I'm pretty sure this will be my multiplayer game next year. This was surprisingly fun! I was going in with the expectation that it would be very similar to BF 1943, but the only thing they have in common is the engine.

I'm very impressed with the "feel" of everything. The guns have a great sense of kick, and great sounds. The game seems to reward you for burst firing, flanking, and advancing with great care. You can only take a few hits before dying. Despite that, it is very much an arcade-y shooter, though, so don't come into this expecting PR mod.

There are four classes: Assault, Engineer, Medic, and Recon (sniper). Medic still seems to be "points-whore" class, which most of the people in the server seemed to be playing. The medic has a LMG, which makes him sort of a powerhouse brute charging forward with a 100-round magazine. I easily got the top score on my team playing as medic and doing a lot of revives and tossing medpacks, and going 28-17 KDR.

I tried every class except for the Recon class, and felt each was useful. I think they might have to do some balancing to make the RPG more deadly to vehicles, since it seems to take 3 or 4 to bring down an MBT, and the medic will definitely need some tuning since it's so easy to be a one man wrecking crew. Medic should probably get an assault rifle instead of an LMG.

I haven't gotten a chance to try any of the vehicles, except for the heavy tanks (M1A1 and T90). The tanks can soak up a lot of damage, but a team that keeps a few engineers with RPGs, in addition to its tanks, won't have much trouble with tanks that advance too quickly.

There's a rewards and unlocks system in the beta, and it only took me three rounds to advance to level 10 and unlock several weapons, including the SAW and M1911. Weapons unlocks, levels, and rewards come very quickly, and you're almost always earning some sort of achievement during matches, at least in the early game.

The graphics leave something to be desired. Aesthetically, they look great, but the bloom effect is way too bright. I've messed with the brightness and contrast in-game as well as on my TV, and it still seems blinding sometimes - especially when you exit buildings. The shadows are very jaggy, although I'm aware PS3 doesn't really do proper anti-aliasing. Still, no excuse for the humongous shadow textures. The guns also don't look very good, especially from the third person perspective.

I hope to see some of you in the beta, it's a lot of fun. This will certainly be my main shooter in 2010, and I don't think it would be a far stretch to say this is a spiritual successor to BF2.