Sony's PlayStation 2 and first person shooters go together about as well as ice cream and gasoline. You can certainly mix them together, but the result's not going to taste good, and such is the case with the PS2's fps library. While there are a few exceptions (Red Faction and Killzone come to mind), by and large if you want to play a fps on a console the Xbox is the place to be, but that doesn't mean I discriminate. I'd love to see a quality shooter on Sony's system, and I may have found one in Vivendi Universal Games and Swordfish Studios' Cold Winter, an exciting and action heavy espionage thriller that's set to make waves this April.

Cold Winter is like a James Bond film minus the stealthy bits. You play as an MI6 agent named Andrew Sterling who's been captured and beaten by the Chinese military (I'm going to assume that he was caught doing some super spy snooping). After he breaks out of prison via the help of a mysterious woman he goes on a homicidal rampage in order to escape. The game features over 30 real world weapons and they include pistols (Hardballer, PSU 9mm, B93 Burst, 288 Special), shotguns (Hammer, Double Barrel, Pump-Action, Sawn Off), a grenade launcher, a sniper rifle, fully automatic weapons (M-320, P5K SMG, K53, 9mm TMP SMG, P90 SMG, PK-S, STUR ARG, AK-47, G11, M4A1), and a crowbar, among others, all of which can be used to send enemy soldiers to their fresh and evil graves, and you'll have a lot of fun doing this. Cold Winter features a cool physics system, so bodies fly every which way. There's also realistic body damage, so hitting someone in the foot will cause them to react differently than popping them in the eyeball.

What sets Cold Winter apart from other PS2 shooters is how you utilize cover. Unlike Namco's kill.switch, where you could only hide behind stationary objects, this game allows you to actually move things around and use them to your advantage, so if you're backpedaling down an alleyway and there are a host of bad guys on your tail you can push things in front of you for protection (such as a dumpster, for example). Or, you can run up to a table and flip it over. Conversely, items may also be used to impede enemy progress, so that dumpster can block your path so you can make a quick escape, or you can toss lighter objects in their direction to trip them up, though you need to keep in mind that the AI is just as capable of using cover as you are, so tread carefully when exploring an area where things appear to be too quiet.

Another cool thing about this game is the ability to create traps and new weapons from found objects (which may include the pockets of some of your latest victims). While it appears that you won't be able to do something really cool like combine a board and nail to create...well...a board with a nail in it, you can make neat stuff like Molotov cocktails and perhaps other explosives that can be planted instead of thrown.

In addition to the single player campaign Cold Winter also features multiplayer. Up to eight players can frag one another across 12 maps, and the game modes include Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Last Man Standing, and Capture the Flag. Also, for those of you who haven't taken the online plunge, the game features four-player split screen.

I really love Killzone's artistic style but its graphics were at times not so amazing because of the game's choppy frame rate, but the same issue doesn't apply to Cold Winter. Swordfish Studios' has managed to craft a fairly attractive FPS and keep its frame rate steady, and the result is pure poetry on an extreme visceral level. Whether you're engaged in a firefight in an alleyway, racing across the street, or stuck inside of a dilapidated building, Cold Winter is visually appealing, especially since it takes place in several different locales. Its six environments range from the Chinese prison you start out in to a North African arms fair, and all of the places Swordfish has revealed look fantastic.

The same can be said of the game's particle effects, particularly the explosions. There's also some cool environmental interaction, so you can be trapped behind a bar and watch as the glass from busted bottles flies all over the place.

The biggest issue facing Cold Winter is whether it'll remain entertaining throughout, especially since it appears to be all about shooting and not much else. However, regardless of whether it contributes interesting concepts to its genre or not I'm very intrigued by this game. It's always cool to experience a high octane blast fest, and I'm pretty sure that Swordfish will deliver the goods. Releasing this April, escape the heat, stay indoors, and immerse yourself in Cold Winter.