....snip...
pitted a squad of four COG soldiers against four Locust players in what was essentially a last-man-standing contest. Our games took place in a small urban map that included a handful of buildings to move through and a street littered with vehicular remains--giving us plenty of places to move in and out of cover. The A button performed its various functions with aplomb during our matches, and we found that we were not only able to move in and out of cover but also move between areas of cover while performing evasive rolls and such, all in one action. The games were fast-paced and there was plenty of blood spilled, but they definitely had a very tactical feel about them, and we found that we were most successful when we worked alongside squadmates, with one of us laying down a suppressing fire while the other moved around to flank the enemies in question.
The gameplay was fast-paced and intense enough to the point that we completely forgot to check out the reloading mechanic that we were shown during the single-player presentation earlier. You only need to hit one button (the right shoulder) to reload your weapon, but when you do so, you'll notice that a small line moves across it that Microsoft compared to a swingometer in a golf game. The idea is that if you stop the line at exactly the right place by hitting the reload button again, you can reload your gun faster and, if you time your second press perfectly, you'll get a damage bonus on your next dozen or so rounds. Get the second button press horribly wrong, though, and you'll take longer to reload than you would normally, so it's a real risk-versus-reward situation.
