Nearly everything content-sensitive in the game (grabbing a new weapon, mounting turrets, planting a charge, etc.) is handled with the left d-pad button, which is a little weird, but it does seem to work well enough. Given that the game is more of a run-and-gun shooter, it sort of makes sense that the look buttons would be left free (in the default config, of course), but it took us a little getting used to.

Speaking of run-and-run, Roads isn't some kind of Rambo sim; you'll still die real good should you decide to wade out from cover and scream while unloading your clip into a far-off crowd of krauts, but there are more than a few enemies that you can deposit your extra bullets into, and likely plenty of ammo to refill when you run out of ways to make German swiss cheese. Because things are mostly linear (very rarely you'll have more than one way to go, but you're funneled down a single path almost all the time), the game does feel much like its console brethren; you'll sprint through bombed-out European burgs and hushed countrysides, you'll man turrets and repel incoming enemies, you'll even call out air strikes in the very first level.

We played through the entirety of the more than half-dozen American campaign levels and felt right at home for the most part with the usual COD mainstays, but it was when we were scooped into the belly of a bomber and hand to scamper around the exposed innards to man front, rear and belly turrets to repel incoming fighters that the game actually started to feel like it's own entry into the series. About 10 minutes later, though, we were back on foot and traipsing through the rest of Operation Market Garden, blowing up 88s and cleaning out bunkers left and right.

It may not sound like we're getting terribly in-depth here, and, frankly, we aren't because there's little that the game does that you haven't seen in past entries. In a way, that's a comfort, though we do still take issue with some minor little things like the framerate (smoothness = better aiming) and the fact that you can plant yourself next to cover and some complete re-re of a fellow soldier will push you out into the open so he can bravely charge forward to collect as many bullets with his face as Uncle Sam will allow (for those wondering, it ain't many, and chances are you'll soak up a bunch more; luckily, you're a Super Soldier).

With only half of the game under our belts and more than a few weeks before a final build of the game is delivered, Amaze has time for just a bit of cleanup, but the game is, at least fundamentally, everything that you would expect in a portable version of Call of Duty. It's loud, sounds terrific with headphones on (lotsa things that go boom and near-constant chatter from your fellow men), and manages to aid the hardware-limited aiming mechanism with some well-implemented auto-aim. We'll have a full review (as well as an interview with the developers) in a few weeks.