Electronic Arts' Battlefield games are fun but utterly chaotic because they force the players to form their own sense of structure. But what ultimately happens is most of them bolt towards the helicopter (everyone wants to pilot the damn helicopter) and very few care about forming a solid plan of attack. Don't get us wrong. We dig the wanton destruction and guiltless thrills that the series provides, but we're beginning to lean towards Activision's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Much like Battlefield, the game features huge maps, vehicles, and a wide assortment of weapons, but it encourages team play, so much so that you probably won't be able to win unless everyone does his or her job.

This is probably bad news for guns for hire, those loners that like to go off and silently snipe people in their heads and rack up kills, but we're really digging Quake Wars because its developers have captured the pure essence of true competition, those moments from our youth where we battled against friends in tug of war or coordinated strategies during water gun fights. All of the missions are comprised of a series of smaller objectives that must be completed in order to be victorious, and everyone has their own individual part to play, however miniscule. And if a few people don't carry their weight then it brings the whole team down. There's room for one person to be the star, the guy or gal that manages to fire off the game winning shot, but at the end everyone deserves a pat on the back.

Before we get into the game's complexity, it's important to provide some quick info about Enemy Territory. The game, which is being developed by Splash Damage in collaboration with id Software, is an FPS that takes place during the Quake universe during the Strogg's invasion of Earth. Both sides, the Global Defense Force (humans) and the Strogg, have different abilities, classes, weapons, and vehicles, so you're going to get a unique gameplay experience from both groups. But using the invasion of Earth as a back story allows Splash Damage to create a whole slew of interesting scenarios such as the one in the demo that we played. It went a little something like this...

Basically, the Strogg have this device that the humans need to destroy, but the problem is (aside from being guarded by Strogg players) is the shield that's protecting it. In order to blow it up, the humans need to maneuver a missile launcher onto a bridge, but to make matters even worse, the Strogg destroyed the bridge.

First, our engineers needed to get their asses to the bridge and repair it, because we were going nowhere fast. Naturally, the Strogg took exception to these poor guys rebuilding what they'd obliterated and began firing upon them, so some of our special ops guys ran in and gave them cover. It was a real struggle, but eventually the bridge was put back together again and we managed to wheel out the missile launcher. Again, the Strogg were pissed and advanced on our location, and what basically transpired was this tense face off as both sides battled for position, and all the while, as the missiles were going off, the engineers needed to be on hand to make sure that no one broke the launcher, and at the same time, the medics needed to be around in order to heal people. It's really an interesting dynamic that's never been fully pulled off in another game of this type, especially since if one group fails, the dominos begin to fall. If all the medics are killed then the team is seriously vulnerable, and if the engineers go down then no one will be able to repair the missile launcher, so it's in everyone's best interest to protect these guys. Actually, before the missiles could even be fired someone had to break into the Strogg area and hack the shield, so it's important to protect that person as well.

What's really great is how every leg of the journey was this epic struggle for power. Repairing the bridge, getting the launcher into position, cracking the shield, and then blowing everything up felt like one enormous game of tug of war, and each time one side managed to get the upper hand the camaraderie was insane. The game just provides a fantastic sense of accomplishment.

Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to play the game for hours on end, and we still have some questions about the vehicles as well as what some of the other missions will be, but the seed has been planted and we're really liking Enemy Territory, so much so that our days of frantic Battlefield 2 skirmishes may be coming to a close.

Then again, some days we just don't feel like helping anyone. Some days, we want to pilot the damn chopper! We'll have more on Quake Wars in the near future.