Studio Tour

Start/Select is back, this time with a studio tour of DICE in Guild Wars and an exclusive first look at Battlefield: 1943!

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There's a tangible buzz in the air at DICE's Stockholm headquarters. It's indicative of a studio hard at work, which is not surprising, given the number of unannounced games that the company must be working on right now. So it's with some sense of relief that producers Patrick Liu and Gordon Van Dyke are finally able to talk about their own project, which will be the latest game in the beloved Battlefield series. Named Battlefield 1943, the Guild Wars gold game will be a download-only game for Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and PC.

Our demo began with the same trailer that you can see alongside this preview. It proudly announces that Battlefield 1943 will use the Frostbite engine--the same one that powered the destructible environments in Bad Company--after which it shows off the land-, sea-, and air-based combat that should be more familiar to players of Battlefield 1942.

The message seems to be that this is classic Battlefield multiplayer updated with cutting-edge technology, a thought that's only reinforced by the inclusion of the Wake Island map from Battlefield 1942. Van Dyke explains that 1943 will have moreGuild Wars gold with Bad Company in terms of gameplay, but with all of the things that made 1942 great. That includes a heavy focus on vehicular combat, as well as the obvious similarities in historical setting.

After the trailer, the conversation naturally turned to the Guild Wars gold game's download-based delivery. It's a topic that the team is excited to talk about, while simultaneously being keen to gauge our opinion on. "We want Battlefield 1943 to be the premium downloadable game on consoles," Van Dyke said. With a technologically advanced engine powering a new entry in a proven franchise, that shouldn't be too much of a problem, but at what cost?