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Battlefield 1942 Franchise Goes To Vietnam

Posted by simoniker on from the next-up-battlefield-earth dept.

Thanks to several readers for pointing to the Electronic Arts press release announcing Battlefield Vietnam is in development for the PC. This new title in the Battlefield 1942 franchise "..will drop players into some of the Vietnam Warâ(TM)s fiercest battles. Fighting in theatres from jungles surrounding the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the city streets of Hue, players will choose from two well-equipped forces, the United States or the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Vietcong." Hmm, seems like Vietnam-based combat games are a rather crowded genre suddenly - why now?

38 comments

  1. i guess. by cyrax777 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    its to get a jump on the mod teams that are allready working on a couple of viatnam mods. instead there going to make a standalone game.

  2. Why now? by The_dev0 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why now? Because we've all been watching war on our TV screens for the last little while, and it's much more fun to live vicariously through a virtual rendition one of the world's messiest wars in the comfort of your own home. I'm looking forward to this BF1942 is awesome fune, but I dont really like the WW2 theme that much. Bring it on, I say!

    --
    Never fight naked, unless you're in prison...
    1. Re:Why now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      try this

    2. Re:Why now? by The_dev0 · · Score: 1

      Hehehe...heheheh... THANKS!..heheheh.... c'mon, hurry up, download!!

      --
      Never fight naked, unless you're in prison...
  3. hmm by joFFeman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    maybe because with this new fraudulent war we're kind of reliving vietnam, and there's money in games based on the same type of combat, but companies worry about being 'distasteful' by releasing Kill Saddam: The Game at the moment.

    the unrelenting patriotism should soon give way to realization, disgust, and ultimately change- at least, i hope.

    --
    "Life is great; without it, you'd be dead." -Harmony Korine
    1. Re:hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah everyone will realize that killing people is wrong and go play simcity without ever using the disaster cheats.

    2. Re:hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're correct that parts of the war in Vietnam were fradulent. For instance, the anti-US left maintained that the war was a war of reunification, when in fact it was the first step in a campaign of genocide against the citizens of South Vietnam. I never did understand how the anti-US left had the moxie to justify the 're-education' (read: death) camps that the South Vietnamese were marched to by their 'Victorious Unifying Brothers From the North'. I do recall newspaper articles attacking the leadership of Nations who questioned the actions of Communist 'reunified' Vietnam's 'bold social engineering' (not a joke - such statements appeared in U.S. newspapers back then).

    3. Re:hmm by TenaciousPimple · · Score: 1
      companies worry about being 'distasteful' by releasing Kill Saddam: The Game at the moment

      Not all of them.

      The title's different than you suggested, but the idea's the same.

  4. BF Vietnam by zoobaby · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I heard about this a while back. There are already a few mods for BF that use Vietnam as a theme. However, they are not the greatest (better than I can do though). The BF engine is good and needs a few more tweaks, but this will be a very cool game and EA will suck another $50 from me.

  5. Eve of Destruction by FrenZon · · Score: 5, Informative

    Meanwhile, if you want to do the whole Vietnam war thing with the BF1942 engine, be sure to check out the excellent Eve of Destruction mod, which seems to have almost as many servers as vanilla BF. It's going to be hard for EA/Dice to compete with this.

    1. Re:Eve Of Destruction by josephgrossberg · · Score: 1

      "if EOD is complete before Battlefield Vietnam is released, it may severely impact sales of BFV....."

      Ever heard of marketing? Advertising?

      I've played BF1942 and enjoyed it greatly. I even downloaded a few mods (blood!). But until reading this Slashdot thread, I'd never heard of EoD.

      A little perspective, man: it does look great, but what percentage of BF1942 users even know EoD exists? 5%? 10%?

      Plus, a significant number of them (incl. me) would want to see the updated engine and official Vietnam scenarios, etc.

      "Severely impact sales"? Not likely.

      --

      Joe
      http://www.joegrossberg.com
    2. Re:Eve Of Destruction by Grand · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I actually think it would hurt the sales. One thing that EOD does right now with its maps, is make the game not so vehicle intensive. In mods like DC, if your not in a vehicle, your pretty much worthless (unless you have the stinger). Hense, half your team standing and waiting for planes on the airfeild. For me, it gets kind of old. EOD has 2 maps where there basically are no vehicles. Your in the jungle with your gun. And even with the maps with the heli's, they dont dont over power ground forces. Unlike in regurlar BF(planes) and DC heli's. The jungle is VERY dense which makes for a very different experience over any other mod and regular BF.

      From what it seems, EA likes to favor the vehicles over the actual running around with a gun. They have an expansion pack "secret weapons" which you get a a lot more vehicles to play with.

      And for not knowing about EOD, you must not go to ANY community websites for BF1942. ANY site that told a person about DC, would have listed EOD. And even while playing DC or BF, people are always mentioning different mods and what people think of them (from my experiences). And since you dont go to community websites (http://www.planetbattlefield.com/) is a good one.

    3. Re:Eve of Destruction by KU_Fletch · · Score: 1

      It's going to be hard for EA/Dice to compete with this.

