I’m with Turks here. The reason I think I like BF1942/Vietnam/BF2 so much is that the weapons and capabilities seem real. OK, I know liberties have been taken with magic medics, but that’s for gameplay reasons.
In otherwords, you know that an AK74 is roughly an M16. You know its ain’t going to shoot round corners or destroy a tank. You know a PKM is something that in comparison kicks like a bitch so you have to lie down. The ammo count seems about right. A grenade kills people and soft vehicles. A sniper rifle is accurate but has a low rate of fire. All these are familiar as they are “real”, but more importantly the pros & cons of various weapons and how they relate is also grounded in a sensible reality.
But I have not got a frakking clue if a Death Ray 2000 can take out armour, or if my personal shield is proof against it. I could never get on with Unreal for this reason – yeah, loads of weapons, but I have no clue how they compare. Or whether a blue flashy zappy effect when I shoot it trumps my opponents’ orange spirals.