Battlefield 2: Armored Fury [PC]

It's past time to gripe about being charged for content, so let's just skip over the discussion of whether it's worth $10 to download three new maps for Battlefield 2. You know where you stand on the issue, so that's your own bag. The question here is whether the three new maps -- which are all based on American soil for the first time -- are any good, because really, that's all you're getting. Thankfully, they are. In fact, while one's decent, two are excellent.

In terms of other content, yes, there are a few extra vehicles in Armored Fury. We admit it's pretty cool to see semis barreling down rural roads alongside the tanks and jeeps. And the A-10 Warthog, a so-ugly-it's-beautiful tactical bomber, has a special place in many people's hearts. Seeing that unique silhouette zooming overhead is a distinct thrill. The AH-6A Little Bird has another great cameo, especially for fans of Joint Operations and Black Hawk Down (game, movie, and book).

But for the most part, the new vehicles are just iconic strokes: new models for the same cars, planes, and helicopters you've been driving all along. An important exception is the way the new scout helicopters also double as UAVs, which is immensely useful in the hands of a good player. Which is to say, not useful very often.

The more relevant content is the three maps. "Midnight Sun" is set along a stretch of Alaskan pipeline that runs beside a river, straddled by two crucial bridges. It's a decent enough map, with the quaint American town of Valdez at one end. With its limited visibility, rugged terrain, and convenient river, it feels very much like the Chinese locations in the original game.

Midnight Sun is a night map, so the dark-and-light toys that were added in the Special Forces expansion are sorely missed. It would be nice if Electronic Arts managed to integrate everything, but this sort of Balkanization of content -- and community -- has been a failing of their post-release support since the very first Battlefield game hit it big.