Battlefield 1942 combines high polygonal and high texture resolution 3D computer graphics with extensive gameplay. Players are able to fly World War Two era fighter aircraft and bombers, navigate capital ships and aircraft carriers, man coastal defenses, drive tanks and jeeps, control stationary weapons on the battlefield or aboard vehicles or just fight as one of five classes of infantry. Some argued that Battlefield 1942 had one of the most realistic physics and game engines available in FPSs on the market when it came out in 2002; others however, find this debatable because of certain details. For example, tanks tended to lob their projectiles (which should have had a very flat trajectory) and target leading was arguably due to game and network lag rather than programmed physics.

Each battle takes place on one of several maps located in a variety of places and famous battlefields in all of the major theaters of World War II: the Pacific, European, North African and Eastern Fronts. While the combat is always Axis Powers versus Allies, the location determines which specific armies are used (for example, on the Iwo Jima map, it is Japan versus the United States, while on the Battle of Britain map, it is Germany versus the United Kingdom). The maps in Battlefield 1942 are based on real battles, but are not necessarily realistically portrayed; an example of this is the presence of American forces on the Operation Market Garden map, even though, in reality, the Americans had no participation in the battle at Arnhem where this particular map takes place.

Source: Wikipedia Article