EA announces Battlefield 1943

UPDATE An eagle-eyed reader has pointed us to the official website for Battlefield 1943, which confirms the rumours we reported earlier today. The publisher has put up a short trailer showing off the new engine.

Not surprisingly, Dice has chosen to show off Wake Island, which looks to have been completely remade for the new title. The trailer shows off lots of cool effects and a slew of explosions, including deformable and destroyable foliage

There's no word on release date yet, but we're expecting it to arrive some time this year. Frankly, we can't wait.

The original story follows below...

We've been hearing suggestions of a new Battlefield game announcement all week and the latest rumours are that the franchise will be returning to World War II, based on information that existed on the New York Comic Con website.

EA CEO John Riccitiello confirmed earlier this week that Battlefield: Bad Company would be back in 2010, and just this morning we reported that it looks like Battlefield Heroes will be released this quarter as well.

While Heroes marks a stark move away from tradition for the popular multiplayer shooter, the rumoured Battlefield 1943 would return to the franchise's roots.

A cached version of the New York Comic Con schedule says Battlefield 1943: Pacific postcards will be handed out during the show on EA's stand. It has since been removed from the page, but whether that is because EA and Dice want to push back the official announcement or not is unclear.

It could be that BF1943 was supposed to be announced on Monday during the snowed-off press event, but the weather has pushed the reveal back - it is one of EA's biggest franchises, after all.

Is this the Battlefield title that you're most looking forward to? Share your thoughts with us in the forums.

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up.