Battlefield 1943 successfully delivers these moments in just about every play session. It rewards the player with satisfying streaks of bad-assery but delivers it back with streaks of utter defeat for seemingly no reason. Not to say that it makes you feel like you have no control but sometimes you are just the subject of another player's battlefield moment. The gunplay feels solid and the sound of finishing a round in your rifle is memorable.
The game itself is a streamlined update to the multiplayer only game Battlefield 1942 from the PC. As a huge 1942 fan myself the flaw of 1943 is immediately noticed after the first few hours of play. The lack of maps. 1942 with its two expansions had a nice mix of European and Pacific environments. 1943 is the war in the Pacific only. Dice has officially said there will be no more maps added to 1943. While some of my favorite maps were in the European theater this only became an issue for me while trying to get the 100 games played achievement. For the first 50 games the included maps were plenty.
Recommending Battlefield 1943 in after the release of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is tricky. If you're looking for a less expensive battlefield experience and aren't burnt out on the World War II setting I would say it's still a great buy. If the price isn't a restriction and you don't mind still having to get up off the couch to swap game disks I would say just get Bad Company 2.