One heck of a game of soldiers

Battlefield 1943 is our current favourite drop-in, drop-out game on console. No wonder it's breaking all download records.

It's been a long day. Your partner has sloped off to bed. You're not tired, not yet, but you do have an early start in the morning. Okay, let's say 15 minutes in Battlefield 1943, or just 15 or 20, until you get a promotion... Okay, half an hour to take your mind off things, until your eyes are tired. Until you finish on the team that wins. One hour, tops. Yeah right, if only!

Battlefield 1943 is the fastest selling download-only game for Xbox 360 and PS3. Combined sales across the two platforms topped over 600,000 within 14 days after making its debut. It is the fastest selling day one and week one title on Xbox LIVE Marketplace worldwide, and the fastest selling day one and week one title on the North American PlayStation Network.

It only takes a few rounds of Pacific Theatre WWII gameplay to understand why. Small wonder that frenzied fans have claimed over 43 million kills within days.

Costing £9.99 on PlayStation 3, 1200 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360, the 559MB download takes minutes to arrive but presentation-wise is at least on equal terms to many full-price boxed games at retail. But its true genius is the rapid-fire, totally free-form gameplay that casts you as an infantry man, rifle man or scout as either the Japanese Imperial Army or US Marine Corps. Also that the people playing it seem perfectly happy to live and let live, you're not expected to perform like a first-person-shooting genius, just do your part for as long as you can.

The 24-player battles taking place across Wake Island, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Coral Sea are over with quickly, but always leave you feeling a sense of something epic. You'll recognise opportunities to become a hero almost every minute, seizing tanks or driving jeeps to rush down enemy troops in order to raise your country's flag.

After a few sessions of playing this ultimate game of soldiers, you recognise that the Digital Illusions / Electronic Arts play testing team left no stone unturned. It's as solid as a rock, and does indeed set a new standard for downloadable games.

It could be too soon to say that the value of 1200 MSP and £9.99 must now be re-assessed across Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network, because after all WWII shooters are not to everybody's taste. But it'll certainly make us think twice about spending similar amounts on character costumes and revamped 1980s arcade games.

If you haven't yet checked out the Battlefield 1943 demo yet, we strongly suggest that you do.