Recently, the developers of
Battlefield 1943 (EA DICE) released a small sampling of new screenshots. From these simple screenshots of the game, quite a bit can be discovered. Below is an expansive screenshot which is a prime example of this.
Be sure to click on this image to view it in its full 1240x698 gloryIn the screenshot we see two American M4 Sherman tanks (one in the foreground and one in the extreme right of the image), a single Japanese Zero fighter aircraft in the upper right, one American Corsair fighter aircraft in the rear left, one American Jeep transport in the center left, and finally one American soldier armed with a trusty Thompson sub-machine gun supporting the central tank. All in all, that is an astounding 5 vehicles and one infantryman displayed in one quite impressive screenshot.
One of the first things that is easily noticeable about this screenshot is that the Japanese Zero fighter aircraft is on fire. From this we can infer that
Battlefield 1943 will utilize familiar vehicular damage mechanics similar to those found in almost all other games in the established
Battlefield series.
The system is simple. Like a soldier, all vehicles have a specific amount of health/armor. When a brand new vehicles is spawned on the battlefield, it will have a full health/armor bar. The remaining armor/hit points of the vehicle you are currently riding in is typically displayed as a bar in the bottom of the screen.
The red arrows denote the location of the vehicle armor bar in Battlefield 1942. And the answer is yes, I did destroy that enemy tank with only one well-placed shot.So when you first start out with that brand new tank, it has 100% health. But as you travel the map in your vehicle it will almost certainly sustain combat damage. Damage comes from two sources, the enemy and the objects in the map. Bad driving will damage your vehicle. Ramming into walls or barriers, speeding over difficult terrain too fast, hitting other vehicles, driving off cliffs, or being hit by any type of enemy fire will damage your vehicle to some degree.
Players of the Battlefield series have trashed hundreds of thousands of virtual vehicles as a result of bad driving. Often times the results are quite amusing.All vehicles have different armor attributes. For example, a main battle tank can usually sustain two or three hits from a rocket launcher before being destroyed, while a lightly armored jeep will often be completely destroyed after just one.
Vehicles also give visual clues as to what degree they are damaged. New vehicles look very nice. After they have lost around 30% to 40% of their initial health, they will begin to emit a smoking animation. Light gray smoke for light damage. As the amount of damage a vehicles sustains increases, so does the intensity of the smoking animation it gives off. A heavily damaged vehicle will emit nasty black smoke in great quantities.
A moderately damaged Sherman tank in Battlefield 1942. Note the smoke effects and damaged vehicle health bar.Eventually, when a vehicles has sustained critical damage (usually around 15%-10% of the initial health remaining), it will catch on fire. The fire animation will slowly reduce the vehicles health down to zero at which point it explodes. Once your vehicles is on fire, its time to bail out and run for the hills. That is exactly the situation the Zero pilot in this screenshot finds himself in. He should parachute out right away or face certain death. Of course, if he wanted to have some fun he could have rammed his plane into the enemy tanks on the ground for a comical kamikaze attack.
Another interesting highlight of this screenshot is the fact that the American Jeep in the background features a mounted machine gun. This is not surprising as all the recent Battlefield games have had armed light transport vehicles. The heavy machine gun bolted to the back of the Jeep will be a powerful weapon in the hands of an experienced player. The gun can be used for harassing enemy aircraft, mowing down enemy infantry, or to provide covering fire. The Jeep is intended to be a three player vehicle, with one driver, one passenger, and one gunner. But it can be used effectively by one player. By switching between the driver and gunner positions, a single player can turn the jeep into a mobile heavy machine gun platform. The Jeep has always been a favorite vehicles in
Battlefield games due to its high speed and agility, and it looks like the trend will continue!
One final piece of information that this screenshot reveals is that the machine gun mounted on the top of tanks will be equipped with a heavy front shield. Both the American and Japanese tanks in
Battlefield 1943 will be equipped with a machine gun above the turret. This secondary machine gun is not controlled by the tank driver, but instead by an entirely different player. This second player will have a superior view of the battlefield, but he is only partially protected by a single flimsy shield. This is an improvement from
Battlefield 1942 however, as in that game there was absolutely no shielding or protection for tank spotters/machine gunners.
The tank machine gunner is basically the perfect target for a sniper. At least in Battlefield 1943 he will be slightly protected by a small metal shield in the front. Not that it will help much.Be sure to keep checking Game Replays for all the latest
Battlefield 1943 news and for the analysis of future screenshots. Have an awesome
Battlefield 1943 screenshot? Send it to one of your staff members by personal message or post it up in a thread for review!
