If you've never suffered from the missing 1280x1024 graphics mode problem in BF then you will have absolutely no goddam clue how loud I shouted to finally run BF'42 and have my monitor report that resolution after I worked out a fix. If you, like me, were terminally afflicted by not being able to run BF'42 or BFV at 1280x1024, then read on...
Step 1
Start a search on your BF (V or 42) root folder for video*.con. This should find all your video.con, videodefault.con and videocustom.con files.
Step 2
Backup all the files found before doing step 3, if you fark up your BF install then you're on your own. There are no guarantees here...
Step 3
Open
every file found and change any resolution found (800 600 32 0 etc) to 1280 1024 32... (and save the files)
Step 3 HERE BE DRAGONS
Start BF.
DO NOT BOTHER TO CHECK VIDEO SETTINGS UNDER OPTIONS. If you do, it will show something silly like 800x600 selected. Here's the important part...
This fix does NOT enable the 1280x1024 option under video options, it just forces the game to run at that resolution
So, ignore the video options (which are lying) and start the game, which will be in glorious, beautiful 1280x1024.
Step 4
If you change any graphics options and save them or update the game, you'll probably have to do this all over again
Hey EA/DICE, it's only been 2 years. How about telling the community why this graphics option isn't visible in these games, despite virtually every other game in existence supporting it happily
Apologies to BFN, but I'm going to post this in troubleshooting and main discussion for both BF'42 and BFV, because frankly it's about time people saw that there's a fix for this silliness.