There are no buttons on the iPhone*. That should stop most console-style games from working on the device, despite power comparable to the PSP.
That didn't stop Gameloft from bringing the "Brothers in Arms" series to Apple's handheld, however, and I have good news to report: it actually works.
I booted "Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes" with low expectations. The game promised dual analog controls on a device with no analog sticks.
No way, I said! Yet, it works. Here's how:
*When we say iPhone, we also mean iPod Touch, unless noted.
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Context is everything.
Earlier this week, Gearbox Software defended the extreme amount of violence portrayed in their World War II shooter "Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway."
I'd questioned Gearbox's motives because of a gore-filled trailer publisher Ubisoft had released. Gearbox told me the violence's context was key.
Since the interview, I've played an hour of "Brothers in Arms" and concluded the developers were absolutely right.
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War is hell, they say, and the increasing visual fidelity of video games means developers are able to render that hell more and more realistically every year.
Ubisoft recently distributed a video -- titled "Brutality of War" -- promoting "Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway" by highlighting the violence and gore of Gearbox Studio's latest shooter. It actually made me look away from the television.
Of course, it had no context. It was just gore for the sake of gore rolled into a 30-second video spot. But after speaking to Epic Games about how they determined the role of gore in "Gears of War" in a fantasy environment, I wondered how Gearbox handles its place in something portraying reality.
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"Our competition, from where I'm sitting, they just take a first-person-shooter and skin it in World War II. They don't have any characters. They haven't read the history. It's not based on anything real, other than it looks correct. To them, I think that's just a setting. We're talking about real soldiers, people from history. Certainly, there's a lot of fiction that goes into what we do, but it has a backbone to it that gives what we do a little more clout and allows us to go places that they're not going to go. We're trying to do something with this topic. We think it has some merit as entertainment and education far beyond than just selling lots of boxes."
-- "Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway" game director Jeramy Cooke on why this is the only World War II shooter you should be playing this year
Next week, "Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway" will finally launch on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation. The week after, PC gamers can join the World War II party.
But, what's taken Gearbox Software so long?
The latest "Brothers in Arms" was announced in April 2006 and scheduled for a holiday 2006 release. Then, it was delayed…and delayed…and delayed.
Almost two years after its original date, however, Gearbox's shooter is finally done, which makes the game's director, Jeramy Cooke, a very happy man.
In a phone interview with MTV Multiplayer yesterday afternoon, Cooke pointed to Gearbox's ambitious for multi-platform development for the long wait.
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Before I even sat down to check out the long-anticipated, long-delayed "Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway" on the PC, my jaw dropped.
No matter how it played, I could say this within the first few seconds of seeing it: the rain blew me away. The way the droplets gathered on a soldier's helmet, the environmental downpour -- whether it's actually dynamic or not is a moot point; it looks the part.
My strong gut reaction to the rain is actually why I wanted to sit down and check out "Brothers in Arms," even if I'm awfully tired of World War II shooters.
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