The demo came out this week for the PC port of Full Spectrum Warrior, the very good Xbox tactical simulator commissioned by the US Army and developed by Pandemic. I played the training mission and the first level all the way through, and I think you all should grab it.
Gameplay: Freakin' cool. It's a very simple interface but the game is far from a walk in the park. The game's very challenging but all of the difficulty comes in the tactical situations you're put into. You end up spending more time planning your attacks than you do running and gunning, and it's extreeeeemely rewarding when you finally manage to sneak around behind a machine gun nest and double-tap the gunner in the back of the head while he doesn't suspect a thing.
Graphics: Not bad. It's definitely still an Xbox game. Shadows are hard and blocky, textures are low-res and polygonal detail isn't really astonishing. But the visuals are still a solid 4 out of 5 and the game is still smooth in high resolutions, so there's nothing to complain about.
Sound: It's very good, also a solid 4 out of 5. The effects won't rattle your speakers but the hilarious dialogue by your soldiers more than makes up for it. Curse words get dropped as often as grenades do. All in all, you get the effect that you're in control of some crazy soldiers who are anxious to see some action and are confident in their skills and training.
Production value: Fantastic. Army-commissioned games tend to have that quality. Attention to detail has been paid here. The game is very scripted in terms of events and missions but how you solve them is entirely up to you, leaving you with the perfect kind of structure of a free-roaming game that gently prods you along. Truly, no corners were cut in the making of this game. Everything's on purpose, and it's a great thing.
Verdict: Grab the demo. The rest of the game is in much the same vein (I've played the Xbox version with my roommate), so if you like this level, you'll like the rest.