The sequel to the gritty, realistic, squad-based WWII FPS Brothers in Arms series, [i]Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway[/i], will be appearing on Xbox 360, PS3, and the PC. The game presents more vignettes from the perspective of Sergeants Matt Baker and Joe "Red" Hartsock, both of which should be very familiar to fans of the series. In [i]Hell's Highway[/i], players will push up up the key highway and engage in missions as part of the historical Operation Market Garden.
Besides the obvious graphical overhaul and some gameplay touch-ups, there will be plenty of new gameplay elements introduced with [i]Hell's Highway[/i]. First, there is a new stealth squad movement mode, which allows you to move your teams without them engaging enemy positions automatically. Another notable feature is the addition of third controllable, flexible fire team. This team could be a machine gun team that can lay down heavy suppressing fire, a rocket team to take out armor, a mortar team, and even a radio team to coordinate air strikes, though it's not clear if these teams will be available on a mission-to-mission basis or at any given time. Finally, there is a new mechanic aptly titled 'Brotherhood Moment', or "bro-mo" for short. These are scripted events that occur dynamically in real-time depending on many variables. For example, one such moment could occur when a teammate is shot down, prompting the game to temporarily take control away from you by showing your character catching the fallen comrade in slow-motion if you happen to be in the soldier's path as he falls.
The tentative ship date is the first quarter of 2007, although that is hardly firm according to Gearbox president Randy Pitchford, who states that the Gearbox team will spend as much time as necessary to perfect the game
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