I love action games and if you're one of my regular readers or just a fellow action fan, you can imagine just how exited I was when I heard about Battlefield Heroes, a new MMOTPS (third-person shooter) published by EA games, you know, the same guys who made Spore, the Sims, Battle Forge and all those other massive titles. However, if, like me, you have played the game and live in one of those areas unfortunate enough to be plagued by high-ping, you will understand my bitter, bitter disappointment. Nevertheless, I will remain objective about this; after all, that's my job.

First off, Battlefield Heroes is not something everyone will get into. But, if you like the look of the new Team Fortress 2 and affiliated games, you will think you have died and gone to heaven. BFH looks, sounds and feels great. It has bright cell-shaded graphics (just like TF2 or the new prince of Persia games), thus taking a step back from the ultra-realistic FPS such as Call of Duty and adding a less serious, more cartoon based theme which gives the game or more casual, if not entertaining element. The music and sound is as you would expect and suits the game nicely, with some rather quirky voice-overs.

The game is run from the website. All you have to do is shoot on over, register and account, design your hero and click start game. The client will install itself onto your computer and once that is all over and done with, it's just a matter of clicking the play button; the game client launches and you're in. But, if we can just go back for a moment; when you come to design your character, you can choose between two opposing factions - the royalists and the nationalists.

Those of you familiar with history will quickly recognise the mock English solder and Nazi SS get-ups; like I said before, the game is quirky. Each fraction has three classes you can choose from which includes your basic solider, your heavy (bazooka wielding nut-jobs) and your sly sniper-rifle totting assassins. Each class has its own specific attributes and skills which become available and upgradable as you advance through the game.

On the battle-field, your view is typical of other TPS games. You can run around and shoot at whatever you like but you can also jump in jeeps, tanks, planes and other such things to gain an extra edge. Several people can normally jump in on each craft; for instance, on the plane you have a driver and a man sitting (literally) on each wing.

There are several modes of play from your basic-death match to the ever popular capture-the-flag game in which team-work becomes much more important. You can buy new weapons, items and outfits from the games shop which sells items bought with both virtual (money acquired in game) and micro (real money transferred) currency.

There is no denying it, the game is a hoot. However, if, like me, you are some distance from the main severs, then you will get kicked from just about any room you try and join – this gets annoying really quickly. Lag is also another issue. On several occasions, I emptied entire clips into enemies with only a couple of the hits actually registering. Again, this gets very annoying, very quickly. Still, if you don’t have such problems, then I envy you, because this game is a class-act all the way and if EA puts in a little effort to resolve said issues, it’s sure to become a classic, perhaps even, greater than other popular MMOFPS games. If my experiences were not marred, I would be giving this game an 8.5 out of 10 without question, but, due to problems, I am holding back on this. Great game, hope it works for you.