The Battlefield franchise has long been a jewel in EA's PC gaming crown, but these days the company is more interested in selling you a store than a product, and the new Battlefield titles give us hints about the new priorities for games: cheaper, if not free, with an emphasis on quick action and easy-to-understand rules. Fans of the series may be taken aback by the console launch of Battlefield 1943, and gamers looking for more meat in their titles may find it hard to cough up $15 for the thin experience.

Battlefield 1943 is quick and easy, but is that a good thing?

The graphics of Battlefield 1943 are wholly impressive for a downloadable title, with buildings, trees, and structures that have a welcome ability to be blown away. It's simply not safe to crouch behind structures to take your shot anymore.

The $15 game, available now for PS3 and the Xbox 360 (with a PC release coming in September), features three maps that are taken from the original Battlefield 1942, and one game mode (Conquest). Each side has three analogous character classes, and each one features two weapons. You can't tweak your loadout, and every weapon features unlimited ammo, so don't worry about thinking too much before you're dumped into battle. In fact, respawn times are remarkably fast; you won't find yourself out of the fray for long. The pace is a bit too frantic, making it hard to coordinate play with your friends.

One neat addition is the use of squads: you can create a squad with three of your friends, share a voice channel, and see each other on the map. You can even spawn together, giving you a nice advantage in battle. The game supports up to 24 players per game, but a few well-oiled squads can be much more effective than unorganized players running about or camping as they wait for planes.

The vehicles are likewise cut to the bone. There are planes. There are tanks. There are jeeps. Planes take some practice and a steady hand to fly well, but a talented pilot can be a huge asset. Jeeps can get you around very quickly in the thick of battle, but tanks seem to make you more of a target than an asset in firefights.

This is all assuming you can get into the game. Our review code came with with the caveat that more servers will be added frequently, so we were told to keep plugging away if we couldn't get into the game. Considering our inability to properly review Battlefield Heroes for the same reason, it's worth wondering how long it will take for EA and DICE to launch a game that... well, works.

Battlefield 1943 seems like a remake of the original title for the attention deficit set, but still provides a significant number of thrills and a gentle learning curve. The problem is that such a simplified version of the game may bore players in short order; there just isn't much meat to dig into once you've played each map a few times. Another map, with a new game mode, will be added when each version records 45 million kills online, but after that we should expect frequent for-pay level (and maybe even character) packs for the game.

This is EA, so your $15 just opens the door; exploring the house is going to cost you.