Over the last few months, we've brought you a lot of information on the upcoming Call of Duty: Finest Hour, the first console game from the company that brought us the hugely popular PC hit. We've told you all about the new types of play you'll see on your console, the theaters you'll be stepping into for the first time (North Africa, for instance), as well as a bit about the new characters. However, up until this point, we have never actually played the game for ourselves. That all changed earlier this week, as Activision brought us to a secluded location in San Francisco to show off the fruits of its team's hard work.

When I got there, I sat down and listened to a presentation by one of the former soldiers that has been consulting on the game's content. Perhaps more than any other title, Call of Duty: Finest Hour is focusing on getting everything just right, from major elements like how soldiers would properly get out of a tank, all the way down to the minor details, such as how a gun should be held while running. The team knows that while many gamers wouldn't know the difference between a Panzerschreck and a hole in the ground (hint: the Panzerschreck is the one that can blow up an observation tower), making every part of the game as realistic as possible is the first step towards creating a highly immersive experience.

After the presentation was over, we headed out to the main room to get a chance to play the game for a little while. I headed to the Xbox station first, but after hitting the PS2 and GameCube builds, I can tell you that there is very little difference between the three, even graphically. The game looks very nice on all three consoles, especially when you consider the amount of action on-screen at any given moment. The only difference between the versions is the control scheme, and I'm happy to say that the controls were very effective in all three. Console FPS games can be kind of hit-or-miss when it comes to the quality of control, and this is one of the better ones I've played.

Just like Burnout 3: Takedown...

The first mission I played was called "Flag Must Fall", and it was part of the game's Russian campaign, which involves driving the Nazis out of a besieged Stalingrad. The combat in this mission was all on the ground and in the trenches, and it was fast and furious, with bullets whizzing by as I, with the help of my men, stormed up a hill in an effort to take out the Nazi bunker on the top. The friendly AI seemed to be pretty smart for the most part, and there were a few instances when my foes caught me off guard, circling around to attack my flank, even after I was sure that I had pinned them down. Still, after taking out a few pillboxes on the way to the top of the hill, I was able to lower the Nazi flag and take back this small piece of Mother Russia.

There's a lot of vehicular combat in Call of Duty: Finest Hour, and I finally got a chance to get inside one of the Russian tanks, in an effort to clear a Soviet airfield of all remnants of German occupation. The tank controls took a bit of getting used to, but it was very nice being able to switch from first person to third person view with the push of a button. While it was much easier to shoot opponents from the inside-the-tank view, there were times when I got caught up on piece of debris, or got turned around in the heat of battle, which is when the third person view came in very handy. In another nice touch, clicking the right analog stick automatically re-centers the turret, allowing you the ability to get back on track quickly.