No public beta for Battlefield 1943

EA DICE producer Gordon Van Dyke has said a trial version of Battlefield 1943 will be offered to compensate for the lack of a public beta - an inevitability on Xbox Live Arcade, but not always so on PlayStation Network. So that's good news.

"No beta, but we have a trial version that lets you confirm what you already thought - that this game is the best USD 15 I will ever spend!" Van Dyke told Eurogamer readers during a Live Text Q&A.

He wouldn't budge on the "summer" date for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network versions of Battlefield 1943, but the overseeing PR announced that the PC version will arrive later, in September.

Battlefield 1943 re-imagines Battlefield 1942, and trims the classes and maps down to three to promote accessibility. A fourth map, Coral Sea, will be unlocked after a combined 43 million kills by XBLA players for that version and PSN players for that. Van Dyke reckons this will take about two weeks. The PR, however, reminded us that this is in your hands.

There are no "concrete plans" for future content, producer Patrick Liu added, and the unlockable nature of Coral Sea was a "spontaneous" idea.

Battlefield 1943, unlike the expansive key instalments in the series, will tend towards arcade and cartoon-style action over realism. Suicide jeeps laden with explosives can be jimmied into choke points, for example, and pilots can drop bombs on other planes. Snipers can even pick off targets while parachuting, before plunging a knife into someone upon landing.

Squads can be created both before a game and during, and simple attack/defend orders given. Voice chat between squads is supported but, in Battlefield 1943, clans are not.

EA DICE is also working on Battlefield 3, but wouldn't offer any further details.

Battlefield 1943 costs 1200 Microsoft Points (GBP 10.20 / EUR 14.40) from Xbox Live Arcade, and USD 15 (GBP 9) from the PlayStation Store - although the actual pound-price is likely to be higher.