The Second World War would've gone a lot smoother had game developer Relic been in charge. In their vision for the assault on Europe, guys with machineguns would drop from the sky on demand and Sherman tanks could be airdropped into the middle of a battle at will. Yes, The Outfit won't be winning over any historical purists with its fast and crazy gameplay, but anyone looking for a Gi-Joe-style rampage with plenty of heavy armor and just a touch of tactics will be in gaming heaven.

We first saw The Outfit at E3, where we got to check out the basics, but a much more extensive playable demo was behind closed doors at the Leipzig Game Convention. The story so far: You play any of three heroes (a sniper, a heavy weapons guy, or an anti-tank soldier) leading squads of men through 12 World War II missions across Europe in 1944. You're on the tail of a German General who's gone rogue in the closing days of the conflict, although Relic hints at a few plot twists along the way to keep you on your feet.

'I'll take a tank, please.
Can I get that to go?'

A couple of things really set The Outfit apart. The first is the environment you're blasting through: Relic artist David Cheong calls it "Destruction on Demand." Every item in the game is represented with real physics, including the buildings. You can shoot off the corner of a building with a bazooka, blast a hole through the walls, smash over stone barricades with your tank, or level whole buildings. Debris and carnage flies all over the battlefield. Combined with the graphical fidelity of the Xbox 360, the game looks spectacular: walls appear rough, cobblestone pathways look weathered and real, and the destruction of objects and vehicles looks terrific.

The second thing that makes The Outfit look like a winner is the gameplay itself. Your job in most missions is to capture points as you creep across the map. Killing enemy soldiers and accomplishing objectives will earn you "Action Points" that you can immediately spend on reinforcements. The scope and use of the action points is impressive: both the Axis and the allies have nine vehicles each they can call up, as well as machine gun emplacements, mortars, artillery strikes, additional soldiers, and bombing runs.