      No it's not. The team of highly paid professional game designers will most likely win out against modders of their own game. Unless the team of modders suddenly aquires a professional PR department and publisher that is..

      --
      It's not stupid. It's advanced.
    4. Re:Eve Of Destruction by aliens · · Score: 1

      I'd say that BF Vietnam will have no problems, considering it will be using a new different rendering and sound system.

      That means much improved physics and models. Just watch the HL2 video from E3 to get yourself excited for a 64player game based on next gen engines.

      I'm drooling all over myself

      --
      -- taking over the world, we are.
  6. Eve Of Destruction by Vengeance_au · · Score: 5, Informative

    Eve Of Destruction (EOD) is a BF1942 Vietnam mod that has been released - its up to version .12, or as they say its "12% of what they expect the final version to play like". I've been playing it for a week now and its an excellent mod - you can tell its still got rough edges, however some of the EOD specific maps are particularly good, with dense forest fighting (something that BF1942 has none of) and great vehicles. Bonus marks for the music on loading :). I'm not sure what this announcement will do to/for this mod - I'm hoping it doesn't stop the development of an outstanding mod. EOD is already quite playable and enjoyable - if EOD is complete before Battlefield Vietnam is released, it may severely impact sales of BFV.....

  7. So.. by dr+ttol · · Score: 4, Funny

    When do we get the localized versions where each country plays as a member of that country..the americans can play as americans only and japanese can play as japanese, and when they fight, it's with real valor and honor?

  8. So ... by vrai · · Score: 5, Funny
    When do we get the localized versions where each country plays as a member of that country..the americans can play as americans only and japanese can play as japanese, and when they fight, it's with real valor and honor?

    Somehow I don't think this would sell very well in France or Italy ...

    1. Re:So ... by Type_O_Negative · · Score: 1

      Somewhere in France... "God dammit, where the hell is the 'hold on to my rifle instead of dropping it' key?"

    2. Re:So ... by Lord_Slepnir · · Score: 1

      I think the only people it would server are the Koreans and the Germans. The koreans because they have that reaction time such that 2ms after I've exposed one pixel, they're awped me twice and have the deagle out in case that didn't do the job. The Germans because they're the only nationality that consistently uses stratagy.

      It would be appropriate for the french to have a team, since Vietnam is the war we inherited from them

  9. VIETNAM! by grimani · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Awesome! Do we get to slaughter civilians too?

    It's about time we treated napalm as a real weapon in games.

    1. Re:VIETNAM! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah but it's realistic - you only get to slaughter civilians more than once if you are VC or NVA. If you're VC you're allowed to kill as many South Vietnamese people along with their families for the crimes of being a 'schoolteacher', or an 'elected official'. If you're NVA, you are allowed to torture U.S. POWs to death, and you're allowed to march the South Vietnamese Civilians, former VC fighters, and such to 'reeducation' (read: death) camps after the war itself is over. Kind of boring though - shooting stationary targets in the back of their heads as they kneel over their graves. You have to go into 'crouch' mode to kill the kids and that can get pretty tiresome.

      Oh, wait - I forgot I'm not allowed to talk like this. US = evil, Soviet/Sino backed communist agressors attacking South Vietnam = good. Back to your regularly scheduled slashdot geek revisionist history mantra.

  10. Re:Trendy investors (idiots, all of them) by C0LDFusion · · Score: 1

    Tell it, brotha! Fight the power!

    --
    Only in slashdot are posts of solidarity modded at -1 Redundant, while posts of antagonism are modded as -1 Flamebait.
  11. time machine ? by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 1

    What the hell ? If it's Battlefield 1942, why the hell would i want to fly missions in Vietnam ? Is this some sort of Orwell thing ?

    --

    In Soviet America the banks rob you!
    1. Re:time machine ? by T-Bear · · Score: 1

      I think that's the key, it *won't* be BF1942 any more, it'll be BFVietnam.

      I've been wondering where they were going with the franchise, they had to do something. BF1942 was a huge success, even bigger once they got their latency issues sorted out. Then with the first expansion they proved it. The second expansion will only continue to prove these things, but they're starting to run out of changes. I mean I suppose they could try to do more battles, more missions, etc, etc, but there's only so much you can milk out of one war.

      So they had to go somewhere else...

      --
      Brian
  12. Bandwagon? Huh? by Sandman1971 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hmm, seems like Vietnam-based combat games are a rather crowded genre suddenly - why now?

    Hmmm, let's see. BF1942 came out after quite a few popular WW2 based games had already been out (MOHAA, Return To Castle Wolfenstein, etc...). So now they announced a Vietnam game, whoopee! How is that any different than the original BF1942? I really wish /. editors would keep their comments to themselves, or at least keep em in the comments area, and not in the actual news post.

    (BTW, I'm really looking forward to BFVietnam. I absolutely love BF1942 and still play almost every day. Far superior game than MOHAA or RTCW).

