Far Cry 2

Since we're massive cowards, going in under cover of darkness suits us just fine. If you favour a more strategic approach to clearing an area, your minocular and map will prove invaluable. Spot a sniper with through the lens, press the relevant button, and all snipers in the immediate area will be added to your map - saving you the bother of having to scout the entire area. This also works for ammo and health supplies and vehicles, giving you vital information with which to plan your attacks.

"In terms of the raw mechanics of the shooter, one of the things we really wanted to capture was the feeling of the need to survive in this world," Hocking tells us. That certainly comes through in our playtest, our attempts to slither in unnoticed lasting all of 30 seconds and a single kill, forcing us to leg it out of the main gate under a hail of fire.

This situation is made substantially worse by our knackered rifle jamming at a critical moment. Decay is at the heart of the game, a "big experiential differentiator" according to Hocking, who wants a "really analogue, muddy, dirt-under-the-fingernails feeling to being in this world." Still, the foliage is great for cowering behind and keeping an eye out for muzzle flashes with which to locate the enemy.

There's no targeting reticule in the demo, which you may enjoy, but we find frustrating, especially at close quarters. Pleasingly, Hocking tells us there'll be on option to switch this on or off in the final game.

As your energy meter depletes, you can replenish it by injecting yourself with a health boost, which is gruesomely satisfying to watch. Stare death in the face and you may be saved by one of your buddies, who rushes in and spirits you away to safety before administering a health boost. But this is only an option if your buddy is still alive: they can be killed by you and the enemy, so friendly fire is a constant risk, although the team has designed the buddy avatars in a way that should distinguish them from random grunts.

But nothing is stopping you from murdering everyone who tries to strike up a conversation, and you're able to wipe out every buddy in the game if you'd rather go it alone. You can still progress, but there will be consequences, including missing a "whole load of content" according to Hocking. Well, since this is only a demo... Bye, Frank!

As mentioned in our earlier preview, PC users can rejoice in having by far the prettiest version; on console while the attention to detail is commendable, it lacks the 'wow' factor of a more straightforward FPS like Call of Duty 4 - although that's doubtless a necessary concession to the sheer horse power required to stream a 50km2 game world. And the frame-rate still needs a fair amount of attention, which Hocking happily acknowledges: "Yes there will be improvements on the console versions, mostly in terms of frame-rate at this point".

Controls are fairly standard, although we have a couple of gripes at this stage: having to press the left stick down to run on the console versions is clumsy, even if we do like sliding into cover with a press of the B button. And using the map in real time while driving doesn't feel as fluid as it could, forcing you to look down and invariably crash into a rogue tree. Practice may well make perfect, but we'll see.

Having enjoyed just a fraction of the complete experience, and in comparing the wildly divergent accounts of gameplay with other journalists at the event, we remain excited by the potential of Far Cry 2. With the briefest taste of the narrative, a sample of the diverse environments, and not a whiff yet of the level editor (included in all three versions, though more limited on console) or the multiplayer (up to 16-players), there's still a great deal to be revealed.