The long awaited follow up to the excellent Battlefield 1942 see Dice implement the Frostbite engine used on 'Bad Company' to create Battlefield 1943.

Battlefield 1943 is an online purchase only. I paid 1200 Microsoft points (£10) but it is now 800 and was recently on special offer at only 400 points. A must buy at that price.

Dice released this to tide Battlefield fans over till Bad Company 2 is released but i've never been a fan of modern war gaming prefering the ww2 scenarios. The game only has 4 maps at the moment with no signs of any downloadable content at the time of writing. The maps are Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Wake Island and the all plane map Coral Sea.

I can honestly say 4 months or so after purchase I still play the game all the time. At the beginning I thought 4 maps would make for very limited game lifetime. The graphics are beautiful if a bit cartoonish and almost everything can be destroyed on the maps. I particularly like the fact that if a building is destroyed it stays burning so you can use smoke as a bit of cover.

The usual classes are available but Dice have added bombers to the game which have had mixed reviews. When you first play the game you are given an online game amongst those at the same skill level so there is a tendency for new players to sit by the bomber shelter and repeatedly call in air strikes. When you get better you will find there will be a better online experience - better players tend not to use the air raids repeatedly and there is less mucking around which can spoil a game totally.

There is an offline tutorial which I would recommend all new players take. The plane is fairly easy to fly in Battlefield 1943 as compared to its predecessor.

A word of warning for anyone who uses AOL as their ISP, it has been reported there are some issues getting online to the EA servers.

Battlefield 1943 does not try to be Modern Warfare, and as a result it is a fun easy to pick up action game and not to be missed.

My only gripe is the lack of additional maps, which most Battlefield 1943 players would be only too happy to pay for as downloadable content. Also the use of Xbox headsets isn't used that well and is only useful in a custom created match between friends. All too often you hear some random mumblings from team-mates rather than the intended tactical use of it.