Once you get your teeth into the game though, the emphasis on the single player experience becomes clearly apparent.

As with the previous games, you play as Lieutenant Jimmy Patterson of the 116th Infantry. With the other members of the squad, you're thrust straight into the thick of it with your Higgins Boat landing craft falling short of Omaha Beach, causing you to end up underwater. Dead bodies float by, and bullets from the German gun emplacements streak through the water as you make your way onto dry land.

You then provide cover fire as other units move up the beach and take out the barricades that stop you from advancing on the gun emplacements, and taking them out. Most of the PC-gamers reading this will probably recognise this level as one of those included in Allied Assault – but rest assured, it is the only point of similarity in each games various missions.

Being single player only, and not wanting to spoil it for any gamers thinking about investing in the game, we won't be going into specific detail regarding the various and varied missions. And they are quite varied – from attacking fortified beaches, to destroying German U-Boats, to using disguises to trick the enemy – they're all there, and while quite linear in their execution, they still provide plenty of freedom in the generally large environments (A marked improvement on EA's earlier James Bond: Agent Under Fire title).

Graphically, the game is excellent. The graphical details are a big reason as to why the game is so immersive. Such things as bullets not finding their intended target leaving holes in walls, shooting someone in the foot and watching them hop around in agony, and the level of clarity of enemies and allies alike, is simply brilliant. Expressions change, lips move and people walk, run, jump, crouch, fall over, and die in a realistic fashion.

Most of the environments are richly rendered - bombed buildings for instance are portrayed very authentically – with burn marks on the walls, and support beams peeking through patches of broken plaster. There is the odd section of bland scenery, but one would hardly expect every surface in the real war-torn Europe to be interesting and pleasing to the eye, so why would we expect it in a video game?!

We did not encounter any occurrences of bugs such as falling through floors, or getting stuck in such a way as to require a re-start of the game, as is sometimes a problem with games of this type. There were also no apparent cosmetic glitches – areas of nothingness etc – which makes for a very polished title indeed.

On a slightly less positive note, the action did tend to slow a little when it got particularly intense, but this was minor, and didn't noticeably affect the gameplay itself.