WW2 Online is more true to WW2, while BF42 uses some ideas and names from WW2 and pretty much turns it into an arcade game.

If you're looking for a realistic WW2 game, WW2 Online is for you.

Aside from great visual range (4km, that's about 20 times BF42, it's even bigger than any map in BF42) and (mostly) accurate damage models (no grenade will kill an enemy tank like in BF42), it's really mainly the joint operations of many players (30 tank column anyone, plus airforce support) and the tactical gameplay.
WW2ol is really the first game that taught me to fight unfairly ;) . Shoot em in the dark, knife em in the back, the whole nine yards of mean tricks.

Here come some screenshots to show you the real meaning of joint operations, mostly made by me:

A joint tank column of GHC's 12. Armee is on the way to assault the allied held town of Haybes in the Meuse Valley, participating (all the guys in yellow) 91st Sturmbattallion, while I wait as 88 to be towed to a vantage point above town
Some notes on that picture:
- You see rank+nametags over friendly units, color coded (standard white, yellow on my system) if they are in your squad
- This screenshot is in the old days before we got the new trees, so don't notice if the treelines look ugly
- This is a huge ass tank column and you see only a small part of it, behind that bend in the road ahead are more and behind me are some, too

Allied air units forming up over a friendly airfield, also in the days of the old ugly trees and this screen was not made by me

I sit in my Destroyer (Type 1934) and suddenly see a big formation german HE111 bombers passing over on their way to the english factories

The german squad PLD (which I'm now a member of) assaults an enemy destroyer with a lot of Fairmile B (that's a small british coastal guard boat), the ultimate victory of the dwarfs over Gulliver, some plane out of friend/foe recognition range in the upper left corner
EDIT: My boat lists heavily to port after taking some hits

So you see, teamwork is everything ;) .

barkas
Member of 130.Panzer-Lehrdivision
The front is where we are!

The two games are poles apart.

BF1942 is just another game where you spawn in, charge about and shoot the first thing you see.

WWII is a war simulation. It's totally immersive, requiring different skills in what ever you're doing.

Nothing else comes close.

What can i say?

BF is fun, adrenaline rush from the moment you log into a game, but it starts to go downhill from there... jump shoot jump shoot grenade jump shoot die... respawn, shoot jump etc...whatever depth there is to the game diminishes with time.

Wwiiol may seem slow and boring at first, but it gets better when you start to realise how the pieces fall together. Unparalleled immersiveness of the 1/2 scaled world with huge viewable distances, organic ebb-flow of player controlled situations and structures and the rush of watching a well executed operation..  

I'm currently taking a break from the game, but most of us have to from time to time given the intensity of the game.

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Originally posted by XLater

I'm currently taking a break from the game, but most of us have to from time to time given the intensity of the game.

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A very good point. In most games, you tire of them and move on. In WWIIOL, the intensity of a Campaign often leaves you feeling burnt out and mentaly and physically exhausted. It is often necessary to take a break for a time to get the strength of will back before playing again. It's another factor, albeit an odd one, that makes this game so different from anything else on the market.  ;)

Have Fun!

Generallieutenant Pruitt, Retired GHC
1st Lithuanian Brigade "Iron Wolves"

My advice is that if you decide to try it, find a mentor if you can.  In fact find a squad to mentor you.  If you later decide to move on to another squad, no hard feelings.

Also don't try to learn everything at once.  Too many people do that and get burnt out and frustrated.  Learn one part then experiment with others.  This way as you learn another part and experience some frustration, you can always go back to the part you know for some fun.

My advice learn to love the Rifleman, the lowest, yet most important character in the game.  Then when you master that venture out and try other stuff.