Electronic Arts sends along four images showing some of the new vehicles in The Road to Rome, the expansion pack for Battlefield 1942 which was announced today. Also, the official BF1942 site has been updated with a new community message. Patch slightly delayed, next week now.

Electronic Arts today officially announced the Road to Rome expansion pack for Battlefield 1942, a few days after the product description already showed up at EBGames.com (story). As mentioned before, there are new maps, new vehicles and new weapons. The expansion is due out early 2003.

Some interesting news on EBGames today. At times EB pulls a random game release date out of their ass, but this time they have an entire product description for Battlefield 1942: Road to Rome, supposedly the first expansion pack for Digital Illusion's popular vehicular WW2 action game. If true, we'll get more maps, more vehicles, more weapons and more. Here are a few of the listed additions.

- Six new maps from the Sicilian and Italian campaigns including Operation Husky (Sicily), and the battles for Anzio and Monte Cassino.
- Eight new vehicles including the German BF-110 and British Mosquito fighter bombers.
- Two new fighting forces including the French legionnaires and Italian forces.
- Three new hand-held weapons including a rifle grenade launcher, the British Sten SMG and bayonets.

It would be nice if we get a patch fixing the damn client prediction first though. Thanks GameSpy Daily.

There is a minimal new community update at the official Battlefield 1942 website. The 1.2 patch is still coming "soon", while the Linux server has been slightly delayed to incorporate the changes from 1.2. In addition to that there's a list of links to user-created mods. Thanks timm.

A new Battlefield 1942 update is up at EA's official site for the game. This time there's a list of all the changes in the 1.2 patch. Thanks {Venger}.

The Battlefield 1942 official website has a list of issues that they are addressing in the upcoming 1.2 patch. Some small frustrations with the Linux server they are working on (I'm confused, how can Linux be frustrating? We use it on Shack and it's easily the most userfriendly OS ever created.. ok ok stay on topic.. stay on topic...) Here's some of the stuff:

We're balancing what needs to be fixed versus what we can fix promptly. So, some of the things we're looking at fixing:  - General Stability   - Remote Console  - Sound bugs  - Map load times  - Grenade effectiveness versus tanks  - Map editor

Cheating
We're committed to making BF1942 as cheat-free as possible. Because most of the game calculations are handled on the server, people using cheats are finding it very difficult to profit from them. In fact, watching someone try the Speed Hack is just plain comedic. "C'mon soldier! Fire that gun! FIRE!!! Now...RELOAD!" LOL. In any event... we at EA and DICE will make you this pledge: If you find a cheat, send it to us and we'll do everything in our power to negate its effect in the game. Everyone deserves a fair game, right?

As always, you can grab up the multiplayer and singleplayer demos of BF1942 @ Fileshack

There is a new Battlefield 1942 interview on Computer & Video Games, asking EA producer Ken Balthaser about future updates to the game. Balthaser states EA is definitely going to support this game for a long time instead of releasing another patch and then moving on. Here's what he had to say about soldier combat hit detection, which many people are not really happy with.

...So you're looking to improve foot soldier combat in the future?
Balthaser: Getting the feel nailed down for the weapons in a first-person shooter is one of the hardest things to do. I knew this coming into the project and I made it one of the top three areas we must succeed in in order to have the product succeed. So, this is now one of my highest priorities - to get the handheld weapons fixed up as soon as possible - especially the close combat. We're working on it. The new patch may have some new hit detection code working - I wont know until I fully test it though.

Net code improvement is mentioned as well, check it all out here.

The official Battlefield 1942 website has been updated, mentioning what's planned for this popular action game now that it has been out for a few weeks. A Linux server, a new patch ("The 1.2 patch will address many of the issues which have been brought up on the forums and boards concerning bandwidth optimization, client prediction tweaking and general stability"), and mod tools are on their way. Thanks wolfwood1.

For most people in the US Battlefield 1942 should be available in your local software store or if you delivered the game it should have shown up at your door by now. Seeing as though so many folks around here feel that sliced bread has been replaced by BF1942 as the best thing ever, here's your thread dedicated to what the full game is like, your experiences with it so far.. and any possible trouble shooting. Oh yes, and the mandatory patch/demo links:

Retail:
- v1.1 patch
Demo:
- Multiplayer demo
- Multiplayer v1.1 patch
- Singleplayer demo

So... thoughts?

Battlefield 1942 was supposed to show up today on most retail shelves, but a lot of people are reporting their local stores have told them it will be out tomorrow or perhaps Saturday in most cases. So check your stores then. In the mean time, EA has sent along the v1.1 update as well as the retail v1.1 dedicated server files for you guys to grab ahead of time if you're planning on picking it up. Here you go, via FileShack of course:

- Retail v1.1 patch
- Retail v1.1 dedicated server

Battlefield 1942, which seems to be quite the pleasant surprise for multiplayer around these parts has been confirmed as gone gold by Gone Gold after speaking with an EA pr dude. The game should be in stores September 12.

- Playable multiplayer demo @ FileShack
- Playable singleplayer demo @ FileShack
- Game screenshots
- Official website
- Celebration of ATI Radeon 9700

important note: If you tweak your refresh rates, make sure to drop to 60hz when playing the multiplayer demo, a cool bug is in there that wacks stuff out if you dont.