Despite its many quirks, I actually enjoyed Activision's console title, Call of Duty: Finest Hour. It's not the most sophisticated FPS, but it was good to see the famed publisher extending its popular PC series to the Xbox, PS2, and GameCube, and while it received fairly average scores, Activision is at it again, this time with a vastly improved sequel courtesy of developers Treyarch and Gray Matter Studios. Call of Duty 2: Big Red One has been set on a collision course with retail stores October 4, 2005, and judging by the glorious E3 footage, this may not only be one of the hottest titles this holiday season, but one of the greatest console first person shooters ever made.

A couple of days ago some coworkers and I were snickering at the title of this game, because, if you're as clueless as we were, Big Red One can mean a lot of different things, some which are quite unsavory. However, after researching the name and discovering what it means I felt quite stupid as well embarrassed. You see, Big Red One is actually another name for the U.S. Army's First Infantry Division, special groups of soldiers who have historically been known for battling evil across a wide range of locations since World War I. In fact, they're still fighting today, which exposes just how much I know about U.S. history and current events.

Big Red One played a huge role in the many Allied victories of WWII, and in the game of the same name you'll experience many of them first hand. Unlike in the previous Call of Duties (which allow you to see the war from various perspectives), the entire game centers around a single no-named character. In fact, you won't even be able to see yourself even once. Also, you'll stick with the same group of guys throughout the entire single-player campaign, and Activision and the game's developers are putting a lot of effort into not only the game's story but also character evolvement. As you progress, these guys will begin to change, both in appearance and demeanor, the goal to show you first hand the hardships of war and the negative effects it can have on someone. Activision hasn't gone into detail about this, but it's certainly an intriguing concept, as most war-based first person shooters lack this sort of depth.

Looking back, Call of Duty: Finest Hour isn't the most impressive looking videogame but it has some interesting scenarios beginning with the very first mission. You step off a boat and are immediately greeted by a commanding officer. Instructed to follow him, you quickly run up this debris littered beach until you come to a shelled town, a skeleton city that's buildings are hollowed out and burning to a crisp. Soon after you acquire a machine gun and you commence mowing down Nazis. It's a pretty sweet intro, not necessarily anything that I haven't seen before, but it sets a good tone. As I watched video of Big Red One and reminisced about this dramatic opening scene I was and still am amazed at how far this series has come in less than a year, because let me tell you, this latest Call of Duty visually blows its predecessor from its bunker and into next Wednesday. All of the environments that have been shown (Africa and Europe) are brimming with detail as well as miscellaneous goings on. You'll explore smoldering villages, dodge bullets zipping through the air, and dive out of the way as fighter planes rain gunfire. Explosions kick up dirt and fragments, sending them sailing every which way. All of the various weapons (Activision hasn't released an official list) have been painstakingly recreated and sound authentic. Actually, the game will include weapons that are new to the series, a very exciting feature since I'm pretty used to (and bored of) firing the same old WWII guns.

hOut of everything that I've seen, the most shocking has to be the PS2 version of the game, which looks absolutely phenomenal. All of the eerily realistic texture work from the Xbox version appears to be fully intact, something that will no doubt make all of the Sony fans very excited, especially since the differences between the Xbox and PS2 versions of Finest Hour are quite apparent.

The first time I saw Call of Duty: Finest Hourwas at a press event last August, so I wasn't surprised that Activision hasn't divulged many details regarding Big Red One. However, the video left me exceptionally excited and eager to get my hands on preview code, so October 4 really cannot come fast enough. I thought WWII first person shooters were losing their appeal, but Call of Duty 2 has reignited my interest in the subject matter. Hopefully, I'll be able to provide you with in depth impressions of the game in the very near future.