    --
    It's better to burn out than to fade away
    1. Re:Bandwagon? Huh? by PainKilleR-CE · · Score: 1

      I think the reason for Vietnam games would simply be that it's the next obvious step, and is probably just becoming technologically feasible without being obnoxiously limited (ie the jungle missions in Rainbow 6).

      That, and the fact that some people don't even know anything about the Korean War (or maybe just the fact that the Korean War is becoming a little bit more touchy of an issue at the moment).

      We certainly saw a glut of WW2 games once all of the semi-realistic mods started becoming extremely popular, so it's only natural that everyone that's already built (or licensed) an engine for a WW2 game would go down the line of American wars to provide more cash cows to milk.

      --
      -PainKilleR-[CE]
    2. Re:Bandwagon? Huh? by realdpk · · Score: 2, Funny

      I know that if there's a Battlefield Korea, I will always choose to be a medic - those guys have all sorts of fun and wacky adventures!

  13. Is this in good taste? by Confessed+Geek · · Score: 2, Interesting


    I'm not sure. I'm not inherently opposed to the idea, but my first instinct is to say that the Vietnam war may not yet be appropriate subject matter. It was one of the most controversial conflicts in US history, and the veterans and victims of the conflict are still alive and active members of society. If the bias is towards the American viewpoint it could seriosly upset asian sales, if towards the Vietnamese then it would get slammed in the states. If they did the near impossible and made it unbiased, both sides would probably be offended.

    I fully support free speech and expression, especially in programming but are there some topics that that should be handled with kid gloves when being used for entertainment?

    1. Re:Is this in good taste? by danbeck · · Score: 1

      ...the Vietnam war may not yet be appropriate subject matter...

      What war is or isn't appropriate subject matter? War is hell, people die, sometimes the right people, sometimes the wrong people. War is hell, everyone knows this. Why is WWII somehow less of a hell than Vietnam was? Because a hippies protested? What a load of shite.

      And, just to be clear, veterans of WWII are also still alive. Do we dishonor them every day with our WWII movies, games and even scale model building? No, we don't.

      If they did the near impossible and made it unbiased, both sides would probably be offended.

      This is a video game. Not only is it very possible to make it balanced, it's almost 99% certain that it will. Who wants to play a game where only side can win?

      What really is the point of your post? Since something is controversial, we should just sweep it under the rug? Pretend it didn't happen? Walk around flagellating ourselves with whips to pay penance?

      Your kid gloves don't fit my hands.

    2. Re:Is this in good taste? by svallarian · · Score: 1

      I find it amusing that people only find conflicts that we lost as "inapproprate subject matter"

      Steven V.

      --
      I patented screwing your mom. But it got revoked for "prior art."
    3. Re:Is this in good taste? by Echnin · · Score: 1

      It won't be that difficult to make it balanced. I think they opt for fun and balance rather than realism in this manner. I initially had much of the same reaction as you; if there's any bias, it's going to piss off many people, including me. But I believe the developers are Swedish, and they're politically very neutral. And if it IS balanced, it shouldn't piss off anyone.

      I don't know what my living grandather (both were in concentration camps in WW2, one died three years ago this August) would say about my playing BF1942 either...

      The real difference between World War II and the Vietnam war is that the US pulled out, and the country has lived on. Just about the only place where Communism has really succeeded, from my observation.

      --
      Lalala
  14. Vietnam by Ese+L0C0 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I don't think that anyone has mentioned that it is gonna have a new 3d engine...not the same one that BF1942 uses....

    Plus passengers are able to shoot and aim there personal weapons from vehicles...like trucks and stuff.

    --
    jC - sweet sweet squirrel on sheet metal
  15. heh... by stimpy · · Score: 1

    "Do we get to win this time?" -- Rambo

  16. Whenever someone talks about Vietnam by Micro$will · · Score: 1

    I get flashbacks of this horror. No multiplay, no add-ons, and it contains only one kind of enemy, some sort of racist caracature of a Vietnamese. No wonder we lost that war, the gameplay sucked.

  17. I guess the kiddies at Electronic Arts don't.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...know jack about history. And I'm not talking about revisionist history either. A modicum of research will show anyone that the war was unjust, and that the only reason we (the U.S.) sent troops over was to stop a democratically held election because the front runner was a communist. That's right. Look it up.

  18. Since it's BF42 ... by Vanieter · · Score: 1

    What historical erros could they insert ?

    I mean, come on, in the demo, the Japanese had a Sturm Gewehr 44 (STG44), an extremely rare and expensive piece of hardware that was extremely powerful (many consider it the AK47's uncle) and avanced for its time.
    Wait.
    Most German soldiers never saw an STG of the war.
    My historical geek's heart is hurt everytime I see that.

  19. aircraft? by PaganRitual · · Score: 1

    i this one going to have aircraft? thats going to be interesting, but these aint your grandpas prop driven go-slo planes anymore ... we're talking f4 phantoms and early MiGs ... imagine being able to fly in a proper flight simulator style game against targets that were actual people on the ground ... just imagine the line up at the plane spawns for that type of thing :) also, if you can fly a phantom in BFV then ill go fill in a pre-order.