If you're looking for a cheap downloadable shooter to play with friends this summer, you could do a lot worse than Battlefield 1943. The download-only game, based on the original Battlefield 1942, features up to 24 player (two teams of 12) capture-the-flag rounds on one of three maps. A fourth map (unlocked for players shortly after the game's release) puts you in the cockpit of a fighter plane to dogfight over the Pacific.

Each of the three classes (Infantry, Rifleman and Scout) is equipped with two guns, a melee weapon and an explosive -- no other unlockable weapons or perks are available. But what Battlefield 1943 lacks in depth it makes up for in variety -- in a given round, we could man a tank, sneak up to enemy lines through foliage, shoot down planes with anti-aircraft guns or just help capture/defend flags. We could also pick up the gear of a downed enemy or teammate to switch classes on the fly. The wealth of choices available in each session prevented the game from getting stale even with limited maps and weapons.

Battlefield 1943's fast-action and easy-to-learn controls have turned it into the best $15 you can spend.

The maps themselves are well-designed and look great -- Wake Island and Guadalcanal's blue skies and green palms are welcome sights in a genre we almost always see in browns and grays. Trenches, destructible and indestructible buildings, hills and trees open up multiple sniping, camping and hiding spots. The islands are large and slightly tedious to handle on foot, but the availability of jeeps, tanks and planes made it easier to get to the front lines after being killed. Battlefield 1943 also lets you spawn at a friendly captured flag or on a teammate, cutting down on time spent simply running from point A to point B.

During the first few weeks of the game's availability, gamers frequently found themselves unable to connect to EA servers. Since then, the issues -- likely due to an unexpectedly high number of downloads (EA reported that over 600,000 people downloaded the game) -- have largely been resolved, although every once in a while, we still found ourselves kicked off mid-game (fixed by signing out then into our account again).

We'd also occasionally join a game and find that some of the textures were clipping, although the game usually resolved these issues on its own within a few seconds.

Bugs aside, Battlefield 1943 is exactly the kind of game we like during the summer months -- not deep enough to play for an entire year (and at $15 a pop, would you expect to?) but entertaining enough to tide you and your friends over until the fall's A-list releases.