Thirteen men, faces contorted with fear stand nervously in a low-flying plane bucked by incessant enemy anti-aircraft fire.
#BROTHERS IN ARMS EARNED IN BLOOD NOT STARTING WINDOWS 7 KEYGEN#
Gearbox's president Randy Pitchford loads up the game's first mission. And as we're about to find out, Gearbox's attention to detail has not only paid off like a winning rollover lottery ticket, it could, along with the likes of Half-Life 2, be about to herald a new era in FPS development. So It BeginsĪnd so we find ourselves in a Normandy chateaux on a blustery, rain-soaked night, psyched up by Antal and ready to experience the game after a gruelling day of shadowing the team's final few field research trips. Add to this Antal's 30 years of tactical and historical military experience and you've got all the ingredients to make a less epic, but hopefully much more focused and emotional WWII recreation. It's done this by regularly travelling to France on detailed research trips, studying air reconnaissance photographs from 1944 and speaking to countless WWII veterans about the war.
Today however, the mantra is aimed at a bunch of pot-bellied, dishevelled journalists, and bellowed by John Antal, recently retired US colonel and military adviser on Gearbox's mouth-moistening WWII shooter Brothers In Arms.įor the past three and a half years, Gearbox has been feverishly researchin the role that the 502nd regiment played during the Allies' Normandy invasion in World War II. It's the kind of rallying cry that helped fortify the spirits of the brave men of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment minutes before they dropped into Normandy in a daring and massively successful bid to flank the German defenders during the D-Day landings. Gearbox isn't talking about what it's got powering it yet either, but we do know of another engine that has similarly jawdropping facial animation. But our money is currently on the untamed action of Brothers In Arms and the pedigree of Gearbox, who developed the supreme Half-Life expansion pack Opposing Force and, most recently. Here, the metal beasts are as they truly were: killing machines that'll be a terrifying proposition to take down.Ī storm is currently brewing in the realms of the squad-based shooter, with Close Combat: First to Fight, SWAT 4, Ghost Recon 2 and Conflict: Vietnam all vying for the top spot. There's no Call Of Duty-style Panzerfaust-lugging solo heroics either -you won't be destroying four tanks per level. Even the hand signals you frantically wave at your petrified troops are direct from the fields of WWII combat. Death By TankĮven historical events - such as a paratrooper getting tangled in a tree directly above a German mobile kitchen and being used as target practice - are directly recreated. When you stand at Dead Man's Comer (so-called after the German officer who, in reality and in the game, was draped over a wrecked tank on a major Allied transport route) and gaze out over the burning town of Cotes D'Armor, then that's the exact same view soldiers would have seen back in 1944. Every townhouse, out-house and henhouse has been lovingly recreated from veterans' memories, contemporary photos, aerial photography and developer visits to the battlefield. The Real ThingĪnd 'authentic' is the key word here. You can choose any path for your tactical cleverness, whether it's through a field, around a farmhouse or leaping over the authentic Normandy ditches. And you can take any route you want - this isn't a run-of-the-mill corridor blaster.
If you were to come across a German machine-gun emplacement, for instance, it's your role to order your men, with one deft click of the mouse, to deliver some suppressive fire and pin them down while you and your light-footed squad members find a way to get a better shot. Your squad, who you gather together as the game progresses, are separated into two groups - one with heavy guns that can suppress German outfits, and the other with lighter armaments and grenades, who you can use to flank, sneak and outmanoeuvre the enemy. Their faces are so life-like, it's honestly disconcerting the first time you see it. What first strikes you when you see Brothers In Arms is the astonishing detail in your fellow paratroopers - the way their eyeballs follow your movement, their sneers and snarls, the looks of fear and pain. You've been dropped behind enemy lines, separated from your scattered men, and are instrumental to the success of the Allied incursion into Normandy. Played out in real-time between June 8 and 13,1944 (well, real-time without the boring bits), Brothers In Arms puts you in the army-issue boots of squad leader Sgt Matt Baker.
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