anxiously awaiting Brothers in Arms

As the release of Brothers in Arms draws closer, the Q&As are beginning to get repetitive. The closest thing to new material is gamespot's playtest of a few multiplayer maps on the Xbox, and I sincerely doubt this will be a deciding factor for the purchase of this game. Call of Duty's intense scripted setpieces in the single player campaign may have satisfied those looking for a cinematic game, but I think Gearbox is more interested in providing a realistic experience, one that will be remembered for its reverence to what actually took place in the chaotic days after the Allied invasion of Normandy. Based on my experience with Pacific Assault, a choice quote from Randy Pitchford in a Q&A with Shacknews stood out:

The idea of "1 health" has always been really stupid to us. What does that mean, to have 1 health? It usually means that someone can kill me by shooting me in the toe. It's just a dumb game concept. Brothers in Arms is trying to create a really immersive and authentic war experience. The idea of magic canteens that heal you and a numerical value for health just don't fit.

So we can expect no health meter in Brothers in Arms. When discussing realism in FPS, it's a non-argument to say that having a health meter at all is ridiculous. All it does is make you push the envelope: how far until the next health pack/healing station/medic? will I be able to make it? This forces you to change your gameplay strategy immediately to preserve what remaining "health" you have left. You could even extend this to ammunition: is it reasonable to assume that soldiers actually kept track of how many shots they fired in the heat of battle? Although Pacific Assault allows you to remove the HUD entirely, this doesn't eliminate the fact that there is an unreasonable number of times you can be shot before dying. Furthermore, the Medic will always heal you to 100%; there's no such thing as wounding or other hinderances that will affect the rest of the mission. The Rainbow Six series (and more recently, Full Spectrum Warrior) did a good job of adhering to the precept of one or two well-placed bullets likely incapacitating you.

I think the most important aspect of gameplay in Brothers in Arms is the commands system. I give Pacific Assault credit for implementing a rudimentary approach to ordering squadmates around, but I find that it feels more like a line in the Feature List on the box than something that actually affects gameplay. Enemies still rush at you, and rarely take cover (though they have suprised on some occasions). During combat you should expect your targets to be under cover, or at least run for cover when under fire. Full Spectrum Warrior taught real fire-and-suppress tactics and flanking maneuvers. You're not going to win by producing endless standoffs, you're going to use both of your fire teams to out flank the enemy or lead them into a vulnerable position. Apparently tanks in Brothers in Arms will be utilized in this manner as well, allowing you to command them like a fire team to suppress an enemy or clear out a fortified position.

Buried in the press release about EA's recent firings of 60 staff at their Los Angeles studio consisted primarily of the teams that worked on Goldeneye: Rogue Agent and the nearly completed Medal of Honor: Dogs of War. I guess it's expected that a press release from October announcing the game was drowned out by everything else that was going on at the time, but I think a more likely explanation is what the game offers. Firstly, it's the console release, much like Rising Sun and Fronline preceded their PC counterparts. But what I find amusing is what Dogs of War will bring to the series: set in the European theatre of 1942, it will apparently present "multiple solutions" to each mission, employing squad tactics with some kind of class based system that will allow you to change between them as the situation requires. Though EA can't be blamed for trying to tap in to the new interest in squad-based maneuverings in war-based FPS, I don't see Dogs of War surpassing the realism and attention to detail that Gearbox has injected into Brothers in Arms.

watch the final parade