GDC09: Battlefield 1943 rolls onto Iwo Jima

By Randy Nelson

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Many of our GDC demos, Battlefield 1943 included, have been of the incredibly brief variety. (Is the industry saving up its really good stuff for E3 or what?) In the case of DICE's return to its classic multiplayer-only, WWII-era FPS franchise, what we saw and played at an event that shouted, "Hey, you! Yeah, you! C'mere! You've never seen this before!" was ... exactly what we'd played before. This time, however, it was on on a new map — the island of Iwo Jima.
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The island offered a mix of sneaking opportunities, intricate trench systems and open-area shootouts. Parts of the map featured very thick foliage; thankfully the game's use of Bad Company's Frostbite engine meant we could actually chop some of it down — or all of it ... if we'd really been obsessive. We chuckled a couple of times after successfully sniping opponents through trees, which then came crashing down.

Speaking of destroying things, we found that the map was particularly bombing run friendly, due to its roughly rectangular layout; take off from the carrier, make a turn and line up. Boom! The relatively small size of the Iwo Jima map also meant confrontations were kept frequent and intense.

We couldn't get EA to divulge a date or pricing for the download-only PSN and XBLA title, but apart from some interface polish, it feels good to go (exactly like the last time we played it). Hey, we're not knocking the experience — it was great fun — but this was merely a minor skirmish in the larger battle to come.

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