So I just spent the weekend delving into the Xbox 360 1943 Pacific download. Laugh? My neighbours, concerned at the noises emanating from my house, nearly called emergency services twice. Somehow I don’t think Activision had the game down as a straight comedy. I must admit, it’s not a straight comedy—I found it veering from hilarity to extreme frustration in a matter of minutes.

Overall, the comedy seemed to eradicate the in-game frustrations, which was quite handy. I fired my Thompson SMG point blank into the back of an enemy soldier (who thought he was successfully hidden in a copse of trees)—I know, sneaky of me—but he turned around and offed me with a samurai sword, which was a tad annoying. Minutes later I was roaring with laughter as another enemy soldier tried to spike me with a bayonet, but I dodged sideways and watched as he continued forward over the cliff behind me, never to be seen again. Then there was the time another enemy and I ran into the same small shack at the same time to chuck grenades at one another. Somehow we both survived; the building didn’t. The funniest for me, though, was the enemy who obviously thought he was a reincarnated “Mad Max,” ripping through roads in his jeep, squashing all who dared stray into his path. He tried the same with me, but he failed to spot the destroyed bridge section in the road directly behind me. I can still hear his yell of victory turn into a wail of despair as he and his vehicle plunged into the surf below.

The game itself is quite fun for a download version. The only snag, as in any online game I suppose, is your game experience is often based upon your Internet connection quality. So just as with games such as Call of Duty, sometimes you can empty entire clips of ammo at a foe to no effect, while if the online connection is good, a few shots will take most enemies down. The graphics aren’t as crisp, either, but they are very serviceable for a downloaded game. I liked the fact that, after fighting on a map as one side (Americans or Japanese), you automatically switch sides for the next game. My only bugbear is the in-game mini-map (allied players are shown in blue and enemy in red). The quality of the mini-map is quite poor; you often can’t distinguish between friend and foe (which I suppose is very much like real war!).

Having said that, I quite liked 1943. It stands up nearly as well as games bought in stores (and it’s way cheaper!). Good quality for your bucks. So having started the ball rolling….let’s go for the Top 10 Best Comedy Moments. Submit (by reply to this post) your best 1943 comedy moment (come on, you must have some real clangers). Let’s be having them…