In fact everything that happens aurally and visually is dictated by players. Plumes of smoke off on the horizon? That's probably a hard target that was just bombed to hell and back with one of the Squad Leaders' Mortar Barrage Tactical Support perks. Gunfire over on that ridge? Yep, that's actual players plugging away at each other. Planes flying overhead? They're probably making a paratrooper drop (and if you're a sniper that's good enough, you can pick the poor saps off before they ever hit terra firma). That the ambience is actually provided by the conflict happening around you not only works in your favor if you have a 5.1 system, but means that the scale of the game isn't just a bullet point; if you hear something happening, you can go toward the conflict and help out. Or don't.

To aid in the chaos, Zipper built a slick little real-time map that lets you see all currently spotted targets (the information is shared and uplinked directly to your side's map) and of course all your squad and team mates. Things like orders from superiors will appear here and in the game world itself, and actually issuing those orders can happen both from within the normal first-person view and from the map if more precision is needed, and is all carried out with just a few simple button presses. This also allows those that are headset-free (or just leery of hearing what people that followed Zipper from their SOCOM games into this new world will chatter like) to issue orders and communicate without barking them in everyone's ear -- though we're sure that'll help.

With all this in mind, we stepped into the shoes of a normal grunt and quickly set to task figuring everything out. Though you can spawn from an entrenched APC (or re-enter it to refill on health -- it doesn't regenerate -- change classes or stock up on ammo), these non-base spawn points can be destroyed with a placed bomb that needs to be defused. Luckily, the Heavy class lets you carry a repair kit to patch up vehicles, emplacements and, yes, any mobile bases out there (which also come stocked with mounted turrets). To spawn from any of the four sides of a vehicle, simply rotate the camera around to face the direction you want to exit and deploy. When the next wave counter ticks down, out you'll go.

It's a setup that's immediately familiar, and that's definitely not a bad thing. As we played around with using the vanilla Assault class that gave us a slick little rifle, a surprisingly punchy sidearm and a combat knife for melee kills, then jumped into playing as a Sniper, then dropped back into a Heavy and giggled as we dropped to prone stance and busted out the bipod (little feet on the end of our huge gun), we couldn't help but be struck by the differences. It's not so much that they were huge, but things like movement speed and extra weapons (mmmm… rocket launcher…) made them feel unique -- even if these were just pre-selected loadouts.

It wasn't until we were able to sit back and watch an actual game unfold with someone from Zipper at the helm issuing orders that it all started to click, though. The game, like all good modern shooters, is packed with after-mission stats and rewards, including medals, XP tallies and, it would seem, plenty of leveling up to be had too. This virtual carrot, the very same that made games like Call of Duty 4 such digital crack, seems alive and well in MAG, though it's obvious there's a lot to see.

It's clear that getting into a command position is meant to be a goal for almost everyone; the rewards in what kinds of perks they can do -- everything from being able to defuse bombs to hide from motion trackers to increasing the time before someone bleeds out (thus allowing a medic to revive 'em) -- gives each progressive rank something to shoot for. Sensor sweeps, artillery strikes, radar jamming, and even dropping or increasing respawn time for friendlies/enemies all offer the perfect kind of tease. Okay, Zipper, you win. We're officially interested. We. Want. More.