Infogrames and GameSpy bring an exclusive movie of a FPS title based in the thick, deadly foliage of Vietnam. As a young sniper sent to disrupt the operations of the Viet Cong, all you need is your rifle, a target, and a clear Line of Sight.

HomeLAN - What sort of missions and enemies will be encountered in Marine Sharpshooter?

Bryan Ekman - Missions involve infiltration, recon and taking down a target. During a mission players can expect to use a wide range of skills, including stealth, close combat and all out gun fights. Enemies included hired militia, regular army, arms dealers, and enemy snipers.

HomeLAN - What other unique gameplay elements will be featured in the game?

Bryan Ekman - Throughout the missions players have an AI spotter with them. This spotter helps call out targets, defend, and protect the sniper. Players can issue basic commands, such as stop, hold fire, and follow. In addition, Sharpshooter features a full music score, actor recorded dialogue, cutscenes, and more content then previous FPS value products.

GS: Infantry combat in Vietnam depended a lot on squad tactics. Will the player give commands to AI squadmates or follow a superior's orders?

JW: Squadmates are a crucial part of the game, and we are aiming to make them the most humanlike AIs yet seen in a first-person shooter. We think that the player will quickly form an emotional attachment to them, and really care if they survive the mission. The sense of camaraderie under fire is one of the main themes of Men of Valor.

The player will usually be in command of his squad, and he will be able to issue orders during gameplay with a very simple interface. He will be able to give his comrades general orders or issue fairly specific orders to individual squadmates. The squadmates are smart enough not to require the player's attention, but their effectiveness can be greatly increased if the player commands them well.

HomeLAN - Will the player get to control other soldiers in the game?

John Whitmore - In most missions the player will be accompanied by squad mates that he can direct with a very simple interface. He can rally soldiers that are panicked or pinned down and can direct them to lay down suppressive fire or advance to an objective. The soldiers commands are designed to give the player another tool on the battlefield, but if he isn't interested in directing his squad mates or is skilled enough not to need them, they will manage themselves just fine during firefights.

Now, there are quite a few ways to get rid of or avoid guards - you can just shoot them if the mission allows it, watch their patrol patterns and get behind them in order to knock them out, throw an object to distract them then get past or hit them, or use a gadget to knock them out. Still, while you do have this type of freedom, the levels are generally fairly linear and the goals are laid out the same. Any particular way of taking out the guards just wasn't all that interesting to me in the end.

Even though the gameplay in IGI2 is in many ways similar to the one in the original there are some slight differences that make it different and more unique (like having 3 saves per mission, as opposed to having none). The game is now even more stealth-oriented than before, and the programmers have included such novel features as a visibility indicator, which works similarly to the one in Splinter Cell. If you go prone and you're hidden in the shadows you're in less danger of being spotted by the armed guards. Besides using the ol' "sneaking behind the bush" technique David gets to utilize all kinds of neat high-tech gadgets - thermal imaging devices, digital binoculars, and a portable map computer showing real-time satellite data. This equipment will be vital if he's to quietly slip in an enemy base unnoticed.

David Jones is back in the new and much improved sequel to the game, Project IGI. Project IGI 2: Covert Strike is set after the events of the first game and continues the exploits of our hero, Mr Jones as he and the IGI agency attempt to thwart global terrorism and restore world peace, something Tom Clancy would be proud of no doubt. The sequel builds and greatly improves upon the game mechanics of the first game by leaps and bounds, since GX gave IGI an 82% score last time I was curious to see if the game had been improved. I am glad to say that it has, and this is why.

Road to Rome is like installing a new turbo in your good old Porsche – it makes the experience even sweeter. My only complaint is that some companies might have chosen to release an expansion like this as a free download. However, if you like the original, you won’t regret spending money to get this expansion.

Even though stealth is at the forefront of IGI 2 you cannot possibly complete a mission without having to take someone out. When you have got a suitable target in your sights it is up to you to decipher the best way of taking him out with the least amount of detection. If they are within close proximity and are stationary then the quietest methods would be to sneak up behind them and either break their neck using the action key or stabbing them in the back with your trusty combat knife.

I found OCI Sniper Rifle to be a very effective tool in eliminating my opponents. The range of this weapon is huge, and the firepower is also very good. The scope system is very effective. It allows you to accurately take out very distant targets.

Very often, I take the TC234 Auto Pistol as my backup weapon. If I have to act quietly during the mission, I use the slightly bigger version with the silencer. Very short reloading time and high accuracy make this weapon extremely useful in close combat. Just in case, you should also equip yourself with a couple of plasma grenades. With a bit of training, they can help you out in many situations that might seem hopeless.

In keeping with Splinter Cell's focus on stealth, you'll have all kinds of special moves at your disposal. You can slide down a cable from one balcony to another, peek around corners, climb low walls, roll past an open doorway, climb hand over hand while dangling from a pipe, and more. Coolest of all is the split jump, a maneuver that would make Jackie Chan proud: Between narrow walls, you jump upwards off of one wall and then do a split between the walls, suspending yourself high off the ground. It looks dramatic and provides a fun way to get the drop on unsuspecting guards passing below.

Tell us about some of the environmental effects and how they impact the gameplay.

Söldner offers day and night cycles as well as various other effects. Day and night conditions can be set server-side to be fixed or alternate, and time can be accelerated. In other words, it's possible to experience day and night on the same map within 30 minutes. As you can imagine, nighttime fights are totally different than fights in daylight. Combatants are closer to each other, the fighting is more covert, and the guy who shoots first usually dies first, as everyone can see his muzzle flash. Weather effects include rain, snow, fog and thunderstorms, all of which affect visibility and, thus, the average combat distance.

