Battlefield 1943 for XBox Live andPlaystation 3 (PS3) release next week

Battlefield 1943 for XBox Live andPlaystation 3 (PS3) will be released next week by Electronic Arts. The game recaptures the battles of the second world war. The multiplayer Battlefield 1943 can have up to 24 players.

There are four maps and two scene modes in the game. Players can take the role of US Marines or members of the Imperial Japanese navy in Battlefield 1943, which recaps the epic battles of Allied and Axis powers in WW II.

Battlefield 1942 for PS3 and XBox Live screenshot

Battlefield 1943 involves aerial dogfights with planes, trench warfare and battle in high seas. Electronic Arts said that the XBox Live version will cost $15 or 1200 Microsoft points. The first-person shooter (or pilot or tanksman) game Battlefield 1943 will be released on XBox on July 8 and Playstation 3 on July 9. It is not clear when a PC version of the game will be released. The game, which weighs 500MB, can be downloaded from the Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 1943 website.

Battlefield 1943 is sequel to Battlefield 1942, from the same publishers, which too recaptures the battle scenes of the early forties. Battlefield 1943 includes four battles in the Pacific theatre – Wake Island, Iwo Jima, Coral Sea, and Guadalcanal. Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War, where Japanese dug into a remote island, which would relay news about approaching Allied planes to the Japanese mainland, thereby foiling their attacks. It culminated in a fullscale invasion of the island, with a uge number of casualties.

Wake Island, a coral atoll in the Pacific was an American base, which was attacked by Japanese on the same day of Pearl Harbor attacks. The Americans initially repelled the attack, but Wake Island was later overrun by the Japanese, which had larger numbers of the invading force. After the end of the war, Japanese surrendered the island to the Allies. The Battle of Coral Sea (though fought in 1942) was again between the Japanese and the Americans. Japanese wanted to strengthen their naval defences in the South Pacific and sent their aircraft carriers there, only to be met with the Allied ships which had already reached Coral Sea after intercepting Japanese signal transmission.

Heavy battles followed, and the Japanese took control of the Coral sea islands, though it proves later to be a strategic win for the Allied forces. Guadalcanal campaign, waged by the Allied forces against the Japanese on air, sea and land was one of the toughest battles in the Pacific. American and Allied forces started landings on the Solomon Islands of  Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida (Nggela Sul). The surprised Japanese fought back, to deny the Americans a base in the Pacific. By the end of 1942, the battle was decisively won by the Allies,  which was a major setback for the Axis powers in the Pacific theatre of war.

You can don the role of a US marine, a tank commander, a pilot or a rifleman among many roles in Battlefield 1943. The game uses Frostbite engine which enables destructible environments like walls and trenches.

As in Battlefield 1942, EA has set a community challenge to open one of the battlefields. The map for Coral sea will be unlocked only after the gamers collectively achieve 43 million kills across XBox and Playstation. Gamers say that given the experience of 1942, the Coral Sea maps challenge should be met in a single day.