Droves of American soldiers advance towards incessantly chattering German machine guns, while mortar fire splashes down all around, sending shell-shocked soldiers skywards as they ride plumes of dust kicked up by the propelled explosives. Chillingly realistic yet brilliantly cinematic, this gargantuan mission dwarfs anything we've seen in Call Of Duty, with the level sprawling almost endlessly into the horizon. Watching it, you see a breathtaking recreation of the horrors of war. This snow-covered level is from the game's US campaign, which sees the 101 st Airborne division capturing the Belgian town of Noville. United Offensive is about that big, Hollywood blockbuster, cinematic, large-scale battle feel that makes you believe you're in the middle of a war,' begins Robb Alvey - senior producer on United Offensive - just after taking us through a demonstration of the ear-splitting Battle Of The Bulge mission. Gray Matter (of Return to Castle Wolfenstein fame) is responsible for the coding, so we decided to take a trip to its LA office to see what's in store. And wouldn't you know it, one has: Call Of Duty: United Offensive. Of course, having enjoyed such widespread acclaim, it was only a matter of time till an expansion pack crawled out of the trenches. Winning countless awards, developer Infinity Ward's sensitive yet gut-twisting portrayal of WWII conflict was applauded by critics, consumers and even WWII veterans for enabling a whole new generation to experience, and more importantly, never forget the horrors or war.

Make No Mistake, Call of Duty was the most visceral, realistic and evocative war simulation ever created. Later on, German troops set fire to groups of our comrades with sickeningly realistic flamethrowers - one of 14 new weapons on show, including deployable light machine guns. Machine-gun fire chattered unceasingly as mortars and bombs sent men spiralling skywards while rain hammered down in the opposite direction, showing off l/O's impressive new particle effects system.

The Kursk level saw Russian troops under aerial bombardment as massed German ranks stormed their trenches. Each has a separate story based around a central character,' explains Richard. 'You get to play through an American, British and Russian campaign. We didn't think it was possible, but the greatest WWII shooter ever could soon be eclipsed - by its own expansion pack! We spent an hour looking at United Offensive and talking to Gray Matter's creative lead Richard Farrelly, who took us through an entire Russian level, Kursk, in which all of the visceral, gut-twisting realities of war were every bit as evident as in the original game.

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