This is the very best when it comes to realism and authenticity. Absolutely amazing game with few letdowns.
If you have enough patience for the long(!) walks\rides\drives between the spawn points and the mission objectives, and don't mind the 2002 graphics engine (not as bad as you might imagine), this is going to be one of your all-time favourites, I'm sure.
After you buy\download the game and subscribe, you will see a screen from which you can select one of 2 sides of the conflict:
1)Axis, which are the Germans
2)Allies, which are the British and French
You can select to play as either the Germans, French or British and you can change your nationality every time you start the game while keeping your current score for all other armies you worked with.
Once you select a nationality you can select if you wish to fight with the Army (Infantry, Paratroopers and Vehicles) Navy (Infantry, patrol boats and ships) or Airforce (Fighters, Bombers and supply planes). You can switch to a different branch of the military whenever you wish.
Now that you've selected a branch you will see a list of Brigades. each brigade is stationed at one of the 400+ cities and towns existing in the 350,000 square miles (yes, 350,000 square miles!) game server. Once you find an active brigade to your liking, you will be brought to a mission screen. From here you can choose a mission (actually it's more like choosing under which commander to fight this battle, in more or less a squad-sized group composing each mission)
Once you select your mission, you will see a list of supplies for the town you're spawning in. This is basically what weapons are available and how much of each type of weapon.
Equipment includes:
Infantry weapons (such as Rifles, Light Machine-guns, Rifle-grenades, Anti-Tank Rifles, etc.)
Armoured Vehicles (which are the tanks and armoured cars)
ATG/AAA: This is the artillery. (Anti-Tank Guns and Anti-Aircraft Artillery)
Trucks & transports: these are used to set up Mobile Spawn Points and quickly transport men and guns to the battlefield. (also Armoured Personnel Carriers for Germany only)
Now the action starts. You will spawn at the depot or armybase where you mission origin is located (these facilities are used to spawn men and to control the towns and cities). If you are an infantryman you may also choose to spawn at a Mobile Spawn Point if one is availabe to begin your mission closer to the objective. From here on you must help your friends to accomplish the Brigade objective, which is to either Defend or Capture a certain town or city. Do this by capturing all of it's depots and the armybase.
All-in-all, this is an extremely fun and addictive game that provides much challenge and excitement.
The game mechanics are very simple and easy to understand (except aircraft controls which are impossible(!) to use without a joystick).
The game offers 6km of visibility all round, a very realistic day-night system (1 min ingame is about 15 seconds IRL), realistic ballistics and damage based on records from the time. (This means you die in 1-2 shots but it's also much harder to hit than most FPS's), deployable heavy weapons such as Light Machineguns (can also be fired from the hip though) and Anti-Tank Rifles, Multi-crewed vehicles (this means 2 guys can use the same vehicle and each will be in charge of some of the 2-9 "crew members" of the vehicle), and, of course, very loud and extremely realistic battles 24\7.
Really my only gripes with the game are the sometimes unnececcerily long walks or rides between spawn points and objectives (which are shortened somewhat with the help of mobile spawn points), and the great similiarity between settlements. Once you faught in one town or city, you've faught in the all. There's a very small number of building models, and they are used over and over in each and every town\city. Rows of bushes that sometimes appear in the middle of cobblestone plazas are also quite misplaced, but help gameplay-wise.
I reccommend this online game to any who can afford a monthly pay of 15 USD and has patience (that's even more important). There's also a 2 week long trial period for free to acquaint yourself with the game if you are unsure about it.
See you there!