, I think of you. It's hard to concentrate in the noisy cockpit, but I like to stick that picture you gave me onto the fuel gauge -- it calms me down.
I need to get some rest now. I can hear the Japanese Zeroes buzzing the Marines down at the fuel depot, and we'll be rousted out soon.
Love always,
Billy
Battlefield 1942
While certainly not the first game to feature player-controlled vehicles in a first- or third-person shooter setting, Battlefield 1942 put drivable and flyable ordnance on the map for multiplayer gamers around the world. It was followed quickly by games like Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising and Star Wars Battlefront, which showed the industry that the "Battlefield formula" could successfully extend itself to other genres. The use of control points and reinforcement tickets has been recycled in games from SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs to Lord of the Rings: Conquest to Ratchet and Clank: Deadlocked.
After providing additional support for Battlefield 2 in the form of expansions and patches, DICE introduced their Frostbite engine via Battlefield Bad Company, adding destructibility to the environment and filling the screen with impressive effects. Bad Company brought along a mutation of Battlefield 2's extremely detailed progression and rank system. Satisfied that Bad Company was popular enough to begin work on a sequel, DICE started hammering on Bad Company 2, in the meantime offering a more casual, browser-based approach: Battlefield Heroes, a free-to-play game with unique visuals and certain simplifications (such as the lack of damaging friendly fire) is currently in beta.
So what do you get when you lump together the maps and vehicles of Battlefield 1942, the stat tracking and progression of Battlefield 2, the destructible environment and graphics engine of Battlefield Bad Company, and the slightly-less-hardcore simplified feel of Battlefield Heroes? You get Battlefield 1943, a balanced cacophony of all good things Battlefield.