Company of Heroes

is based in World War II. Specifically, it follows the travels of Able Company as they go from the horrific landing at Normandy Beach through the push through the French countryside, culminating with the collapse of the German 7th Army. The single-player campaign consists of 15 long and enjoyable missions ranging from capturing the town of Cherbourg to a covert operation to take out a V2 launch site to a truly horrific battle through the hedgerows to capture Hill 192. Each mission is preceded by a well done in-engine cutscene and briefing.

In fact, the cutscenes are just one element of just how impressive Company of Heroes' graphics are. In general terms, of course, they look amazing. Soldier animations as they run, duck and dive on the battlefield are fluid, and a real physics engine creates some amazing scenes as bodies are thrown through the air by artillery fire. Everything on the battlefield is also destroyable and is animated in extraordinary detail. Buildings realistically crumble in pieces and get holes blown in them as they're hit by shells. Telephone wires snap and spark as they're cut. Fire teams that garrison a house actually take up positions within the building and brace their weapons on windowsills to cover the street. Destroyable maps also enhance the gameplay by finally removing the dreaded "puzzle map" once and for all. (All this technical wizardry comes at a price, though. The game requires a pretty robust system, and even the beefy rig I played on had some slowdown during some of the cutscenes and when there were a lot of explosions onscreen at once.)


Battlefield 2142 (PC)

The year is 2142, and the dawn of a new ice age has thrown the world into a panic. The math is simple and brutal: The soil not covered by ice can only feed a fraction of the Earth's population. Some will live, most will die. Players will choose to fight for one of two military superpowers in an epic battle for survival, the European Union or the newly formed Pan Asian Coalition. Armed with a devastating arsenal of hi-tech assault rifles, cloaking devices and sentry guns, players will also do battle using some of the most imposing vehicles known to man. Massive battle Mechs wage fierce combat on the ground, while futuristic aircraft rule the skies. When facing one of these new behemoths, players will need to use their wits and an arsenal of new countermeasures like EMP grenades to level the playing field.

source: gamespy.com