In designing Far Cry, Crytek wanted to produce a game that was cinematic, but not scripted. The only way achieve that was with "smarter than your average bear" AI. Each opponent within the game is spawned along with the player when a level starts. Once the level is populated, that's it. Reinforcements will not magically appear from thin air and the computer does not have an unlimited supply of men.

In the game players assume the role of Delta Force, a US Ranger and for the first time, can play as a member of the British SAS. It also introduces: new weapons, new vehicles, new terrains, 2 new single player campaigns and, 30 new multiplayer maps which can be played via NovaWorld or LAN. Mod support for building unique multiplayer battlefields is also featured.

FSW is unlike anything else you've ever played. A count of weapons or a description of "special moves" doesn't apply to its game play style. Your team has set weapons that a light infantry team uses: all M4s except the automatic rifleman, who carries a SAW. In addition, the grenadier has the M203 grenade attachment on his M4.

Engaging in combat is a combination of telling your soldiers where and how to move, and telling them where and how to shoot. It sounds simple and in fact controlling your soldiers is simple, but once you're in the environment and your men are in danger while the bullets start flying, players begin to sweat and panic. It's a very immersive experience.

Waging war on the PC will never be the same come February 2004, when Encore, a majority-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corporation and JoWooD, an Austrian game publisher and developer, release Soldner for the PC. Featuring realistic, modern-day weapons, vehicles, aircraft and technology, Soldner takes the battle online as 32 players vie for supremacy on the ground and in the air in this military tactical shooter. Camping is not an option with Soldner's revolutionary level of fully destructible buildings, trees and fences.

Once my boys are outfitted, it's into the field with them. With top-secret technology, I can see the battle through any of their eyes, or guide them from a third-person perspective. I prefer the former. The commando I've selected can bark orders to his comrades if they're in earshot, or if they have visual range he can give them hand signals. Orders include directives on movement (follow me, freeze, take cover, and so on), firing (hold your fire, wait for my shot, fire when ready, etc.), and other commands. I can also jump "into" any of my operatives at any time, controlling them directly.

The single player campaign missions seem to be overall far more intense in Call of Duty than in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (the last PC game in EA's series which a lot of the folks at Infinity Ward worked on). EA may have put your character in the D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach in Normandy, France but Call of Duty has several such missions that are as intense in battle, if not more so, that Medal of Honor’s signature level experience. From the American army battle against the Nazi army to take a small French town to a British mission to retake a bridge to a Russian mission that attempts to take out Germans in a bombed out building, Call of Duty has a ton of memorable scenes that are not only fun to play and complete but you will also remember them for a while after you finish the single player game.

Vehicles factor into Chrome as well, and they also aid in broadening the overall gameplay. Of those you can use at various times, the first one you encounter is an unarmed anti-gravity speeder. The most common is a dune buggy-like four-wheel utility vehicle with a weapon reminiscent of a mini-gun, having a high rate of fire but requiring a spin-up time. Not nearly as fast as either of these, the light walker carries a machinegun, while the heavy version late in the game also mounts a pair of rocket launchers. There's one mission that makes especially good use of the utility vehicle. With a professor you're trying to rescue at the wheel, you man the gun - it's also possible to drive and shoot - while trying to fight your way through a base full of enemies, twisting routes and dead ends.

Overall the game unfolded at a very good pace for me. I never lost interest, not for one second, and I was in awe of the action most of the way. No one can design a perfect game, and we're all quite aware of this, but whenever the action would lose a fraction of its steam the developers would come back with another epic battle scene that would make me go nuts over Call of Duty all over again.