Basement Couch

Battlefield: Bad Company

• The controls are loose and reminiscent of the other Battlefield games I’ve played.
• NPCs’ dialogue add some character to the game and story, but seem to “break” the game a little bit during and right after combat.
• The demo’s motives were sometimes a little unclear to me. This did allow me to figure things out on my own, but it also forced me to spend a lot of time dying. Whenever I come back to life at a save point, it takes me out of the World War II scenario, but that is a problem with all war games.

Always let someone else go first!

Call of Duty: World at War

• Easily the most action packed.
• In the Demo alone, you find yourself in a collection of different combat scenarios, each well crafted with different ways to confront them.
• The prettiest of the three. As pretty as war can be anyway

The demo includes a pleasant walk through a field with dead bodies in it.

Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway

• There is a greater strategic element in this demo than the others. You control your squad mates in a streamlined manner. They also are pretty dang smart on their own.
• Controls feel muddy and slow.
• The enemy soldiers don’t seem nearly as smart as your squad mates. Outsmarting them was never a problem since they always fell for the same old tricks.

The Winner – Call of Duty: World at War

The scripted events make the game the tighter than Battlefield: Bad Company, and the caliber of them was superior to that of Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway. Controls in Call of Duty are the most responsive without jumping the gun on you. Everything felt solid and had a nice weight to it, from the gun you’re holding to your footsteps. I’d put Battlefield: Bad Company at a strong second place though, and would not shy away from playing the full game. On the other hand, Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway was almost entirely not enjoyable to me. There are better war games than it, there are better shooters than it, and there are better strategy games than it.