Vehicles play an integral part of some of the missions, and that keeps the game play fresh. Sometimes you use a car to make your getaway or other times you use a truck to transport your self over long distances. Don't worry there are missions were you can use tanks to blow away the enemy.

While previous Delta Force games took place in the present or the near future, the events in Black Hawk Down are actually part of recent history with the US forces in Somalia fighting to protect refugees from warlords. (While the game shares the same name as the famous book and movie about the US mission in Somalia, the game is not an official tie in to either of those projects). The four single player missions we got to try out has a wide variety of scenarios, from protecting food supplies for the refugees to night mission inside ruined cities in Somalia to helicopter attacks. The missions have several different objectives which you can see and reach via your HUD radar screen. The battle themselves are action packed from start to finish and can get very hairy at times.

Our main aim was to create extensive outdoor locations that would give the player a lot of freedom to move around. We wanted to make it so that no other game would give the player such a realistic image of a deep forest. The forest itself introduces a new type of play mode based on combat in the wilderness. You can move around the forest, watch the detailed surface of leaves and bark, and then jump onto the shuttle, fly high above the ground, and watch everything get smaller and become a remote panorama made up of extensive terrains and thousands of plants.

Experience dramatic and deadly action with an all-new and explosive playable demo. Set in a 1950s Soviet weather station, high in the Carpathian Mountains and has David Jones, our IGI (Institute for Geotactical Intelligence) agent, on a reconnaissance mission tracking down a nano-technology chip, held by the local mafia.

Delivering dynamic multi-objective team-based combat, gameplay pits IGI (Institute for Geotactical Intelligence) operatives against the Conspiracy terrorist group. This public Multiplayer Beta Test features the “Timberland” map and calls for stealth and weapon skills. In Timberland, the IGI operatives’ aim is to sabotage an old mineral plant that the Conspiracy is using as a cover to extract uranium for covert weapons manufacturing.

HomeLAN - What other gameplay elements do you think make the game different from other first person shooters?

Pawel Zawodny - The most unique element of Chrome is the tactical gameplay supported by the implants similar to those used in the CyberPunk. We hope you like the diverse environment of the game, going far beyond the typical narrow ravines, being mysterious and undiscovered, with perilous jungles, arid desert canyons and extremely dangerous snowstorms. In Chrome you can freely arrange your actions. You could get lost easily, if you didn’t have the compasses and scanners. The high level of realism and the freedom given to the player will bring you into real-life action using the main character’s advantages as well as the specific characteristics of the terrains. These three elements should make the game stand out from other FPS games and provide you with absolutely new impressions.

The arsenal is advanced and weapon add-ons include a Mini-Scope for zooming, the Sound Suppressor Silencer, High Capacity Magazines for that extra bit of ammo you think you might need, and what is probably the coolest addition, the Thermal Scope on the sniper’s weapon which allows you to see through walls, doors etc. The sniper can also penetrate through objects depending on their density which provides that extra element of surprise to the gameplay.

The Road to Rome's new armored tanks and artillery trucks provide good protection for both the driver and gunner positions, and they're most effective with two players, since most of them can't be driven and made to fire by a single player, though you can still switch positions quickly while moving if you prefer to go it alone.

Picking the right path through these levels can be pretty tough. You'll need to shoot the cameras in certain areas, kill only certain guards, and avoid the rest, which can get really tricky when there are a lot of enemies in a level. Most levels will have multiple objectives to help you along however. For example, you'll be able to turn off security cameras and sentry guns completely, or for short periods of time by hacking into computer consoles. Chances are, you'll still have to make your way by patrols and cameras to get to the system, but the challenge will be feasible at least.

The Road to Rome focuses exclusively on the key Italian and Sicilian campaigns of WWII, which means that all the maps are supposed to recreate the picturesque Mediterranean scenery - the olive trees, white marble houses, fat Greek men with their bellies hanging out, etc. Consequently, this means that we have two new fighting forces - the Free French forces (Do they come with white flags for surrendering? - Ed) and the fascist Mussolini's Italian army. Among some of the newly introduced vehicles included in the game are the German BF-110 and British Mosquito twin-engine fighter-bombers as well as new Italian, British, and German tanks and anti-tank guns. New hand-held weapons are also included, like the Italian Breda assault rifle, British Sten SMG and bayonets on rifles. The six maps in the expansion pack are as follows: Baytown, Husky, Anzio, Salerno, Santa Croce, and Monte Cassino.

If you're a Battlefield 1942 fan in need of some new maps and vehicles, The Road to Rome is exactly what you're looking for. Six original Italian maps breathe new life into the game, and the new vehicles are a nice addition. There aren't any major technical issues to speak of, and at $20, it's the right price -- there's no reason hardcore BF1942 players shouldn't stop reading this review right now and pick up a copy.

Your jobs include infiltrating Japanese strongholds and annihilating the enemy or rescuing POW’s. The concept is a lot of fun and makes for addicting game play. You also can play cooperative multiplayer where you and your friends can join missions and attempt to overcome the enemy. A lot of your time will be spent sneaking through brush and watching out for ambushes and mines. You really need to be mindful of the Japanese who litter the jungle with mines and weaponry. Another added plus is the great fun while using the ability to jump into vehicles and use them to their full potential.

There's a thing or two that can be said about the six new maps straight away. In terms of design there are absolutely no errors. Each map has a million places where you can anchor your position and defend it. What's even better is that the situation is quite challenging regardless of the side you choose - Axis or Allies. As always, every match will be more exciting if you start it with a larger number of players. Tactical diversities in the Conquest matches (which we find to be the most challenging) are simply limitless.