| Battlefield 1942 |
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''Battlefield 1942'' is a 3D World War II First-person Shooter (FPS) Computer Game developed by Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows (2002) and Apple Macintosh (2004). The game can be played in Singleplayer mode against Computer Game Bot s or in Multiplayer mode against players on the Internet . In-game, players assume the role of one of five classes of Infantry . Players have the ability to fly various World War II Fighter Aircraft and Bomber s, navigate Capital Ships and Aircraft Carrier s, man Coastal Artillery defenses, drive Tank s, APC s and Jeep s, and control stationary weapons. Each battle takes place on one of several maps located in a variety of places and famous battlefields in all of the major theaters of World War II: the Pacific , European , North African , and Eastern Fronts. While the combat is always Axis Power s versus Allies , the location determines which specific armies are used (for example, on the Iwo Jima map, it is Japan versus the United States , while on the Battle Of Britain map, it is Germany versus the United Kingdom ). The maps in ''Battlefield 1942'' are based on real battles, but are not necessarily realistically portrayed. GAMEPLAY The gameplay generally has a more cooperative focus than previous games of this nature, as it is not only important to kill the opposition but to also hold certain ''control points'' around the map. Control points allow players and vehicles to respawn; if enough are held, they also reduce the enemy's reinforcement pool. Unfortunately, the gameplay suffered from some serious issues such as: lack of spawn protection, team killers/griefers, various map and engine exploits, as well as a lack of team play mentality from players on public servers. Despite these setbacks, ''Battlefield 1942'' was one of the first mainstream games to represent a dramatic shift in FPS gameplay mentality, decreasing individualism in favor of teamwork and coordination. The default gameplay mode, Conquest, centers on the capture and control of control points; once a team captures a control point, its members can Respawn from it. When a team loses control of all their control points, they cannot respawn. And if no one is alive, the team with no "spawn" points loses. Games are composed of rounds. A team wins the round when the other team runs out of tickets. A team loses tickets when its members are killed, but also when the other team holds a majority of the capture points on a map. Therefore, sometimes the winning team must hunt down straggling or hiding enemy forces at the end of a round. On rare occasion, with one team holding all of the available spawn points on a map and with a few enemy forces left loose, the spawnless team can manage to re-capture a spawn point and give their team another slim chance for a round victory. However, this is unlikely because the newly recovered forces will probably have fewer tickets remaining and will definitely have fewer resources available than the 'winning' team; typically in this scenario the stronger team's victory is merely delayed as the sheer weight of their tickets, team and available equipment (air power, extra tanks from all the owned spawn points, etc) is no match for the 'losing' team which probably has little or no resources. On some maps, controlling all available spawn points is impossible because it is configured to be a defensive map. In such a map, one team tries to defend as many spawn points as possible, and the other tries to capture all of the defending team's spawn points. The attacking team can also try to slowly drain the defending team's tickets by holding certain spawn points and not attacking in full force. This however, is less likely to result in a victory. Another map configuration that prevents total ownership of all spawn points is where both teams posses a permanent, uncapturable base ( Battleaxe , for example); unfortunately these maps easily lead to Spawn Camping (the map Kursk is especially prone to this), especially after one team captures all the points that are capturable and the other team is confined to their base. Spawn tickets also play a vital role in the success of both teams. Every time a player on a team dies and respawns, his team loses one ticket. Every team starts each round with between 150 and 300 tickets, depending on the team's role (e.g., defense). Teams also gradually lose tickets depending on how many spawn points they control. As a general rule, the less spawn points controlled by a team, the more tickets they lose. For a team of 32 on a 64 player map, with 150 tickets, this means a little less than 5 respawns or deaths on average for every player if they hold their starting spawn points. Roles The player can choose to play as either the Axis powers or the Allied powers. The Axis consists of Germany and Japan, while the Allies consist of the USSR, Britain and America. Regardless of which nation is chosen, the player can play as one of five kinds of infantry: Scout, Assault, Medic, Anti-tank, and Engineer. Each role has its own strength and weakness. For example, the scout has long-range surveillance, high firepower and the ability to provide spotting for artillery shelling against an enemy position; however, the sniper rifle is not efficient in close-quarter combat and players frequently treat this role as just a plain Sniper role by not providing Spotting for artillery. Assault is the standard soldier, and provides both aggressive firepower and the ability to combat vehicles. The Anti-tank soldier specializes against vehicles and tanks, but is rendered almost useless against enemy infantry. The Medic has the ability to heal, but his Sub-machine Gun has less firepower than an assault rifle. The Engineer can repair vehicles, and deploy explosives (effective against both enemy infantry and vehicles) and Landmines which completely destroy enemy vehicles. Music The theme music for Battlefield 1942 has been sampled at one time or another in its sequels . The theme has been deemed popular enough to be included as a piece played by several gaming-related orchestras, including Play! A Video Game Symphony . DEVELOPMENT ''Battlefield 1942'' was built on the formula of the less successful '' Codename Eagle '' computer game, set in an Alternate History World War I . It featured single and multiplayer modes. The earlier Refractor 1 engine had more arcade-style physics and a less realistic focus than its successor, Refractor 2 , which was used in ''BF1942''. A Macintosh-compatible version of ''BF1942'' was also made and released by Aspyr Media in mid-2004. EXPANSION PACKS The creators of ''Battlefield 1942'' have released battles and ''Secret Weapons Of WWII'' focuses on prototype, experimental, and rarely used weapons. It adds downloadable Patches , fixes Bugs in the game, and it adds some extra content (such as the aforementioned Battle of Britain map). MILESTONES
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