New Weapons, New Vehicles, New Choices

Here’s what you can add to your arsenal when you play these games.

Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII

Both sides get access to throwing knives, which deal the same damage as a regular knife but allow you to attack from afar. When you run out, you can reload from an ammo crate. Like the other new weapons and vehicles in the game, however, throwing knives aren’t available on every map.

Note that not all the vehicles and weapons in this game were unused during the war.

Allies: Weapons

• Remington Shotgun: All engineers get this six-shot rifle.
• Sten: This one is for the medic class. It holds 30 rounds and is much quieter than other machine guns.

• Bren Light Machine Gun: Useful against troops and aircraft. Carried by the new assault commando soldier class.

  Allies: Vehicles
• Armstrong Whitworth AW-52 Flying Wing: This imposing aircraft carries bombs and missiles and can attain speeds of 805 mph. There are no extra gun positions on the Flying Wing, however, and its wide wingspan means you need to watch yourself near buildings.
• Commando raft: This four-person water transport features slots for the driver, gunner and two passengers.
• C-47 cargo plane: When this plane appears on a map, any player on the Allied team can spawn inside it, even when it’s airborne. This allows you to deploy troops close to the battle, rather than have them travel over land. There’s a spot at the door for a gunner.
• McDonnell F-85 Goblin: This small, highly maneuverable fighter only holds one player but can fire four shots simultaneously from its forward machine guns.
• LVT-2 Water Buffalo: This odd-looking armored vehicle can travel over land or through water. It holds a driver, two gunners and two passengers, making it effective for deploying troops in any terrain.
• Sherman T-34: Take your basic Sherman tank and stick a T-34 rocket launcher on top. With 30 rockets at the gunner’s disposal, you can do quite a bit of damage.
• T-95: The heaviest tank ever produced by the U.S. Army, the T-95 sports a large cannon that’s highly effective against other tanks, along with a gunner position for eliminating nearby infantry. Anti-tank weapons have a very hard time destroying this beast.

• Harley-Davidson: This motorcycle includes a sidecar with a mounted machine gun for a second player.

  Axis: Weapons
• Mauser K98: Engineers score this grenade launcher that’s useful for keeping enemy troops at bay while you’re trying to set or defuse charges.
• Gewehr 43 ZF4: This scout’s sniper rifle features semi-automatic firing and a five-round clip, so you don’t have to reload after each shot. It comes in handy when you miss your target and he starts to run.

• Fallschirmjager Gewehr 42: Equipped with assault soldiers, this rifle was developed for paratroopers who needed something light but powerful during their missions.

  Axis: Vehicles
• Flakpanzer: This anti-aircraft tank offers room for a driver and a gunner who mans the flak gun on top. Watch out, that gun can overheat.
• Horton HO 229: This single-person aircraft features a machine gun and missiles.
• Natter: Another single-person plane, the Natter launches off a rail and flies until it runs out of fuel, at which time you’ll need to jump out and use the included parachute. Its 24 missiles can be fired rapidly.
• BMW: The Axis version of the Allies’ Harley-Davidson.
• Schwimmwagen: This amphibious jeep operates like the Allies’ Water Buffalo and offers a second gunner position but no passenger slots.
• Sturmtiger: Its massive cannon was designed specifically to take out enemy tanks. It doesn’t turn side-to-side very well, however, so you won’t be able to see an Allied soldier who has crept up next to it and dropped a few grenades.
• Wasserfall Rocket: You don’t actually get inside this rocket, but you can guide it after launch. You can drive it into something to make it explode or detonate it manually, but quickly make up your mind because it doesn’t have much fuel.
• Jetpack: You’ll only find this unique item on three maps: Kbely Airfield, Essen and Hellendoorn. Press the jump key to fire it and soar into the air, but it will overheat if you use it too much over a brief period of time.

Call of Duty: United Offensive

All players can now pick up and move deployable light machine guns that can be placed on the ground, windowsills and just about any other flat surface. In addition, the multi-player side of the game features satchel charges, which are bundles of dynamite that must be used like grenades but are more effective against vehicles, and smoke grenades that provide cover from the enemy. Satchel charges can be “cooked off” the same way grenades can.

United States Weapons:

• Browning .30 Caliber M1919A6 Deployable Light Machine Gun: This air-cooled weapon was typically set up on a tripod or a tank, where it could deal a lot of damage very quickly.

• 2.36-in Rocket Launcher, M1A1 “Bazooka”: An anti-tank weapon, the M1 was copied by the Germans after they secured some in Tunisia in 1943.

  Russian Weapons:
• Tokarev SVT-40: This rifle could be deadly, but many Russian troops weren’t well-trained in its use. It features both long range and high damage.
• Degtyarev-Pekhotny 28: In use since 1928, this bipod-mounted 7.62mm machine gun is very powerful.

• Tokarev TT-33: Russian engineers produced this handgun as an improvement on the American Colt-Browning pistol. While its range is short and it doesn’t inflict much damage, the Tokarev is useful in close quarters when you have nothing else at your disposal.

  United Kingdom Weapons:
• Silenced Sten Mk IIs: Designed to fire at a rapid rate but as silently as possible, the Sten was created and produced in 1940, as England found itself in the middle of a weapon shortage. It’s only useful at close range, however, and it doesn’t pack the same punch as many other machine guns.

• Webley Mk 4: This revolver is still used in many places around the world today. Like most handguns, it’s only good at close range, but this particular model produces high damage.

  Germany:
• Gewehr 43: This rifle was the result of German engineers examining captured Tokarev SVT-40s and incorporating its gas-powered reloading system, which produced a higher rate of fire than the Gewehr 41 (W).
• Machinegewehr 34 General-Purpose Machine Gun: The Germans maneuvered around the fact that the Treaty of Versailles prohibited them from producing this type of weapon by developing it in Switzerland. This bipod-mounted gun is one of the deadliest in the game.
• Raketenpanzerbusche: Also known as Panzerschrek, or “tank terror,” this weapon was the result of Germans capturing the American M1 and replicating it. Some felt that this was the superior weapon.
• Flammenwerfer 35: This flamethrower is only effective at close range, but it deals excruciating damage to its targets. Unfortunately, those who wore it were very vulnerable: one shot to its tank of liquid fuel was often all it took to eliminate the threat.