Samuel: Hi, my name is Samuel. How may I help you?
Brandon: hi, I just bought my son Battlefield 1943 for Xbox 360, and when connecting to EA servers after accepting the Terms of Service, it just sticks at "connecting…"
Brandon: we’ve owned the game for 2 hours now and he’s still not able to play
Brandon: I just need to link his Xbox 360 gamertag and his EA account
Samuel: Alright.
Samuel: In order to assist you with this issue, we need the following information:
Your EA .com account name: (The e-mail address)
Gamer Tag / PSN ID:
Email address on which you want to link your Gamer tag / PSN ID:
Email address listed on your Gamer tag / PSN ID:
Date of Birth listed on the account:
Zip Code:
Brandon: EA account: (hidden)
Brandon: gamertag: (hidden)
Brandon: email for gamertag is also: (hidden)
Brandon: dob on what account? EA or xbox?
Brandon: zip code (hidden)
Samuel: Thank you and please allow me a moment while I check this for you.
Samuel: Thank you for your patience.
Samuel: I appreciate it.
Brandon: no problem, I just want to get this fixed
Samuel: checked the records but I was unable to find any information about the Gamertag. Please provide us with the correct name of your Gamertag so that we may assist you in the best possible way. However, if your Gamertag name is correct though sometimes it doesn’t display in our records. In order to merge your Gamertag properly with your EA account, please follow the below given steps and get back to us.
1. Go the Xbox live marketplace.
2. Download any demo game available there.
3. Start the demo and choose the "Multiplayer > Xbox Live" option
4. At the EA Login/Register screen, put in your EA account name (email address) and password.
5. Read and accept the Terms and service.
6. Exit the demo.
Brandon: that’s the problem!
Brandon: none of the games work!
Brandon: they are all say that cant connect to EA servers
Samuel: Yes it is and after performing these steps get back to us and we would link that for you.
Brandon: the only game that appears to work in Bad Company 2, but it wont let me do it on his account because its a child account
Samuel: Is there anything else that I may assist you with today?
Brandon: nor will it work for Fight Night Round 4
Brandon: because hes a child account
Brandon: tell me what game can I download to fix this?
Samuel: Any demo EA game available there.
Brandon: all the ones I’ve downloaded say "cant connect to EA servers"
Brandon: I’ve tried with face breaker, battlefield 1943, battlefiled bad company 2, fight night round 4
Brandon: what more do I have do try?
Samuel: That is it and get back to us after performing this.
Brandon: I DID THOSE STEPS
Brandon: IT DOESNT WORK
Brandon: NONE OF THE GAMES WORK
Brandon: THATS WHY IM TALKING TO YOU NOW
Brandon: IVE BEEN DOWNLOADING DEMOS AND TRYING TO FIX IT FOR 2 HOURS
Brandon: I’ve done those exact steps you listed
Brandon: they are listed on your support site
Brandon: I did them EXACT with 4 different games
Brandon: none of the games connect

Samuel: Okay then please provide me your EA Account e-mail address and gamer tag that you want to connect.
Brandon: EA account email: (hidden)
Brandon: Xbox gamer tag: (hidden)
Samuel: Please be inform you that I have linked the gamer tag from my end.
Brandon: okay let me try to connect
Samuel: Sure.
Samuel: Since I am not receiving any response from you I have to end this session.
Samuel: Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts support today.
Samuel has disconnected.

So he left while I was testing the connection on Aidan’s Xbox… and guess what? Shit still isn’t fixed.

FUCK YOU EA

I decided to check out the demo on Xbox 360. Wait… what? People had to fight tooth and nail to get a beta key for the PC but everyone and their retarded mother could download the demo for Xbox 360? BTW the beta and the demo are exactly the same thing. Whatever. Some people I knew had already downloaded it so we rounded up the gang and deployed for battle.

Team Play

The Battlefield franchise has always proved to be a great gaming experience, but I think they’ve done an extraordinarily great job with this latest release. In general, DICE has managed to once again encourage teamwork. They don’t force it down your throat and you can be as independent as you want in the game, but still you find yourself working with squad members almost automatically. Many of the vehicles require a second person to fully utilize, and you’re rewarded with experience for helping teammates. A few points for healing this person, some more for giving ammo, or even targeting enemies. All of which is normally increased if you do the same for a squad member.

The Environment

The levels are nothing less than beautiful. Everything is destructible and structures can even collapse if you blow them up in the right places (which makes for a really cool way to kill people). You can find yourself sprinting across and open area and into a house where you think you’re safe, only to have a wall or three blown open by a tank…  exposing you and your squad and filling your pants with shit. They added enough details  to provide places for hiding and flanking around enemies, yet the maps aren’t cluttered or crowded. You’ll also find great visual effects like sand clouds and fog and bloom and whatever else the level needs to help bring the world to life. But I think more than anything you find the most pleasure in seeing the destruction. A match starts and there is a completely intact city in front of you. Piece by piece the entire thing gets blown to tiny bits. Its awesome when you find some dickwads camping in an attic, sniping down on a group of your friends like a turkey shoot. Instead of risking your neck trying to sneak up on them from the stairs, you just blow a fucking hole in the roof and kill the sons of bitches.

Weapons and Unlocks

What can I really say… the weapons look great, sound great and respond fairly realistically. They didn’t bother over exaggerating inaccuracies and such. Most weapons just fire where you shoot them. Sure if you spam and spray the recoil will kick your ass, but that’s what you get for shooting like an idiot. You have to invest a little bit of time into each class, but each one has its own set of weapons and other unlocks that come pretty quick if you score decent.

Not only do you unlock weapons but you unlock gadgets. I won’t go into detail on all these because there are already tons of sites you can find that have more information than I feel like typing.

Classes

As you can see in the chart above, the classes are pretty standard: Assault, Engineer, Medic and Recon.

Assault is your run-of-the-mill trigger happy bastard with an assault rifle, gun mounted and hand thrown explosives, and provides his team with ammo.

Engineer is your demolitions expert, sub machinegun wielding Mr. Fix-it. He shoots rockets at the enemy tanks but fixes friendly vehicles.

Medic is the huge gun carrying guy who can heal and revive teammates.

Recon is the dude who sits way back with an excessively overpowered rifle, blasting away at enemies and calling in mortar strikes.

Vehicles

Oh yea… what’s Battlefield without vehicles? This game does not let you down. Tanks, UAVs, helicopters, Hummers, mounted weapons and ATVs. They all pretty much fucking rock. The tanks blow shit up, Apaches terrorize EVERYTHING and the ATVs are the ultimate flanking vehicle. Each one has its strengths and weakness and are balanced pretty well. Except for the Apache. If you get a good pilot in there with a good gunner… all hell breaks loose! Once again you’re going to find much more information on other sites, so I won’t bother.

Conclusion

Get. This. Game. You won’t regret it. When you get to the multiplayer games I highly recommend playing each class and unlocking their basic items first. It sucks being Assault and not being able to resupply ammo, or Medic and unable to revive people. I will warn you that at first you’ll be pretty frustrated because everyone has unlocked stuff like the Magnum Ammo (every gun does more damage) or body armor or shit like that. You feel weak in comparison to everyone. But just grind through it and soon you’ll be unlocking stuff too and kicking major ass.

I rate this game 2 cookies + win.