Battlefield Vietnam goes gold

Those Swedish geniuses at Digital Illusions have finished work on Battlefield Vietnam, according to a certain Mr. E Arts who emailed this morning (we think he's a relative), and the long awaited multiplayer amalgam of Apocalypse Now/Platoon/etc now looks certain to debut on target on March 19th. As ever, the US is being unilaterally impatient about the matter - the game is out over there on the 15th.

We've only seen one review of BF Vietnam thus far, which appeared in PC Gamer UK. You're probably wondering how that's possible since the game only just went gold, but the truth is EA generally sends out extremely polished near-final review code quite a way ahead of release, and I wouldn't be too worried about disparities as a result - they played almost exactly what you will. Their verdict, then? Well, having confirmed everyone's suspicions that it is, for want of a better description, a "glorified expansion pack", the text goes on to praise the format and the game in virtually everything it does - singling out the Apocalypse Now-inspired Air Cavalry/Wagner charge - and calls it the best Vietnam game so far. 82 per cent. The review can be found in the current March 2004 issue.

We'll be taking our own look at Battlefield Vietnam closer to the 19th when more folks have wandered online. And when we have a copy (hint hint, Mr Arts!). However it's going to be a busy week for PC owners, what with Unreal Tournament 2004 and long overdue Raven Shield expansion Athena Sword both also due out that Friday, and Ubisoft's critically acclaimed FPS Far Cry out the following weekend. That's right, I said "a busy week for PC owners". Rejoice!